Built as promised….you know I risked getting a stern talking to by the teenaged bicycling security guard for taking this picture.

•  Murder hearing delayed: Michael Dean Stephens, 19, allegedly ran over and stabbed a 20 year old named Josh Pipho to death last November in a Stevenson Ranch condo complex, but it looks like a trial date will be delayed, according to the Signal. A preliminary hearing was pushed off on Tuesday. Stephens is still being held at Men’s Central Jail -pretty much the worst jail in the country- in lieu of $1.5 million bail. Link
• 21 Year old Man falls from 4th floor of parking garage: The unnamed 21 year old man was “trying to slide down the handrail of the structure stairwell when he fell” some 40 feet. He suffered unspecified “serious injuries”and is being treated at Henry Mayo. Darwin award
• Mike Day blows away competition, advances to Olympic BMX Finals: The 23 year old Valencia High graduate blew past the competition and placed first in theBMX semifinals on Wednesday, telling VeloNews that the race “seemed effortless.” The finals competition will be on Thursday.
• SCV Economic News: Unemployment bumped up a half percent in Santa Clarita to 4.9 percent in July, a full point above what the number was in May, the Signal reports. California’s unemployment rate rose to around 7.25%, the highest in 12 years and the fourth highest in the nation. Meanwhile, the LA Business Journal reports that Santa Clarita had the fifth highest number of pre-foreclosures in LA County in July (334 total), behind Los Angeles (2,443 filings),Lancaster (951), Palmdale (934), and Long Beach (591).
• Runner sends Elsmere/Rim of the Valley legislation to Governor: Elsemere Canyon is one step closer to becoming a part of the Rim of the Valley Corridor after Senator George Runner got a bill through that “allows the owners of land in Elsmere Canyon to seek inclusion within the boundaries of the Rim of the Valley Trail corridor.” The corridor is a federal designation and includes huge tracts of undeveloped open space land west of Santa Clarita. The Times reports that the bill, if signed (and Schwarzenegger isn’t signing legislation right now) would allow the Santa Monica Mountains conservancy to make improvements to trails, fire roads and other parts ofthe land. Runner carried the bill on behalf of the City of Santa Clarita. Link
• County wants more Deputies to work on illegal immigrant jail cases: The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors last week requested that more Sheriff’s Deputies interview suspected illegal immigrants in county jails in order to kick off deportation proceedings. Deputies undergo training with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement department and interviews are conducted on the day of the inmate’s release. Since it was implemented, some 11,000 county inmates have been recommended for deportation. Whittier Daily News
• Schwarzenegger tells legislators not to attend National party conventions: “I recommend everyone to stay here until we have a budget and not for anyone to leave,” Governor Schwarzenegger said on Tuesday in reference to the stalled budget negotiations in Sacramento and the Democratic and Republican national conventions, which kick off next week. Why does this matter? Well, our Assemblyman, Cameron Smyth, is an official California Republican delegate at the convention, meaning if he obeys the Governor, he won’t get to wear the cool GOP hat and cast his vote for John McCain in Minneapolis come September 1. Bummer. SacBee
• Local Astronomy club gets national recognition: Local Group SCV got props from no less an astro authority than Sky & Telescope for its June 2008 Astronomy Day activities, which the magazine reports was organized and led by a 13 year old kid. They even linked to my cheesy YouTube video from 2007 which I made for the group. As the astro guys say, “Dark skies!”
• More on Placerita Canyon: Ben Curtis, the P-Canyon homeowner who filed that FPPC complaint against Councilwoman Laurene Weste last week, stopped into this blog yesterday to share more of his reasons for his filing. “Laurene Weste is one of our neighbors, and a long time friend of Val Thomas and I. Our complaint was filed so as to force her and others at City Hall to understand that planning issues are required to be decided on a fair basis without conflicts of interest. We are hoping that Ms. Weste understands that she is, without question, conflicted on this issue, and will totally and completely recuse herself from any and all activity surrounding it.” Link
• LA Times Column One: “Paparazzi of Pain” The Times has an interesting story in today’s paper on twin brothers from Britain who monitor police scanners and race through the streets of LA in order to film “police pursuits, shootouts, terrible car accidents or good sized fires.” The brothers then sell the footage to news stations. Link
• John Boston on “Confessions of a Soledad Road Hog:” The former Signal columnist doesn’t write about Santa Clarita much anymore on his website, the Boston Report.net, but he posted a real gem on Tuesday about how he’s intentionally aggravated other drivers on Santa Clarita streets. “Years ago, I was at the north intersection of Orchard Village Road in my hometown of Santa Enchirito. I was about to make a left onto Lyons Avenue. The left arrow turned green and I’m not kidding you, the nanosecond — the NANOSECOND — it lit up, this big fat lady behind me was standing on her horn. I quickly glanced in my rear view mirror and you know what? Her lips were pursed in frustration. At me. Sweet, decent me. How rude.” Good read
• New crime beat reporter at The Signal: It appears the Signal has hired a new crime beat reporter to replace Parimal Rohit. He is Brian Charles, and as you might suspect with a name like that, I’m having trouble finding out where he came from or if he has any newspaper experience, though I did see the same name attached to a story in the Big Bear Grizzly newspaper. Anyway, from the two brief stories in today’s Signal (the murder trial delay and the guy who fell from the garage), Charles looks like he can put together a fine lede and story, as brief as they are. Here’s hoping the addition of Charles leads to some fine crime reporting in our one and only, sad and lonely SCV newspaper.
• And finally…. Epic Failure