February 22, 2010 – Daily Brief *
- The Signal’s Jonathan Randles went in-depth on the cost of illegal immigration in California and the nation. He talked to a conservative group that’s opposed to immigration reform and he also spoke to Harvar and USC professors who have done studies on the matter. One study found that granting citizenship to illegal aliens would generate $16 billion in tax revenues for the state. SIGNAL
- A Freight train crashed and burned in the famous Tehachapi Loop on Saturday night, resulting in a toxic cloud that forced evacuations in the area for a brief time.Some freight trains that pass through the SCV end up in the loop, and since it’s still currently closed, Union Pacific says it’s rerouting trains along the coast while others are simply parked and waiting. LA TIMES
- “Bleak” is how The Signal describes the five local school districts as they struggle with budget cuts for the third straight year SIGNAL
- Congressman Buck McKeon awards Bronze Star to Thousand Oaks Vietnam Veteran who should have received medal 40 years ago after Viet Cong firefight SIGNAL
- Big companies like Pacific Gas and Electric, Mercury Insurance and an oil company from Denver are trying to get propositions on the November ballot says the LA TIMES
- Dennis McCarthy of the Daily News writes about Dale Gant, a helicopter pilot for the Los Angeles City Fire Department who spent 28 years battling wildfires from the air (including some here in the SCV). Gant retires this week DAILY NEWS
- *Captain Anthony LaBerge’s message on 2009 crime, available here
- LA Times story on young Asian American figure skaters mentions a 7 year old Japanese-American girl in SCV who wakes up at 4:30 am 6 days a week to train in Pasadena with her coach. LA TIMES
- Times real estate blog points to a 4,938 sq. ft. Newhall home that’s bank owned and was originally on the market for $2.3 million. The price now? $999,000. It’s listed as an example of what happens when people buy homes they can’t afford. TIMES
- City to begin Phase II of eco-friendly “Discovery Park” this week. Laurene Weste says the Canyon Country site used to be a place where people dumped things. The new park will reverse the damage KHTS
- Free movie and symphonic concert tomorrow night at Canyons PAC. The movie is a silent one and the Santa Clarita Symphony will perform live. Hmmmmm…TCity Council meeting or Symphony, City Council meeting or symphony….SYMPHONY!
- Cameron Smyth defends Bob Kellar saying that while Kellar’s speech at the rally last month wasn’t the most “tactful” way of starting a conversation about illegal immigration, the conversation itself is worth having. SIGNAL
- Scott Wilk rebuts David Gauny point-by-point a week after Gauny mentioned Wilk in his column. This is getting entertaining SIGNAL
- Columnist Tim Myers says the next Hart District supe may have to shut down one of the “Legacy” high schools in town to save money. Just so you know Tim, I will chain myself to the tree in the Quad of Hart High to prevent from Hart from closing and will use the full power of this blog to ensure that Valencia High closes before Hart High ever does. SIGNAL
- Both Laurene Weste and Frank Ferry tout accomplishments of the City Council in the last few years in their campaign pieces for the Signal while long-shot Henry Schultz says as a Councilman, he would protect our water sources and ensure all new development is low-density so “traffic and air pollution are reined in as much as possible.”
- City Manager Pulskamp touts the City’s fiscal chops, writing that while other cities are going bankrupt, Santa Clarita’s bond rating increased and the City hasn’t laid anyone off. SIGNAL
- * Dave Bossert takes issue (to put it mildly, I think the words “pile of crap” are in there somewhere) with the Signal’s recent story on the illegal immigrant in Newhall WRB
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Also there is David Bossert’s temper tantrum! Thing of beauty if you ask me hahaha!
http://westranchbeacon.com/blog/2010/02/commentary-being-responsible-to-point-out-the-bull-crap/
Just so you know Tim, I will chain myself to the tree in the Quad of Hart High to prevent from Hart from closing and will use the full power of this blog to ensure that Valencia High closes before Hart High ever does.
I would personal pay 5 dollars to see that.
So according to the USC folks, a mere 2-3M illigals who generated $280M in income tax (wow, the state got a whopping $100 from each… how far does that go in covering the free services they consume?), and yet if made legal, would suddenly generate $16B in savings? ($5000 per illegal somehow generated).
Really.
Please explain this “cold fusion economics” to me.
RE: Crime down in 2009 from 2007 in Santa Clarita? Why not compare 2009 to the previous year, 2008?? Wouldn’t that be more meaningful? Yes, of course it would!
Captain LeBerge of the SCV Sheriff Station does exactly that in an article posted in its entirety on West Ranch Beacon. The table with the article for 2009 CRIME TOTALS, CITY OF SANTA CLARITA shows crime increased in 7 out of 8 categories, including murder (up 100%!), forcible rape, robbery, agg assault, burglary, larceny theft, and arson. The only category that went down was grand theft auto.
The entirety of the article can be seen at http://westranchbeacon.com/blog/2010/02/message-from-captain-la-berge-of-the-scv-sheriff%e2%80%99s-station/
Scroll down for the table.
Is The Mighty Signal a real newspaper or is it an organ of our local government? The Signal article is another example of taking a slanted press release issued by the City of Santa Clarita and reporting it as ‘news’.
Stop the spin coming out of City Hall! They are insulting our intelligence!
Why would any self respecting person go to the West Ranch Beacon for anything but a good laugh.
Get the Info from the source…
http://www.scvsheriff.com/about_captains_feb2010.asp
While the City of Santa Clarita and The Signal continue to promote the ‘everything is fine, re-elect the incumbents’ theme, I see that TMS did post a poll online asking:
“Is it time for new City Council members?”
There are three options:
1) No. The incumbents are doing fine.
2) Yes. Toss out the incumbents.
3) Some new; some incumbents
Go to
http://www.the-signal.com/polls/detail/145/
and VOTE to see the results so far.
You can vote in this poll once each day.
Jeff:
Better get your chain ready, because if they were to close a legacy high school, it would have to be Hart for a variety of reasons.
But don’t worry. Hart High School would continue to exist as the Really Super Cool Magnet school with 100 people meeting in a corner of one of the buildings!
has anyone noticed the several additional comments at the bottom of wilks’ article at the signal website? serious questions there about his claims.
the only error i saw in the posts was that wilks lives at belcaro. i believe his wife manages the hoa which is why wilks got involved with the power lines. sure doesn’t change the point of the woman who posted it.
wilks’ column itself reads like a lot of confusing political cover. sounds like he spends a lot of time under this camouflage.
City doing fine – what about the lawsuits that have been lost and the forthcoming assessments against homeowners to pay for them?
Good for Dave Bossert, and good for Cameron Smyth. Both are using the brains God gave them.
Scott Wilk once agin shows he can swim with the “best” of the bottom-feeders. Scott, you don’t feel the love because by now most people know you for the bottom-feeder you are. In spinning the facts about his wife’s rubber-stamp Republican Party vote, Wilk neglected to point out that he has been close personal friends with Tony Strickland for many years. Scott’s daughter was a flower girl at Strickland’s wedding many years ago and Scott’s son is Strickland’s rep. So as far as Vanessa’s vote goes, it will always be exactly the same as Scott’s. As far as Vanessa goes, she will always need someone to tell her how to vote, and that is exactly what Scott does.
Wilk claims he was never a lobbyist in SCV? Looks like G&L got a lot of free service from Scott, because Scott did certainly work for them. Looks like Scott figured out how to get around registering as an SCV lobbyist, that’s all, but Scott was certainly working for G&L.
Scott Wilk ran Bob Kellar’s campaign, and at the same time worked to get Laurie Ender elected. Everyone knows that including Bob Kellar. Everyone also knows that Wilk was supposed to talk Bob Kellar into a yes vote for the hospital’s medical offices, but that didn’t happen. Not a very “influential” guy, Scott Wilk. All that time in Kellar’s ear, and Wilk couldn’t change Kellar’s mind about the hospital vote.
Scott’s pro-bono work for Belcaro was really pro-bono work for Hunt Braly, who represented Beclcaro. Scott’s wife was working at Belcaro and “suggested” close friend Hunt Braly to represent Balcaro residents.
I don’t see a single error in David Gauny’s assessment of Scott Wilk. Scott makes a living spinning the truth and eleminating facts that will get in the way of the spinning, we all know that. Scott IS a lobbyist, and we have seen him at City council for G&L and others.
Wilk’s assertion that he might actually care about the quality of life of SCV residents made me spit my coffee out all over the Signal. Fact is, as a lobbyist, Scott will take on anything, no matter how BAD the project will be for us, because that’s what lobbyists do.
Every hit mailer that comes from the Republican machine comes from Scott Wilk and Victory Mailing. Scott even brags about it. That $125 donation to Spierer’s election was simply a cover-my-butt expenditure for Scott.
Keep up the good work, David, we need new blood on City Council, we need people up there that aren’t afraid of taking on bottom-feeders like Scott Wilk.
The comments on the Signal site for Wilk are great!
Ahhhh. How cute, Jeff! We could use another John Quigley incident in the SCV. It’s been too long, and so nice of you to offer youself up!!!!! I may not be willing to pay you $5, but I’ll bring you sandwiches, K
and new batteries for your laptop (or, I suppose, some internet having phone).
CC is right. The comments on the Signal site under Wilk’s “rebuttal” expose Wilk as devious, deceptive and slimy. Go Gauny!
Rocky,
Regarding your comments about the crime stats: you said stop the slanted press releases and spin from City Hall.
I looked and the City didnt even issue a press release regarding crime. There was a captain’s message on the scvsheriff site that painted a picture that they saw crime increase in the first half of 2009 and that they were able to buck the trend by the end of the year.
It just looks like bad writing on The Signal’s part to me and no conspiracy.
Maybe instead of increasing class size yet again (there are already 3 more per class already) the district should look at maybe cutting back on what it spends on programs outside the district like SCV Youth. It should also be looking at cancelling summer school and reducing administrative overhead since the state budget has reduced funding for that purpose and no real cuts in that area have been implemented.
Just opened my email and found this from The Signals Qwik-E Newsletter:
Fire smokes out alleged pot growers in Valencia
Authorities found Marijuana plants in the home of a Valencia couple when responding to a fire.
What made me laugh however (and the need to share) was the ‘news’ hedlines immediately after the marijuana story:
Got the munchies? Free pancakes tomorrow!
I’m still giggling! Someone please tell me that was on purpose!
Interesting that Scott Wilk’s column, in which he is allegedly seeking truth, is opposite from Laureen Weste’s touting how she brought the Open space inititative to the city. Weste was the leader of the Open Space effort and Wilk ran the campaign. As long as he is talking ‘truth’, how about the truth on where the fianancing of the campaign came from??? Hmmm – could it be a developer that is in Weste’s pocket because of her clout on approving developments? At this time we just don’t know as they won’t disclose the source of financing. The reason they won’t disclose the source is obviously because it would be an embarassment to them.
Jim – focus on Centre Point
Linda, if you go to http://scvsheriff.com/ you see the CITY logo at the very top of the web page.
Or are they walking away from the info posted on their own website?