July 27, 2010 – Daily Brief

  • Jury sentences child killer to death SIGNAL, KHTS
  • Protest over chloride fee hike begins today at 4:30 pm in front of City Hall, followed by the actual hearing at 6:30 pm in the City’s Council chamber. Details at WRB
  • We’re number 1! A proud distinction for us: local fire chief says SCV is renowned throughout the world for our vulnerability to brush-fed, fast-moving wild fires. The chief says SCVers ought to ember-proof their homes by placing metal screens on openings of their house. SIGNAL
  • A felon and previously deported illegal immigrant named Byron Rousil was arrested yesterday in Canyon Country after Deputies stopped him for speeding. Rousil apparently had meth in his possession and after searching his home, Deputies found more meth and a loaded handgun. KHTS
  • Speaking of illegal immigration, Hart Board member and radio host Joe Messina tackled that thorny subject yesterday in his The Real Side radio show. And who better to talk about illegal immigration than Bob Kellar? Assemblyman Smyth was also on the show. Keep an eye out for the podcast if you missed the show THE REAL SIDE
  • Geez: a woman who got in a fight with her husband while driving on Highway 14 became so upset that her husband wouldn’t let her out of the car that she pulled keys out of her purse and allegedly stabbed her husband in the head with them. The husband pulled off the freeway and called the Sheriff’s Station SIGNAL
  • Schwarzenegger says he may leave office without signing a budget unless the state Legislature gives him what he wants. California’s new fiscal year began on July 1 and the state faces a $19.1 billion budget gap LA TIMES
  • Congressman Buck McKeon has argued that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell shouldn’t be repealed until a formal survey of all 2.5 million military members is conducted. In response, a blogger takes a look at the last time the military was surveyed about black and Jewish integration in the 1940s and the results aren’t pretty. His conclusion? The military follows orders and will integrate gays and lesbians just as it integrated blacks and Jews BRITANNICA BLOG
  • New local dog rescue group tries to save the “mutts on doggie death row” at County shelters SIGNAL
  • Interesting post on how the City is using lady bugs to fight a tree pest infestation in the SCV CITY BRIEFS
  • If climate change is allowed to continue unchecked, agriculture in Mexico might be devastated, leading to even more migration to the Southwest United States. Closer to home though, a new study says California, Arizona and Nevada will have the highest risk of water shortages as global warming accelerates.
  • Kevin Korenthal, candidate for Water Board, pens an interesting column about the taste, smell, and hardness of SCV water supplies SIGNAL
  • LTE Writer says Santa Clarita could be like the City of Bell due to public’s lack of attention SIGNAL
  • Speaking of that, the Signal was supposed to have an article about whether Bell could happen in the City of Santa Clarita, but I don’t see it today.
  • No two ways about it, Bruce McFarland’s column likening Ken Pulskamp to a crime boss is outrageous. I tackled some of the same issues in a recent post, but the larger point needs to be stated again and again: if things are so bad, voters had a chance to kick three of the bums out in April, thereby increasing their chances of firing Ken Pulskamp, which appears to be what some of them want.
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26 Responses to July 27, 2010 – Daily Brief

  1. Need for Involved Citizenry says:

    “If things are so bad, the voters should have kicked the three bums out in April” is just like saying that the voters in Bell had the same opportunity with their City Council. Low voter turnout which both Bell and Santa Clarita has is not necessarily an indication of people being happy with their City Council but is more of an indication that they are disinterested until they really see what is going on. By the way, the folks on the Bell Council said transparancy and fiscal responsibility were important to them. http://www.smartvoter.org/2009/03/03/ca/la/race/05/

    Sound familiar? Oh -it also appears that Bell schedules it’s elections like Santa Clarita does – when folks will only be voting for the City Council – a great way to get lower turnout!

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    • Tim Myers says:

      NFIC:

      Stay tuned. There is some possibility that the Measure A special election in Bell with only 336 votes to become a charter city and allow for all the salary shenanigans may have been “invitation only” and thus a fraud. One can’t compare Santa Clarita where the City practically BEGS people to vote and they can still only jump a 17% turnout.

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  2. Tim Myers says:

    On McFarland’s and everyone else’s complaints I say again (updated) it is now Day 15 without an active recall effort! Just 20 signatures and they can start their 160 day quest for 13,500 signatures to have a recall election. What is stopping Bruce McFarland? Is he chicken? (Puck, puck, puck, PUUUCK!!!!!!)

    (Bruce, I mean this in the nicest way possible.)

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  3. Tim Myers says:

    Trudi Nash (bless her heart) writes an LTE in the Signal and talks about going to HOA meetings to encourage voting when one would guess there are already a large amount of the actual voters reading the newspaper and attending community meetings. Where to look for the 83% that don’t vote? AYSO soccer games and back to school nights would be a good place to start.

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  4. Petz says:

    One wonders whether Byron Rousil may have been a victim of reverse discrimination. What country did he immigrate from, and why would the sheriff and ICE “suddenly” consider this a felony offense? Why wouldn’t the news media address the issue in the article. Another example of sloppy journalism .

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    • Berta González-Harper says:

      Petz, if this CRIMINAL is here illegally and already deported at least once, I do not care where he came from, he should not have been here. This is just one more excellent argument for securing our borders. Otherwise, even deporting people is simply a revolving door of wasted time and money. That was exactly the situation with the previously deported killer who murdered local resident Deputy March.
      I do think the Signal should be responsible and report on what his country of origin is so that people comprehend the scope of this problem. My guess would be he came in through Canada or one of the Caribbean nations since he has a French surname but he could be from literally anywhere. Illegals come here from all over the world. Heck, Obama’s aunt living in taxpayer subsidized Section 8 housing in Chicago was here illegally from Kenya. Whatever happened to her? I doubt she was ever deported but she should have been.
      The real point here however is that Mr. Byron Rousil is an illegal alien and convicted felon living somewhere in my “hood” along with many others who do not have permission to be here!

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      • Your Web Guru says:

        According to news sources, Obama’s aunt was granted asylum after a 6 year struggle having moved from Kenya seeking asylum due to the country’s volatile and violent government. She was technically living here illegally while pursuing her immigration case.
        http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20005151-503544.html

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        • Berta González-Harper says:

          So, Obama’s aunt lived here illegally in subsidized housing for 9 years (2000-2009) before being granted “asylum” in 2009 AFTER her nephew achieved the presidency. What about the rest of his family still left in Kenya? Are they not also subjected to the same political unrest in Kenya? Obama could have sponsored her and with his millions kept her off the taxpayers’ shoulders.

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          • Your Web Guru says:

            Calm down, Berta. I wasn’t posing an argument but merely responding to your statement where you were wondering what happened to her.
            Wow, it must be hard having to be right all the time! ;)

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            • Berta González-Harper says:

              It is not about me being right. It is about a hypocritical President and failed policies. I have an illegal aunt living in subsidized housing but…Vacation in the Gulf, they need the support but I am going to Mass…etc.
              Could his own family issues be why he supports amnesty? Again, then why does he not “sponsor” people himself. Guru if I was always right, I would not be talking to you. I would be in Vegas or somewhere else making billions!

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  5. Fred Butler says:

    If climate change is allowed to continue unchecked,…

    Maybe we can hang some city sized solar reflectors in orbit around the equator to block the sun’s rays? Or maybe a joint operation between UN participants to launch an expedition to the sun in order to lower the temperature with Kelvin bombs? Or maybe spend the world’s economies into oblivion with some other hair brain financial scheme like cap and trade?

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  6. Kevin D. Korenthal says:

    Fred Butler: Exactly. There is no way that man can reduce the impact of the sun on this planet. We can be responsible stewards of the planet and avoid pollution and other activities that poison our planet, but the temperature of the plant is controlled by solar and lunar activities, the planet’s somewhat inconsistent polarity and weather patterns that have nothing to do with man’s (or cow’s) discharge of carbon dioxide.

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    • Street Knowledge says:

      I like to get my science lessons from a couple of guys who think the earth is 10,000 years old.

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      • Damageinc says:

        keepin’ real Street Knowledge

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      • Fred Butler says:

        Yeah. If I were you I wouldn’t want to lurn scyence from me either. We’re nothing but a bunch of Hillbilly bybul thumpers pickin’ our banjos. I mean, I kan’t even spell rite.

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        • Damageinc says:

          Best spelling you have done in this thread!

          Can you tell us the story how Jesus rode a T-Rex into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday!

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    • IHeartSCV says:

      Kevin (and Fred), I think it’s only reasonable to expect humans to have some impact on the world’s climate. Sure, the sun is ultimately behind everything, but we can certainly change how solar radiation interacts with our planet and other aspects of climate and weather. For examples very unrelated to carbon dioxide: (1)Human-produced CFCs from aerosols and refrigerants led to a massive hole in the ozone layer that has begun to stabilize since we stopped using CFCs as heavily. (2)The vapor trails or contrails made by aircraft have a significant impact on the amount of incoming solar radiation and on cloud formation near busy airports, according to on-going research by Gerd Wendler at the University of Alaska. (3)Acid rain in the 1980s showed humans could change the composition of rain water by burning coal and releasing sulfur-containing compounds.

      Shouldn’t we assume that increasing greenhouse gases like CO2 and methane, which interact with solar radiation, is going to lead to some direct or indirect climate change?

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  7. Damageinc says:

    I have never understood how people can call themselves “conservative” when they have such reckless and flippant attitudes toward something so vital to our existance and which can never be replaced. Sounds like the very opposite of the word “conservative”.

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    • Whiskey Tango Foxtrot says:

      Personally, I would be the first “conservative” to take a drink from the global warming er, “climate change” punch bowl once the “climate change” Sage Al Gore takes some serious and intellegent Q’s from credible skeptics. I noticed the theme changed since everyone froze their ass off last year – kinda hard to keep a straight face when Mr. Gore was giving his lectures to like minded people in record cold temps.

      I think it’s just a tad bit “flippant” that Mr. Gore won’t talk with “conservatives” who have some questions. hmmmm.

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      • IHeartSCV says:

        The only way to get a private, unguarded conversation with Al Gore is to pose as a massage therapist. Barring that option, there are plenty of scientists who answer the questions of skeptics and are probably much better able to do so than Gore, who nobody likes and who is only a climate change scientist in his head. So don’t let his flaws make you dismiss everyone associated with climate change research.

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      • Damageinc says:

        Well no… The term Global Warming is very misleading. I would agree with you on Al Gore and the fact that much of the hysteria is Bull Shit. Including most of Recycling and landfill claims.

        Are/were the concerns about off shore drilling, hysteria as they were portrayed? A true conservative mind set would have said let’s take a closer look and make sure this practice is really safe. Instead of “EFF it” we need oil, we like money, DRILL Baby DRILL!

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    • Fred Butler says:

      I have never understood how people can call themselves “conservative” when they have such reckless and flippant attitudes toward something so vital to our existance and which can never be replaced.

      There is a big difference between being a conservationist and then being a chicken little hysteric.

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  8. Brian says:

    If McKeon had actually worn the uniform, he wouldn’t be such an idiot on DADT. He should take his old man cowardly ideas on how a military works and resign!

    Buck thinks it works on defense industry kickbacks to his campaign. Kinda dryin up, eh Buck?

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