February 25, 2011 – Daily Brief

Posted on February 25, 2011 by Jeff
  • This morning I want you to head to Trader Joes, fill your basket with all the staples you require, buy some firewood, add some movies to your Netflix queue, grab a blanket and get ready to shelter in place because Snowpocalypse 2011 : SCV Edition is upon us with the Daily News predicting six, yes SIX!- inches of the white stuff on the valley floor. Well they actually say it could be one inch of rain or six inches of snow (how does that work exactly?). Anyway the Signal’s report downplays the snow chances but a weather official told the paper it will be the coldest storm of the season DAILY NEWS, SIGNAL
  • Regardless of whether there is snow or not, it doesn’t look like conditions will be ideal for the Santa Clarita Food Truck festival or COC’s Street Festival. The Signal has a story about both and the food truck festival will happen rain or shine. SIGNAL
  • A funeral service for Glenn Allen, the 38 year veteran of the LAFD and an SCV resident, is taking place now in downtown Los Angeles LA TIMES
  • What do you want the City and Lewis Companies to do with the Santa Clarita’s donut hole, aka Whittaker Bermite? Are homes appropriate for the site? How about apartments? An entertainment center or commercial buildings? A Santa Clarita Wild Animal park perhaps? Everything was on the table and nothing was certain Wednesday night at the Lewis Companies open house event at City Hall SIGNAL
  • CLWA will hire a consulting company that will attempt to convince the state that our chloride problem isn’t that bad, or at the least, that we’re not as responsible for chloride in the water as downstreamers in VeCo say we are. SIGNAL
  • The Defense Department has selected Boeing to build the next generation aerial refueling tanker and, according to Boeing and the LA Times, that means jobs for a Santa Clarita company named Lamsco West. EADS, a rival European firm, lost its bid for the tanker program (despite winning it in 2008) and so the south’s loss is seemingly our gain (EADS was going to build a factory in Alabama) LA TIMES
  • Physicians at Henry Mayo Hospital are upset that a physician’s representative position has lost the right to vote on the hospital’s Board of Directors. The hospital’s chief of staff, Dr. Frank Yusuf, says it’s critical to have a physician on the board who can vote, but Mayo execs say it’s actually rare and the change was done to make Mayo more…corporate. SIGNAL
  • A Saugus man killed himself Wednesday with a rented pistol at the Oak Tree Gun club, according to the Signal. It’s the second suicide at the gun club in two months SIGNAL
  • Schools in Anaheim are assigning on a volunteer basis GPS tracking devices to students who are chronically truant. Privacy advocates cry foul but the schools say the devices are a visible tool the kids can use to resist peer pressure to skip class LA TIMES
  • Have you seen the new altSCV publication in town? It’s the SCV’s first alternative weekly and having read the first three editions, I have to say the writing is high quality, the layout and design are great (Tabloid style, as alt weeklies should be) and the talent is all local. You can pick one up at Bake You Happy near Barnes and Noble. PROXART also has a preview.
  • IHeart’s insideSCV column for March is a good one, covering Whittaker Bermite, the library takeover and associated new tax (oh but it’s a tax decrease the City says) and Brown’s hand in the redevelopment cookie jar INSIDE SCV
  • Time Ranger for this week coming at you with mostly criminal tales this week TIME RANGER
  • Google builds recipe search engine. YUM
  • Letter writer says Stevenson Ranch doesn’t need a new library because people should have e-readers and computers if they want to, you know, read. Besides, if they don’t, they can always drive to Valencia. Au Contraire says another LTE
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19 Responses to February 25, 2011 – Daily Brief

  1. Mike says:
    February 25, 2011 at 8:51 am

    altSCV is dynamite. Really fresh writing and great design. I can’t wait for it to make it to the web.

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  2. spineflower2 says:
    February 25, 2011 at 9:00 am

    And thus ends (?) the saga of the crookedest procurement the DoD has ever undertaken. Remember, this is the contract that Boeing originally won, but was overturned because of illegal procurement activities by Boeing which actually sent some Boeing executives to jail.

    Next Northrop Grumman won it, but that was challenged, though with no wrongdoing alleged.

    Now, after heavy heavy lobbying by Boeing, with (baseless) implications of lack of patriotism by those favoring Northrop Grumman/EADS, the RFP was tailored to favor Boeing (the list of requirements went from a couple dozen to over a hundred, all “conveniently” matching the prior Boeing proposal– sound fair to you?). And then the costs from the prior Northrop proposal, which the Government is legally sworn to keep private to preserve competitive fairness, “accidentally” leaked out to Boeing, breaking the law.

    This was so grievous that Northrop backed out of the competition, seeing that the deck was stacked. EADS proceeded alone, and if you read the LA Times comparison. still exceeded the Boeing capability in range, speed, capacity, and just about every other measure of real effectiveness. Both have the same amount of US content, since they are both heavily subcontracted to mostly US companies.

    Makes you want to go wash off your boots after wading through these corrupt waters.

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    • Jeff says:
      February 25, 2011 at 9:14 am

      I don’t always agree with you but in this case you are spot on. It’s sickening. Northrop + EADS won this fair and square in 2008 and it’s a better platform than the old 767 which is about to be phased out.

      And yet silence from the Tea Partiers.

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  3. Bill Reynolds says:
    February 25, 2011 at 9:28 am

    And yet silence from the Left Wingers…

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  4. Jim Farley says:
    February 25, 2011 at 9:58 am

    Why does 1″ of rain = 6″ of snow?

    Here’s your answer:
    http://www.theweatherprediction.com/habyhints/346/

    Water is unique from most elements in that it gets less dense and expands when it freezes. Scientists speculate that life on earth would likely not be possible if ice sunk rather than floated due being less dense.

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  5. Mr Perez says:
    February 25, 2011 at 10:06 am

    My prayers and thoughts are with Mr Allen’s family right now. Definately a sad moment and one we should all reflect upon.

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  6. Samuel Adams says:
    February 25, 2011 at 12:25 pm

    Received my altSCV at my doorstep on Sunday with the ususal Signal inserts. Signal writers, etc….is it owned by the Signal? If so will Morris Multimedia give it a chance?

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  7. Todd says:
    February 25, 2011 at 4:08 pm

    Looks like the snow is falling apart before our eyes… Not as cold or as much precipitation as they’d predicted… NOAA had said “snow likely”, now it’s “scattered showers.”

    Bummer.

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