- Ken Pulskamp, in his November newsletter, says that the City’s library system has distributed 26,000 library cards and had over 150,000 visitors at the Newhall, Canyon Country and Valencia branches since it took over from the County nearly 90 days ago. Also, staff has “facilitated 98 special programs at the three branches with over 4,200 in attendance.” Pulskamp also says that the City has seen a “slight” up-tick in sales tax revenue in 2011.
- And just like that, the County’s portion of the OVOV plan passes out of the Regional Planning Committee and will go before the five supervisors at some undetermined date in the future SIGNAL, SCVNEWS
- Council wrap: Forgot to mention yesterday that the City removed the old Newhall Hardware building from its historic building list, clearing the way for the owner to sell it without burden. Newhall Hardware underscores the difficult path the city staff is trying to navigate between historic preservation/community interest and private property rights. Signal commenters wonder if the Saugus Speedway is next SIGNAL
- They don’t grow them like this anymore: The SCV woman profiled by Dennis McCarthy this week in the Daily News gets a nice obit today in the Signal. Mary Lou Neale -Alaska native, fighter/bomber pilot, journalism student, mother of 4- died earlier this month in the SCV. She counted among her associates Ameila Earhardt and Eleanor Roosevelt. What a life. SIGNAL
- Castaic High land ownership dispute between Larry Rasmussen and Eugene Lombardi. Are there two bigger names in SCV real estate than that? (other than Newhall of course) SIGNAL
- 13th confirmed rabid bat found, this time in Canyon Country. SCVNEWS has a map of the locations where rabid bats have been found this year. Truly rabid bats are no discriminators; the latest SCV animal menace has been sighted in Newhall, Canyon Country, Saugus, Stevenson Ranch and even North Valencia SCVNEWS
- Race to the bottom: A City of Los Angeles panel thinks that LA’s business tax ought to be phased out complete in order to be “more competitive with neighboring cities.” DAILY NEWS
- Federal community oriented police funds will buttress the Sheriff Department’s COPS program, which could lead to more patrols and resources for unincorporated County residents KHTS
- Another meeting next week on where the Stevenson Ranch library should go. Boy COLA sure is doing a lot of outreach on this, aren’t they? SCVNEWS
- Want to know what’s going on at City Hall? State of the City luncheon is the place all the cool kids will hang out on October 13 CITY BRIEFS
- City/County value building homes more than guarding our shrinking/threatened water supply argues Lynne Plambeck SIGNAL
- Way to go Berta! Over at RIGHTONSCV, our friend Berta condemns those conservatives who booed the gay soldier at a recent GOP Presidential debate. She doesn’t address the debate goers who cheered the death penalty or shouted that uninsured sick people should die, but this good enough for me. As per our deal, I also condemn Joe Biden’s (reported) remarks that the “Tea party have acted like terrorists,” and Maxine Water’s statement that the Tea Party ought to “go straight to hell.” These sentiments should have no place in our political discourse, let alone be spoken by someone who is elected to represent all their constituents, not just supporters.
- Want to know why this blog is called SCVTalk and not “Newhall-SaugusAreatalk.com?” John Boston tells you about the origin of the SCV name and also gives you the low-down on James Dean’s last meal before he died in this week’s TIME RANGER
@SCVTweets onTwitter
- Bike to Work Day
http://t.co/jWAkeDfm2012/05/17 16:01 - Excellent! RT @Petz2: Cadet Petzold
http://t.co/mfXxCymI2012/05/16 12:31 - It's an embarrassment of riches. As of today, 4 the 2nd time ever, there are 2 actual barbecue spots in SCV: @longhornsbbq and @Lucilles_BBQ2012/05/16 10:27
- Over the months, we've reached out to @Lucilles_BBQ several times to talk BBQ and got the cold [pork] shoulder. But still, we welcome real Q2012/05/16 10:17
- If you love substance like we do, Jeff has a great interview with @LeeCRogers.
http://t.co/sJj9FNvc2012/05/10 09:04 - Tone of the meeting: BK and FF playing dads to TBB rebellious teenager. LW and MM the aunts who don't see why you need to dress like that.2012/05/08 23:39
- Bike to Work Day
Loading ...
The number one name in SCV Real Estate is Petzold.
Petzold is good but Connor McIvor 911 is also memorable, though I’m not sure it’s for good reasons.
Other interesting real estate names: “EXIT Realty” and, I love this one, “SCV ECO-GREEN REALTY”
Triple D Realty is a name I can get behind. Better yet, in front of.
That would be “Petz Sold”
There was also a great story in today’s Signal Business section about the Valley Industry Association, their history and upcoming 30th Anniversary Gala on Friday, Oct. 14 at the Hyatt Valencia. I’d like to give a public shout out to Signal Business Editor Jana Adkins for the great job she did in crafting the story. http://www.the-signal.com/section/24/article/51872/
Sidenote and shameless plug: There’s still tixs available for the Oct. 14 event. The theme is Old World Masquerade, a Black & White Ball, and the evening will have an edge of mystique and allure. Masques optional, but suggested. Contact Kathy Norris at the VIA office if interested. 661.294.8088 or kathy@via.org
oops sorry I missed that and congrats to VIA on their 30th anniversary.
My dear friend Berta does not need to “lecture” us over on at rightonscv.com , the haters are on the left. . You are not anti-gay if you oppose DADT. Petz believes that liberals were placed in the audience to gin up a controversy. In any case DADT should have not been repealed by executive order and its repeal was meant to begin the Obama attack on DOMA. Berta fell into a liberal trap in an effort to purgue her guilt.
You are not anti-gay if you oppose DADT, true, but Santorum, and the person or people who booed are. Berta was right to denounce them and she has my respect for doing so. Just as troubling as the booing was the thunderous cheering of the crowd after Santorum’s nonsensical answer.
DADT was not repealed by executive order, but by the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Repeal Act of 2010.
Point 1: DADT was repealed first by the Senate, then by the House in 2010. Obama didn’t issue an order in vacuum; the people’s representatives voted on it.
Point 2: There are apparently no bad apples at all in the GOP base. All bad people in the Tea Party, Republican base, the Minutemen, Oath Keepers, and all such affiliates are actually liberal plants. I know this because you are the second person to say that what we witnessed at the debates was actually caused by liberals.
Roger Gitlin is a liberal plant.
The same thought has crossed my mind recently.
So is Kevin D. Korenthal.
What we are witnessing here is classic Republican victimhood.
DADT doesn’t exist anymore, why are we still discussing it?
Petz I did not lecture, fall into any “liberal trap”, nor do I have any “guilt”. I expressed my opinion on the subject in as honest and forthright a manner as I could. I am already on the record: I do not believe sexual preference, homo or heterosexual, has any bearing on the ability of a soldier to do his/her job or needs to be an issue discussed by anyone while serving in the military and for those reasons supported DADT. I also have said that I am not interested in knowing about anyone’s sexual preference, unless I am marrying him or her.
That some folks insist on proclaiming their preferences to the world via their dress, mannerisms, public displays of French kissing, groping, etc, with both hetero and homosexual folks is not my choice. I guess I agree with the nuns who used to tell us girls to “Please leave something for their imagination ladies.”
I am not anti or pro gay. I accept that gays exist in nature, only God can judge, and I am not God. I am against anything that may cause a problem for our soldiers in the field although I recognize that whether openly stated or not most are aware of who is gay amongst them. If those serving in the military are ok with the repeal of DADT, it is none of my business unless I am going into the foxholes with them. If those in the military are not ok with the repeal of DADT, then we need to do whatever we need to do to make their time in the service less stressful regarding those issues we can change.
I support DOMA, do not support school instruction on the gay lifestyle without at least parental ability to say “not to my kid”, do not view Harvey Milk as a hero from the gay community just because he was murdered, which was reprehensible.
I guess I lost your vote Petz since I am open and honest about my values and beliefs, and that is ok with me because I answer to a higher authority anyway.
Berta, I have an open seat in my Mini-Van of Life
The key to a successful military is uniformity. Should men and women be allowed to bunk down together since this is sexual discrimination. It is difficult to discipline an openly gay soldier because they will scream discrimination, witness the soldier who helped Wikileaks. Sexual preference may not affect an individuals ability to do a job, but it does affect the esprit decor in the unit and military branch. Can gay soldiers donate blood? Yes or no? Is this discriminatory? The military would never have voluntarily ended DADT, it was just social engineering for political expediency.
“Should men and women be allowed to bunk down together ..”
Obviously you’ve never seen “Starship Troopers.”
+++ The people in Starship Troopers were very effective in hunting bugs and they consorted and carried on naked and such.
DADT was an example of the disenfranchisement of certain citizens to the benefit of others at its worst.
Do you think that just because a soldier is openly gay, he’s automatically going to try and “bunk down” with other soldiers?
That’s the problem with your take on this whole thing, Petz, is that you (and some who follow your line of thought on the matter) mistakenly believe that homosexuals are sex-crazed maniacs who will do anything to turn openly heterosexual persons of the same sex into flaming queens.
You and yours are making the issue about sex, Petz, not those who agree with the long-overdue elimination of this discriminatory program, and especially not the general gay and lesbian community.
And I will take YWG’s opinion in this matter well over yours Petz because he has walked the walk. I can’t tell you how to operate in a real estate environment because I am not and have never been a realtor. Nor have I properly studied the field either. And I can’t use that “I have some realtor friends” argument either. This whole argument needs to be dropped. The law is changed, we in the military have adjusted, it doesn’t affect you, so move out and draw fire….Hoooah!
Point of clarification that I “walked the walk” having served in the US Army as a sex-crazed heterosexual.
Boom-chicka-wow-wow!
It is a shame that the guru and Perez cannot distinguish betweeen differentiation and discrimination. This is meant to attack DOMA. No one in the military went to the President and said we need to enlist more GLBTs to make our fighting force more effective. DADT was a reasonable compromise to address this issue.
Not true. It has been well-documented that our ability to translate and understand the native dialects in the middle east were severely hampered by the lack of translators, many of whom chose to leave or were forced to leave because of DADT. Warning signs of 9/11 were missed because of the slow work of translating by those less skilled and due to the resultant overall shortage of personnel.
Lives are at risk because of this. Are we clear? Crystal?
I don’t see validation of what the DADT Repeal was intented to do other than allow gay and lesbian Americans an opportunity to serve. All I know is that the DoD has implemented a policy and it is the job of ALL who are currently in service, to follow this policy. There is no deviation nor complaining allowed. Those in uniform who are gay and lesbian are my brothers and sisters in arms and they are afforded the same rights and protections as anyone else. I take this seriously.
DOMA? You ass!
I am headed for divorce simply due to both of us changing over the years. If you think it has anything to do with gays or anything else but it tells me a lot about you.
Let me say it in one word.
Clueless!
I suppose you call yourself a Christian also. Shame.
Steve, you are off the mark so much with each of the comments you made. While some may say it is not a requirement having served, I would disagree and say that unless you have experience in this area don’t make assumptions nor become a 3rd party source when it comes to what makes us successful.
Men and women do bunk in close quarters depending on the environment. It has already been shown that homosexuals have been doing this under DADT with no major issues. The repeal of DADT actually decreased the possibility a gay troop could be blackmailed about their orientation. The Wikileaks traitor was just that, an individual traitor. He was supposedly motivated over unfair policies that now don’t exist, NEXT!
Sexual orientation does not affect the morale of a unit. Individual’s prejudices do that, no matter if the person in question is homosexual, Black, Muslim, female, etc. This argument you are using is invalid and was similar to the one used before integration during President Trumans tenure. The difference between now and then is that there is more outcry from those in the ranks and many more issues. We didn’t have those problems but it speaks volumes to the discipline level of THE greatest military ever fielded in our history.
ANYONE can give blood depending on their recent medical history or deployments. You seriously asked that question?
And possibly unbeknownest to you Petz, all branches of the miltiary push to have their branches reflect society percentage-wise with regards to ethnicity, race, and gender. This has gone on since the military became all voluntary and the branches want each group equally represented. The next push will be for their to also be a religious and sexual orientation quota as well.
There will be those old heads who served that don’t like this but then again I have personally heard those make disparaging comments against Blacks, Latinos, Muslims, and females and how it is social engineering to have them in as well. Do you agree or disagree?
Any male who has had sex with another male since 1977 is prohibited from donating blood in the United states and Canada.
Then the military either has their own internal policy or they follow the FDA’s guidance. The actual policy is medically unsound because HIV is not a homosexual virus and heterosexuals can carry it just as often.
Petz is correct. FDA policy is that no male who admits to having sex with another male since 1977 is permitted to donate blood. That policy may change to a one year deferral period in the near future (as it has in the U.K.) but there there is good reason for the ban and/or deferral.
According to the Red Cross, men who have had sex with other men since 1977 are 60 times more likely to carry HIV than the general population, 800 times more likely to carry HIV than first-time blood donors, and 8000 times more likely to carry it than repeat blood donors. Men who have had sex with other men are also more likely to be infected with Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, and Herpes.
Contrary to your assertion, Mr. Perez, in the U.S., “MSM continue to account for the largest number of people newly infected with HIV.”
http://www.fda.gov/biologicsbloodvaccines/bloodbloodproducts/questionsaboutblood/ucm108186.htm
BTW, the military’s policy is the same as the FDA’s: No male who has had sex with another male since 1977 is permitted to donate. http://www.militaryblood.dod.mil/Donors/can_i_donate.aspx
I didn’t give numbers on numbers of men/women who have HIV and are straight/hetero. My comment implied that no matter one’s sexual orientation, blood needs to be physically screened for issues. And the Red Cross, American Blood Centers, and the AABA believe the ban is wrong and needs to be adjusted.
On a side note, the same ban applies to those who have ever used intravenous drugs or been paid for sex.
Admit it, Perez, you implied that Petz was way out of line with his statement about gay men not being able to donate blood AND made a statement which is WRONG:
“The actual policy is medically unsound because HIV is not a homosexual virus and heterosexuals can carry it just as often.”
You didn’t “give numbers” because the numbers are not on your side of the argument.
Furthermore, the ban may be “adjusted” but it will never be lifted entirely, and for very sound medical reasons.
Stunning takedown. Petz got sonned.
Oh really, scroll to the bottom and review the CDC figures. Use some common sense before you start up the Icky shuffle.
“The key to a successful military is uniformity.”
~cause Petz says so… it has been a slippery slope since the desegregation of the military.
And the uniformity you speak of comes with ALL troops following rules and regulations. It does not come because everyone thinks and looks the same. If the uniformity you spoke of was what you are saying, then everyone would be the same race, religion, and gender.
Berta,
I would like to address your comment about Harvey Milk. He is not a hero simply because of the way he died. He was an extraordinary man who overcame huge amounts of prejudice and discrimination to become the first American to win an election while out of the closet. In 1977 Milk was elected to San Francisco County Board of Supervisors. This! at a time when homosexuality was considered a mental illness, when Anita Bryant was on the loose claiming America needed to “Save the Children” ! Even in SF he couldn’t have won with just the “gay” vote.
“People thought the pope would run the country. But after six months in office, when Kennedy started to do things, people never questioned him again. If I do a good job, people won’t care if I am green or have three heads.” Harvey Milk, the day after his 1977 election to the Board of Supervisors
4eyedsue there were some allegations regarding Milk’s sexual encounters with underage minors that are troubling. By most accounts, he was also sexually promiscuous and contracted gonorrhea from one of his many lovers. On September 22, 1975, President Gerald Ford, while visiting San Francisco, walked from his hotel to his car. In the crowd was Sara Jane Moore who attempted to assassinate President Ford. A former Marine who had been walking by grabbed her arm and the gun instead discharged toward the pavement. The bystander was Oliver “Bill” Sipple, who had left Milk’s ex-lover Joe Campbell years before, prompting Campbell’s suicide attempt. The national spotlight was on Sipple immediately. On psychiatric disability leave from the military, Sipple refused to call himself a hero and did not want his sexuality disclosed. Milk, however, took advantage of the opportunity to illustrate his cause that public perception of gay people would be improved if they came out of the closet. He told a friend: “It’s too good an opportunity.” He showed no concern for Bill Sipple. Milk contacted a newspaper. Several days later Herb Caen, a columnist at The San Francisco Chronicle, exposed Sipple as gay and a friend of Milk’s. National newspapers picked up the announcement, and Milk’s name was included in many of the stories.
The toll the notoriety Harvey Milk’s quest for publicity brought into Sipple’s life was devastating. Sipple was besieged by reporters, as was his family. His mother, a staunch Baptist in Detroit, refused to speak to him. Milk’s outing of Sipple cost Sipple his relationship with his mother, father, and brother. Eventually Sipple regained contact with his mother and brother, but was rejected by his father until the bitter end. He was a pawn in Harvey Milk’s gay agenda and died a broken man of pneumonia in 1989. Harvey Milk is not a hero in my opinion. Oliver “Bill” Sipple, whose life Harvey Milk ruined, was.
Hey Berta- glad to know that you were inspired to read more about Harvey Milk. Allegations of Milk having “sexual encounters with underage minors” stem from his relationship with Jack McKinley- who was less than a year away from the age of consent in his home state. Yes, he was underage. Milk apparently liked younger men, but McKinley is the only one who was underage at the time- even according to some not-so-friendly biographers. And as for Milk’s “promiscuous” behavior- I have seen you state on several occasions that you don’t care to know about someone’s sex life- you are more concerned with their accomplishments. Me too.
Harvey Milk was determined to prove that that a gay person could live an honest life and succeed. Honest meaning not closeted. He believed that the root cause of discrimination against gays was invisibility. “You gotta give them hope,” he’d say. Remember the times- Anita Bryant hollering about not letting the gays into your neighborhoods, the Supreme Court refusing to overturn the prison sentence of a man convicted solely of having sex with another consenting man, there was no national gay organization. … Yes, his outing of Sipple was opportunistic. Apparently a sacrifice for the greater good in Milk’s mind.
You point out that Sipple’s Baptist mother wouldn’t speak with him. Neither would his father or siblings. Truly heartbreaking- and exactly what Harvey Milk was attempting to change. The same battle we are still fighting today. Why should anyone have to live in fear of being outed? Because homosexuality is icky? Because your church has interpreted the Bible to say homosexuals choose to live a life of sin? Why? What if someone you love is outed tomorrow?
I hardly think that it is Harvey Milk’s fault that Mr. Sipple was gay. It’s not Milk’s fault that his family chose to have no son as opposed to a gay son. But I do believe that Harvey Milk is the reason that homosexuals living in California have it better now than in the 1970’s. Certainly not a perfect man, but a brave one.
PS- Sipple seemed to have forgiven Milk for the outing and they remained in contact until Milk’s death.
4eyedsue as happens nearly every time we discuss gay issues it is apparent we are not going to agree. You seem to imply that I knew nothing about Harvey Milk before reading about him, an incorrect assumption on your part. I have a large extended family in San Francisco, and most of my male cousins are Marines still living in the San Francisco area who knew Bill.
When Harvey Milk rose to prominence and was subsequently murdered by Dan White I was a young woman.
I must have higher standards for my heroes than others do. I repeat, in my opinion, Harvey Milk was not a hero. He may have brought gay issues to the forefront and be your hero, he is not mine. Irrespective of whether that troubled Marine Bill Sipple’s family should have/could have accepted his homosexuality, that was their decision to make, and Bill’s decision to tell them or not. It was not up to Harvey Milk to out and use Bill to make his case, nor as a “hero” did he set what I consider to be a good example for other gays any more than Barney Frank has. We will simply have to agree to disagree…
My apologies, Berta. Your comment read like a cut-and-paste, so I ASSumed.
Your SanFran cousins were, no doubt, already aware of Sipple’s sexual orientation before the Ford incident. He participated in Gay Pride events, worked for openly gay Harvey Milk and tended bar at a gay hang out. (I was inspired to read more from your comment). He was closeted in Detroit, but he was himself in California. No doubt, if Milk had not outed him, Sipple’s sexual orientation would have soon been revealed. Maybe this is why Sipple and Milk continued to have a friendship even after this. Interesting that some continue to hold a grudge about this, while Sipple did not.
Thumbs up!
Only a narrow minded bigot would disagree!
OOPS! I see we have one thumbs down. Wonder who.
Petz?
there he goes again ^
This long ideological back and forth is possible today because of heroines like Mary Lou Neale, one of the first women pilots (WASP) who served in World War II (mentioned in this column above the Berta article). Too bad none of you saw fit to comment on her contribution to your freedoms. Not only was she a patriot, but an inspiration to all who knew her.
Too bad the rumor of James Dean’s last meal can never be proved and is probably not true. A couple of years ago we did a documentary where we traveled the route and interviewed all three of the CHP officers involved that day – the one who ticketed him, and two who investigated the fatal crash. It’s the last time that would ever happen; some are now dead. It’s one of our most popular shows and even after all this time it still gets thousands of views each month nation- (world-)wide. You can watch it here: http://www.scvtv.com/html/scvhs021509btv.html
Today’s Daily Brief links to The Signal article on the removal of the “historic property” designation for Newhall Hardware, and mentions a comment on The Signal by a reader that “I see that this will set a precedence to have the Saugus Speedway to be removed as well and for it to be turned into Condos…..Just a thought!”
Unfortunately for the owners of the Saugus Speedway/Swap Meet property, their land is so profoundly contaminated with carcinogenic volatile organic chemicals (VOCs) let alone perchlorate, which have flowed off the Whittaker Bermite property onto the soil under the Swap Meet’s pavement, and into the ground water beneath that soil. The concentration of VOCs and perchlorate is so intense, on the colored maps produced by Whittaker’s consultants to show where the toxics have flowed, the Speedway/Swap Meet property is bright red, meaning the worst toxic contamination. Other maps prepared by Whittaker’s consultants concerning the ground water flowing under the Speedway/Swapmeet property only getting worse over the next 10+ years.
The California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) has an old web page devoted to the Speedway/Swap Meet property, but a key letter from DTSC to the property owner was taken down recently, though the Bermite CAG has copies. One old letter from DTSC to the Speedway/Swap Meet property’s owner said that DTSC would allow the property owner to build “mixed use development” on the property, provided that no homes, condos, apartments, day care centers, nursing homes, or schools were built on the first floor of the buildings, and provided that the property owner signed and recorded a deed restriction to that effect. DTSC’s reasoning behind that requirement is that carcinogenic VOCs up-gas from the soil, into walls of buildings, and the gases cause cancer and other serious illnesses. (I guess DTSC doesn’t care about people who work in stores and offices 40 hours per week, and are exposed to carcinogenic VOC gases.)
The owners of the Speedway/Swap Meet property refused to sign such a deed restriction to limit use of their property, and their dealings with Whittaker Corporation as to clean-up of their property are private.
After that deed restriction proposal by DTSC was shot down by the Speedway/Swap Meet’s property owner, Whittaker Corporation’s scientific consultants did even more testing of the ground water under the Speedway/Swap Meet property in 2010, and discovered that it is even more contaminated with carcinogenic VOCs, let alone perchlorate, than the previous scientific testing had found. The Speedway/Swap Meet property is also the location of the formerly huge-volume drinking water well called the “Stadium Well” which Santa Clarita Water Company/CLWA shut down several years ago as it became extremely contaminated.
When you look in DTSC’s online files, at the also-public 2010 “Feasibility Study” for “OU-7″ describing experimental methods to try to clean-up the VOCs and perchlorate from the ground water aquifers under the Metrolink parking lot (which is part of the Whittaker Bermite property), Bermite Mountain and Speedway/Swap Meet properties, you can see, that among the rather goofy experiments to protect the Speedway/Swap Meet property from further contamination flowing westwards off the Metrolink parking lot. would be the digging of huge trenches, and building of concrete barrier walls, to keep the ground water contained under the Metrolink parking lot (and flowing north into the river) rather than following its natural course onto the Speedway/Swap Meet property. The approach is goofy because the OU7 Feasibility Study shows nothing in terms of subsurface barrier walls built along the Speedway/Swap Meet’s north boundary to protect it from the massive flows of VOC and perchlorate contaminated water off Bermite Mountain.
As a result, I would not be too worried that the “historic” Saugus Speedway or the Swap Meet will disappear, in favor of newly built buildings, because those infrequent uses by humans are the safest uses of the property, because people would not be exposed to carcinogenic VOC off-gases flowing into the walls of confined spaces.
And for those who like to bash the City staff and consultants, here’s a good one: In the One Valley, One Vision General Plan for the City of Santa Clarita, just this year those geniuses at the City approved the designation of both the unused dirt patches of the Metrolink parking lot, as well as the Speedway/Swap Meet property for the building of “low and very low income housing”….and their plan didn’t even mention that the properties are high contaminated with carcinogenic VOCs.
That’s a good move by the City staff, make a plan to gas the poor and elderly who might live in new housing built on those properties.
Then there’s the super-ultra toxic and carcinogenic HMX, RDX and other rocket fuel components leaking into the drinking water aquifer from the “Old Highway Well” on the far eastern edge of the Metrolink parking lot property, past the old farm house. That’s another essay to write, but for now take comfort that DTSC has the Old Highway Well surrounded with “monitoring wells” and as of 2008 data, Whittaker’s scientific consultants tell us that the ultra-toxics had “only” spread in a 150′ radius from the well. Of course, it’s now 2011, and that radius is probably bigger, perhaps even touching the Santa Clara River’s, where CLWA’s Dan Masnada says the Alluvial Drinking Water Aquifer follows the river. Of course, CLWA is not testing for those super-toxic rocket fuel chemicals from the Old Highway Well when it sends you your drinking water.
If you want to look at the OU7 Feasibility Study, with its flashy colored maps showing where the VOC and perchlorate pollution had spread off the Bermite property by 2008, you can fight with DTSC’s website at: http://www.envirostor.dtsc.ca.gov/public/ Type in Santa Clarita under the “City” blank and that click on the Get Report button. You’ll see Whittaker Bermite Facility at the bottom of the page. Click on the brown [Report] link and try to get it to open. It usually won’t open, because of a variety of highly disputed causes. Assuming you get in, go to the Activities tab and read the documents to your heart’s content.
I’d really love to get some local website to post direct links to the pdfs of the maps from the OU7 Feasibility Study, because they show, using 2008 data, where carcinogenic VOCs and perchlorate have flowed off the Whittaker Bermite property, and onto other people’s property, causing drinking water wells to be closed.
The Signal ran its usually careful story showing some of the drinking water wells closed because of the flow of perchlorate off the Whittaker Bermite property, but they chose not to talk about the carcinogenic VOCs in the drinking water flowing off Bermite Mountain, and not to copy the public-domain flashy colored maps from the DTSC-approved Feasibility Study. See: http://www.the-signal.com/section/36/article/50543/ Also see: http://www.the-signal.com/section/36/article/49405/
Besides, that’s stupid because the Saugus Speedway is not now and never was on any list of historic properties ……………….. even though some of us think it should be.
Oh and by the way, as we reported the other day, EVERY PROPERTY is going to be removed from the historic list, if the council approves the current staff proposal. -> http://scvnews.com/?p=19712
And connecting the dots, the best part of the story is that we need more low income housing so that folks don’t need to commute into and out of the SCV for the local low wage jobs that will be created (we currently have many more low income jobs than housing). Without the ability to really build this affordable housing, traffic will be even worse than assumed under the OVOV plan because these low income workers still need to commute to the SFV or Lancaster\Palmdale, even though the plan contemplated (ridiculously) that you could put high density affordable housing on the Speedway property.
Except for the contamination, proximity to the Metrolink Station would be good for commuters. We still don’t have enough high paying jobs to pay for all the high priced homes which have not retained their value.
CDC Atlanta data clearly shows the highest incidence of HIV/AIDS is among gay and bisexual men. http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/surveillance/incidence.htm
My church gave upwards of $5,000 last month to the the Gay and Lesbian Center of Los Angeles for AIDS relief. Well north of $15,000 since Prop 8. We can show care and compassion for the suffering while not compromising our stand on homosexuality.
What was compromised in the DADT is free speech and religious freedoms guaranteed in the First Amendment.
Hush money.
For those of you who doubt Petz veracity here is a link to the centers 2009 annual report. The Sanctuary is listed on P. 10 as a Platinum Donor. So before you throw stones my way….look in the mirror.
http://www.lagaycenter.org/site/DocServer/AnnualReport_09_Final.pdf?docID=10442&AddInterest=1081
“I’m not a racist… I have lots of black friends…”
It’s sad that the recent hateful comments of some of our democrat representatives were not worthy of denouncing by the SCV’s premier liberal Blogger.
Capt. Gene you must have missed comments by “SCV’s premier liberal Blogger” Jeff Wilson who said in September 29, 2011 Daily Brief “As per our deal, I also condemn Joe Biden’s (reported) remarks that the “Tea party have acted like terrorists,” and Maxine Water’s statement that the Tea Party ought to “go straight to hell.” These sentiments should have no place in our political discourse, let alone be spoken by someone who is elected to represent all their constituents, not just supporters.”
Sounds like Jeff is denouncing the hateful comments of some of our democrat representatives to me!