On all issues relating to LandSource and Newhall Land & Farming as Chapter 11 bankruptcy debtors, it’s important to take, with a strong dose of skepticism, anything orally represented by lawyers for any parties: Barclays Bank, LandSource, Lennar, CALPERS, Unsecured Creditors Committee, etc. That is especially true when a trade publication is reporting heresay from one lawyer, telling the trade publication what an adverse party or its lawyer is “saying”.

The only “reality” is what is said by a party in bankruptcy court transcripts, written filings, and written orders by the judge. All of that “reality” can be read at http://www.kccllc.net/landsource. I find that reading the “Hearing Transcripts” (especially the first hearing, as to Barclays Bank’s intentions) and the “Court Documents” filed by Barclays Bank’s lawyers are the most informative. Document 835 is Barclays Bank’s most recent public statement of intention concerning how the $1+ Billion it is owed by LandSource will be repaid.

The Court Documents and Hearing Transcripts are available under tabs on the left hand side of the main information page.

By the way, the deadline established by the Bankruptcy Court, for private entity creditors large and small to file their claims for payment of pre-bankruptcy sums due and owing, passed on November 14th, without The Signal bothering to publish any warning to the Santa Clarita Valley business community. Shame on The Signal.

If ever there was a need for a strong local voice, it’s now. This story is significant historically, economically, and personally to many people in Santa Clarita. Yet it’s getting next to no coverage.

I wish I could get to the bottom of it, but I’m just an unpaid part-time blogger. The Signal ought to devote more resources to this story, and barring them, I would think the LA Times would be interested, considering that Newhall Ranch was, at one time, the largest proposed housing development in the state of California.

I really need to get back to Maui for some R&R. Look at this stark and dramatic landscape in the middle of the Pacific. It's calling my name.

• LandSource/Newhall Land fight off liquidation: Despite (multiple) rumors filling my inbox to the contrary, Big Builder Online reports today that bankrupt LandSource has convinced Barclay’s Bank not to liquidate its assets (for now), including Newhall Land and the critical Newhall Ranch property, the territory east of Interstate 5 slated for a massive new home development. Barclays had wanted to hold a fire sale of Newhall Land assets since “LandSource had failed to come up with one of its own within the time frame it was allowed to” since it went BK in June. A lawyer for LandSource says selling off the assets piecemeal wouldn’t be a good value for Barclays since “a good deal of [Newhall's] worth lies in its size and cohesiveness as a master planned community.” For two weeks I’ve been receiving tips about this case, some saying that liquidation was a virtual certainty and that Newhall Land was in its death throes; this report from a legitimate (if pro-developer) news site seems to contradict those tips. You can follow some of the legal proceedings here (other documents in the case are said to be sealed and not available to the public). Wouldn’t it be nice if we could get some more local media coverage of this important topic concerning the SCV’s oldest and most important company?
• Speaking of death throes: I guess that’s how I’d characterize the remnants of the Sayre fire, which is being “boxed in” by fire fighters in Placerita Canyon, according to The Signal. The FD says a lack of winds Monday “allowed them to take back their position less than a mile south of Placerita Canyon Road and take a stand against the fire.” The Sayre fire started Friday night and raced through Slymar before heading into the SCV; no structures have been damaged in Santa Clarita (knock on wood). Signal report
• Santa Clarita best friends forever with business: The LA County Economic Development Corporation says Santa Clarita is the most business-friendly city in all of Los Angeles County. The award means Santa Clarita has shown a “demonstrated commitment to economic development,” “competitive business tax rates and fee structures,” and “effective communication with and about business clients.” Now prepare for the onslaught of press about this honor, which will be bragged about for years to come in city literature and press releases. Anyway, congrats! KHTS reports
• How appropriate, three articles on SCV businesses: The Times has an interesting bit on the Saugus Swapmeat (”the kitsch of Olvera Street, Chinatown and Little Tokyo,” it says), while a website named Gourmet Retailer reviews the new Bristol Farms in Bridgeport (380 types of artisan cheese!), and finally, the Times details the success even in these tough times of StoneFire Grill, a popular place to eat here in Santa Clarita.
• Local Marine returns from Iraq a hero: KHTS has a great story on Jeff Phillips, a 2005 Santa Clarita Christian graduate who just returned from a tour of duty in Iraq. He got a hero’s welcome at his Canyon Country alma mater and told the students about some of the hairy moments he had in the suck. He won’t stay for long; Corporal Jeff Phillips is soon heading to Afghanistan. Jon Dell reports.
• OMG FIRE WATCH OUT LOL: Hundreds of people joined the City’s emergency text messaging service during the fires this weekend. “Nothing like a real emergency” to give people a kick in the pants, said City Spokeswoman Gail Ortiz (okay that last part of the quote belongs to me.) Signal story here, and you can sign up here.
• I Heart’s compelling arguments against Mayo Expansion: The blogger/city watcher has reasons 5-1 in his countdown of why you should be against the expansion plan of Henry Mayo, which may be decided upon at tomorrow night’s special City Council meeting. One of his most powerful arguments gets to the heart of the cozy relationships in this valley: “Santa Clarita is growing into a bigger city by the day. However, the power players remain few, and they are all well-connected and interested in looking after each other. It’s all a bit incestuous, really.Unsurprisingly, the Master Plan never had a chance of being fairly evaluated in this environment.” I Heart SCV
• And Bossert too: His criticisms of the city are always suspect, but he lays out a pretty good argument on why you should be skeptical of the Mayo Master Plan.
• It’s all about perception is it not? Signal reader/former blogger Kevin Korenthal says the Signal is “always unfair to conservatives” and it has “taken a turn for the worse under new management.” He’s considering canceling the Signal for its continued “leftward slant” and its unfair publication of local conservative columns vs national liberal columns (what does that mean, it’s not a fair fight to pit Paul Strickland against Paul Krugman?) Link
• Happy Birthday Baby Brother: I can’t believe you’re 27 years old today. It feels like just yesterday I was pounding you during football scrimmages in the backyard. Happy Birthday Scott!

In order to get on the show, Fern had to answer the following puzzle from last week. See if you can get it:

Take the names of two animals. Drop the third letter from each name. Read the remaining letters, in order, from left to right and you’ll name a world capital. What capital is it?

At first, I thought Dog-Cat, which would be Doca. Hence why I didn’t win the challenge, and why I’m always discouraged from these types of puzzles.

Fern, however, correctly figured out the answer: Bear/Lion, or Berlin.

She and 2,000 other listeners got the correct answer, but only Fern’s name was selected from the winners list. So she got to go on the air Sunday and participate in a real trivia challenge, live on the radio, heard nationwide.

The live Sunday Puzzle segment asked Fern to name “two-word phrases” that start with the letters “S and B.”

Listen to the clip here- you’ll be shocked by how fast Fern answers each question.

I’ll leave you to listen to the full clip to see how she did; suffice it to say, the host was very impressed and some famous cartoon characters later told Fern the prizes she won.

Congrats Fern!

Tony Miano, cop street preacher and blogger at The Lawman Chronicles, took advantage of the traffic light at Valencia & McBean to shout the gospel -via loudspeaker- at people protesting Proposition 8:

When his extended stay at the corner of Valencia & McBean ended, he turned around for another go at the crowd of 20-30 protesters.

Hey, this is a novel use of Santa Clarita traffic, is it not?

In the comments on the video, Miano says he does it out of love:

To whom else would I or should I bring God’s Law and Gospel other than those who hate God by calling that which is evil good? Because I care for those who will face the wrath of God,I share the Law and the Gospel with them.

Nice to hear that honks in support of the protesters occasionally overwhelmed his loudspeaker.

• Sayre Fire spreads to Placerita Canyon, but winds die down: The 10,000 fire that destroyed some 500 mobile homes in Sylmar moved into the Santa Clarita Valley on Sunday, spreading to the hills east of Santa Clarita in and near Placerita Canyon. The Signal says evacuations aren’t needed in P-Canyon yet and the fire is 40 percent contained. The LA Times has more on all the regional fires.
• Oak Ridge Mobile Home Park: I was shocked Saturday when I saw the first aerial images of the Oak Ridge Mobile Home park in Sylmar. It looked like a bomb had gone off and flattened everything for blocks. Residents of the park described it as the “Beverly Hills of mobile home parks” and said they had just minutes to evacuate as 50 foot flames and burning embers closed in. The LA Times has the story.
• Political and development implications of the fires: The Sayre fire started in Sylmar but quickly raced right up into the area where the mountaintop development of Las Lomas would have been built, had the City of Los Angeles annexed the territory and approved it. As LA City blogger Mayor Sam put it, Santa Clarita already has a major problem- one way in and out, and building a Las Lomas would invite even more disaster: “If a Las Lomas were to catch fire on a Wednesday afternoon, can you imagine the inability of first responders to get in there with a massively jammed I-5?” Nevermind that, how would Las Lomas residents have escaped with flames on all sides? Would they have used that fantasy elevator to the Metrolink station deep underground?
• Seaver says now or never on Mayo Expansion: Henry Mayo Hospital CEO Roger Seaver told a Signal editorial board that if the hospital’s master plan isn’t approved on Tuesday, he’s “not sure anything can be built.” At issue, of course, is the hospital’s $300 million plan to build a “120-bed inpatient building, three medical office buildings, a central plant, and four parking structures.” Critics point out that even after 4 and a half years of wrangling and council meetings, the hospital is not required to build a new inpatient building. David Gauny, founder of Smart Growth SCV: “As written, there is no commitment to either an inpatient building or Centers of Excellence.” Read the Signal’s article here.
• Bankruptcy may open way for SunCal to build NorthLake: The 4,000 home NorthLake project in Castaic, once thought to be the location for a future Castaic High School, is bankrupt. But, reports Jon Dell at KHTS, the bankruptcy may open the way for new financing of the development, which was to be built in the hills above Castaic Lake. The Orange County Business Journal also has a report on this.
• Reward offered in murder case of Valencia man: In September, 55 year old Anthony Lombardi was shot to death outside his Valencia home. No arrests have been made in the case, making it yet another unsolved Santa Clarita homicide. Now the City of Santa Clarita and the County of LA “have contributed to a $20,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the case,” reports KHTS.
• Preliminary hearing in Pipho murder draws 50 relatives and friends of victim: Signal Reporter Brian Charles was at the court house in San Fernando as accused murderer Michael Dean Stephens attended a preliminary hearing. It was almost a year ago when Stephens allegedly stabbed 20 year old Josh Pipho then ran over him and a friend with his car during a party in Stevenson Ranch. Link
• State wants $900k back from College of the Canyons: That, despite COC’s 15% increased enrollment and the fact that it has already spent some of the money. The only explanation for why the state wants nearly $1million back from the college is the state’s budget crisis. College officials say they “will be forced to search for money in unrestricted funding sources like advertising and travel expenses,” in order to pay the thugs in Sacto. Hey, when a well-run institution like COC even has budget problems, you know it can’t be long before the city and other local organizations feel the effects. Signal report
• Prop 8 and the LDS Church: The Times had an interesting report Sunday on how the LDS Church has become the focus of anti-Proposition 8 sentiment nationwide. That, the Times says, is a result of a “fateful decision” the Utah leaders of the church made back in June, when they decided to call on “California Mormons to donate their time and money to the campaign for Proposition 8.” The Times says the church is taking all the protests aimed at it seriously as it strives “to be seen as part of the American mainstream.”
• Tim Myers asks “Where the Obamacons at?” Barack Obama only lost the SCV by 321 votes, Tim Myers writes in a Sunday Column. That fact lead him to write about the delta between votes for Republican Congressman Buck McKeon and Obama in the SCV. “Barack Obama peeled 8,500 Republicans and Republican leaning independents who voted for Buck McKeon away from John McCain! To put this in perspective, this number of 8,500 defecting Bush voters exceeds the TOTAL amount of registered voters residing in Stevenson Ranch!” he writes. BTW, It’s Obamacons (Obama Conservatives), not Obamicans as the massacred Signal headline says. Good column
• Signal takes long view of Mayo Expansion: The paper does everything but endorse the plan in its long Sunday editorial, detailing the history of Mayo since its 2000 bankruptcy. It argues that the arrangement between Mayo and Beverly Hills-based G&L Realty is a pretty standard thing in the healthcare industry and says that putting medical services in so-called “Centers of Excellence” makes financial sense because it costs so much to build a real hospital inpatient building. The editorial also tosses a bone to opponents of the expansion plan (they call it a campus expansion rather than hospital) by that “thanks to critics of the hospital’s growth, there is a greater guarantee of a new hospital wing in the current version of the development agreement than there ever was before.” One question- isn’t greater and lesser guarantees kind of like being a little bit pregnant? Anyway, it’s a decent editorial.
  

“The Santa Clarita Valley is totally sealed off from the San Fernando Valley,” Carl Goldman told listeners on KHTS AM 1220.

The wild fire has consumed at least 10 homes and a major hospital in Sylmar had to be evacuated.

Little Tujunga Canyon is closed at Sand Canyon, and Highway 126 is backed up for hours, according to KHTS.

The Los Angeles Times has a map of where the fire is at here.

The fire doesn’t appear to be moving towards Santa Clarita at this time.

View Larger Map

and of course, who can forget Sterling King’s amazing videos from just over one year ago:

and this:

Let’s hope we’re not in for the same mess this weekend.