A paranormal research group (snicker) says it has recorded voices inaudible to the human ear in the old buildings at Heritage Junction and is offering to take you on a exclusive ghost hunting expedition of the property for only $185.

Such is what passes for news these days over KHTS, which devoted a pretty long advertisement article to the strange and wacky phenomena experienced in the historical area, consisting of an old train station, school house, a tiny Ramona chapel and other buildings.

If you’re like me, you probably checked your calendar after reading the story; alas it is not April 1 nor is it the week before Halloween, so let’s dig in to this seemingly serious report.

Reporter Jon Dell states that things have been getting “spooky” at Heritage Junction lately and that many people are starting to ask questions.

Pat Saletore, the SCV Historical society’s Executive Director, confirms the suspicions:

 “I sometimes tell stories that I have heard or experienced, but mostly we have tried to avoid the subject,” says SCV Historical Society Executive Director Pat Saletore. “I hear things all the time that I chalk up to spending time in old buildings, my imagination or whatever.  Every now and then, though, I find myself walking out to the main entrance calling ‘Hello?  Is someone there?’ –when there isn’t anyone there.”

Somehow, and Dell doesn’t detail how, an obviously enterprising group called the American Paranormal Research Association (website)  contacted the Historical Society and was apparently invited in to search the property for wizards, poltergeists, ghosts, gremlins, trolls,  and goonies.

Not surprisingly, they did find something. Cue Saletore:

“They found primarily EVPs (Electronic Voice Phenomena—recordings that are not heard by investigators, but recorded on electronic media like tape recorders or digital recorders) and audio recordings that were actually experienced by investigators.  The really spooky thing is that some of them supported the stories we have been told by psychics who have been invited to visit!”

So evidently this isn’t the first time the Historical Society has brought paranormal experts on site to investigate goblins. Saletore says they’ve had psychics who have heard the same words recorded by the audio devices.

Sadly, no hint on what those words were or whether the ghosts have any insight into the things that trouble Santa Clarita currently.

The paranormal association website says they are committed to researching “all things Paranormal and related to Parapsychology” and says its purpose is to obtain “absolute proof of paranormal events.” It invites people in the field of Paranormal studies and Parapsychology to join the Association as researchers, and hopes to build a group of researchers in every state to find “undeniable proof” of the other side.

Actually, check all that. There are so many “Association of Paranormal American” groups it was hard to find this group’s real website. After some more digging, I found that the group hosting the Heritage Junction party doesn’t even have a website; rather they only have a MySpace page and describe themselves as  “a team of paranormal researchers and musicians,” in a “band known as Vow Of The Repentant.” They are based out of Bakersfield and their MySpace page has some audio and video clips of supposed paranormal activity (unclear if it’s from Heritage Junction).

They’re also apparently enterprising.  Dell ends the article saying that the group “offered” to host a Ghost Hunting Party for up to 16 individuals for only $185 per person. For that, you’ll get to spend the night in the Saugus Train station “freight room,” a catered dinner, a continental breakfast, a lecture about “ghost hunting procedures and equipment” and a DVD of “evidence captured after review by APRA and sent to each participant.”

In any event, it looks like the Historical Society stands to benefit at least partly from this event, and if it gets more people interested in SCV history (yes, even 16 more would be great), then I’m all for it. But I feel it sullies and cheapens the SCV Historical Society to partner with a couple of musicians moonlighting as paranormal experts who sell tickets to the public.

Then again, what did I expect? Gravitas about Santa Clarita history? I wonder what Jerry Reynolds or Doc Rioux would say?

Built as promised….you know I risked getting a stern talking to by the teenaged bicycling security guard for taking this picture.

•  Murder hearing delayed: Michael Dean Stephens, 19, allegedly ran over and stabbed a 20 year old named Josh Pipho to death last November in a Stevenson Ranch condo complex, but it looks like a trial date will be delayed, according to the Signal. A preliminary hearing was pushed off on Tuesday. Stephens is still being held at Men’s Central Jail -pretty much the worst jail in the country- in lieu of $1.5 million bail. Link
• 21 Year old Man falls from 4th floor of parking garage: The unnamed 21 year old man was “trying to slide down the handrail of the structure stairwell when he fell” some 40 feet. He suffered unspecified “serious injuries”and is being treated at Henry Mayo. Darwin award
• Mike Day blows away competition, advances to Olympic BMX Finals: The 23 year old Valencia High graduate blew past the competition and placed first in theBMX semifinals on Wednesday, telling VeloNews that the race “seemed effortless.” The finals competition will be on Thursday.
• SCV Economic News: Unemployment bumped up a half percent in Santa Clarita to 4.9 percent in July, a full point above what the number was in May, the Signal reports. California’s unemployment rate rose to around 7.25%, the highest in 12 years and the fourth highest in the nation. Meanwhile, the LA Business Journal reports that Santa Clarita had the fifth highest number of pre-foreclosures in LA County in July (334 total), behind Los Angeles (2,443 filings),Lancaster (951), Palmdale (934), and Long Beach (591).
• Runner sends Elsmere/Rim of the Valley legislation to Governor: Elsemere Canyon is one step closer to becoming a part of the Rim of the Valley Corridor after Senator George Runner got a bill through that “allows the owners of land in Elsmere Canyon to seek inclusion within the boundaries of the Rim of the Valley Trail corridor.” The corridor is a federal designation and includes huge tracts of undeveloped open space land west of Santa Clarita. The Times reports that the bill, if signed (and Schwarzenegger isn’t signing legislation right now) would allow the Santa Monica Mountains conservancy to make improvements to trails, fire roads and other parts ofthe land. Runner carried the bill on behalf of the City of Santa Clarita. Link
• County wants more Deputies to work on illegal immigrant jail cases: The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors last week requested that more Sheriff’s Deputies interview suspected illegal immigrants in county jails in order to kick off deportation proceedings. Deputies undergo training with the federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement department and interviews are conducted on the day of the inmate’s release. Since it was implemented, some 11,000 county inmates have been recommended for deportation. Whittier Daily News
• Schwarzenegger tells legislators not to attend National party conventions: “I recommend everyone to stay here until we have a budget and not for anyone to leave,” Governor Schwarzenegger said on Tuesday in reference to the stalled budget negotiations in Sacramento and the Democratic and Republican national conventions, which kick off next week. Why does this matter? Well, our Assemblyman, Cameron Smyth, is an official California Republican delegate at the convention, meaning if he obeys the Governor, he won’t get to wear the cool GOP hat and cast his vote for John McCain in Minneapolis come September 1. Bummer. SacBee
• Local Astronomy club gets national recognition: Local Group SCV got props from no less an astro authority than Sky & Telescope for its June 2008 Astronomy Day activities, which the magazine reports was organized and led by a 13 year old kid. They even linked to my cheesy YouTube video from 2007 which I made for the group. As the astro guys say, “Dark skies!”
• More on Placerita Canyon: Ben Curtis, the P-Canyon homeowner who filed that FPPC complaint against Councilwoman Laurene Weste last week, stopped into this blog yesterday to share more of his reasons for his filing. “Laurene Weste is one of our neighbors, and a long time friend of Val Thomas and I. Our complaint was filed so as to force her and others at City Hall to understand that planning issues are required to be decided on a fair basis without conflicts of interest. We are hoping that Ms. Weste understands that she is, without question, conflicted on this issue, and will totally and completely recuse herself from any and all activity surrounding it.” Link
• LA Times Column One: “Paparazzi of Pain” The Times has an interesting story in today’s paper on twin brothers from Britain who monitor police scanners and race through the streets of LA in order to film “police pursuits, shootouts, terrible car accidents or good sized fires.” The brothers then sell the footage to news stations. Link
• John Boston on “Confessions of a Soledad Road Hog:” The former Signal columnist doesn’t write about Santa Clarita much anymore on his website, the Boston Report.net, but he posted a real gem on Tuesday about how he’s intentionally aggravated other drivers on Santa Clarita streets. “Years ago, I was at the north intersection of Orchard Village Road in my hometown of Santa Enchirito. I was about to make a left onto Lyons Avenue. The left arrow turned green and I’m not kidding you, the nanosecond — the NANOSECOND — it lit up, this big fat lady behind me was standing on her horn. I quickly glanced in my rear view mirror and you know what? Her lips were pursed in frustration. At me. Sweet, decent me. How rude.” Good read
• New crime beat reporter at The Signal: It appears the Signal has hired a new crime beat reporter to replace Parimal Rohit. He is Brian Charles, and as you might suspect with a name like that, I’m having trouble finding out where he came from or if he has any newspaper experience, though I did see the same name attached to a story in the Big Bear Grizzly newspaper. Anyway, from the two brief stories in today’s Signal (the murder trial delay and the guy who fell from the garage), Charles looks like he can put together a fine lede and story, as brief as they are. Here’s hoping the addition of Charles leads to some fine crime reporting in our one and only, sad and lonely SCV newspaper.
• And finally…. Epic Failure 

This week’s Christian Science Monitor has an interesting article on ciclovia, a concept that started in Latin America and is sweeping the United States and Europe.

So what is it? Well, ciclovia is rather simple: cities that participate in the informal program shut down major streets and roads to vehicle traffic and instead open it up to bicyclists, pedestrians and all sorts of other non-motorized traffic during a given time period.

The trend started in Bogota, Colombia, some 30 years ago as a “way to promote walking and bicycling and to encourage the mingling of people from all backgrounds on the city’s streets.”

Now it’s becoming popular in the US. The Monitor says Portland Oregon, San Francisco, New York and other US cities are considering shutting down miles and miles of roads to vehicles and opening them up to pedestrians and bicyclists.

Organizers in these cities have attempted to keep the events from becoming just another place for vendors to hawk their goods, instead promoting the idea that empty streets become open spaces full of activities, fun, and even “dancing.”

Of course if you’ve read this blog for awhile, you know I got rid of my car and bike all over Santa Clarita. So I’m not exactly objective about this idea, but I think it could really work in Santa Clarita.

Consider that we already have some of these types of events every year. In the fall, there’s the sidewalk chalk festival in Newhall. In the spring, there’s a Blessed Mary Italian festival on Town Center Drive. And in the summer, part of Town Center drive is closed every Friday night for a concert put on, ironically, by Lexus of Valencia.

All those events attract lots of people, making them popular social occasions that, in my opinion, help Santa Clarita grow its own culture.

But what if we expanded on those ideas and did a weekly ciclovia in Santa Clarita? I envision shutting down McBean from Valencia to Magic Mountain parkway and Town Center Drive completely to vehicle traffic from Friday evening to Sunday morning, and opening up the entire road to pedestrians, cyclists, and others, just the way the city shut down McBean in that area during the Amgen race in 2007 and 2008.

Closing the road would invite cyclists and pedestrians to cruise down to Town Center Drive where they could listen to live music, dine at one of the restaurants (which increasingly have outdoor patio seating), perhaps shop at some of the stores or vendor booths (this is Santa Clarita after all, and vendor booths are ever-present) or just hang out and enjoy the scene.

Along with that would be a great chance for residents to socialize, entertain their kids in a fun and healthy way, and see how easy it is to bike or walk in the SCV.

I doubt businesses in the Town Center area would object much. There’s multiple ways to get into Valencia Town Center from Valencia Blvd, Magic Mountain Parkway, Citrus Drive and other areas. And they’d appreciate a crowd every week near their stores.

If it all sounds a bit vague, that’s deliberate. The Monitor article says cities that experiement with ciclovia never really know what to expect, but are usually surprised with the results. A San Francisco organizer of that city’s ciclovia says “A city street becomes an entirely different landscape when you take the cars away. It creates opportunities for people to come out and exercise, meet their neighbors, and learn to appreciate their city in a whole new way.”

So what do you think?

A picture during the fires of October 2007

• Brothers re-arrested in 2006 Murder case: Brothers Christopher and Ralph Rosas were arrested way back in March 2006 following the stabbing murder of Louis Campanelli, a Canyon Country bar owner, but were released shortly thereafter for lack of evidence. But on Friday, Detectives re-arrested the pair  and arraigned on charges of first degree murder on Monday. Jim Holt has a detailed report.
• Home sales in So Cal jump 13.8% in July: The LA Times says “fire sales” boosted home purchases in Southern California last month, though experts say home sale prices will still take “months to hit bottom.” What’s more, the median home price in SoCal fell some 31% year over year in July from $505,000 to $348,000. Not sure on the stats for Santa Clarita yet, that report typically isn’t released until late in the month, but I have a friend who just bought a house in Canyon Country (on an 8,000 sq. ft. lot no less) for $178,000. Link Meanwhile, the Economist has a report that says the maturing of Option ARMs is the next “ticking time bomb” in American real estate.
• More on opposition to Hart Ballot Measure SA: First it was the Signal’s Sunday editorial on Hart’s proposed $300 million ballot iniatitive that would go towards modernizing schools and perhaps building a high school in Castaic; now KHTS has an article on the 2001 Measure V parent’s group that’s formed to oppose the current measure. KHTS reporter Jon Dell mentioned the group’s objections to Measure SA and got Superintendent Castellanos to speak on the record about the criticism. Castellanos seems to brush off the group’s concerns in the report,even going so far as to say that Measure V funds “were never used for district salaries.” That’s not the whole story, however; in October 2007, auditors found that the Hart District “lacks documented proof that Measure V funds were not inappropriately used” on vehicles and district salaries. KHTS story Also, Dave Bossert has what looks like a new press release from the parent’s group.
  
• Part 2 of Mentryville story: The debate about whether pepper trees are “historical” and ought to be preserved even if they are dying continues today in Part 2 of Jim Holt’s series on Mentryville.
  
• LA MTA details commuting patterns: The Times Bottleneck blog says the LA MTA is trying to defend its half cent transit sales tax by showing that commuting, traffic infrastructure and driving patterns are regional issues, rather than only Los Angeles issues and that the sales tax hike will help everyone in the LA area. That’s probably to counter Supervisor Antonovich’s claims. In any event, the MTA released a series of interesting slides that show traffic, commute, and job density patterns. One slide shows what MTA thinks will be commuting patterns in 2030- it says 49% of North County residents will still leave their “subregion” to commute to work. Link
• Hero of the week: Two thieves attempted the distract/purse snatch crime in a local grocery store on an 81 year old woman, but the woman was so sharp she warded them off and alerted store management. She then read the Signal story last week about the purse snatch crimes and “put two and two together.” Here’s the woman describing how the wanna-be thieves tried to separate her from her purse: “I wasn’t paying (strict) attention because on my right was suddenly another man and he wanted to put ice cream in my cart,” she said. “All the time, I had my hand on my purse. When he put the ice cream in my cart, I said ‘No’ and I said ‘Go away.’” Link
• SCV Republicans to welcome Senate Candidate Strickland at where else….IHOP! Tony Strickland, the Rooty-tooty, fresh ‘n fruity Republican who’s fixin’ to replace Tom McClintock in the California Senate, will be at the International House of Pancakes next week to talk to local Republicans. Speaking of that race, Democrat Hannah-Beth Jackson is asking the Strickland campaign to put a stop to a 3rd party television spot, while Strickland’s campaign is running two television spots; one that touts the “unity” of the Olympic stage and the other which says $5 gallon gasoline was unthinkable five years ago and touts alternative energy solutions.
• LA Times Travel Blogger says new Magic Mountain CSI show “horrible”: Brady MacDonald recently visited Magic Mountain with a friend and after riding as many coasters as they could, they checked out the new CSI live-action show in the par. “To say it was bad would be putting it mildly. Other words come to mind: boring, pathetic, horrible. They should rename it “ACI (Air Conditioning Inside) because the theater’s cool respite was the show’s only redeeming value.” Link
• Olympic Story #1: The Daily News’ Tim Haddock, a sports writer, has an in-depth profile of Valencia high grad and BMX Olympian Mike Day. Day, it turns out, loves golf before BMXin, but he’s simiply not very good at golf. He made Team USA by skipping money-making events and learning “every hill, jump, and speck of dust” on a replice of the Beijing track in Chula Vista. Day races this week I think. Link
• Olympic Story #2: I Heart profiles several SCV Olympians in his latest blog post. Here’s his opening, which simultaneously made me smile and squirm: “Of course, there’s a very special place in my heart for all the Olympic athletes from Santa Clarita. Their intense training, hard work, and natural-born talent certainly helped them get to Beijing, but don’t underestimate how much us Claritans helped. We formed the womb from which these athletes so gloriously sprang, so it is our victory as much as theirs. Right?” Link
• Good commentary on North Newhall Specific Plan and Placerita Canyon’s “Rural Equestrian Lifestyle”: I’m now adding “rural equestrian lifestyle” to the lexicon of unique SCV phrases (the other being, of course, suburban bedroom community) after reading P-Canyon resident Valerie Thomas’ good explanation of some of the issues homeowners in the Canyon have with the City’s North Newhall Specific Plan. Thomsa gets specific on the zoning for the Casden property and how P-Canyon residents were promised back in the day that homes in the Placerita Canyon special district would be “zoned for no more than two homes per acre.” Now though, a developer plans some 650 homes, 600,000 sq. ft. of commercial space, and a rebuilt Southern Hotel/Spa for the location. But that will only fly if the city can build an alternative railroad crossing. I wonder if Ben Curtis, the guy who filed an FPPC complaint against Laurene Weste, is a P-Canyon resident. WRB

The all-seeing eye of Google has invaded Santa Clarita in the form of Street View, the innovative street-level feature that’s very useful, fun to play with, yet a bit creepy.

The search giant impelemented Street View for major cities in May of last year, and since then it’s expanded its catalog of street-level images from major cities to smaller towns around the world.

And now much of Santa Clarita has been covered and is available to viewers the world over using Google Maps and Google Earth.

So what is it exactly? Well, Street View is simply 360 degree photographs from streets in and around Santa Clarita. Much of the SCV is covered now, and one can literally ‘drive’ through Santa Clarita using Street View without ever getting in a car.

I’ll demonstrate. Streets on the map below shrouded in blue are streets that are now covered with Street View. Place the little man icon on any street thats blue, and boom! Up pops a draggable, 360 degree image of what that part of the street looks like if you were standing there.

For instance, if you drag the little man icon to McBean and Valencia, you get this image:

They also made their way up to the Magic Mountain entrance. A photo of the rollercoaster ride X2 reveals this picture was taken sometime after spring, 2008.

They even invaded the private and tony enclaves of Placerita and Sand Canyons. Hi there horsey!

and caught a guy and his dog about that was about to do its business:

For the SCV Chattering Classes, this new tool also offers a great way to demonstrate your point in a debate. For instance, let’s bring up that old divisive issue of the Valley Street gate, which the city implemented around the turn of the century after much hand-wringing in the community. Yes, even Google couldn’t get past this fortification:

What’s really cool about this technology is that it’s so easy to “look around.” Just click the right/left arrows and you can pan 360 degrees around that specific spot on the road.  What’s more, you can also “drive” down the street by clicking the up and down arrows on the grey line that goes down the center of the street.

So when did Google check out Santa Clarita? I’ve looked at scores of locations in the pictures and come to the conclusion that most of the photos seemed to have been taken early in the morning or in the late afternoon, juding by how long the shadows are, the position of the sun, and shadow position. Most seem to have been taken in the spring or summer if foilage is any indication, so these photos represent a pretty recent view of Santa Clarita.

Even though it’s fun and exciting to poke around Santa Clarita with this technology, Street View hasn’t been welcomed everywhere. In some places, homeowners were upset after the Google Street view vehicle drove up their private driveway and photographed homeowners watering flowers. In New Zealand recently, a man was photod while passed out drunk on his lawn.

But the technologies’ usefulness outweighs any privacy concerns in my opinion. I’ve used it many times to get a feel for what a destination looks like. A picture is worth a thousand words after all.

Anyway, enjoy!

When I started writing the Daily Brief in January of 2007, I had so many news sources I could really create a compelling and useful summary of news about Santa Clarita.

Back then, we could count on the Signal and the Daily News, and sometimes even the Los Angeles Times, to write honest-to-goodness news articles about Santa Clarita if not on a daily basis, then at least a weekly basis. In fact, the Daily News’ Santa Clarita bureau consistently pumped out three or four high-quality, well-written news stories every day, and its coverage of the SCV was second only to The Signal.

That was useful for a number of reasons. Primary among them was the fact that we as readers and consumers of news could compare articles on the same subject. While the Signal could be counted on to give a pretty good summary of a given news story, the Daily News could always be relied on to bring somewhat of an outsider’s perspective to the news.

Sadly, those days are long gone. The Daily News closed its SCV branch a year ago, and its one SCV reporter writes maybe two stories a month.

Other news sources stepped into the void but the quality just isn’t the same, and therefore, they don’t make the Daily Brief cut.

It’s ironic and tragic that media coverage of our city declines even as our population increases and our news stories become more complex and difficult to understand, but them’s the breaks.

So I’m left to ponder the state of the Daily Brief as it exists now. To be honest, I do little more than rehash the Signal, which, if you read this website, you probably already read. What’s the point of summarizing a single news source when you already know where to get it?

Therefore, I’m considering dropping the Daily Brief and instead writing longer and more focused articles on various topics using the sources we’ve become familiar with. On the plus side, this might give you a more comprehensive view of important news topics.

What do you think? Vote in the poll below.

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Valencia Marketplace, the finest in Big Box retailing, earning money for the County since 1996. Woe unto our landscape.

• Newhall resident targets Councilwoman Weste with FPPC complaint: Weste (or her mother?) owns a large piece of property in Placerita Canyon, just a stone’s throw from several properties (and roads) in Newhall that may or may not be redeveloped in connection with the North Newhall Specific Plan, and resident Ben Curtis doesn’t like what he sees. Weste says she abides by the City Counsel’s advice and guidance and abstains from voting North Newhall Specific Plan matters.  Link
• Cross Valley Connector “one bridge away” from completion: East-west motorized conveyance will get a boost as the city kicks off the last phase of its 10+ year, $245 million road project linking Highway 126 to, eventually, Highway 14, the Signal reports today. The last phase is a 1,100 foot long bridge that will connect Golden Valley Road to Highway 126. Katie Geyer says construction on the bridge may begin in December.
• Play Bob the Builder with Newhall Library cutouts: It sounds a bit cheesy, but at Wednesday night’s Newhall Library workshop, participants will be able to build their own library with “cutout forms” that will “provide an opportunity to let [participants] play around and come with their own personal design of the library.” The outreach meeting is the first held by architecture firm LPA, chosen by the city to lead the design of a future 16,000-30,000 sq. ft. library anchoring Old Town Newhall. Link
• Signal profiles homeless person in SCV: Writer Tammy Marashlian had an excellent Sunday feature about “Karan,” a 58 year old woman who sleeps in her car and struggles to find stable work in Santa Clarita or elsewhere. “There’s absolutely nothing in my background that prepared me for this. I came from a solid, middle-class family and people worked.” Good article
• “Very sexy underwear,” Pomeranian dog stolen: No, not necessarily in that order, but Signal reporter Jim Holt has a round-up of some bizarre thefts lately in Santa Clarita, including $500 worth of “very sexy” underwear from a shop on Magic Mountain. Not only did someone steal the sexy lingerie (and here I’m assuming it’s female undergarments), but they had to take it from the “very sexy room” in the shop. Link
• Mentryville, Trees, and History: Interesting A-1 story in today’s Signal on the cutting down and removal of what former Mentryville resident Darryl Manzer calls historic trees in the old oil boomtown west of Santa Clarita. The Santa Monica Mountains conservancy says the trees are diseased, rotting from the inside, and might fall on some of the old buildings there, but Manzer says they’re part of history. The story will continue when Manzer takes Signal reporter Jim Holt on a walking tour tomorrow. Link
• Fire in Green Valley: A massive plume of gray smoke consumed the northern horizon yesterday in Santa Clarita as a 150 acre brush fire near Green Valley marked the start of fire season. SCVTV has a report.
• Cops, firefighters gather for motorcycle rememberance ride: Santa Clarita is “fire and police country,” Mayor Bob Kellar told some 1,000 bikers who gathered at Valencia Town center for a 100 mile ride around the SCV to commemorate fallen firefighters and police officers on Sunday. Link
• Signal says Hart ought to start building Castaic High before bond vote: Creekside says that if the Hart District wants $300 million from us, it ought to “figure out where to build a high school in Castaic, tell the community when and where you will start construction, and then do it.” The Sunday editorial talks a bit about the last bond measure -$158 million in 2001- and mentions the parents group lead by Joe Messina, which opposes the current measure unless specific steps are taken. Link
• Hospital/Campus Expansion dominates Sunday Op/Ed: I’ve got to compliment the Signal on giving abundant space to David Gauny and Tim Myers to argue the specific points of the Henry Mayo Hospital expansion in Valencia. Gauny’s column was organized, coherent, logical and pretty powerful, while Myers’ column wasn’t very convincing. I won’t bother to sum either one up; you should read it yourself and be informed. Also note, I Heart seems to agree with me.
• Great ad on same sex marriage: Is this a political ad or not? Opponents of same sex marriage say it is, but others don’t see it that way. Whatever the case, it seems to have people talking, which I suppose is the point. Link

I’m taking the day off! Watch out for sinkholes in Valenica hahaha!

A 1920s era photo of a rodeo somewhere in Saugus. Boy they really packed the rafters back in those days eh?

• Revised Hospital plan released, Smart Growth not impressed: “It looks like more of the same,” remarked David Gauny on the latest development agreement between the City of Santa Clarita and Henry Mayo Hospital. Geyer has the details.
• Deputies still looking for hate crime suspects: There have been no further arrests for a Saturday night attack on a black man in Canyon Country that authorities are calling a hate crime. One man, arrested later that night, has been charged. Link
• Driving in California down 3.7% in June: Summer months are typically the busiest months for driving, but not in the year of $4.00 gasoline; based on automated vehicle sensors, the Federal Highway Administration says motorists nationwide drover 12.2 billion fewer miles last month, a decrease of 4.7% over a year ago. Times
• My new favorite real estate website: Redfin has added a Market Data report for just about every place you can think of, including Santa Clarita. The site has some nice graphs charting the amount of homes for sale, the price of homes per square foot, and some condo data as well, and you can search within the rough boundaries of Santa Clarita to get a more holistic picture. The charts on pricing cover October 2006 to July 09 and look like the first drop on the rollercoaster Viper at Magic Mountain. Market Data report
• West Ranch Town Council announces 2008 election details: The quasi-official government body representing Stevenson Ranch, West Ridge, Sunset Pointe and Southern Oaks will have elections on Tuesday, November 4, the same day of the general Presidential election. Locations are still being determined (as are hours the polls will be open apparently), but WRB says the “four candidates who garner the most votes will be named winner of the Council seats.” The election is the first one held since a 2006 election which was held on July 4 for a few hours in the afternoon prior to fireworks. There’s an application process if you want to be put on the ballot. Will people on the West Side really go to the trouble of voting twice in one day? Link
• Daily News visits Rattlesnake Slims: There’s still no suspects or arrests in the “suspicious fire” that caused near total damage to a new western cafe/music house in Newhall, but the owner of the business is promising to rebuild. Says a 68 year old customer who liked the shop: “It’s awful. It’s like a big part of my life has been shut out.” Daily News
• Grocery store thieves target seniors: It’s like deja vu all over again! The SCV Sheriff’s station sent out an alert yesterday advising senior residents to be wary of people who ask for help inside grocery stores. Turns out at least three seniors have been duped by the scam in which one shopper asks a seniro for help, while another shopper rifles through the victim’s purse. Authorities suspect three Latino males in the crimes. Last year, two Lancaster women were arrested after performing similar crimes in SCV grocery stores. Link
• SCV Auto dealers gas card offer: The SCV Auto Association started a gas card giveway in August and says that so far, they’ve sold 53 cars as part of the promotion. Buyers have a chance to win one of four cards valued at $5,000, $2,000, $1,000 and $500. All you have to do is test drive or purchase a car in August. They’re so excited about the program they’ve even made a fake news video at their site. It’s the second such promotion this summe; the Assocation says they sold 21 cars earlier this year in a “Be Cool to My School” event.
• Cyclist hit by car: A man who blogs about cycling in Santa Clarita was hit by a careless teenaged driver on Saturday. The teenager, an employee of Magic Mountain on his way to work, simply”drove into” him. The cyclist wasn’t injured too badly, but says the teenager took off after apologizing. The bike blogger says several people stopped to help him. This is why I avoid the west side of town; with the exception of Valencia Blvd in West Ridge, there’s practically no bike lanes. Link
• Signal invades YouTube: Creekside has been posting high quality video and news reports for months, but they’ve always been hosted at The-Signal.com, meaning they don’t come up in my searches for videos on Santa Clarita. But that’s changed; the newspaper has posted dozens of vidoes on YouTube in the last several days, most of them under Online Editor Stephen Peeples’ YouTube account. There’s movie reviews, news reports, and other media on the site. This means that people searching for SCV videos on youTube or Google will now find SCVTV’s videos as well as the Signal’s. Link

Santa Clarita’s JC Penney department store in the Valencia Town Center will soon generate some of its own electricity thanks to a new rooftop-solar power project, according to a company press release.

The store is one of 10 nationwide that are part of the pilot project, which JC Penney says is “the next step for JCPenney in its efforts to leverage new technologies and engage…in innovative energy programs.”

According to the press release, the company will contract with a solar power company to install  the solar panels on the roof of the JC Penney building, which has been part of the Valencia Town Center mall since it opened in 1992.

 JCPenney has engaged SunPower Corporation to install solar power systems on 10 JCPenney stores in California and New Jersey. Producing more than 4 megawatts of clean electric power, the systems will help avoid emissions of approximately 146,000 tons of carbon dioxide over their 30-year expected lifetime, which is equal to the annual greenhouse gas emissions generated by more than 800 cars.

I presume that 4 megawatts is the cumulative amount of electricity generated by the solar panels at all 10 stores, so it sounds like no single store will be completely powered by solar panels.

But it does say that JC Penney can expect some pretty hefty savings on their monthly electricity bills: the solar panels, once installed, “will provide immediate savings through lower-than-utility solar energy costs and a long term energy hedge for nearly 25% of the energy used at the stores.”

So it sounds like up to 25% of our JC Penney’s electricity will come from an abundant, renewable source: the sun!

JC Penney also plans to replace inefficient lighting and HVAC systems at the ten stores.

I imagine they selected Santa Clarita because of our abundant sunshine; no stores in Portland Oregon or Seattle are on the list after all. So it will be interesting to see if this experiment works out.  Will other retailers follow suit?