The amount of emails and posts generated by the back ‘n forth between me and Dave Bossert seems to indicate you folks are having fun with our latest spat. But it’s not the first time we’ve skewered Bossert here on SCVTalk, nor the most famous. Matter of fact, a “news article” I wrote over a year ago about some controversial Dave Bossert comments even got mentioned in the Daily News. Dig in and have fun!

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VALENCIA, JUNE 26: The SCV Parade committee is pleased to announce the parade and float lineup for the July 4th Independence Day Parade in Newhall.

“We’re really excited about this year’s lineup,” Grand Marshal John “Mr. SCV” Boston said. “It includes all the usual floats, trucks, trollies, and farm animals, but this year, we’re having some exciting new entries” the eclectic writer, local folklorist and historian said.

The popular parade -a community fixture since the early 20th Century- will start on July 4 at 9:45 am  in Old Town Newhall, Parade organizer Leon Worden said. Floats at the parade will proceed through Old Town Newhall, up Lyons Avenue, and onto Orchard Village road before ending near Placerita Junior High School.

As in years past, this year’s lineup will have many familiar floats and features, including a Signal Newspaper truck, a KHTS fire truck, and several local dignitaries, community groups, city Councilmembers and other elected officials, and important members of the business community.

“It’s good, wholesome fun for the entire family, and it takes place right here in hometown Newhall,” KHTS co-owner Carl Goldman said, adding that the parade will be simulcast on KHTS AM 1220.

The SCV Parade Committee was also pleased to see a number of new applicants for this year’s parade. Organizers say the new lineup will make competition stiff for the award of #1 Parade float. Among the new entries this year are:

• Waste Management’s “The MRF, Recycling, and You” recycling float made of 30% post-SCV-consumer waste
• SCV Realtors for Prosperity Float Encouraging you to Call Now
• SCV Auto Dealers “Driving is Still Cool” float, featuring synchonized SUVs
• CLWA “Water Conservation is Important” float that sprays 200 gallons of water per second on hot spectators
• Latino Ice Cream Vendors Motorized Float, now with 90% prepared foods
• Avenues Project float, featuring twin 40 foot scale-model mixed-use towers
• Hart District Board “Protecting and Educating Your Children is Job #1″ Float
• Henry Mayo Hospital/G&L Realty “Business for a Healthy Santa Clarita” float
• West Ranch Town Council “Antonovich Fan Club” float, driven by dignitary Dave Bossert
• NorthPark Community Church “Benevolent Assimilation” float/parade demonstration, featuring 6,000 church members marching in lock-step to Sousa
• City of Santa Clarita “Thank you Buck for HR 5471 5887 ” float
• Landsource/Newhall Land Real Property Speculation & Investment Opportunity Float
• Bridgeport Community “Give Coots the Boot” float

Worden said that the sheer number of floats in this year’s parade will make the 2008 Independence Day parade and festival something special.

“The amount of floats represents the diversity and the great life we all enjoy right here in the Santa Clarita Valley.”

Trophies for the top three floats will be presented at El Trocadero restaurant at 1pm on July 4th.

The SCVParade committee wishes everyone a happy and fun-filled and most improtant safe 4th of July!

Reacting to an angry mob of Santa Clarita residents who stormed City Hall over the weekend demanding relief for high gas prices, three City Councilmembers announced “sweeping alternatives” for weary, cash-strapped SCV motorists who continue to feel pain at the pump.

The three council members - Laurie Ender, Laurene Weste, and Frank Ferry- worked on their proposed solutions separately but made the announcement together on Monday at City Hall.

“For months now, Santa Clarita families have struggled to reconcile their check books with their desire to own the latest, biggest, toughest SUVs available on the market,” Laurie Ender said. “This simply cannot be allowed to stand any longer,” she said to scores of cheering mortgage moms.

“That’s why at the next City Council meeting, I’m going to introduce a motion that will let Santa Clarita families keep their Hummers and Ford Expeditions and increase their gas mileage at the same time,” Ender said.

Ender then unveiled a plan to transform all of the city’s major and minor  intersections into English-style roundabouts, replacing all traffic lights with Yield signs and concrete intersections with grassy, circular medians.

“This proposal ensures that no Santa Claritan will have to burn fuel in their SUV while waiting at McBean & Valencia,” she said.  “Instead of stopping, they can just roll right on through, which should increase their gas mileage by 20% and allow them to get to the mall faster” the first term City Councilwoman announced.

Reaction was mixed to Ender’s proposal, with some calling it “crazy” while others were clearly excited by the possibility of storming through the valley’s crowded intersections by using a roundabout.

Councilmember Laurene Weste’s solution to high gas prices was even more innovative and earth-friendly, if a bit messy.

The long-time Councilmember and horse enthusiast said she would ask the City Council to vote on a proposal that would give Santa Clarita residents the choice to trade in their gas-guzzling SUV for a late model equus caballus, or horse.

“To solve the energy crisis in the Santa Clarita Valley, we don’t need to look to a dubious future of hydrogen-powered vehicles. As with many things in life, our answer to this problem lies in our own traditions: the horse and the horse drawn-buggy,” Weste said, from atop her muscular black Arabian named “Pride of the Weste.”

Weste said her sweeping proposal would allow horses to travel on all major streets, mandate the installation of feed and water troughs at major shopping centers and  require businesses and government offices to designate 20% of their parking as stables.

Weste said the city would also offer trade-ins  for lower-income residents who owned older, cheaper cars. For those types of vehicles, the city would offer the motorist a choice between an American mule, a Mexican burro, or an Egyptian camel.

“All these quadraped models offer excellent mileage, features, and a low carbon footprint,” Weste said.

Mayor Pro Tem Frank Ferry, on the other hand, chose to address the supply side of the puzzling fuel crisis by advocating increased drilling and a return to Santa Clarita’s roots.

“I was on a hike last year in the so-called Towsley Canyon park, and I saw black crude oil seeping up onto the surface, and I realized that we don’t need to import our oil from Saudi Arabia, Alaska, or even other parts of California. We have all we need right here,” the conservative Republican Council member said.

Ferry says his plan is to ask the County to open the Towseley Canyon Michael D. Antonovich Open Space Preserve to commercial oil drilling and to restart the long-dormant oil wells in Pico Canyon, including the famed Pico #4, long thought to be dormant.

Ferry says that if all goes according to his plan, the SCV will increase its supply of light sweet crude oil which will help lower prices at the pump.

As for the environmental consequences of the plan, Ferry shrugged, saying that Mother Nature would have to take a “back seat” to Santa Claritan’s desires to drive the largest and most fuel-ineffecient vehicles available.

All three plans will be discussed at next week’s City Council meeting.

Developing….

Blogs, discussion forums, and news websites have been all a-buzz today over some just-released aerial photographs of what experts are saying is one of the last untouched, un-contacted Amazonian Indian tribes in Brazil. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s going to be difficult and time-consuming for the Lord of Lords to sort through the vast numbers of contradictory prayers offered at Thursday Morning’s Mayors Prayer Breakfast at the Hyatt Valencia, God told SCVTalk.com in an exclusive interview. Read the rest of this entry »

Since her stunning victory on election night two weeks ago, Councilmember-elect Laurie Ender has been practicing for her new role on the City Council, friends tell SCVTalk.com.

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This year, a new section of the City Of Santa Clarita’s disaster preparedness Emergency Expo will train residents to deal with other types of disasters, namely personal disasters that affect Santa Clarita residents everyday. Read the rest of this entry »

Shock, anger and fear were some of the reactions in Santa Clarita today as several brand new Laurie Ender campaign mailers arrived in SCV Mailboxes. Read the rest of this entry »

You’ve seen the City Council Candidate signs everywhere by now, and local videographer/blogger Sterling King wants you to know it’s not cool to abuse or mark up the signs with your political thoughts. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been really chilly lately hasn’t it? I was just getting used to the spring temperatures but last night was freezing!

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