Archive By Author - Jim Holt
A blast from the past
If something goes "boom" in the hills east of Railroad Avenue, do not be alarmed. It's simply cleanup crews dismantling and removing unexploded munitions found on the Whittaker-Bermite site.
9/11 events honor victims, the first responders and others who have given their lives
Three thousand miles away and nine years later, the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks were remembered throughout Santa Clarita Valley. Poems were read, songs were sung, patches, plaques and honorary T-shirts were offered for sale at Central Park in Saugus on Saturday. The message of the poetry, the songs and the slogans on the patches was consistent: "We remember." It was a day ...
In remembrance of their sacrifice
From the tragic minutes that unfolded nine years ago on Sept. 11 to the tragic minutes that recently claimed the life of a local, young United States Marine Corps hero, first responders to the terrorist attacks and our latest responders were remembered Saturday.
No fine lines for water board
Water-law enforcers have hit the Santa Clarita Valley with some of the largest fines in Southern California during the past few years, including a half-million-dollar fine against the city and close to a million dollars in penalties against Six Flags, The Signal has recently learned.
Water board levies four more fines
A nonprofit marine institute devoted to understanding and minimizing human impact on oceans is among the latest agencies to be fined by the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board for polluting water.
Smyth to float bill
Santa Clarita Valley Assemblyman Cameron Smyth wants the regional water boards that issue "devastating fines" against small towns to be more accountable to the public and is calling on an oversight body to see that it happens.
The faces behind the fines
Santa Clarita Valley has a chance to control its own water destiny this fall when most of the seats on the ruling water board come up for grabs.
Crashed and burned
An explosive, fiery crash shut down Highway 14 for hours and sent a truck driver to the hospital Wednesday after his big rig, which was hauling several cars, reportedly collided with a parked Caltrans truck north of Sand Canyon Road, authorities said. The driver, whose name has not yet been released, was taken to Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital with undetermined injuries. The driver was conscious and moving after the crash, according to motorists stopped ...
No silver bullet for salt
After talking to farmers, water officials, engineers, scientists and city officials from the San Joaquin Delta to the Pacific Ocean, a monthlong investigation by The Signal into chloride in the Santa Clara River and those who enforce a clean water balance comes down to one simple observation: We're adding too much salt to our state.
Salt-of-the-earth solution
DIXON - If you take Interstate 80 from Oakland to Sacramento, you'll pass near the tiny farming town of Dixon.
High cost of compliance
FILLMORE – Never has the Santa Clara River been filtered so vigorously, so urgently and at such great cost to tiny towns as it has in the last two years.
SCV challenges water cops
At a raucous public hearing in July, Santa Clarita Valley residents made it clear they have no intention of shelling out $210 million from their own pockets so farmers downstream can raise salt-sensitive crops in the Santa Clara River Valley.
Patented rides
A Santa Clarita man has reinvented the wheel - and put a bicycle seat on it. Local inventor Doug Fraser now holds the U.S. patent for a bicycle in which the seat is directly attached to the back wheel. For more than 30 years, Fraser has pursued his vision of perfecting a revolutionary new style of bike that's more than a unicycle, but less than a conventional bike. "I got little boys knocking on my ...
‘Fair and firm’ cash grab
You might call them the water police. Their beat runs from storm water runoff to overt dumping and extends throughout California. Their staff of 12 is evenly split between scientists and Special Investigations team members, their cases made and culprits exposed through lab work. While they carry no firearms, the sting of their punishment - including millions of dollars in fines - has proven so punitive and persistent that it's prompted some cities to band ...
Hate-crime handling questioned
The Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff's Station is one of two Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department stations singled out as lacking in the way it investigates hate crimes, according to a county report examining stations throughout Los Angeles County.
Articles By Author - Jim Holt
Is 'blond scammer' crime spree related to others?
Detectives in four jurisdictions are scrutinizing the actions of a woman suspected of being the so-called "blond scammer" - a woman believed at the center of a ring that stole wallets from shopping carts and impersonated credit card holders to obtain cash or expensive jewelry.
West Ranch: 1 student taken to hospital, 1 girl in custody in alleged pot-laced cookie case
A West Ranch High School student was treated at the local hospital Thursday after another girl allegedly gave her pot-laced cookies to eat, a sheriff's official said.
UPDATE: Red flag warnings issued for fire danger
High winds triggered local house alarms and fanned the flames of a brush fire in the Newhall Pass Thursday as the National Weather Service called a red flag warning for the Santa Clarita Valley and other areas in Los Angeles County.
Daughter pleads not guilty in mother’s slaying
A former Saugus High School student accused of killing her mother pleaded not guilty Thursday to a felony charge of first-degree murder, a court official said.
Preliminary hearing set for Castaic man in bar beating case
A preliminary hearing was set Wednesday for a Castaic man charged with attempted murder after he allegedly beat a disabled man with a "mini baseball bat" inside a Sunland bar last month, a court official said.
Jury trial scheduled in Agua Dulce assault, kidnap case
Two men charged in the alleged beating and abduction of an Agua Dulce woman last fall and with the alleged attempted kidnapping of her adult son will be tried by a jury next month, an assistant district attorney said.
Report: Agua Dulce driver in fatal crash was 3 times legal limit
An Agua Dulce man killed in a January head-on crash that left another man still recovering from injuries was three times over California's legal blood alcohol limit, a coroner's report shows.
Valencia: Two injured, including SCV Sheriff’s deputy, in crash
Two people, including a local sheriff's deputy, were taken to the hospital today following a two-car crash on Copper Hill Drive, a sheriff's spokesman said.
Probation ordered in car crash that killed woman
A 20-year-old Turkish man charged with misdemeanor vehicular manslaughter for a car crash that killed a young Turkish woman last summer pleaded no contest Monday and was placed on three years' probation, a District Attorney spokeswoman said.
Woman pleads no contest to charges in ‘blond scammer’ ring
The ringleader in the so-called "blond scammer" case was sentenced to three years in prison Monday after pleading no contest to a charge of identity theft, a court clerk said.
UPDATE: At least 2 injured in Valencia crash
Six cars piled up in the eastbound lanes of Newhall Ranch Road in Valencia on Monday, injuring at least two people.
UPDATE: Boston Marathon runners with SCV connection shaken by experience
At least 15 Santa Clarita Valley marathon runners competing in Monday's death-marred Boston Marathon - including a 70-year-old pulled from the course half a mile before the finish line - are OK today but weighing the severity of the deadly incident, according to family, friends and at least one competing runner.
Fingers may point to identity of 'mummified' body
Investigators with the county coroner's office hope "re-hydrated" fingers will identify a Hispanic woman whose body was found "mummified" in a tarp and dumped at the side of San Francisquito Canyon Road last week.
'Mudders' get down and dirty at Castaic Lake mud run
They call themselves the "Dirty Girls," and on Sunday the four friends from Stevenson Ranch worked hard running, scrambling, climbing and crawling to get head-to-foot dirty in the Merrell Down & Dirty Obstacle Race at Castaic Lake.
Small brush fire in Valencia extinguished
A small brush fire at the side of Interstate 5 was quickly doused Sunday morning, an emergency response spokesman said.
