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
UPDATE: Trio suspected of murder still have yet to stand trial
Eighteen months after a "good Samaritan" was shot and killed while trying to aid an alleged robbery victim, the three young men charged in connection with the Canyon Country shooting have yet to stand trial.
UPDATE: Two drivers injured in separate crashes on San Francisquito Canyon Road today
Two cars plunged down ravines off San Francisquito Canyon Road today in separate and unrelated crashes.
Man held at gunpoint, released
Local sheriff's deputies held a motorist at gunpoint Tuesday after he was suspected of driving a stolen car, a sheriff's spokesman said.
Detectives still searching for would-be robbers
Local detectives are still looking for two would-be robbers who held a Valencia woman at gunpoint two weeks ago, said a local sheriff's spokesman.
Hearing delayed for accused bank robbers
A preliminary hearing for three men identified by prosecutors as Crips gang members accused in a take-over bank robbery last September was postponed for the second time Tuesday, a county prosecutor said.
Hearing postponed in fatal Sand Canyon crash
SAN FERNANDO - The preliminary hearing of two men charged with murder in a Sand Canyon street racing death was delayed today over issues of evidence.
Valencia Water customers spout anger at rate increase
News of 20 percent hike in water rates over the next three years upset some Valencia Water Company ratepayers recently, but not as much as having missed the chance to file a formal complaint, according ratepayers who contacted The Signal.
Time tunnel invites visitors to Placerita Canyon Nature Center
Hawks with wings frozen in midair, turtles halted mid-step and snarling mountain lions - all preserved through taxidermy - compete for attention with a lesser-known attraction at the Placerita Canyon Nature Center: a time tunnel of sorts.
Police ID pedestrian killed on Interstate 5
Officials with the Los Angeles County Coroner's office have identified the pedestrian killed early Saturday morning after he was struck by an SUV in the southbound lanes of Interstate 5 but are still trying to reach his next of kin, a spokesman said Sunday.
DA reviews charges in boy’s death
Criminal charges are pending in July's fatal boating crash on Pyramid Lake that claimed the life of a 16-year-old boy visiting from Russia, a sheriff's spokesman said.
Chess players compete for championship
There was a beach party at the Hyatt Regency Valencia this weekend and partygoers brought their own boards - chess boards that is.
Motorcyclist taken to hospital after crash
A motorcyclist was taken to the hospital Sunday afternoon following a traffic collision in Canyon Country.
Suspect arrested in blond scammer thefts
A woman suspected of being the blond scammer for allegedly stalking other women at grocery stores, stealing their wallets and then using their IDs to obtain cash or expensive jewelry has been arrested, a local sheriff's spokesman said.
Driver unhurt as car rolls over
A motorist rolled his car several times Thursday after he reportedly pulled onto the gravel shoulder to let a "tailgater" pass on San Francisquito Canyon Road, said a man who towed the wrecked car from the crash site.
UPDATE: Woman returned from Oregon to face charges of killing mother
A former Saugus High School student was in jail in Van Nuys Wednesday accused of murdering her mother after homicide detectives brought her back from Oregon, said the detective in charge of the case.
