Archive By Author - Jim Holt
McLean rails against state demands made without funds
Santa Clarita City Councilwoman Marsha McLean called on California cities Wednesday at a San Diego conference to stand up to projects forced by the state without funding by proposing a resolution to demand funding for any state-imposed duty or obligation.
Natural-gas lines under scrutiny
Could the Santa Clarita Valley fall victim to a massive natural gas explosion like the one that killed four people in San Bruno last week? That's what The Signal asked investigators still trying to figure out what happened in the disaster near San Francisco. The answer, as it happens, is uncertain. While natural gas pipes do run beneath the Santa Clarita Valley, experts still weren't sure what caused the blast in San Bruno. Peter Knudson, ...
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 ...
Articles By Author - Jim Holt
'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.
Deputy accused of beating 19-year-old inmate
A Saugus man who works as a deputy with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has been charged with assaulting a 19-year-old inmate in the back seat of a patrol car almost two years ago, according to the Los AngelesCounty District Attorney's office.
20-year-old Valencia woman arraigned on felony count
A 20-year-old Valencia woman was arraigned this week on a felony charge of hit and run causing injury or death following a collision with a bicyclist at a Newhall intersection last month, a District Attorney's spokeswoman said.
No injuries reported in two morning crashes on Highway 14
Crown Valley Road in Acton was a busy place this morning with traffic collisions reported on both the north and southbound lanes of Highway 14, emergency response officials said.
UPDATE: Newhall: Young woman talked down from freeway bridge
Quick-responding California Highway Patrol officers talked a young woman down from a freeway bridge Wednesday as she threatened to jump, a CHP spokesman said.
UPDATE: Sanitation district board OKs $334,000 ‘outreach’ contract
WHITTIER - Santa Clarita Valley Sanitation District directors agreed Wednesday to pay $334,000 on public outreach as the district prepares to release a plan to reduce chloride in the Santa Clara River.
UPDATE: At least 4 injured in Highway 14 collision
Four people were hurt, including a mother and her 9-year-old son, in a multi-vehicle crash on the southbound Highway 14 freeway near Via Princessa on Tuesday.
Outreach on chloride in river could cost $334K
Santa Clarita Valley Sanitation District directors are due to decide today whether to spend $334,000 on public outreach as the district prepares to release a plan for ridding the Santa Clara River of chloride.
Acton: Girl on slow recovery following devastating car crash
On Nov. 21 last year, Laurel Slothower of Acton received the phone call that every parent dreads.
UPDATE: Saugus Brush fire held to 4 acres despite high winds
Winds approaching hurricane force whipped flames through brush in Saugus on Monday, prompting swift reaction from firefighters who halted the blaze after it blackened more than four acres in Bouquet Canyon.
UPDATE: Powerball arrives in California
Tickets for the Powerball lottery went on sale in California for the first time Monday, and the new game was a big hit with one Castaic cashier selling the tickets.
Big winds may cause damage
Property damage due to high wind is expected in the Santa Clarita Valley today as two intense wind systems collide, a weather specialist said.
3 arrested in local Wal-Marts
Three people arrested recently for crimes allegedly committed at local Wal-Mart stores are expected to appear separately in court this month, charged with offenses including burglary, embezzlement and trespassing.
Pitchess East graduates first EBI class
Five dozen inmates at the Pitchess Detention Center proudly took the jail's podium Thursday as the east facility's first graduating class from the Sheriff Department's newly launched Education Based Incarceration program.
