Archive By Author - Jim Holt
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.
Ex-deputy sentenced on drug charge
An "aggressive" undercover probe by the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department led to the arrest, conviction and sentencing of three people, including a former sheriff's deputy, trying to smuggle drugs into the North County Correctional Facility, a spokesman says.
Coastal domination
The board that decides the issue of chloride in the Santa Clara River includes two advocates of Ventura County strawberry farmers.
Water’s recycled future
In the wee early hours of any morning, as you drive along The Old Road near Magic Mountain by the Tournament Players Club Valencia golf course, you might see the sprinklers hard at work watering the 10th or 11th hole.
Fallen Marine Pfc. Jake Suter: On son’s birthday, a mother grieves
Fallen United States Marine Corps Pfc. Jake William Suter would have turned 19 today. Instead, the last day of July is shaping up to be one of the worst days his mother, Michelle Unthank, and his stepfather, Chris Unthank, could ever imagine having to face. "I'm lucky I have work to distract me," Chris Unthank said. His wife, sadly, is nowhere near as lucky. This past week, instead of stacking birthday presents, she had the ...
Rain keeps chloride level low
Chloride levels in the Santa Clara River have risen above the limit demanded by Ventura County farmers only once in the past six months - and then only by two milligrams per liter, a Santa Clarita Valley Sanitation District official said Thursday.
Articles By Author - Jim Holt
Motorcyclist hurt in Stevenson Ranch crash
A motorcyclist was taken to the hospital Sunday after he crashed his bike in Stevenson Ranch, Fire Department sources confirmed.
Motorist survives 100-foot plunge near Pyramid Lake
A motorist walked away from a crash today after his van blew a tire on the freeway, then plunged 100 feet down a ravine, a fire official confirmed.
"Wrong way" driver sought in Castaic crash
A motorist is being sought today after driving the wrong way on Interstate 5 in Castaic Friday night causing two on-coming cars to collide, sending four people to the hospital, an investigator with the California Highway Patrol said.
Vietnam veterans reunite for show
Those who showed up recently for a reunion of Vietnam veterans at the Valencia home of Bill Reynolds brought with them a storehouse of compelling stories - of sacrifice, dedication and loss.
