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.

Blast to the past at Placerita Canyon nature Center's Open House

Outdoor fire in Castaic spreads to house

An outdoor fire around supper time Saturday ended up spreading to a house, emergency response officials said.

Chloride options: Pay up or pay up

Nearly everyone who flushes a toilet or does a load of laundry in the Santa Clarita Valley faces a complicated and costly problem over the issue of chloride contamination ­- and, according to sanitation officials, it's a problem that's not going to go away.

Coyotes are threat at local park

A coyote snatched a dog from a girl's arms in Valencia Summit Park, where sheriff's deputies and animal control workers responded Friday on a report of a jogger chased by a coyote, officials confirmed.

UPDATE: Coyotes snatch dog, confront person at Valencia park

A coyote snatched a dog from a girl's arms in Valencia Summit Park, where sheriff's deputies and animal control workers responded Friday on a report of a jogger chased by a coyote, officials confirmed.

Calif. PUC looking into Valencia Water Company purchase

The California Public Utilities Commission has opened an investigation into Castaic Lake Water Agency's purchase of the Valencia Water Company.

Valencia: SCV Sheriff’s deputies bust suspected meth-dealing operation

Local drug squad deputies disrupted a meth-dealing operation in a Valencia neighborhood this week with the arrest of one man charged with possessing a controlled substance for sale, court documents show.

Santa Clarita mayor sees ‘definitive year’ on two major city issues

This year will be the "definitive year" for chloride and Cemex - two of the weightiest issues vexing residents in the Santa Clarita Valley, said Santa Clarita Mayor Bob Kellar during a town hall meeting Wednesday night.

Memorial service for Brittany Schlumpberger scheduled Saturday

Parents of a popular woman killed in a single-car crash on Sand Canyon Road last week are inviting the public to join them Saturday in paying tribute to their daughter, Brittany Schlumpberger.

Newhall man gets 2 years in death of woman

A 68-year-old Newhall man who left the scene of a fatal accident in Valencia more than a year ago has been sentenced to two years in jail, a court clerk said.

2 suspected gang members arrested on weapons charge

California Highway Patrol officers arrested two women, identified as convicted felons and suspected gang members, for allegedly having a firearm in their possession, court papers showed Wednesday.

Saugus residents oppose registered sex offender’s return

A registered sex offender recently released from a jail sentence for previously violating his parole is back in the same neighborhood where he lived when he committed those violations, and neighbors are protesting.

Sand Canyon residents remember youth killed at oak tree 32 years ago

While Kevin and Michelle Schlumpberger prepare for the funeral of their daughter, Brittany, killed last week in a single-car crash on Sand Canyon Road, others in Canyon Country recall a teen who died at the same spot 32 years ago today.

UPDATE: Suspect in deputy-involved shooting was hit in hand, officials say

A suspect arrested for allegedly pointing a handgun at officers last week was shot in the hand, possibly by local sheriff's deputies, a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said Tuesday.

UPDATE: Police chase in Valencia nabs 3 suspects

Three people suspected of burglary for allegedly stealing a safe from a Saugus home were behind bars Tuesday after a wild ride through the Santa Clarita Valley, and a foot chase across the Santa Clara River, officials and witnesses said.