Archive By Section - Signal Editorials
SCV’s future in your hands — literally
How would you like a trash dump in your backyard? Or a chemical plant next to your child's school? Or 10,000 more cars on the road you take to the grocery store?
Just a little accountability, Hart district
You want how much? Just seven years after the William S. Hart Union High School District secured a $158 million bond, the board is asking voters to approve another, this time for $300 million. More than a quarter-billion dollars. If approved in November, the general obligation bond would fund modernization efforts and maintenance, and would purportedly relieve school overcrowding by adding a new high school in Castaic. As for that last item, we'll believe it ...
Welcome to the big league
What's $30,000 between friends? A big deal, if you listen to some of the talk among local residents over the last week, after this newspaper reported that an independent committee spent $29,500 of the 30 grand it received on campaign mailers for the campaign of City Councilwoman Laurie Ender last March. Not that big of a deal, until one considers that the money came from one source - G&L Realty Corp., a major player in ...
Congress needs to back mining bill
Amid much fanfare, backslapping, and a press conference staged with a bucolic backdrop, officials from two cities and Cemex joined our own local congressman to announce breakthrough legislation.
Hey, lawmakers: Cut the rhetoric, pass a budget
A month into California's fiscal year, absent a state budget mandated by law - thanks to a deadlocked Legislature - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed an executive order Thursday that calls for rollbacks to minimum wage for state employees. The order also lays off 10,300 part-time and temporary state workers and halts hiring, overtime and contracting.
It’s a long way from whining to suicide
Have we become a nation of whiners, as Phil Gramm opined in an interview with the Washington Times published July 10, discussing the mortgage meltdown?
There is a time to be silent
It is so easy for some of us to stand at a distance and self-righteously criticize the failings of others. It's how the talking heads at Fox News and CNN make a living.
Know your Five Freedoms
It's July, which doesn't immediately bring to mind back to school, but here in the Santa Clarita Valley students will be returning to classes in less than a month.
What does the world owe you?
A couple of summers ago I lucked into teaching an English 101 class offered by the Los Angeles Community College District's college-by-television program.
Council: Integrity or cronyism?
The Santa Clarita City Council sees itself as a collection of honorable individuals who share a responsibility and commitment to make this city the best it can be.
One valley, double vision?
We believe it's fitting that the Santa Clarita Valley's west side took another step toward self-determination last week, just before Independence Day weekend.
‘Urban center’? Not in Santa Clarita!
It seems Santa Clarita City Manager Ken Pulskamp is being raked over the coals these days for allegedly uttering the term - dare we use it in a family newspaper? - "urban center." Specifically, a reader has dredged up a brief profile published by The Mighty Signal in which Pulskamp was paraphrased - not quoted, please note, but paraphrased - as saying one of his goals is turning Santa Clarita's suburban bedroom sprawl into a legitimate urban center.
Mr. Castellanos, we still have some questions
What are we to say? How best to respond to the Hart district's response? For all of the verbosity and soundbite-readiness of Superintendent Jaime Castellanos' June 22 letter to the editor, we find no increased comfort in the face of what is happening in our local high schools: Educators taking sexual advantage of those whom they're supposed to shepherd. Mr. Castellanos assured the reading public that the William S. Hart Union High School District uses ...
What's going on in the Hart District?
In the last several weeks, there have been five cases reported on our pages of some sort of sexually inappropriate contact between a student and a coach, counselor or teacher. That's right ... five, and this number could grow as investigations continue.
Who's got a ticket to ride?
How far should benevolence reach? How do we determine who deserves help? With Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital's Transitional Care Unit set to close by Thursday, those questions need to be asked. Starting Monday, the Santa Clarita Valley Senior Center is offering weekday rides for family members of patients who have to stay at the Astoria nursing and rehab center in Sylmar, local seniors' alternative to Newhall Memorial's defunct Transitional Care Unit. Also starting this ...
Articles by Section - Signal Editorials
Main Street still needing to feel better
Despite the recent news that jobless rates are falling, these are still difficult times. Nearly everyone agrees at some level that America is still struggling economically but why and what should we do?
Review of chloride plan needs more time
Last week the Santa Clarita Valley Sanitation District released two big binders full of information about four different plans for removing chloride from the Santa Clara River.
Einstein needs to get on with its mission
We here in the Santa Clarita Valley tend to elect fiscally prudent local government leaders whom we expect to be responsible with our hard-earned tax money.
Our view: Fighting fire with fire
A recent announcement by the U.S. Forest Service about altering its approach to fighting fires has caught our attention albeit for reasons different than theirs.
Our View: Enforce the gun laws we already have
Our Founding Fathers in their profound wisdom created a constitutional government whose central document intended not to grant people power but to protect them from it. The formation of a checks and balances system between the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches stipulated separate powers that would protect each from the power of the other two.
Our View: Don't give up yet on conference center
Santa Clarita received some disappointing news last week: A brand-new conference center that could help put the city on the business and tourism map would cost up to $27.5 million to build - not including the cost of land to put it on.
New solutions proposed for old traffic problems
We're all in this together when it comes to freeway traffic. It seems to get worse and worse. There's not enough money to build more efficient freeways and when there's money it takes years and years to complete improvements.
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