Is Santa real? Many of us in the SCV are thinking he just might be. After well over a decade of “effort” the United States House of Representatives has voted to stop Cemex from mining in Soledad Canyon. All those years and it is really so simple. But … the Senate still has to vote on it, and then...

As I get ready to follow the proposed route of the High Speed Rail that California is wanting to build, I was given a column published in the Chico Enterprise-Record. Mr. Thomas Elias has brought up a simple solution to many of the route problems. This is one of those times when you look at a solution...

When I’m driving from the northeastern part of Santa Clarita on the 14 and heading to COC, I’ve got a choice of routes, and none is short or quick. The vaunted cross-valley connector has become a near maze of stoplights that seem ill-timed with each other. I could take Soledad Canyon Road and all...

Just what job is Howard P. “Take the Buck” McKeon going to have when he retires from Congress? Many of us, myself included, naturally think he will work with his kinfolk in a Washington, D.C., lobbying group that is heavy into defense contractors. It seems a natural fit. The retired chairman of the...

Twenty-two years in Congress and what do we get? A lump of gravel in our stocking. It is now clear that Rep. Howard “Take the Buck” McKeon was not, is not and cannot be a man of honor. He has protected his friends and onetime campaign contributor Cemex by not including the “deal” in the National...

OK. Tonight is the night. The Castaic Area Town Council is having a meeting at Denny’s to go over the new bylaws, policies and procedures and whatever else. I would recommend you show up a little early. It starts at 6:30 p.m., so be at the place by maybe 5:45 p.m. Oh, the place? Go to the Denny’s...

When it rains it pours. Hope everyone is in a safe place for the day. The weather guessers are saying this is going to be a huge event. Some places might get 5 inches of rain (total). Everybody needs to stand by for flash floods and mudslides and lots of wrecks on the roads. I hope most of the rain will...

Rain. You know. That is when there are drops of water falling from the clouds. Now we can get excited. We are getting measurable amounts of rain. We don’t need our “normal” amount of yearly rainfall within the next three days, either, thank you very much. I’m concerned that many of us have forgotten...

I promised some very nice and pretty ladies that I wouldn’t write about billboards any more. So until something about them comes back to haunt us, let’s move to another subject. Did you know that in 1941, the local newspaper reported that hog farms were being kicked out of that lesser valley to our...

Got this comment yesterday from Paul Novak, executive officer of the Los Angeles County Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO):   Mr. Manzer: It is an indisputable fact that town councils are not part of county government.  Despite the ruling by a judge in the Agua Dulce Town Council case –...