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December 18
1929 - Swift justice: Thomas Vernon sentenced to life in prison for Saugus train derailment & robbery 1 month earlier [story]
Tom Vernon


KHTS co-owner Carl Goldman

KHTS co-owner Carl Goldman

The Santa Clarita Valley’s long-running fight to block a mega-mining project in Soledad Canyon comes down to one vote, and one day, and one man: a New Mexico Democrat who is blocking Senate passage of bipartisan legislation that would save the local environment – at no cost to the federal government, the community, or the mining company.

What’s going on with Sen. Martin Heinrich? It appears all 99 of his Senate colleagues are willing to vote “yes” Monday – the last day, officials say, that the bill by Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer can be brought up for a vote. Will Sen. Henrich be our Santa or our Scrooge? Will he save us from environmental catastrophe, or will he be responsible for turning our little corner of California into an environmental wasteland?

[READ KHTS EDITORIAL]

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16 Comments

  1. Brenda please share this with your friends. It effects all of us in Santa Clarita.

  2. Shelly spread the word on this. It’s down the street from our homes.

  3. jimvs says:

    I called his office, left a message, and sent him an email.

    Did you get all of your influential friends to do the same? How about Scott Wilk? The Lennar Corp, aka Newhall Land and Framing?

    And if you think that is a typo…

  4. Upping the app usage I see.

  5. I sent an email last night.

  6. Again, hopefully this fails. The potential loss of long term, good paying jobs is the major issue if this passes.

  7. Kurt Buck says:

    I really don’t think the mine is a good idea, and it would cause harm to the people living near it. However… The Imperial Federal United States Government has no standing on this issue. The Constitution does not grant the Federal Government the authority to intervene in local matters such as this. It is the State of California and County of Los Angeles that should be deciding this issue.

    • That might be the way it *should* be, but they are FEDERAL mining contracts. The federal government owns the mineral rights, and the federal government leased them in 1990 to (a predecessor of) Cemex. The federal legislation would cancel the federal mining contracts.

    • As a California lawyer, I concur with Leon Worden. Because this is a federal government contract, the only level of government that can solve the issue is federal not state.

    • As a California lawyer, I concur with Leon Worden. Because this is a federal government contract, the only level of government that can solve the issue is federal not state.

    • After opening the article I realized I also could concur with my friend Carl Goldman.

    • After opening the article I realized I also could concur with my friend Carl Goldman.

    • Kurt Buck says:

      I haven’t seen any articles stating that they are Federal mining contracts. The reporting I have been able to find on this issue seems to be vague. My point is, WHY is the Federal government involved in California land and mineral rights at all, or land and mineral rights in any other state for that matter? I understand that is “the way it is”, but that doesn’t make it right.

    • Kurt Buck says:

      I haven’t seen any articles stating that they are Federal mining contracts. The reporting I have been able to find on this issue seems to be vague. My point is, WHY is the Federal government involved in California land and mineral rights at all, or land and mineral rights in any other state for that matter? I understand that is “the way it is”, but that doesn’t make it right.

    • Excellent question (why does the federal government control the mineral rights on that property?) Wish I could remember. The federal government owned or controlled that property for a long time; that’s where the Nike missile silos were. Not the base – that was on the ridge between Sand Canyon and the San Fernando Valley – but the actual missile battery was there. I forget, but it probably relates to the distribution of the property after the Nike base was decommissioned. Here’s a little bit of background, with information about the contaminants in the area …. http://www.scvhistory.com/scvhistory/lw2611.htm

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