The West Ranch Beacon – News & Commentary for the Santa Clarita Valley

Newhall Coffee and Roasting Company announced that it will start being sold within eight Whole Foods Markets within the north Los Angeles County region. In addition, the company announced the launch of its new Coffee for a Cause division, which will enable local charities to offer a custom-branded coffee blend, roasted by Newhall, as a perpetual fundraiser. Select Coffee for a Cause Blends will be featured within Whole Foods, starting with the Hope Blend in the Valencia store. (more…)

(From the N.Y. Times) The magnitude 8.8 earthquake that struck off the coast of Chile early Saturday morning occurred along the same fault responsible for the biggest quake ever measured, a 1960 tremor that killed nearly 2,000 people in Chile and hundreds more across the Pacific. Both earthquakes took place along a fault zone where the Nazca tectonic plate, the section of the earth’s crust that lies under the Eastern Pacific Ocean south of the Equator, is sliding beneath another section, the South American plate. The two are converging at a rate of about three and a half inches a year. (more…)

The City of Santa Clarita’s 2010 Cowboy Festival is just around the corner, with expanded kids and multicultural activities designed to give visitors a first-hand account of the real Old West. A variety of tickets are currently available for the event, set against the picturesque backdrop of Melody Ranch Motion Picture Studio the weekend of April 24 and 25, 2010. (more…)

Famed Los Angeles muralist Kent Twitchell has been selected to paint three murals on the interior of Bob Hope Patriotic Hall, a downtown landmark built in 1926 currently under renovation. Twitchell’s artworks will celebrate the lost murals by Helen Lundeberg painted in Patriotic Hall during the Works Progress Administration in 1942. The Lundeberg murals depicted The Preamble to the Constitution, Free Assembly and Free Ballot. The murals are Twitchell’s first public art commission by a government agency in over 30 years. (more…)

Supervisor Gloria Molina, Chair of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors proclaimed March 1 – March 7, 2010,  “Family Reunification Week.”  The week-long celebration will honor families, who despite court-ordered out-of-home care placement for their children successfully complied with specific court requirements and reunified with their children in their family home. Supervisor Molina initiated this first-ever honor following discussions with Michael Nash, Presiding Judge of the Los Angeles Juvenile Court.  Judge Nash wanted to honor those families that successfully navigated the Dependency Court system to emerge healthier, stronger and intact.  (more…)

The Los Angeles Superior Court partners with Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena to present its highly respected court-clergy conference on Thursday morning, March 4, 2010.  More than 100 attendees are expected, including clergy and Fuller’s faculty and students. (more…)

“Charlie didn’t get much USO. He was dug in too deep or moving too fast. His idea of great R&R was cold rice and a little rat meat. He had only two ways home: death, or victory.” ~Captain Willard- Apocalypse Now (1979)     Having been a child of the sixties one of my earliest media memories was the coverage of the Vietnam War on television. I can remember from the very late sixties, ’68 or ’69, watching the news footage coming out of places like Da Nang, Saigon and the Mekong Delta. It was a world away but I was seeing it on TV during the nightly news in the den of the family home in New York. (more…)

(From AP/Yahoo News) A tsunami triggered by the Chilean earthquake sent a surge of water ashore in Hawaii, California and islands in the South Pacific on Saturday as the waves continued onto Alaska and parts of Asia. (more…)

(From Science Daily) A little-used Internet authentication system from the 1980s could provide the answer for enabling web users to securely log in only once per Internet session, a Queensland University of Technology researcher has found. PhD researcher Suriadi, from QUT’s Information Security Institute, said a secure single-sign on system was more than simply using the same password for multiple accounts. (more…)

Please welcome Steve Chegwin a Santa Clarita Valley based CPA and the latest contributor to the West Ranch Beacon. Steve will be writing about tax issues that effect us all and bringing clarity to the complex topic of taxes. We hope you will enjoy his columns as well as learn something new!  The first-time homebuyer credit is a one-time refundable credit. The credit is available for first-time buyers that purchase a principal resident between January 1, 2009 and April 30, 2010. The refundable credit is the lesser of $8,000 or 10% of the purchase price.  The refundable credit is used to offset the taxpayer’s entire federal tax liability with any remaining credit refunded to the taxpayer. (more…)

(From the Sacramento Bee) The Obama administration is expected today to unveil an ambitious-sounding package of irrigation deliveries, water transfers, farm loan guarantees and other programs targeting the parched San Joaquin Valley. Crafted amid intense political pressure, the package is supposed to alleviate farmers’ distress while still protecting fish. Some key California lawmakers said late Thursday they were pleased by the effort, though others still want more detail. (more…)

The Santa Clarita Valley had its own version of the Massachusetts miracle on Thursday night, February 25, 2010 at the local SCV California Republican Assembly (CRA) meeting held at the IHOP in Stevenson Ranch. In a Scott Brown style upset, David Gauny emerged as the only Santa Clarita City Council candidate to receive the coveted CRA endorsement. (more…)

(From the Rasmussen Reports) Nearly two-out-of-three California voters (64%) say illegal immigrants put a significant strain on the state budget as lawmakers struggle to close a $26 billion deficit. A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of California voters shows that just 25% say illegal immigrants are not a major strain on the state budget. Eleven percent (11%) are not sure. (more…)

As large numbers of local baby boomers pass age 65, the demand on informal caregivers, which is already high, will further impact the physical, mental, and economic health of community members across Los Angeles County, according to a report released today by the Department of Public Health. (more…)

(From the N.Y. Times) Surgery on blocked neck arteries has long been considered the best procedure for preventing a stroke. Now a large North American study has found that a less invasive approach may be just as safe and effective, but other researchers are not so sure. (more…)

The West Ranch Town Council will hold their regular monthly meeting Wednesday, March 3, 2010 at the Tournament Player Club in West Ranch located at 26550 Heritage View Lane in the Westridge neighborhood at 6:30 PM. The meeting will include the regular updates from the Sheriff’s Department, the California Highway Patrol, Parks and Recreation, various County Departments and local HOA’s. (more…)

The following is a roundup of political activity going on in Washington and across the nation. It is courtesy of Scott Wilk, Community Organizer, and Anchor Consulting group. The Beacon will be posting these daily as they become available. (more…)

Organized by Jennifer and Kevin Kelley, the Natural Process Alliance (NPA) is dedicated to responsible farming, minimalistic winemaking and transparency for consumers by using stainless steel refillable bottles to bring white wine to restaurants. Which led to my three questions: Why stainless steel, why only local, and any reds on the horizon? Hi Eve, Thank you so much for your interest in the NPA wines. We decided to choose stainless steel as our packaging because it is more durable than other packaging materials like glass. Our concept behind the NPA is to make wines that reflect where they came from in their purest form. (more…)

The Santa Clarita Valley had its own version of the Massachusetts miracle on Thursday night, February 25, 2010 at the local SCV California Republican Assembly (CRA) meeting held at the IHOP in Stevenson Ranch. In a Scott Brown style upset, David Gauny emerged as the only Santa Clarita City Council candidate to receive the coveted CRA endorsement. (more…)

The City of Santa Clarita is maintaining its position as one of Southern California’s most filmed communities, recording a 14 percent increase in economic benefit in 2009 as a result of location filming when compared to 2008.  Location filming alone contributed more than $22 million to Santa Clarita’s local economy in 2009. (more…)