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

Do you enjoy nature? Hiking and Camping is a fun way to get family and friends together to enjoy the outdoors, and to get some physical activity. However, you should always be prepared for the unexpected. You should tell family and friends what your plans are and provide a list of who will be going with you. (more…)

(From the nytimes.com)  Ground zero of the debt crisis in Washington just might be Speaker John A. Boehner’s call center, hidden away in a corner of the Capitol, where five besieged staff members have as many as 300 people on hold at a time. “Diane from Oregon” managed to get through on Thursday to tell the center’s director, Thomas A. Andrews, that Mr. Boehner should “cut spending now.” (more…)

The City of Santa Clarita is sponsoring its fourth annual Food Drive, benefitting the Santa Clarita Valley Food Pantry. During the entire month of August, Santa Clarita residents are invited to drop off non-perishable food items to designated locations across the City to be donated directly to the Food Pantry. (more…)

“Republicans are all rich, old, white men; Republicans don’t care about people; Republicans are all racists.” If I had a dollar for every time I heard a version of one of those statements, I think I could single-handedly take a chunk out of California’s annual, reoccurring budget shortfall. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. All you need to do to discredit this myth is look around our very own community. (more…)

(From the nytimes.com) California’s nonpartisan redistricting commission, charged with redrawing the state’s Congressional and legislative districts free from party politics, approved its final set of maps on Friday. (more…)

(From the latimes.com) The California Environmental Protection Agency has issued the nation’s first public health goal for hexavalent chromium, the cancer-causing heavy metal made infamous after activist Erin Brockovich sued in 1993 over contaminated groundwater in the Mojave Desert town of Hinkley, about 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles. (more…)

(From cnbc.com) Thousands of layoffs were announced in just the past week, and that trend could continue if economic growth does not start to pick up speed. Merck on Friday became the latest company to announce a new round of job cuts, saying it would trim 13,000 employees from its work force of 91,000 by 2015. It joins HSBC, which is reported to be trimming 10,000 jobs from its global staff, and Borders, letting go another 10,700 workers, as it shuts down all of its retail stores. (more…)

(From the sacbee.com) Redevelopment agencies reiterated Friday that the California Supreme Court should block a state plan that asks them to relinquish an estimated $1.7 billion under threat of elimination. (more…)

This Saturday, July 30 from 12:00 to 3:00 pm, two new neighborhoods will be celebrating their grand openings in Valencia. KB Home’s Milan at West Hills and Lennar’s Aria at West Creek invite you to tour their furnished model homes, feast on gourmet meals from LA’s tastiest food trucks and win some fabulous prizes! (more…)

(From Science Daily) Global population is expected to hit 7 billion later this year, up from 6 billion in 1999. Between now and 2050, an estimated 2.3 billion more people will be added — nearly as many as inhabited the planet as recently as 1950. New estimates from the Population Division of the Department of Economic and Social Affairs of the United Nations also project that the population will reach 10.1 billion in 2100. (more…)

The following is political activity for Friday, July 29, 2011, 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…)

Nuggucciet Cellars is owned and operated by my fellow wine writer and pal- note the full up-front disclosure- Russ Briley. But I guess I have to call Russ a winemaker now too. (This is something my readers need not ever fear from me as winemaking requires hard work, education, dirt under the nails and wine bloggers reviewing your every, single, move.) (more…)

Tomorrow the Citizens Redistricting Commission (CRC) will be taking votes (Board of Equalization, Congress, Senate & Assembly) on their final maps. Those maps are now on the CRC’s web site: (more…)

(From cnbc.com) The U.S. economy grew less than expected in the second quarter as consumer spending barely rose, and growth braked sharply in the prior quarter, a government report showed on Friday. Growth in gross domestic product—a measure of all goods and services produced within U.S. borders—rose at a 1.3 percent annual rate, the Commerce Department said. (more…)

(From the latimes.com) Residents and civic leaders in Fremont, which sprawls from San Francisco Bay to the golden-seared folds of Sunol Ridge, say their desert-hued bedroom community should be in a congressional district with its neighbors, Newark and Union City. (more…)

(From the sacbee.com) California’s smallest businesses – those without employees – were clobbered by the first two years of recession, a new Census Bureau report shows, with more than 80,000 ceasing operations and the survivors’ annual incomes dropping by more than $20 billion. (more…)

The Real Side with Joe Messina airs today, Friday July 29, 2011 on KHTS from Noon to 3:00 PM. This week’s topics include the following: (more…)

(From the AP) A Southern California congressman wants to clip the wings of noisy, low-flying helicopters. Rep. Howard L. Berman introduced a bill Thursday requiring the FAA to set flight paths and minimum altitudes for helicopter operations in residential neighborhoods of Los Angeles County. Emergency responders and the military would be exempt. (more…)

The Community Hiking Club will be traversing between Baldy Notch and Icehouse Saddle on Saturday July 30, 2011. Between Baldy Notch and Icehouse Saddle are 3 summits rising over 8000′-Thunder Mountain (8587′), Telegraph Peak (8985′) and Timber Mountain (8303′).  These mountains are known as the 3 T’s.  This well beaten trail zigzags over crests and across saddles, through open stands of pine, fir and cedar, offering continuous vistas.  The high mountain air is cool, clear and clean.  From Telegraph Peak the desert view rivals the one from Mt. Baldy. (more…)

(From Science Daily) A new study by York University researchers finds that practicing yoga reduces the physical and psychological symptoms of chronic pain in women with fibromyalgia. The study is the first to look at the effects of yoga on cortisol levels in women with fibromyalgia. (more…)