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

Scott Wilk, who has yet to announce his candidacy for 38th Assembly District, raised $45,700 in just the first six weeks of the campaign. With over $40,000 raised locally from within the 38th Assembly District and surrounding areas the community has shown it’s support for Scott’s campaign for State Assembly. (more…)

County code will be revised to make it easier to establish a secondhand retail store in the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County thanks to a motion at today’s Board of Supervisors meeting by Los Angeles County Supervisor Don Knabe. Title 22 of the County Code currently limits sales of all secondhand consumer products as a permitted use and classifies secondhand retail stores in the same category as used car lots and pawn shops, which significantly impact the surrounding neighborhoods. (more…)

(From the washingtonpost.com) The federal budget deficit will top $1 trillion for a fourth straight year, congressional budget analysts said Tuesday in a report that predicts a nearly $1.1 trillion gap between government spending and tax collections for 2012. (more…)

(From Science Daily) The earth beneath our feet plays an important role in carbon storage – a key factor in climate change – and new research published in Nature Climate Change this week shows that in times of drought some types of soil perform better than others. (more…)

Congressional candidate Lee Rogers has announced that his campaign has raised over $100,000 to date to defeat Representative Howard “Buck” McKeon.  This represents the recent activity in the report for the period ending December 31 and includes money raised in January.  It is more than the total amount raised by challengers in the previous two elections. (more…)

The following is political activity for Tuesday, January 31, 2012, 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…)

Since February has been found to be the last peak month of the flu season, thousands of Americans die from the flu after February because they believe the virus is subsiding and so they stop protecting themselves. Even with the flu vaccination readily available to anyone, an average of 36,000 Americans due from flu complications each year. That is about twice as many Americans who die from the complications of AIDS every year. (more…)

(From salon.com) Could an effort to lift his wife’s political aspirations land the powerful chairman of the House Armed Services Committee in hot water? Recent disclosures reveal that a federal lobbyist with ties to Rep. Howard “Buck” McKeon, R-Calif., the senior member of the committee overseeing the Pentagon, provided financial support to McKeon’s wife, who is seeking a seat in the California Assembly this year. As defense industry lobbyists scramble to head off looming cuts in the Pentagon budget, they are looking for new ways to ingratiate themselves with McKeon. (more…)

On Monday January 30, 2012, at approximately 5:27 PM, two eleven year-old boys were walking home from school when they started setting fire to the brush in the wash near Canyon Park Boulevard and Jason Dr in Canyon Country.  The brush fire quickly spread out of control, and the boys ran away.  One of the boys told his father what happened, and the father brought the boy back to where deputies were conducting crowd control to keep on-lookers away from the brush fire and away from the near-by railroad tracks. (more…)

(From the latimes.com) Los Angeles County supervisors violated the law last fall by holding a closed-door meeting with Gov. Jerry Brown to discuss a plan to shift nonviolent state prisoners to county jail and supervision after release, according to the county district attorney’s office. (more…)

(From the AP) Some state lawmakers want to ask voters to revise California’s Three Strikes law as a way to reduce prison sentences and save money on corrections, but they’re having a hard time getting the issue through the Legislature. The Assembly on Monday failed to pass AB327, which would require that a defendant’s third strike be for a serious or violent felony. (more…)

(From the nytimes.com) Mitt Romney swept through a final day of campaigning here on Monday, energized by more polls showing him with a commanding lead in the Florida primary. He even allowed himself to break superstition and proclaim, “I’m beginning to feel we might win.” (more…)

On Tuesday, January 24, 2012, the LA County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 to eliminate the section 8 fraud investigators in Palmdale and Lancaster.  This action comes at a time when section 8 fraud is on the rise, our state is in massive debt, and state and local taxes are among the highest in the country, and increasing.  The lone holdout, Supervisor Michael Antonovich, showed courage by fighting for the rights of the ordinary “Joe” and “Josephine,” like us.  Entitlement programs, like section 8, are part of the problem and are spiraling out of control. (more…)

Officers from the Department of Animal Care and Control (DACC) will be in the unincorporated areas in the vicinity of Valencia checking for current rabies vaccinations, ensuring residents are in compliance with licensing requirements as well as the mandatory spay/neuter and microchip ordinance. California State law requires that all dogs over the age of four months be vaccinated against rabies and be licensed. (more…)

(From smartmoney.com) Analysts project food, airfare and gasoline will all cost more this year. But consumers may be able to shrink one bill: cable TV. While subscribers to fiber-optic service and satellite saw last year’s average monthly bills jump 15% and 12%, respectively, research firm Centris found that cable subscribers are now paying 1% less, an average of $69.70. (It’s also cheaper than the average $76.80 for satellite and $99.67 for fiber-optic.) (more…)