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

Funded by the City of Santa Clarita and established in February 2006, the VIDA Program or Vital Intervention and Directional Alternatives, is a 16-week program designed to assist “at-risk” youth between the ages of 12 and 17 by redirecting negative behavior (more…)

LandSource Communities Development LLC, a large California land and development company, is expected to file for bankruptcy protection in the next two to three weeks, a (more…)

This Saturday the Community Hiking Club will hike Rice Canyon which is an easy, 4 mile hike. There are multiple stream crossings (low water), and a small amount of gain at the end of the hike. You will end up at a lovely old oak tree on a plateau with a beautiful view of Santa Clarita. (more…)

Truong Thi Nha stands just four and a half feet tall. Her three grown children tower over her, just as many young people in this village outside Hanoi dwarf their parents. (more…)

Deputies arrested a North Hollywood woman early Monday morning on drug and mail theft related charges after stopping her near Sierra Highway and Dolan Way. The deputies reportedly found a manufactured United States Postal Service mailbox key and locking mechanism, burglary and pry tools, methamphetamine, (more…)

In the 2000 City Council election, Cameron Smyth finished first with approximately 5,500 votes and Bob Kellar finished second with approximately 4,850 votes out of a field of 11 candidates.  Current Councilmember Marsha McLean finished third about 650 votes behind Kellar, and Diane Trautman finished 650 votes behind McLean. (more…)

The Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station teamed up with the California Highway Patrol and conducted a D.U.I./Drivers License enforcement checkpoint Friday night.  The checkpoint, which began (more…)

US house prices continue to plunge by a record amount, a new report showed on Tuesday, adding to pressure on consumers and threatening to prolong a domestic (more…)

A moderate earthquake has hit a mountainous region of Northern California. There are no immediate reports or injury or damage. The U.S. Geological Survey says a magnitude-5.2 temblor struck (more…)

A San Francisco man died after a shark attacked him while he was surfing off Mexico’s southern Pacific coast, authorities in the southern state of Guerrero said Tuesday. The man was identified by Mexican authorities as Adrian Ruiz, 24, according (more…)

California lawmakers want banks and other lenders to make sure foreclosed homes don’t become run down and a source of blight. If they fail to do that, they’ll face a $1,000-a-day (more…)

The Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station is joining in partnership with the Special Olympics Santa Clarita Valley for the Third Annual Law Enforcement Polar Plunge event.  Several Deputy Sheriffs, being dubbed as Super Polar Plungers, from the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station will volunteer their time to take (more…)

Well here we go again, another Franken Ferry video has been posted on YouTube. This one takes swipes at the Santa Clarita City Manager Ken Pluskamp as well as a handful of consultants around town. (more…)

We have added a new link to Ryan Metlen’s political cartoon blog. Ryan graduated from CalArts in 1999 with a degree in film and animation. (more…)

An MIT class has estimated the carbon emissions of Americans in a wide variety of lifestyles — from the homeless to multimillionaires, from Buddhist monks to soccer moms — and compared them to those of other nations. The somewhat disquieting bottom line is that in the United States, even the people with the lowest usage of energy are (more…)

Saying that proposed budget cuts threaten California’s economic future, leaders of the state’s public college and university systems urged lawmakers Monday to raise (more…)

In the classic old comedy “Woman of The Year,” the very athletic Katherine Hepburn has to explain she has no time for Spencer Tracy one afternoon because she devoted that date to her Physical Ed.

“Who,” grumped Tracy, “is Physical Ed?”

The same question might be asked about “Special Ed.”  All that most people know about “Special Ed” is that he is a very expensive guy. In California, billions of dollars go into “Special Ed” each year. (more…)

The number of U.S. homes heading toward foreclosure more than doubled in the first quarter from a year earlier, as weakening property values and tighter lending left many homeowners powerless to prevent homes from being auctioned to the highest bidder, (more…)