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Santa Clarita City Council due to vote on budget
Published June 21, 2016
The Santa Clarita City Council is expected to adopt the 2016-17 fiscal year budget of $219.6 million during its June 28 meeting, a 17.3 percent increase from the last year.
The proposed budget, which City Manager Ken Striplin called “balanced and on schedule,” needs to be adopted before the fiscal year begins on July 1. Mayor Bob Kellar said the city has never adopted a budget late.
“One thing we’ve always been careful about ... is that we live within our means,” Kellar said.
He added that Santa Clarita continues to hold a AAA rating from Standard and Poor — the highest rating a municipality can receive — which shows the city has “an extremely strong capacity to meet financial commitments.”
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The Santa Clarita City Council is expected to adopt the 2016-17 fiscal year budget of $219.6 million during its June 28 meeting, a 17.3 percent increase from the last year.
The proposed budget, which City Manager Ken Striplin called “balanced and on schedule,” needs to be adopted before the fiscal year begins on July 1. Mayor Bob Kellar said the city has never adopted a budget late.
“One thing we’ve always been careful about ... is that we live within our means,” Kellar said.
He added that Santa Clarita continues to hold a AAA rating from Standard and Poor — the highest rating a municipality can receive — which shows the city has “an extremely strong capacity to meet financial commitments.”
Read more
Measure E: The benefits, the costs
Bond to modernize, expand College
of the Canyons campuses
Published May 21, 2016
College of the Canyon’s Measure E — a $230 million bond — is expected, if passed, to fund the construction of six buildings, 1,000 parking spaces and modernize 350,000 square feet of outdated facilities. College Trustee Bruce Fortine said the bond is part of an important investment for the school’s future, adding that two previous bond measures — Measure C and Measure M — constructed much of COC’s Valencia campus. Measure E would do the same for the school’s Canyon Country campus, he said. If approved, Measure E will fund four permanent buildings on that campus. This includes a new science and lecture center, student center, business and art center, technology and health center and a central plant to heat and cool the campus. Read more |
In world of bonds, voter
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Affordable Care Act makes impact on
Imperial Valley residents, hospitals and clinics
Published Jan. 12, 2014
A brain tumor, a pre-existing medical condition to insurance companies, had prevented El Centro resident Eric Villanueva from qualifying for health coverage.
Thirty-three-year-old Villanueva had been without health insurance for about eight years until the Affordable Care Act took effect for him Jan. 1. “I’m so happy now that I have insurance,” he said. “I can finally look at my family and tell them everything will be all right. I don’t have to worry about how I’m going to pay. That cloud is gone and there’s no more ‘what ifs.’ I’m covered.” The Affordable Care Act, a plan for universal health care in the United States, is being implemented through Covered California for Imperial Valley residents and all Californians. Read more |
Imperial Valley locals criticize the
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De Anza Magnet school students listen to Commander John Herrington
speak on how he became the first Native American in space
Published Dec. 20, 2013
De Anza Magnet School students in El Centro spent an hour Thursday afternoon listening to the story of how the first Native American in space accomplished that dream.
Cmdr. John Herrington took the sixth- through eighth- grade students on a journey that started as an eight-year-old boy sitting in a cardboard box dreaming of going to the moon and ended with a launch to the International Space Station. He spoke to the students to call attention to the importance of education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), something he does regularly at NASA schools and Native American reservations throughout the nation.
“I always dreamed of going to space, but I never thought I could accomplish it,” Herrington said during his presentation. “You have to put forth the effort and believe in yourself.”
Herrington, a member of the Chickasaw nation in Oklahoma, said there are a number of different paths to take to be an astronaut. One is more traditional and involves always having the passion and drive to do well in school, but that wasn’t how Herrington did it.
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De Anza Magnet School students in El Centro spent an hour Thursday afternoon listening to the story of how the first Native American in space accomplished that dream.
Cmdr. John Herrington took the sixth- through eighth- grade students on a journey that started as an eight-year-old boy sitting in a cardboard box dreaming of going to the moon and ended with a launch to the International Space Station. He spoke to the students to call attention to the importance of education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), something he does regularly at NASA schools and Native American reservations throughout the nation.
“I always dreamed of going to space, but I never thought I could accomplish it,” Herrington said during his presentation. “You have to put forth the effort and believe in yourself.”
Herrington, a member of the Chickasaw nation in Oklahoma, said there are a number of different paths to take to be an astronaut. One is more traditional and involves always having the passion and drive to do well in school, but that wasn’t how Herrington did it.
Read more
Southwest High School students interact with former President Jimmy Carter
in a video conference
Published Dec. 3, 2013
Five things you should know about Jimmy Carter1 — Jimmy Carter established a National Energy Policy that included conservation and price control in order to help deal with the energy shortage during his presidency.
2 — The Department of Education and Department of Energy were established under Carter’s presidency. 3 — The Panama Canal Treaty and Neutrality Treaty was signed by Carter on Sept. 7, 1977. The treaty ended a prior agreement that gave the United States the right to build the canal and gave control of the Panama Canal back to Panama. 4 — Carter hosted the signing of the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty, which was the first peace treaty between Israel and an Arab country. The event took place March 26, 1979, on the White House lawn. 5 — The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Carter in 2002 through the Carter Center, which he established in 1986 as a way to promote human rights and alleviate human suffering. |
Southwest High School 11th-graders in El Centro came face to face with former President Jimmy Carter, taking questions from the students here, and from students all over the nation.
Carter discussed the significance of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act that he signed in 1980 and then answered questions during a video conference. One of Haydee Rodriguez’s 11th-grade classes at Southwest was given this unique opportunity to interact with Carter through a distance-learning program with the help of the Internet2 K20 Initiative and Corporation for Education Network Initiatives in California. “The turnaround time was very short and my staff advised me that Southwest High School would be a venue where we could make this possible on the short timeframe,” said County Superintendent of Schools Anne Mallory in an email interview. “Ms. Rodriguez shared the students’ questions with me, which had to be submitted in advance. The questions were quite insightful and impressive.” Questions from Pablo Zapata and from Alexis Estrada were chosen to ask Carter live. “(The question) just came naturally,” Zapata said. “I think keeping the world for the future is important.” Read more |
Imperial County residents are impacted with high
food insecurity rate, potential food stamps cuts
Published Nov. 24, 2013
Forty-three percent of children living in the Imperial Valley are at risk for hunger.
This is a higher percentage of food insecurity than adults in the Valley who are at 37.8 percent, according to Feeding America Mind the Meal Gap project, which mapped out food insecurity rates across America in 2011. Food stamps and other hunger relief programs are set up in part to help those who are food insecure, meaning they do not have access to enough food for an active and healthy lifestyle. However, despite the struggle people already have to feed their families, members of Congress are proposing $43 billion in cuts over the next 10 years with the Farm Bill, the single largest source of federal funding for hunger relief programs such as food stamps. “When you look at who is on Calfresh (better known as food stamps), it is children,” said Jennifer Gilmore, executive director of Feeding America San Diego. “It’s saying we’re OK to let kids in America go without food, that’s what we’re saying if we allow this bill to go forward,” said Jennifer Tracy, executive director of the Hunger Coalition. Read more |
Families supplement food stamps cuts with supplies from food banks, soup kitchensImperial County resident Roger Patterson picked up a Box of Basics for his mother Tuesday morning at the Imperial Valley Food Bank.
“This is the first time we’re here,” he said. “We thought we would try it and see how it helps.” Patterson, like hundreds of other families, is trying to supplement for the recent 5.5 percent cut to the food stamps program. Oct. 31 marked the end of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which granted a 13.6 percent increase to the food stamps program, formerly known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Without the expected amount of food stamp money, families are struggling to get through a month with what is left. This is when they turn to food banks and soup kitchens. Read more |
Misinformation, missing information makes choosing
a Medi-Cal Managed Care plan difficult
Published Oct. 13, 2013
Jessica Montenegro and the tens of thousands of other people who have Medi-Cal in Imperial County are required to make a choice by Oct. 25 between two health care plans because of Medi-Cal Managed Care.
Medi-Cal Managed Care, which has been around for about 25 years, is an organized system of health care meant to make it easier for Medi-Cal beneficiaries to find a doctor that will accept their insurance.
With two companies established to help inform and lead the estimated 35,000 Imperial County Medi-Cal recipients through the process of choosing plans and doctors, there has been much confusion over how to choose and whether the information being presented is even accurate.
“It’s just a shock, I guess,” Montenegro said about having to choose a plan. “I’ve had insurance like that before and it’s not anything to rejoice over.”
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Jessica Montenegro and the tens of thousands of other people who have Medi-Cal in Imperial County are required to make a choice by Oct. 25 between two health care plans because of Medi-Cal Managed Care.
Medi-Cal Managed Care, which has been around for about 25 years, is an organized system of health care meant to make it easier for Medi-Cal beneficiaries to find a doctor that will accept their insurance.
With two companies established to help inform and lead the estimated 35,000 Imperial County Medi-Cal recipients through the process of choosing plans and doctors, there has been much confusion over how to choose and whether the information being presented is even accurate.
“It’s just a shock, I guess,” Montenegro said about having to choose a plan. “I’ve had insurance like that before and it’s not anything to rejoice over.”
Read more
SCORE International race to come to Imperial Valley
Published Sept. 21, 2013
An international off-road race series predicted to bring tens of thousands of people and millions of dollars in revenue to the Valley is coming to the west Imperial County desert in April 2014.
A SCORE International race, which has not been hosted in California for 20 years, could be the biggest event to ever come to the Imperial Valley, largely due to the potential economic impact to local businesses, according to members of an El Centro Chamber of Commerce committee tasked with organizing the race.
“It’s a premiere race. It’s like the NASCAR of racing locally, but here in the desert,” said Jeff Sturdevant, a member of the El Centro chamber’s Imperial Valley SCORE Committee.
“It doesn’t get any bigger,” he said.
Read more
An international off-road race series predicted to bring tens of thousands of people and millions of dollars in revenue to the Valley is coming to the west Imperial County desert in April 2014.
A SCORE International race, which has not been hosted in California for 20 years, could be the biggest event to ever come to the Imperial Valley, largely due to the potential economic impact to local businesses, according to members of an El Centro Chamber of Commerce committee tasked with organizing the race.
“It’s a premiere race. It’s like the NASCAR of racing locally, but here in the desert,” said Jeff Sturdevant, a member of the El Centro chamber’s Imperial Valley SCORE Committee.
“It doesn’t get any bigger,” he said.
Read more