- A woman in Sun Valley has been arrested for killing her two teen-aged daughters and then attempting to kill herself. Her third daughter has been taken into protective custody.
- The Station Fires (amazingly) haven't affected the UCLA game tomorrow, but they have affected the running of "Los Pobladores -- Walk to Los Angeles". The annual nine mile walk from the San Gabriel Mission to the LA River that celebrates the founding of Los Angeles, has been canceled for the first time in the event's 28 year history.
- A local art teacher has chosen to honor the memory of abducted children through his art. He painted a portrait of Jaycee Lee Dugard back in 1991 when she went missing.
- Years later, Harvey Milk is still causing a stir in state government. After the proposal to honor the gay rights pioneer with a "Harvey Milk Day" has passed state legislature, conservatives are asking the Governator to veto it.
- A replica of the Vietnam Veterans Wall is coming to Southern California. The wall will be in Westlake Village from Sept. 4th through Sept. 7th.
- A a dog was reportedly attacked and killed in it's backyard by a mountain lion in Moorpark. The dog was brought to a veterinarian where it was pronounced dead.
- Finally... Former Laker Rick Fox is getting a recurring role on the new Melrose Place as a nightclub owner. [insert joke about scoring here]




Regarding Harvey Milk Day, shouldn't our state government be spending more time ironing out its finances and less time creating random symbolic holidays that nobody observes? The phones fielding all these angry calls aren't answering themselves, and the legislation didn't write itself. Seems we've identified the source of some state expenditures to cut, and maybe pass the savings to the state parks.
Bigot! ...Homophobe! ...H8er!
Way to save $20, MostlyDifferent.
People of all political persuasions have a (stupid?) habit of attacking events/policies/pronouncements they don't agree with as "a waste of money" when it's really not much of a cost at all.
Those people don't answer phones about other things?
I tend to consider most pronouncements, even the ones I agree with, as a waste of time and money. I have no problem with giving a tip of the hat to Harvey Milk. At the very least, though, I find it to be a poor symbolic gesture that the state is in dire financial straits, national parks are being closed, universities are forcing faculty to take furlough days (and thus taking days of instruction away, which may risk the institutions' accreditation), and rather than spending every waking moment trying to fix the horrendous problem, they're out declaring symbolic holidays. I suppose that, on the one hand, they're looking for something positive to do that can be done on the cheap, but on the other hand it really begs the question, "WTF are they doing with their time in Sacramento?"
Holidays for John Muir and the California poppy, as noted in the article, are equally pointless. Nobody knows those dates exist. There are simply too many things that people want to honor, and too few days for the honors to mean anything. If every day is declared special, it quickly dilutes the meaning of having a special day for something.
Some people really get off on awards and commendations, I suppose, but should that really be a top concern of our legislators?
"Harvey Milk is and was a terrible role model for kids," Randy Thomasson, president of SaveCalifornia.com, said before a Thursday news conference outside the Capitol.
So what exactly is Thomasson trying to "save" California from?