California Attorney General Jerry Brown announced yesterday a 10-state settlement with Countrywide which will provide $8.68 billion of home loan and foreclosure relief nationally. California will get $3.5 billion of it. (AP Photo/Jakub Mosur) HotPads compiled a list of the top ten congressional districts with the highest foreclosure rates in the country showing that seven of those districts are in California with five of those in Southern California. While District 18 represented by Dennis......

Now a common feature on college campuses exemplified by USC this semester after a series of violent crimes and a virus outbreak, cities may be the next to go high tech with emergency text message alerts. Yesterday, Santa Clarita announced a new e-Alert system that allows residents to subscribe and receive text messages in the event of a local emergency (of course, if cell towers are down...). Also: LA Times looks into their beautification programs......

The Promenade in Santa Clarita | Photo by tkksummers via Flickr Ten cities in two separate categories are up against each other for an award naming them the most business friendly city of the year in Los Angeles County. Starting in 2006, the LA Economic Development Corporation began the Eddy Awards to "celebrate individuals and organizations that demonstrate exceptional contributions to positive economic development in the region." For example, Santa Clarita does not assess......

A wildfire erupted last night in Goleta, eight miles Northwest of Santa Barbara. It began in the Los Padres National Forest forcing mandatory evacuations of about 40 homes. Yesterday, a small fire was knocked down in the Canyon Country neighborhood of Santa Clarita and nearby in Agua Dulce, a truck caught fire on the Northbound 14 Freeway, but was quickly doused before it could spread to surrounding brush.......

In Santa Clarita, transit officials will roll out a plan within the next nine to twelve months that will make bus commuting less frustrating. GPS tracking on all buses will fill up interactive maps on the city's website as well as ones placed at the city's 35 busiest bus stops, reports The Signal. Additionally, when busses are running late, the system will automatically notify authorities and text message or call commuter's cell phones. Over the......

Although Los Angeles is by most standards a young city, it is a city full of history, regardless. In LAist's past we've looked at the mysterious Spider Pool ruins, the life of James M. Wood, and Campo de Cahuenga, but have barely scratched the surface. Today we're introducing a new feature on the site, LAistory, which will take us on a journey to what came before to help us understand where we are today. We......

Celebrate your weekend. | Photo by ronnie44052 via Flickr Not everyone is going to Coachella this weekend. For those who choose to stay put in Los Angeles, the city is literally filled with events this weekend: AltBuild Expo at SaMo Civic Auditorium: an eco-friendy building & design expo LA Times Festival of Books at UCLA: a must see & do Fiesta Broadway at Downtown: party!......

Newhall isn't even a mini-mini Santa Monica farmers market. / Photo by pink_fish13 via LAist's flickr pool. The answer to the above question, apparently, is when it's held in Old Town Newhall. We heart farmers markets because it allows us to buy our foods directly from the growers. We get fruits and veggies without that waxy residue found at most grocery stores while feeling good about supporting our local economy. And oh yeah, it......

The City of Santa Clarita (that's Valencia/Magic Mountain area and environs) opened its one and only dog park -- Central Bark -- late last year. The 1.3 acre, off-leash doggie park is located in Central Park (27150 Bouquet Canyon Road) and has designated gated areas for small dogs (25 lbs. and under) and larger dogs. It's open from dawn to dusk and is a great place for friendly dogs and their owners to hang......

CSC's Juan José Haedo and High Road's Mark Cavendish stretch for position. Cavendish took 6th and Haedo 7th. | Photo by Matt Cohen San Francisco based photographer Matt Cohen reports from yesterday's Tour of California with photos and explanations of what happened: On its seventh and final stage yesterday at the 2008 AMGEN Tour of California, riders raced from Santa Clarita to Pasadena, often in very heavy rain. The 93-mile Stage 7 was the......

All photos by Scott Groller This weekend, the AMGEN Tour of California hit two Los Angeles area cities, Santa Clarita, yesterday, and Pasadena, today. Photographer Scott Groller was kind enough to share some photos from the finish line of Stage 6 in the Valencia neighborhood of Santa Clarita. The cyclists traveled 105.4 miles from Santa Barbara for a ride that lasted over four hours.......

photo by swanksalot via Flickr Tomorrow is the finish up the AMGEN Tour of California in Pasadena. But before hitting the old money city, they're headed towards Santa Clarita this afternoon (where Six Flags Magic Mountain has decided to stay put). From 4 to 10 p.m. tonight “Rock the Bike,” a free outdoor cycling expo and music festival, will bring together an array of people following the stage 6 finish. Various bands will be......

Photo by Zach Behrens/LAist Remember when there was that big freak out in the Santa Clarita Valley? Six Flags Magic Mountain was going to close and quite possibly become torn down for more housing. Not good. The "extreme" roller coaster theme park is the single largest employer in the area, it fills up the hotels with tourists, adding green to the local economy and hey, it's an institution of the little Valley that could......

The AMGEN Tour of California has returned and it started a couple days ago with a time trial in Palo Alto. The tour makes its way to Sacramento today and then starts heading south towards Los Angeles. The race concludes on Sunday, February 24th with Stage 7 which starts in Santa Clarita and finishes in Pasadena. You can watch the Tour nightly on VERSUS at their 8:00pm slot. The professional commentators that bring you the......

The Santa Clarita Valley region has always been rumoured to have been inhabited by Bigfoot, but what was encountered in the Fall of 1974 was bizarre to say the least, and unlike any typical Bigfoot sighting. Several teenage boys had experiences they would never forget. In October two teenagers in the area observed a tall, muscular creature covered in hair which was carrying a dead pig through the undergrowth. Although they were naturally shocked to......

Yellow = City of Santa Clarita, Blue = Las Lomas Project, Purple = Los Angeles | Source: City of Santa Clarita [pdf] We don't understand why no one wants the Las Lomas project, a proposed 5,500 unit/555-acre development, to be built between the 5 and 14 freeways just north of Los Angeles' border. Come on, how cool would it be to live between two freeways so close together! Not to mention two other freeways......

There's something similar about Weeds on Showtime and today's marijuana bust in the Santa Clarita Valley. If you watch the TV show and know the SCV, you know that it is filmed there (opening credits are very much the neighborhood of unincorporated Stevenson Ranch). And now today, via the Santa Clarita Sheriff's Station's Blog/RSS feed (see, SCV can be hip too), we find that "detectives discovered a substantial indoor marijuana grow estimated to contain more......

Dear Daily News, you bury your excellent stories, columnists and blogs on your website, you let The Signal kick your ass in Santa Clarita and you think a few drops of rain is breaking news. Whisky Tango Foxtrot, dudes. Government offices being closed today is not breaking news; it happens every year, as planned. Drizzle is news of the hour or a weather update, not breaking. Unless the Oscars are canceled, you announcing that......

And maybe some rain boots too. The weather that might have ruined the Rose Parade should strike Los Angeles tomorrow. The LA Times reports that the next four days of rain will most likely bring the most rain in "Southern California since 2005, and possibly even since the 1990s..." The storm will be the strongest on Saturday where up to 10 inches could fall in the mountain areas, 3 inches in the valleys and 8......

Daily News has a report on what Valley state representatives are planning to bring to the table in 2008, many of them green such as Glendale Democrat Paul Krekorian's push to have the state use more renewable energy while giving grants to local municipalities and school districts for that and reusable water. He also is looking into "permeable concrete," which lets water seep into the ground versus into a storm drain to the ocean.......

Preparations for the Tournament of Roses Parade According to the LA Times, the National Weather Service is reporting that a windy a New Years Day Tuesday could have sustained winds of 25 mph and gusts of winds that could blow small children away at 50 mph. Luckily, though, "Pasadena itself will probably be sheltered from the worst of the wind." Rain is likely to come next, however, it's expected later in the week, letting......

Anyone who travels north via The 5 during holidays knows once you start hitting the northern part of the Santa Clarita Valley (a few minutes past Magic Mountain), traffic backs up, making it a slow hump over the Grapevine. Caltrans warns of why traffic will be additionally heavy these next thirteen holiday days:The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) advises motorists planning to travel on the Golden State Freeway (Interstate 5) in north Los Angeles County......

The Geminid Meteor showers are set to peak this week, especially on Thursday and Friday. Um, great date night, anybody? Astronomers studying the phenomenon, David Levy and Stephen Edberg, are terribly enthused: "If you have not seen a mighty Geminid fireball arcing gracefully across an expanse of sky, then you have not seen a meteor.' Those guys are serious!!! "The Geminid Meteors are usually the most satisfying of all the annual showers, even surpassing......

How's this for a lede? "If you get in a car crash in the San Fernando Valley, there's about a 50-50 chance you'll flee the scene - and get away with it." Ha! That's almost instructional. In a comprehensive report on hit-and-runs by the Daily News, it is found there is a lot of hitting, running and general douchebaggery in Los Angeles. Yes, we all knew that after day one, but here are some......

Last week with the Holiday, we said it was slim pickings. This week, classical music in Los Angeles is bountiful and what has piqued our interest is Alternative Opera Theater's three performances this upcoming weekend at the intimate NoHo Arts District space, the Raven Playhouse. The performance will feature two chamber operas, the first being "The Telephone" by Gian Carlo Menotti where a man attempts to propose to the woman she loves. But there's......

ExperienceLA.com and Lonely Planet are running a community based Downtown photo contest. If you win, you're photo will be on the cover of the free guide that will distributed around LA and all over the world. And while you're Downtown shooting photos, drop by Pershing Square to go ice skating through the holidays. The tunnel on the 5 Freeway where a fiery crash killed three, shutting down the tunnel for over a month, reopened......

Despite the risk of building a home, selling a home and moving into a home in a high risk fire zone, companies, homeowners and governments still find it acceptable finds the LA Times today. "This is a land rush into danger," said Roger Kennedy, former director of the National Park Service and author of a recent book on wildfires. "A land rush by people who do not understand what they are doing and who......

Last week's devastating Agua Dulce/Santa Clarita Valley wildfire was started accidentally by a "male juvenile" playing with matches, the L.A. County Sheriff's Department announced Tuesday. The Buckweed Fire blackened over 38,000 acres, destroyed more than 60 structures, and led to an estimated $7.4 million in damages. On October 22, one day after the blaze began, a detective questioned a "boy" who "admitted to playing with matches and accidentally starting the fire," according to the Sheriff's......

By Henry David for LAist.com......

These photos were taken by amateur photographer Chris Mesaros of Santa Clarita, who submitted them to us. We think they're brilliant! Their local government has also posted a neat google map of all the fire incidents. Donation to the rescue efforts can be made here. More great photos after the jump! (photos have been posted with permission from artist)......