GIGA GRANADA HILLS

VOTE on who will run the new Granada Hills high school - Tomorrow, JANUARY 29! The LAUSD is holding an advisory vote on who will run the new high school located at 10445 Balboa Blvd., Granada Hills, 91344 (Balboa near Devonshire): VRHS#4 (Valley Regional High School #4). The new school falls under the LAUSD Board Resolution for Public School Choice (PSC). Under this provision, an application process has been developed for LAUSD educators, charter school operators, partnerships, non-profits and other independent groups to submit plans aimed at improving student achievement. From the Daily News: " Nine applicants have submitted proposals to run all or portions of these two schools. Among those applications is a proposal by district officials to launch a performing arts high school on the Granada Hills campus. The high-performing Granada Hills charter high school is also b...

I'm sure I'm not the only person who's been wondering why Brad Smith pulled the quizzical move of pulling out of the City Council race and then getting back in again just a week later. So I quizzicaled him, and here's what he had to say. GGH : Why did you drop out of the race, and then get back in again? Smith : Because like everyone else in this economy, I had to weigh very real family obligations -- I’m the sole income earner in my family, and for the first couple of months, I could work during the day and campaign at night and on the weekend. But when I got the endorsements from the Democratic Party of the San Fernando Valley and the L.A. County Democratic Party, it made it a very different type of campaign. My employer had been very supportive, but it came to a point where I had to make a very, very tough decision. I want to serve our community, but simply put, Maria and I are not millionaires. We have only one income. We have kids. We need health insurance....

Brad Smith is back in the race for City Council. Smith, who withdrew on January 13, on January 19 sent a letter to supporters that said, "One week ago, we had to put this campaign on hold because of very real issues that anyone working in today's economy can identify with; today, those issues have been resolved." Related posts: Brad Smith Withdraws From Campaign Candidate Interview Series: Brad Smith

The final installment in the GigaGranadaHills Candidate Interview series features proud republican Navraj Singh, who, after an unsuccessful bid for congress, has scaled down his ambition to a city council seat.

Continuing a trend that historians have termed the great Granada Hills Grocerypocalypse, Giga Granada Hills has received word that the Albertson's store on the corner of San Fernando Mission and Woodley is slated to be closed some time in February. Albertsons is closing three other Southern California stores as well, none of which are in Granada Hills, so those aren't the ones you have to worry about. Albertsons said that the soon-to-be-shuttered locations were underperforming, and said in a press release said that "Albertsons strives to ensure the success of all its stores, however, it is occasionally necessary to close those that are not meeting company goals in today's competitive and difficult economic environment."

The garbage at Sunshine Canyon might make a big mountain, but not a stable one. According to a letter from Wade Tsuda of Los Angeles Building and Safety, on January 11, "About 4-5 acres near the county scales had fissured and portions of the access road to the county scales and adjacent hillside had slid." Tsuda's letter described an immense crevasse in the trash, saying the slide had formed an approximately 20 to 25 foot long gap that ranged from 3 to 25 feet deep, and that "there was considerable earth movement and large cracks were visible in the hillside below the offices." Onsite staff buildings were evacuated, and power lines, which fell during the slide, had to be deenergized. There were no reported injuries. The access road that serves the landfill was damaged by the slide, and was described as "unstable and barricaded." This resulted in a backup of trash trucks to the area, and Valley Traffic was called in to manage the jam on San Ferna...