The Buzz

A homeowner in north Mission Viejo emailed a warning to residents about break-ins, stating the importance of awareness in preventing home burglaries. Three suspicious people were observed casing a neighborhood prior to a daytime break-in on Dec. 2. They may have been observing residents’ schedules to determine times of day when no one was home. Burglars entered a house (off La Barca, east of Marguerite Parkway) by breaking a sliding glass door at the back of the house. Stolen items were apparently taken out the front door. Police investigators believe items were loaded into a vehicle that pulled into the driveway.

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The Nov. 2 Statement of Votes is official, so isn’t it about time to start the next campaign? Keith Carlson of Huntington Beach has formed an exploratory committee in anticipation he’ll run for a State Assembly seat in 2012 when Assemblyman Jim Silva terms out. Silva, who represents the 67th Assembly District, was first to endorse Carlson as a candidate. Carlson wrote about governing California in an email, “We’ve gone far enough down the road trying to legislate, regulate and tax our way to prosperity – it just doesn’t work. We need leaders in Sacramento who understand that if we are going to turn the Golden State around, we need to completely overhaul the way our state government works.” As an Assembly candidate, Carlson says he is no longer running for vice president of the California Republican Party.

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Save the date: The Mission Viejo Chapter of ACT for America will meet on Mon., Dec. 13, at the Community Center. Doors open at 7 p.m., and the meeting runs from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. Orientation for first-time attendees begins at 7:10 p.m. The featured speaker will be Jim Horn, Retired Foreign Service Officer. His topic will be “Islam and Corruption in the American Government: Why Our Government is Failing to Protect Us from Infiltration and Terrorism.”

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Slopes are improving along Marguerite Parkway, north of La Paz. After being barren and neglected for many years, rows of plants have been added to the city-owned slopes. The effort greatly improves stability and appearance. Appreciation goes to community watchdogs, who pressed for improvements. Another segment where roadside foliage is improving is the east side of Marguerite Parkway between Trabuco and Alicia. City hall gave the impression that vendors had “donated” many of the plants and “volunteers” did the digging as part of Tierra Nativa and other exaggerations about community participation. Residents who watched the process said contractors lined up potted plants prior to alleged community effort, and it took contract workers a long time to finish the job.

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Capo school district ex-administrators James Fleming and Susan McGill are in the news again, trying to get charges against them dismissed after they formed an enemies list of parents and others who supported reform in 2005. Follow the court proceedings in the Dec. 3 OC Register article, http://www.ocregister.com/news/mcgill-278773-fleming-justices.html

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Blog reader comment inspires editorial cartoon: "I don't appreciate the city telling the residents to ‘be a green machine’ and use green grocery bags advertising the mark of the iron tree while they seek out every opportunity to waste taxpayer money on poorly attended events, plastic junk to adorn city hall and billions of lights. How is someone supposed to teach their children to have reverence for the birth of Christ, and to be a good steward of our God-given resources, when each year the city spends increasingly enormous amounts of money drastically overdoing ‘holiday’ displays?"

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Compiled by activist Bob Serrao: “Did You Know?” The Declaration of Independence was written primarily by Thomas Jefferson. The Declaration bears 56 signatures, and the Constitution has 40. Five signed both documents (Benjamin Franklin, George Clymer, George Read, James Wilson and Roger Sherman) involving 91 signers. The Declaration lists the colonists’ grievances at the overreaching power of England’s King George III and taxation without representation. The colonists understood that liberty was of equal value to life itself and that they knew their “lives, fortunes and sacred honor” were lost if this new Republic failed. Eleven years separate the Declaration and the Constitution. The Constitution was hand-written on four pages of parchment. The Bill of Rights contained the first 10 Amendments of the Constitution, added four years after its first penning. The Constitution was created September 17, 1787, and ratified nine months later. Both original Charter Documents are on display in the National Archives, Washington, D.C. Both documents are written in today’s English available at www.intodaysenglish.com $5 per copy.