June 30, 2009 by Bill Gould, Publisher.

Dear readers,

The following letter is from Nick Biddle, a Conservative Republican from Temecula. Mr Biddle is a fierce opponent to the proposed quarry for a variety of reasons, a lot of info can be found on this site. Here he presents a new approach to stopping the quarry from going in. It is certainly worth a read.

The video certainly worth a view. It is from CNN.com and about a mining town called Picher Oklahoma. Picher is now a ghost town with poisoned air, land and water. I am sure the people of Picher never thought their town would end up this way, and even if only 1% of what happened in Picher happened in Temecula, Rainbow or Fallbrook it would be too much. Consider all this when thinking about the future of Temecula Valley and if we trully want a mine located where Granite Construction is proposing the ‘Liberty Quarry’. Please feel free to chime in and leave comments.

Bill Gould
Publisher

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Remember when Toyota began exporting ugly, tinny, underpowered little malfunctioning copycat cars to America in 1959? (Yes, I’m that old.) GM’s Caddy Eldorado Biarritz convertible was the American dream machine then. Toyota quickly retreated in abject failure—only to return again a few years later, with a slightly less revolting car. Fast forward. “And the rest is history”, as Paul Harvey used to say. Toyota is now the top selling car in America while mighty GM is bankrupt, done, kaput.

Temecula’s Plan A, just like Toyota’s, didn’t work, with the mullahs of LAFCO in Riverside on June 4th. With an imperious sweep of the hand, they ignored all our written petititions which were arduously, and admirably gathered by hardworking, devoted SOS members and leaders, many erudite and passionate individual speeches. They sternly labeled all of us as farcical, having already leaked to the press the previous week that they were against us, and warning us not to bore them. Okay, so bring on Plan B.

Shift gears. Don’t dig ourselves deeper into the same hole with the same failed strategy. Be agile Toyota, not sclerotic, smug GM.
Copy what works. It’s unnecessary to “re-invent the wheel”. Emulate feisty, adaptable, relentless copycat Toyota. Don’t mope around. Do change strategy.

Here’s Plan B:
Copy (gulp) Granite Construction Company’s proven successful PR and advertising strategy. It works, different from our failed methods. Yes, Granite is very good at what it does. Copy them. The Japanese did cheezy knock-offs of American products fifty plus years ago, as China does today. Similarly we can outdo Granite at its own proven PR game, but we’re for real, not phony or cheezy or dishonest like Granite. When we see their huge color ads featuring laughing children, smiling miners in yellow hardhats, green Liberty Bells, back dropped with crystal blue sky over our beautiful hills with the intoned message “character matters”, we know it’s all sheer, bogus nonsense.

But it WINS!
Our strategy LOSES!

We moan about mountain lions’ and other wild critters’ interrupted paths across SMER, itself a 47 year old world famous national and international treasure. But this only allows Granite to portray us as a bunch of bleeding heart, tree hugging Socialist elitists, while good ole Granite looks out for the regular down home folks of Riverside County just trying to make a living. Our whole approach seems to have obligingly played right into their dishonest PR, like a moth to flame. Instead, let’s focus on a few (or many) groups of the 250,000 people in the Temecula Valley who will be adversely affected by the quarry.

For example:
1. Use as our template, that marvelous multicolored Granite ad. Get real laughing Temecula children and their parents playing in our beautiful, huge, new, proud Birdsall Park, one mile directly downwind from the toxic quarry, instead of the phony yellow hatted smiling truck drivers, child models, and green Liberty Bells. Keep the background blue sky and hills, though. They’re a great touch as Granite knows. We could even steal their smarmy “character matters” mantra, only we’ll be talking about the real character of all the many constituencies and businesses of Temecula and adjacent towns.

2. How about interviewing our resident Abbott Lab scientists, in their gorgeous, new, large office tower, as well as Granite’s truck drivers? Wouldn’t they have a word or two to say? By the way, Abbott has annual sales of $29.5 billion, compared to Granite’s puny $2.7 billion, and 69,000 employees, compared to Granite’s measly 3,500 employees. Shouldn’t we notice that and point it out?

3. So who’s really the 800 pound corporate gorilla in this picture who should be listened to, if we only care about corporate needs, and county tax revenues, as the Riverside Supervisors usually do? Would the Supervisors really want to sacrifice the needs of a far more important classy county client-resident, Abbott, for a rinky dink, often lawbreaking bush leaguer like Granite?
Face it. The Riverside Supervisors don’t care, and never will care, about anything other than what will get them reelected. Granite has money and influence of course, while we don’t have as much, but popular opinion and voters are the really big stick we do have, and which the Supervisors respect. Notice Iran’s Supreme Leader in Tehran today? Amazingly he’s back pedaling a bit, different from the 1979 bloodbath, and is worried about Twitter, the penultimate modern people power.

We need to get that sense of people power through to Riverside. Plan A (critters, environment and SDSU’s SMER) are still just as important as we all know and deeply care about, and must still be emphasized. But it can no longer be our main focus anymore. The 250,000 people and their lifestyle and health must be the main focus henceforth. Abbott’s hundreds of resident Temecula employees, are on our side. Let’s now enroll them and other similar corporate friends in the battle. It’s a lot more than about mountain lions, as Granite knows. At the end of the day, even if it’s only about the money, as Granite and the Supervisors believe, we win that one too, considering all the moneyed, Riverside County taxpaying interests of our community who will suffer from the Granite invasion.

Nick Biddle

Posted in Inland Empire, Old Town Temecula, Liberty Quarry, Anza, Riverside, Riverside County, Real Estate, Dumb, California, Homes, Money, Mortgage, Sports, Cars, Politics, Temecula, Family Attractions, Food, Commentary, Murrieta, Schools, Hiking, Fallbrook, United States of America, San Diego, News | Print | 1 Comment »

June 26, 2009 by PT Rothschild.

WHEN CREATIVITY AND DRIVE MEET IN T-TOWN, LOOK OUT HORACIO ALGER!

Temecula, CA – I’ve often said that this valley in which the cities of Murrieta and Temecula sit is a fertile area for creativity. Earl Stanley Gardner and Raymond Chandler both lived around these parts before Arnold ever lifted his first barbell. When I first came to town, I had a children’s story ‘in the can’ by the six month mark though I haven’t gotten it published yet. The Universal Finger Light and the Metal Mulisha both were introduced to the world from here. The same can be said for Monster Energy Drinks, but perhaps the most inspiring story of all might just be the story of Skin Industries owner, Al Borda. It is a story that would have made Horacio Alger proud. Who is Horacio Alger? Google it, for this tale is all about Al.


This story starts out from a small conversation with Al’s mom down at the USA gas mini-mart where she and her Jag are adored by the day crew. The next story stop was in Los Vegas a few weeks ago when I stopped by the Skin Industries booth to say ‘howdy neighbor’. Lance Thayer, Skin CFO, was between appointments and so I related the Skin mom story to him. He chuckled and said, “You should tell Al about (the meet-up). He would enjoy hearing about it,” and gave me Al’s email. Now I have to say that I knew a little about Skin Industries for in the late 90s I was printing private label, mostly band, T-shirts. I was hoping to break into the clothing market and was trying to come up with a catchy name and a band to wear them, think Blink 182 and Hurley, which Nike later bought ‘cha-ching’. I was pissed when I started to see ‘Skin’ shirts. The name was so simple, yet so profound. I got over being angry at myself for not thinking of it a few days later and life went on. Years later I saw that there was a Skin store in the Murrieta Target center, and said to myself, ‘Damn, Skin (Industries) must be doing alright.’ In the years since, I have seen a black Hummer and Lamborghini both with huge Skin outline stickers across the rear window. Skin Industries has its own energy drink and Skin apparel is available at Tilley’s, No Fear, Pac Sun, Zumiez, Dillard’s, and Macy’s in the States, along with having distribution in Canada, Europe, and Australia, and of course online, not to mention having a booth at FMX and other motor sports functions. At any outdoor dirt/river rat gathering, you will see someone wearing a Skin T-shirt, and usually more than one. Not too shabby for a kid that dropped out of school in the ninth grade, wouldn’t you say? As I walked into the year old ‘new’ offices which sit close to the hills at the outer southwest perimeter of Temecula’s industrial park, I had no idea of what was under the skin of Skin, but I got a clue when I looked down the long hallway and spotted a lone figure standing outside just beyond the glass door intently texting.

Stepping inside the office after Al, the first thing to catch my eye was the absence of any female staff, except for the few who are in pictures that adorn the walls along with past tribute articles done in magazines like Skinnie, Heavy Hitters, and MMA Sport, among others. The second observation was the two massive golden Foo Dogs which stand guard outside the doorway entrance of Al’s office. “I’m very superstitious,” he says. A second tiny pair of dark brown wooden Foo Dogs sits on his neatly compartmentalized desk. “They weed out evil spirits. I don’t believe in religion, in any one religion,” he says. “I’d be broke, living in a box somewhere if I donated to everything people want me to support.” Then he smiles, “I have a good friend who is a Christian pastor that works (in) the super cross and motocross (field), Chaplain Steve. He has spiky blond hair, full on tat sleeves, a really good looking guy. He never tells you to read the Bible and says that he’s ‘not here to advertise my beliefs or religion’ (to the guys). He’s had hard times and is there to help or answer any questions (about God) but he doesn’t Bible thump you the way a lot of Christians do. (Action sports) have a lot of Christian people in them who do.”

Taking a second call, Al apologizes and says to continue the interview because “I can multi-task,” and does, as over the interview period of an hour or so various members of his staff come into his office for final approval on various projects (ads, photos, licensing). Though not hyper or overly stressed, you get the feeling as you look at a guy with some five o’clock shadow, tats on both arms but not complex sleeve work and tats on his knuckles, proving he is no poser, that Al is the Captain of the Skin ocean liner. Suddenly it makes sense that his ‘beautiful’ wife, Holly, sets his work time limit at 60 hours a week. “I grew up really poor so I just work. That is my drug and my passion,” says the man who does no recreational drugs and has about four glasses of wine a year. But he can hang if he has to as Matt, his body guard, quips when he recalls the time when Al ‘slammed down’ a full beer as the group got ready to leave Hooters one night. You can tell that Matt, Lance, who got me a Skin energy drink which was very flavorsome with no aftertaste, Sergio, the Marketing Assistant, and Charles Armstrong, the lead designer (although there are a combined 12 different people currently working on future design art that are on staff), are all friends and teammates. Al is the ‘coach’.

“I was born (January ’72) in Blythewood, AK, on an air force base, but my parents divorced when I was one year old. Then my mother remarried (another man in the Air Force) and we moved to Europe. When I was about eight we came back to the States and settled in Chula Vista because my step-dad was from San Diego. I don’t know why they chose there because being a white boy and speaking no Spanish, well I got stabbed in school, in the sixth grade,” he says as he shows me the faded scar on his arm. “They all said I wouldn’t (amount to anything). We moved to Del Mar (where I) attended Torrey Pines High School that had a bunch of rich kids that went there. These kids’ parents bought them Benz, and Lexus and they got to park on the upper level. The teachers had to park on the lower level, that’s how rich this school was. And since I lived on the other side of the freeway, they let me know that I ‘didn’t live in Del Mar, I lived in San Diego.’ I got the shit beat out of me (on occasion) and left high school in the 9^th grade. I told my mom pretty much right away (about quitting).” His mom and step-dad had split when Al was around 10 or 12 so Al ‘always did my own thing.’ Taking some regular part time jobs like gas station attendant and being a ‘bus boy’, he found real action in becoming an exotic car broker for a major auto procurement company, moving out of the house at 15 ½ and soon had clients like Sly Stallone, Ice T, Mike Tyson, Tu Pac, and Tom Cruise (who had his Rain Man character based off Al’s bosses who are the two brothers that owned the company). “I would find the cars in newspapers at these newsstands in Hillcrest. I would go through the want ads, find a car a client was looking for, and then I would fly out (and get it).” This high octane lifestyle lasted about two and a half years but the street hustler instinct was polished and detailed at a young age.

Al Borda was also making some interesting friends that would later solidify his love of action sports. “I’ve known Tony Hawk since I was 13. His dad ran the Del Mar Skate Ranch. He’s just a couple of years older than me. I also used to ride (dirt) motorcycles a lot. I worked at this one place and behind the building were all these hills. Ken Block, before he started his DC brand shoe company, was part of our group. We had our own (private) motocross track out back. I would draw up (art) designs and they went out in graphic kits for motocross bikes, or ‘skins’ as they are called because they cover the bike fenders. They became a hit.” Once these ‘skin’ designs were done on T-shirts, they became an underground ‘must have’ and Skin Industries was born in 1998. A wall picture showing a blond Bro bombshell standing beside a speed limit sign of ‘98’ MPH attests to that start-up year. “We put more effort in the design and keep doing it the same way as when we started. No one has requested that we do stuff (like Ed Hardy) with rhinestones, sequins and things like that. We are more concerned with design than ‘bling’. We moved the company up here (to this valley) in ’99. I lived Temecula for a few years, then in Murrieta, but the last five years I’ve lived in De Luz.” When I asked how the company had been steered into blowing up so big, Al said very self-effacing, “Well I don’t know if it has yet. It’s been 11 years and a long steady process,” an achievement that’s rare these days since Al and Skin did it without backers, co-owners, bank loans, or creditors. “Every penny (put into this company venture) is mine” is a statement of both motivation and pride. So what’s next for Al? “I’ve been married for 11 months. We got married a year to the day after we met, which was on 8/7/07. I wanted to get married on 8/8/08 since eights are lucky (in the far east Foo Dog culture) but couldn’t get things to work out, too many conflicting schedules, so we got married in Vegas on the day before, the anniversary of our meeting. (This time) I had thought about having a big party at the house, but now we might go to San Francisco because (my wife) has never been (there).”

As I left the office where each person there was wearing a Skin T- shirt (Al had a red design on) from the 250 designs put out over the years, I wondered if one day the name of Al Borda will be synonymous with action sports the way Tony Hawk is with skateboarding. Skin Tees certainly are and it is not through some lucky break or rich parent legacy, just good old-fashioned hard work, elbow grease, and the Simpsons’ way of ‘whatever doesn’t kill you can only make you stronger.’ And in this case also richer. As I said earlier in this story, not too shabby for a ninth grade drop-out who now deserves to park on the upper level of TPHS, should he ever decide to visit his old high school digs. Kick ass!

Posted in Sports, Cars, Money, Boats, California, Motorcycles, United States of America, San Diego, Family Attractions, InViews, Our Favorite Things, Temecula, Schools, Murrieta, News | Print | No Comments »

June 24, 2009 by Bill Gould, Publisher.

Dear Readers,

I got an email from my dear friend Pat Comerchero who runs the Temecula Children’s Museum on Main Street in Old Town Temecula. Pat does great work there in helping to educate kids in a fun way and for that her facility was nominated for a 2009 Nickelodeon Parents Pick Award. I need your help to make sure the Temecula Children’s Museum wins! Please read on and make sure to vote every day, and spread the word to freinds and family!! The TCM is currently in first place with over 53% of the vote with 20 days to go, please help keep them in the lead!!

Please visit: http://gocitykids.parentsconnect.com/parents-picks/san-diego-ca-usa/best-san-diego-museum and vote for the Temecula Children’s Museum!!

Thanks,

Bill Gould

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GREAT NEWS!!! The Temecula Children’s Museum has been selected as a nominee for Nickelodeon’s 2009 Parents’ Pick Award!

This is the second year for this nationally recognized award and nominations are based on recommendations from Nickelodeon’s local city editors. We were notified today.

BAD NEWS!!!!  We are grouped under San Diego, which means that we are competing with their museums like the Space Theater, everything in Balboa Park, etc.

The winners of the award are based on how many on-line votes each nominee receives.

Parents are encouraged to go to http://www.parentsconnect.com/parentspicks! to vote for their favorite.

SO… We need everyone in Temecula to vote for the Temecula Children’s Museum - not once, but every day until July 15!

If you go to the website, you’ll see that we have 1% of the vote while the big S.D. museums have about 43%. But we can make a difference if lots and lots of Temecula residents vote every day until July 15. It seems like a really difficult task, doesn’t it? But knowing how Temeculans stick together, I think we can at least make a big effort!

Truthfully, I am so excited (please forgive if any of this note is a little incoherent!) that I seriously need help from everyone to plan a marketing campaign, since my head is spinning right now. Can any of you who specialize in that sort of thing please volunteer some of your expert help to get the word out and, more importantly, to get people to vote????

I pasted part of the email below - it has the link so you can vote for us. Choose San Diego as the city, click ‘museums’ and then the Temecula Children’s Museum.

Thank you - we really need your support right now to promote Temecula and our very special children’s museum.

Pat Comerchero and the Friends of the Temecula Children’s Museum

www.pennypickles.org

Posted in Anza, Theater, United States of America, Winchester, Inland Empire, California, Riverside County, Old Town Temecula, San Diego, Schools, Temecula, Our Favorite Things, Family Attractions, Murrieta, Wildomar, Menifee, Lake Elsinore, News | Print | No Comments »

June 9, 2009 by Bill Gould, Publisher.

In character, Mark-Paul represented Bayside High on Jimmy Fallon last night. He even rocks out in the band ‘Zach Attack’ at the end of the clip. Awesome, must see TV.

Posted in Cars, Boats, California, Los Angeles County, United States of America, Schools, Music, Commentary, Family Attractions, Our Favorite Things, News | Print | No Comments »

June 5, 2009 by Bill Gould, Publisher.

Murrieta, California - On June 5th, 2009 at 1023am Officers from the Murrieta Police Department responded to the Waterstone Apartments at 24850 Hancock Avenue reference a rape in progress. Officers arrived and found the victim in her apartment with injuries consistent with a violent assault. The suspect had fled the scene prior to officers arriving. During the assault, it was determined the victim bit off the suspect’s tongue in an attempt to defend herself. The tongue was located at the scene by officers. At 1100am, the suspect entered the Emergency Room at Rancho Springs Medical Center seeking treatment for his injury. He was taken into custody by officers and identification was confirmed. It should be noted, Doctors were unable to reattach the tongue.


Further investigation revealed the assault and rape victim was specifically targeted by the suspect. Investigators do not have reason to believe this was a random act. The suspect is confirmed to be a registered sex offender in the City of West Covina, Ronald McGowan. He is required to be a sex registrant because of a previous conviction for rape by force or fear. A motive for the attack is not being released at this time.

The suspect was booked for the listed charges at the Southwest Detention Center. Detective Gomez is handling this case. Anyone with information regarding this incident is encouraged to call Detective Gomez at 951-461-6356.

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At about 8:40 p.m., on 6-2-2009, Murrieta Officers responded to Creekside High School on Hayes Avenue to investigate a reported strong armed robbery. The robbery victim told officers that he was approached by two men who asked the victim if he had any marijuana. The victim told the suspects “no” and they asked the victim if the victim’s friend had any marijuana. The two suspects approached the victim’s friend who was in the driver’s seat of a nearby parked car. One suspect tried to open the driver’s door while the second suspect punched the driver through the open sun roof. The driver fearing his car was going to be taken quickly drove away.

The two suspects then confronted the original victim pushing and hitting the victim while emptying his pockets. The suspects took the victim’s I-pod, cell phone and back pack. The victim last saw the suspects leaving in a tan compact car.


The investigating officer, Ed Vazquez, knowing that the suspects were looking for marijuana was able to contact the suspects by text messaging the victim’s cell phone. Through a short conversation, the officer arranged to meet the suspects under the pretense of selling them some marijuana. As the suspects were arriving at the meet point, other Murrieta officers stopped them at the intersection of Hancock and South Las Brisas. Three suspects were taken into custody and all of the victim’s property was recovered.

Arrested for robbery, attempt car-jacking , conspiracy and booked at Southwest Detention Center were:

Edward Munoz, 18 years, Temecula resident
Michael Burks, 18 years, Temecula resident
Quashawn Burks, 20 years, Chicago, Illinois resident

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On Monday morning at about 7:34 a.m., Murrieta police officers responded to a report of a suspicious vehicle (white Geo Metro) and occupant parked near the water towers east of the intersection of Jefferson Avenue and Grizzley Ridge. Officer Matt Mozingo contacted the occupant of the parked vehicle finding the man naked from the waist down. During the subsequent investigation, officers recovered over 100 pieces of recently stolen mail belonging to 21 different victims. The mail was believed to have been stolen from community mailboxes in Murrieta (Calle Cipres, Karen Place and Amberleaf Lane). In addition to the stolen mail recovered from inside the Geo Metro, officers recovered a small amount of methamphetamine and narcotic paraphernalia. The investigation is continuing with assistance from the US Postal Inspector.

Shaun M. BYRNE was arrested for possession of methamphetamine, possession of narcotic paraphernalia, possession of stolen property and a parole violation. BYRNE was booked at Southwest Detention Center.

Posted in Money, Riverside County, Homes, Gangs, Los Angeles County, Dumb, Inland Empire, Cars, Crime, Murrieta, Schools, Illinois, Drugs, News | Print | No Comments »