By George Runner

The budget recently proposed by Governor Jerry Brown contains difficult, but much-needed spending cuts. It more or less seeks to balance revenues with expenses—a challenging task for a state confronting a $25.4 billion budget gap.

UPDATED 4:45 p.m. - Edison is reporting that 481 customers are without power as crews work on replacing the pole. It is unknown when power will be restored. Boundaries of the outage: Newhall Avenue on the north, Meadowridge on the south Valle Del Oro on the west and Shepard Canyon on the east.

4:30 p.m. - All lanes are open on Newhall Avenue.

We may be a red community politically, but we collectively bleed Dodger blue, as thousands of baseball fans call Santa Clarita home. Many of them turn out every year for Santa Clarita Dodger Day, where the entire community is welcome.

Santa Clarita is the largest community day hosted by the Dodgers and this year, the tradition continues – for the 34^th time – with an afternoon game at 4 p.m., Saturday, May 14 against the Colorado Rockies.

The College of the Canyons Fast Track Institute will host an all inclusive Job Information Express orientation event designed to familiarize job seekers with the various opportunities offered by the Institute — and get them on the “Fast Track” to a new job and promising career.