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Jogging for justice Santa Barbara teen organizes 5K to promote social justice
By MITCHELL WHITE NEWS-PRESS ASSOCIATE EDITOR
Kaitlyn Tang admits she isn’t much of a runner, but that’s not stopping her from trying to make a difference. The 16-year-old upcoming junior at Providence School is following her heart as she spearheads the Run for CommUNITY 5k, a virtual race scheduled for Saturday. The virtual event allows people from across the city, county and even the country to participate in their own neighborhoods in order to stay safe during the COVID-19 pandemic. “The idea really came about because I just wanted to encourage the community,” Kaitlyn told the News-Press. “In the news, it’s all negative when you scroll through the news feed or look on the news. “I just really wanted to do something to bring a positive impact on our community – our great community here in Santa Barbara.” Kaitlyn launched a GoFundMe campaign a few weeks ago in an effort to bring more social awareness to the recent racial injustices that have occurred. The campaign exceeded its $1,000 goal earlier this week. All proceeds from the event will go to Santa Barbara Young Black Professionals, the first and only young professionals group in the area that is catered towards fostering the African American community and creating opportunities for young professionals. Kaitlyn, whose parents lead Waypoint Church in Santa Barbara, met the group’s founder, Quienna Broadnax, while attending church. The two have since become close friends. “This is really an amazing organization,” Kaitlyn said of SBYBP. “They do a lot of mixers, events, opportunities, different social awareness things.” Kaitlyn’s mother, Rebekah, explained that Waypoint, which was formerly the SB Church of Christ, is very diverse in that it supports all races, and social and economic backgrounds. “She’s used to people of all
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Falcon 9 sits on the launch pad in 2016 at Vandenberg Air Force Base, which would benefit under a defense bill that was approved by both houses of Congress. The House and Senate must now reconcile their versions of the bill.
Defense bill benefits Vandenberg AFB National Defense Authorization Act passed the Senate on Thursday
By PAUL GONZALEZ NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
RAFAEL MALDONADO/NEWS-PRESS
Santa Barbara teen Kaitlyn Tang is organizing a virtual 5K to support the racial injustices that have occurred recently.
colors, you know?” Ms. Tang said. Kaitlyn said that, despite all the “I think for her she was just kind negative issues being discussed in of shocked. … And obviously we the news, her church has shown a are an Asian family, but she hasn’t lot of unity. really necessarily “I’ve seen a lot had experience To see streaming video of unity despite with racism herself differences in GO TO personally, but I diversity, so I really newspress.com think just hearing just wanted to show the stories it kind of that aspect of our really made her sad. church to the community,” she said. “Santa Barbara is kind of like While in-person church service a little bubble,” Ms. Tang said. is not currently being offered due “We have so many friends of all to the pandemic, Kaitlyn said nationalities and she said, ‘I want that hasn’t stopped the group to do something.’” from being “a really loving and
encouraging community.” “Even though we’re distanced and we’re not meeting in person, it’s been really encouraging,” she said, adding that virtual meetings have been held to keep the church community connected. “We’ve also been having our church live stream on YouTube and Facebook, so it’s nice that even though we’re not in person, just being able to look at the chats and everyone being so welcoming and encouraging even though we’re distanced,” she said. Please see fundraiser on A8
Both houses of Congress have approved a defense bill that includes support for the space program at Vandenberg Air Force Base. The National Defense Authorization Act features $5 million in funding for Space Force launch range services at several sites, including Vandenberg. The bill also includes funding for military-university partnerships with UCSB and Cal Poly and protection for land in the Los Padres National Forest and the Carrizo Plain in San Luis Obispo County. Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara, secured the local priorities for the defense bill, which passed the House on Tuesday and the Senate on Thursday.
The bipartisan measure provides $741 billion in defense and security funding. It passed the Senate with a decisive 86-14 vote. The bill passed in February in the House of Representatives. The House and Senate must now go to conference and reconcile their versions of the measure. “I’m pleased to see our Central Coast values are strongly represented in this year’s NDAA. I fought to include protections for our public lands, bring offshore wind energy opportunities to Morro Bay and enhance our military-university partnerships,” Rep. Carbajal said in a statement. “Every year that I have sat on the Armed Services Committee, we have been able to cross the aisle and find a bipartisan consensus on these impactful Please see bill on A7
Ventura sued for removing Serra statue By JOSH GREGA NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
‘Not everybody is happy’
Businesses oppose West Victoria Street closure
considered in the decision-making process. Jill Seltzer is the managing director of the Ensemble Theatre To help support and Company at The New Vic, located accommodate local restaurants at 33 W. Victoria St. who cannot seat customers inside, “Ensemble Theatre Company the city of Santa Barbara sealed only learned about the proposed off all traffic from West Victoria closure of the block Street, from of West Victoria on State Street to To see streaming video which The New Vic Chapala Street on GO TO sits in the past few Thursday. Mimicking the newspress.com days,” Ms. Seltzer told the News-Press. “We closure of State do have some longStreet downtown to term concerns about what the create a promenade, the closure decision means for ETC and The aims to help restaurants within New Vic, and we look forward to the Public Market, along with addressing those concerns with Scarlett Begonia, Olio E Limone the city.” and Bouchon. Nikki Ayers owns Ayers While restaurant owners Automotive Repairs at 1301 praised the decision of the city, Chapala St. She has run the business owners also in the area business in that location for 43 expressed concern with how their businesses will be affected, and Please see closure on A8 some said they felt they weren’t By GRAYCE MCCORMICK NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
RAFAEL MALDONADO/NEWS-PRESS
Nikki Ayers, owner of Ayers Automotive Repairs at 1301 Chapala St., says she doesn’t think the closure of West Victoria Street is fair and she doesn’t feel that she was considered. She worries about how it will affect her business.
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The nonprofit Coalition for Historical Integrity has sued the city of Ventura over the Ventura City Council’s decision to remove the statue of Father Junipero Serra from the front of Ventura City Hall. The statue was removed during early Thursday and is to be moved to Mission San Buenaventura. In a memorandum of points filed with the Ventura Superior Court by the Coalition for Historic Integrity’s attorney Jim McDermott, the plaintiff accuses the city of Ventura of “manufacturing a post hoc rationale” for its decision to remove the statue. It alleges that after individuals started agitating for the statue’s destruction in June, the city quickly decided to remove it and got around California Environmental Quality Act guidelines that would have prevented its removal by the city’s Historic Preservation Committee, concluding the statue didn’t qualify as a historic
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The Father Junipero Serra statue, as seen here in front of Ventura City Hall, has been removed and moved to Mission San Buenaventura.
resource. The memorandum claims this conclusion was reached despite Please see statue on A7
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