Santa Barbara News-Press: January 14, 2023

Newsom visits Randall Road Debris Basin

Governor praises California National Guard’s around-the-clock work to clean Montecito site ahead of this weekend’s storms

By DAVE MASON NEWS-PRESS MANAGING EDITOR

Gov. Gavin Newsom stood Friday afternoon in front of a new debris basin that officials say made the difference for Montecito during this week’s storms.

Before the governor addressed a large group of elected officials and media on a partly cloudy day, 80 members of the California National Guard worked around the clock to clean 50,000 cubic yards of debris from the new Randall Road Debris Basin, which was completed just months before the storm that slammed Santa Barbara County Monday and Tuesday — five years after the catastrophic Jan. 9, 2018 debris flow.

After bringing up members of the National Guard to the microphone, Gov. Newsom told

his audience, “Here we are trying to get ahead of this,.” He was referring to this weekend’s storms, which experts have said will be less severe than the one that hit Santa Barbara County early this week.

“I was just down with the Bucket Brigade,” Gov. Newsom said, referring to the Montecito nonprofit that emerged in the aftermath of the 2018 debris flow.

“They’re on demand, delivering sandbags all over the region. It came from the ashes of the devastation five years ago.”

Gov. Newsom said the spirit of community volunteerism and cooperation “is alive and well,” not only on the South Coast but in North County.

The governor praised first responders for the rescues they performed during the Monday/ Tuesday storm.

After the governor’s speech, he took questions from the media, and the News-Press asked him whether President Joe Biden would come to California to see the storm damage. Gov. Newsom said he would wait for the White House to make an announcement.

The News-Press later asked Gov. Newsom about the response California, including Santa Barbara County, has received from President Biden in terms of help.

“It’s been exceptional,” Gov. Newsom said, praising President Biden and his staff for their fast response.

“The president called me a couple days ago, before I formally made a request,” the governor told the News-Press. “He said, ‘Let me know when you submit it.’ I said, ‘Mr. President, this afternoon. …

“The FEMA director is out

here visiting” in California, Gov. Newsom said, referring to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Earlier, Gov. Newsom said developments such as atmospheric rivers have led to challenges in emergency responses. “The questions are, ‘Are we resilient enough, creative enough, so we can thrive, not just survive?” he said.

Gov. Newsom noted 88 major water projects have been completed in California since 2016.

As he stood in front of the debris basin and the greenery of rural Montecito, Gov. Newsom noted nature’s turbulence is part of what created California’s natural settings.

“The beauty of this place is

s torms in Montecito: Then and now

By KATHERINE ZEHNDER NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

Exactly five years after the Jan. 9, 2018 debris flow, another storm hit Montecito.

But to everyone’s relief, the storm on Monday and Tuesday of this week paled in comparison to the 2018 disaster.

The recent storm claimed no lives and caused no injuries, and damages were less severe than that caused by the 2018 storm.

The 1/9/2018 debris flow began at approximately 4 a.m. while the Thomas Fire was still burning in the back country and a high intensity rain began. In just five minutes, 0.89 inch of rain fell, which triggered a debris flow

in the community that caused the loss of 23 lives and damaged or destroyed more than 500 properties, according to Montecito Fire Chief Kevin Taylor.

Among the 23 lives lost in the debris flow were David and Jack Cantin, husband and son respectively, of Kim Cantin. The Cantins’ daughter, Lauren Cantin, who was buried in mud, was rescued by Montecito firefighters, who, along with other first responders, were praised as heroes in the community.

This week, first responders again worked to protect residents.

But fortunately, the recent storms were less severe than the one that hit on Jan. 9, 2018.

This time around, the damage “is limited to a handful of

roadways and full debris basins and only three homes with minor flooding,” Chief Taylor told the News-Press.

A much different story than five years ago.

Since Jan. 9, 2018, there has been community education, preparation and coordination between the Montecito Fire Department and the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s office as well as coordination between the fire departments on the South Coast, according to Chief Taylor.

The News-Press asked Chief Taylor how the experience with the 2018 disaster helped efforts to prepare for the recent storm.

“We were not overly prepared, I don’t think it is possible to be overly prepared. The term I would

use is appropriately prepared,” Chief Taylor said.

“On Jan. 9, 2023, the community suffered a debris-laden flood,” he said. “The flood control system worked as designed with no loss of life and minor property damage.”

One of the most visible signs of damage from the storm early this week is the major damage to East Mountain Drive, shown in the photo with this story.

“East Mountain Drive is still closed and will likely require several months’ worth of repairs,” said Chief Taylor.

The News-Press spoke with local experts and officials about the comparison between the current storm and the 2018 debris flow.

“The Montecito debris flow was

in its own category and should not be compared for reservoir levels. It was bone dry prior to the arrival of very intense 5-30 minute rainfall that caused the debris flow in 2018,” Eric Boldt, warning coordination meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Oxnard, told the News-Press. “Storm totals with that particular storm were in the range of 2-4 inches and really did not create any flows at all into the reservoirs. It normally takes a solid 10-15 inches of rain in the watershed to begin to have runoff into the reservoirs.”

Since the Jan. 9, 2018 debris flow, improvements have been made that likely minimized the damage caused by the recent storm.

“Construction was completed in the fall of 2022 on the Randall Road debris basin,” Lael Wageneck, the public information officer for the Santa Barbara County Public Works Department, told the News-Press. “This project dates back to the Thomas Fire and 1/9 debris flow when community members expressed support for a new debris basin. The project was approved in August 2020, and construction on the $21.3 million project — the largest debris basin in Montecito, began in May 2021.

“The project was funded by a FEMA $13.5 million Hazard Mitigation Program Grant and a state $4.5 million Community Development Block Grant,” Mr.

This week was less severe than the 2018 debris flow; fire chief says debris basin improvements helped

KENNETH SONG / NEWS-PRESS PHOTOS

At left, Lauren Cantin, then 14, is pulled from the wreckage of a collapsed house by emergency personel after the devastating debris flows of 2018. At right, the partially collapsed portion of East Mountain Drive running parallel to Cold Spring Creek is shown in Montecito on Wednesday.

KENNETH SONG / NEWS-PRESS PHOTOS

Gov. Gavin Newsom praises the spirit of community volunteers, including the next generation, in response efforts for this week’s storms. Behind him are other elected officials and members of the National Guard who worked on cleaning out the Randall Road Debris Basin before this weekend’s storm.

Please see NEWSOM on A3

This weekend we’ll try something new: A smattering of news media reports since last Saturday annotated with our own salient (if acerbic) exposition.

We’ll start with COVID-19 news:

• “New XXB.1.5 COVID Variant

‘Most Transmissible Yet.’”

Do they not get it? Nobody cares! They locked us down, screwed us around and shot us up with an experimental vaccine that — if various (and mostly censored) scientific studies are to be believed – may have killed more people than COVID-19 itself.

Consequently, no one trusts Big Pharma anymore. If those greedy scumbags claim tomorrow to have discovered a vaccine for cancer, no intelligent person would have any good reason to believe them or take their jab.

• “COVID Still Being Used to Control Americans.”

“They (the government) never really had anything quite this good when it comes to controlling the populace,” says former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Dr. Ben Carson, “and they’re trying to adjust that to figure out the way that they can maximize their control of the American people.”

Indeed, governments controlled things pretty well with COVID for much too long. But the backlash is always a pain. Because only the most devoted sheeple will ever again allow themselves to be locked down and pin cushioned. And the rest of us have grown savvy to their ploys and remain on high alert for new control schemes.

•

“It’s Not Just Damar Hamlin. Hundreds of Athletes Globally are ‘Suddenly’ Collapsing from Cardiac Arrest.”

At this point, anyone still in denial about what COVID vaccines have done are either wearing blinders or they’re just plain ignorant.

•

“The White House Covid Censorship Machine: Newly Released Emails Show how Officials Coerce Social-media Companies to Tow the Government Line.”

Rob Flaherty, the White House “director of digital media” (yes, that’s really a job, paid for with your money), sent this email in 2021 to Facebook: “We are gravely concerned that your service is one of the top drivers of vaccine hesitancy — period.”

Facebook capitulated and agreed to block what they referred to as “often-true content” (!) simply on the basis that such truth “can be framed as alarmist and shocking.”

The tragic part here is that the truth in this case — an experimental “vaccine” not preventing COVID and instead causing myocarditis, coronaries, strokes and death — was, in fact, quite alarming and very shocking.

Simple rule of thumb from this point on: If you haven’t been jabbed, don’t bother. If you have been jabbed, evade getting boosted, especially if you’re an athlete. And don’t be bamboozled into vaccinating your children.

Moving on from COVID-19 vaccines:

• “Experts Fear Elderly Billionaires Will Become Immortal and Compound Their Wealth & Power.”

The wishful thinking of billionaires!

Can you imagine, having multibillions in the bank, the biggest most luxurious yachts, a private jet to fly anywhere in the world and the best real estate in all of the finest locales — and still you have to transcend this earthly/ human experience like everyone else?

It must drive them nuts!

So now these billionaires — Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Mike Bloomberg — are investing their money into ways to stay alive — if not forever at least until the age 150 — not least so they can amass even more wealth.

But there is no escape: Six-feetunder or ashes in the urn is the ultimate leveler no matter how fabulous your lifestyle or how many toys you’ve collected.

• “House Republicans to Vote on Bill Abolishing IRS, Eliminating Income Tax.”

This plan calls for replacing income tax with consumption tax. As with death (see above), this fairer system of taxation would be the great equalizer. But don’t hold your breath. New taxes often get introduced but, not unlike communism, older taxes never go away.

• “Vladimir Putin’s Troops Using Bodies of Dead Soldiers ‘Like Makeshift Walls.’”

It is now estimated that more

than 100,000 Russian soldiers have been killed warring against Ukraine with 300,000 more suffering life-changing injuries.

With so many rotting corpses (and blood on his hands), Mad Vlad Putin appears to see an opportunity: Use them to shield conscripted and untrained troops from slaughter in his frontline meat grinder.

“Hundreds of dead bodies are piled on top of each other like makeshift walls,” says Ukrainian military intelligence official Kyrylo Budanov. “Russian troops use those bodies for cover.”

• “Moscow to Mobilize 500,000 New Conscripts.”

Thus, many more dead soldiers to be used as a shield for trenches reminiscent of World War I.

Human life and suffering means zero to psychopathic Putin. He cares only about his own legacy, which is already aflame and destined for purgatory. A new online petition signed by 42,500 Russians states “We are against the dehumanization and normalization of death” adding that those in power “cannot be trusted.”

Meantime, oil prices continue to plummet, meaning less money for President Vladimir Putin to fight his wretched war. Woe is he as former Russian Parliamentarian Ilya Ponomarev announces … • “Putin Will be Dead by October”

… and, adds Mr. Ponomarev, who is leading a movement from the Ukraine to transform Russia into a democracy: “Putin’s power resides in his position as an alpha male, as the person who is invincible. My forecast is he will not see his next birthday.”

We can only hope this forecast is correct, though nine months is a long way off and the sooner Vlad is gone, the better for everyone, Ukrainians and Russians especially.

“My personal dream,” continues Mr. Ponomarev, “is to see him in The Hague, but I don’t think he will make it. Those around him will not allow him to go to The Hague because his testimony may be harmful to them. He will be killed.”

• “Pope Francis Calls Out Putin for his Destruction as ‘A Crime Against Humanity.’ ”

Why has it taken the Pope so long?

Over 22 years ago, a former British Prime Minister called Putin out according to … • “Unearthed Video Clip in which Putin is Torn Apart by Margaret Thatcher/ It was Sept. 20, 2000. Mrs. Thatcher was speaking at a college in Mississippi. “I looked at pictures of Mr. Putin, trying to look for a trace of humanity,” she said. “I should, within a few weeks, have known better. Because you know what happened?”

What happened was this: An explosion aboard the Kursk submarine during a Russian naval exercise in which 118 sailors perished because President Putin did not act to save them and refused assistance from other nations.

“That, my friends, was very, very revealing indeed,” said Mrs. Thatcher. “They still do not value human life in the same way that we do. And I am relieved that Mr. Putin got so much criticism for what he should have done but didn’t.”

Little did Mrs. Thatcher know what would follow with assassinations, radioactive poisons and invasions.

• “Putin Replaces Russia’s Top Commander in Ukraine.”

It seems like almost yesterday (it was three months ago) that Sergey Surovikin, a monster general nicknamed “Armageddon,” was placed in sole command of Russian troops.

Which means that even the man known for “total ruthlessness” could not pull off what Mr. Putin still calls a “special military operation” meant to last one week and continues, almost one year later, to deplete Russia’s military manpower and equipment.

• “Classified Documents from Biden’s Time as VP Discovered in Private Office.”

The usual double-standard and hypocrisy is followed by the usual runaround of feeble excuses from minions, not President Joe Biden, who at first would not answer reporters’ questions about files containing intelligence on Ukraine, Iran and the U.K.

As vice president, Mr. Biden did not even have the authority to declassify documents and thus most assuredly broke the law by keeping them in his possession.

When President Biden spoke with Scott Pelley of CBS last September, he said about Donald

Trump’s possession of classified matter: “What data was in there that may compromise sources and methods?”

Good question, Joe. Was there any data in the files YOU kept that compromised sources and methods?

President Biden added, referring to The Donald, “How could anyone be that irresponsible?”

Well, now he knows, firsthand.

• “Biden Aides Find Second Batch of Classified Documents at New Location.”

How many batches are there in how many different locations?

Well, just before this column’s deadline, we learn that a second cache of secret documents was discovered in the garage of Biden’s Wilmington home in a storage space next to his Corvette!

Joe’s response to Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy at a White House press conference: “By the way, my Corvette’s in a locked garage, OK?”

No, not OK, Joe.

In fact, it’s illegal.

If a common Joe in the military was found to have classified documents in his garage, guess what? He’d be court-martialed and sent to prison.

But as we know, in our culture today, quoting George Orwell’s novel “Animal Farm,” “some pigs are more equal than others.”

“It’s not like it’s sitting out in the street,” President Biden continued, putting the other foot in his mouth.

This response/excuse is not only insulting to the American public, but is as feeble as the president himself and actually downright demented.

President Biden then added, somewhat absurdly given the gravity of the situation: “People know I take classified documents seriously.”

Not anymore, Joe!

It is now clear this breach was known by the Biden Bunch for two months but concealed from the public.

Clearly, a cover-up is under way as the Biden White House scurries to obfuscate rather than answer questions about what was in docs or when President Biden knew he had them in his possession.

Whatever happened to Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein?

Katherine Graham and Ben Bradlee are turning in their graves as they watch how the Jeff Bezos-owned Washington Post demurs from aggressively investigating Joe Biden’s treacherous and potentially treasonous shenanigans and

ROBERT ERINGER Please see ERINGER on A6

Today Sun.

City Hi/Lo/W Hi/Lo/W

Cuyama 54/41/r 50/42/sh

Goleta 59/49/r 61/47/c

Lompoc 59/48/r 57/48/sh

Pismo Beach 59/48/r 56/50/sh

Santa Maria 58/47/r 57/50/sh

Santa Ynez 58/47/r 57/45/sh

Vandenberg 59/51/r 58/50/sh

Bakersfield 60/46/r 56/48/sh

Barstow 60/44/r 57/45/c

Big Bear 41/30/r 35/28/sf

Bishop 43/30/sn 42/32/pc

Catalina 57/50/r 53/48/c

Concord 57/47/r 54/47/sh

Escondido 58/51/r 57/49/c

Eureka 55/46/r 55/45/r

Fresno 56/46/r 55/49/sh

Los Angeles 56/49/r 59/49/c

Mammoth Lakes 32/22/sn 27/22/sf

Modesto 55/44/r 52/46/sh

Monterey 58/48/r 55/48/sh

Napa 56/44/r 53/46/sh

Oakland 58/49/r 55/49/sh

Ojai 55/42/r 57/44/c

Oxnard 58/49/r 58/49/c

Palm Springs 65/50/r 62/48/sh

Pasadena 55/47/r 58/48/c

Paso Robles 58/44/r 53/47/sh

Sacramento 55/45/r 53/46/r

San Diego 62/56/r 62/54/c

San Francisco 58/50/r 55/51/sh

San Jose 57/47/r 53/49/sh

San Luis Obispo 58/48/r 56/50/sh

Santa Monica 55/52/r 59/52/c

Tahoe Valley 36/22/sn 31/27/sn

Atlanta 47/30/s 55/35/s

Boston 37/31/sn 38/28/sn

Chicago 38/29/s 43/39/pc

Dallas 61/48/s 68/60/c

Denver 54/30/pc 40/26/c

Houston 62/50/s 74/64/c

Miami 62/42/s 67/49/s

Minneapolis 34/30/c 38/32/c

New York City 38/29/c 40/30/s

Philadelphia 39/27/pc 45/27/s

Phoenix 67/54/c 64/50/r

Portland, Ore. 52/45/c 48/40/r

St. Louis 44/32/s 51/45/c

Salt Lake City 48/37/c 41/30/sn

Seattle 56/45/sh 51/43/r

Washington, D.C. 42/29/pc 46/30/s

Beijing 40/8/c 35/12/pc

Berlin 48/44/c 48/37/sh

Cairo 66/53/pc 66/52/pc

Cancun 75/61/pc 76/65/pc

London 54/38/r 47/33/sh

Mexico City 72/39/s 74/43/s

Montreal 24/5/pc 22/8/s

New Delhi 64/39/pc 60/37/pc

Paris 55/42/r 48/38/pc

Rio de Janeiro 90/78/pc 87/76/pc

Rome 60/44/pc 60/52/pc Sydney 78/67/c 83/69/s

Tokyo 61/49/sh 53/43/r

the Santa Barbara News-Press, P.O. Box 1359, Santa Barbara, CA 93102. Published daily.

Storm forces closure of veterinary hospital

SOLVANG — The Solvang Veterinary Hospital has been forced to temporarily close due to flooding damage from the recent storm.

According to the owner and veterinarian Belinda Abbot, rain started coming down and people were telling her to evacuate. The hospital was under water in a matter of hours.

Only four animals had to be evacuated. Now the work is being done to clean up.

According to Ms. Abbot, when the business does reopen its doors, services will be limited to the basics such as vaccinations and medicine until rebuilding can be done.

The hospital is located at 2025 Mission Drive in Solvang. It’s part of the Nielsens Shopping Center.

— Katherine Zehnder

Water to be released from Lake Cachuma today

traveled down into the community below (State Route) 192,” he said.

Wageneck said.

On Friday, crews, assisted by the National Guard, continued to clear out debris from the new basin in anticipation of this weekend’s rain.

In addition to the new basin, “the Santa Barbara County Flood Control District modified three South County debris basins and is in the planning and design phase for two others,” Mr. Wagenceck said. “The modifications improve sediment processes while still providing flood protection and debris control for large storm events.

“Three basins (Maria Ygnacio Main Branch, East Branch and Romero Creek) have already been successfully modified,” he said. “Modification work on the Cold Springs Basin is planned for 2023 and on San Ysidro in 2024.”

Mr. Wageneck also spoke to how the improvements helped with preparation for the recent storm.

“The Randall Road Debris Basin received an estimated 30,000-50,000 cubic yards of material. Had that basin not been there, that material would have

“All of the basins in the burn area reached or nearly reached capacity. While there has been some damage to the roads in the area and multiple closures, the basins did their job by preventing large material from traveling further down the creeks.”

Mr. Wageneck told the NewsPress that occurring today would be a water release of 2,000 cubic feet per second from Lake Cachuma.

Local experts spoke to concerns about Lake Cachuma spilling over, especially going into the rainy months of February and March.

“When Lake Cachuma starts to spill it will raise the river level. However, there is plenty of room to accommodate more water flow if it remains in the lower thousands (cfs),” Mr. Boldt of the National Weather Service told the News-Press.

“The forecasts for February and March remain favorable for below normal precipitation totals and with a week of more of dry weather, the flows in the river will be back to baseline levels,” said Mr. Boldt.

Noted Mr. Wageneck, “We are doing everything we can

to maximize water supply while protecting communities downstream from flooding. It’s incredibly beneficial for the five agencies that take water from Cachuma. Last year, no new water was allocated to them from Cachuma. The lake was down to 30% full, and things looked rather dire.

“So obviously, filling the lake makes a big difference in the short-term water supply for those agencies,” he continued.

“It’s still very early in the rainy season, our three rainiest months are ahead of us, and now we are coming into those months with a full reservoir. So we will be vigilant about the storms coming in and try to ensure they don’t lead to flooding downstream.

“With this last storm, the lake had a buffer because the lake was at 33% capacity. But it won’t have that buffer with the lake now at 100% capacity. When this happens, we release water before or during storms to make space for the new water,” said Mr. Wageneck.

The following are the current reservoir levels as of 5:20 p.m.

Friday: — Alisal: 600 feet; 2,380.00 acrefeet and 34.39 inches of rainfall

resourceful. We’re rugged’

demonstrably because of the violence of nature going back a millennium,” he said. “It is that ferocity that created so much of what we’ve come to love about the state of California.”

Gov. Newsom said Californians are up to the challenge of living with nature.

“We’re resourceful. We’re rugged,” he said. “We’re here again, mindful that we need to quickly pivot our approach to hydrology, how we store water, how we replenish water, how we protect the people that we serve.

“We expect 1 to 3 inches of rain, mild to heavy throughout the state,” Gov. Newsom said.

“California is the size of 21 state populations. We’re dealing with a scale (of storms) that we’ve never dealt with.”

Earlier during the news conference, various local, state and federal officials spoke.

“Geologists are fond of saying that every mountain wants to be a beach and the physics and geology of the process puts in a precarious place between those forces,” Assemblymember Gregg Hart, D-Santa Barbara, said. “We’ve intervened with those forces with an incredible infrastructure with those forces swirling around us.”

State Sen. Monique Limón, DSanta Barbara, reminded the audience that extreme weather this week impacted not only

Helicopter to fly over Lompoc riverbed

Montecito, but North County cities such as Guadalupe, Santa Maria and Orcutt.

“I’m grateful that our city, county and state and federal government are working on behalf of you today,” she said.

First District Supervisor Das Williams, who recently became the chair of the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors, thanked Gov. Newsom for bringing the 80 National Guard members who cleaned the Randall Road basin.

Echoing the sentiments of other officials, U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara, expressed his gratitude to the governor as he introduced him.

Gov. Newsom urged Californians to be careful and trust their gut when dealing with storms. “If you have an intuitive feeling that something ain’t right about driving left vs. driving right, don’t do it.”

He also asked residents throughout the state to heed the instructions of officials such as those in law enforcement and Caltrans.

“I know how fatigued you all are,” Gov. Newsom said. “I hope you will maintain a little more vigilance over the weekend. We’ll get through it.”

email: dmason@newspress.com

LOMPOC — The Santa Barbara County Sheriff Department’s air support unit flew its helicopter over the Lompoc Riverbed area on Friday and will do so again today. The helicopter will provide evacuation warnings to those occupying the riverbed, as there is another storm system anticipated to land in the area this weekend. The National Weather Service does not expect the same volume of rain as last week in the upcoming storm system.

There are also plans to release water from the

Cachuma Lake spillway into the Santa Ynez River today at 10 a.m. The release is expected to be 2,000 cubic feet per second. With this release, the flow of water is not expected to get any higher than 4,000 cubic feet per second. This is well below what was experienced earlier in the week. When the river was at its highest flow this week. it was flowing at 20,000 cubic feet per second.

The Lompoc Police Department requests that the public stay out of the riverbed. It noted water rescues are extremely hazardous and put public safety officers at risk.

— Katherine Zehnder

for the year in total. Cachuma Reservoir is at 86.8% capacity, at 744.48 feet and 167,588 acre-feet, and 19.32 inches of rainfall in total for the year. Gibraltar: 95.6% capacity 1399.08 feet, 4,488 acre feet; 32.20 inches of rainfall for the year in total, and an outflow of 876 CFS (cubic feet per second); Jameson: 100.9% capacity, 2,224.36 feet. 4,893 acre feet, and 37.53 inches of rainfall in total for the year.

Today’s forecast is a 50% chance of rain at night and 100% chance during the day with a low of 51 and a high of 60. Sunday is expected to be mostly cloudy with 100% chance of rain at night and 80% chance during the day with a low of 47 and a high of 60.

Monday is a 90% chance of rain at night and 50% chance during the day with a low of 45 degrees and a high of 59. Tuesday is partly cloudy with a 30% chance of rain at night and a 10% chance during the day with a low of 44 and a high of 60.

email: kzehnder@newspress.com

KENNETH SONG / NEWS-PRESS

The Solvang Veterinary Hospital at the Nielsens Shopping Center in Solvang suffered flood damage due to recent rainstorms.

KENNETH SONG / NEWS-PRESS

Members of the California National Guard work around the clock to clear out the Randall Road Debris Basin in Montecito ahead of this weekend’s storm.

‘We’re

GÓMEZ, Vicente

Vicente Gómez, 82, died on January 4, 2023, in his sleep. He was the ninth of 12 children born to Luis and Andrea Gómez. He was born in La Piedad, Michoacán, México, but grew up in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, México. In 1970, he moved to Santa Barbara, California. Vicente learned to bake as a teenager and was a baker for more than 50 years. He also spent time during his youth playing soccer with his brothers and friends. He was an active member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church. He enjoyed spending time with his family. Vicente is survived by his wife of 51 years, Alicia; three children and their spouses; five grandchildren; one brother and two sisters. A funeral will be held at 11:00 a.m. Friday, January 20, 2023, at the Seventh Day Adventist Church, 425 Arroyo Road.

MAINER, Brett Kenna

September 11, 1971 - January 02, 2023

Beloved husband, father, son, brother, nephew, cousin, and friend, Brett Kenna Mainer passed away suddenly after an accident at his home in Elk Grove, California on the evening of January 2. Born in 1971 in Solvang, Brett was raised in the Santa Ynez Valley attending Santa Ynez Elementary School and Santa Ynez High School. He earned his B.S. in Civil Engineering and M.S. in Geotechnical Engineering from UC Davis. Having worked for Drill Tech Drilling and Shoring since 1997, he was vice president and general manager at the time of his death. Besides his family, friends, and work, snow skiing and competitive water skiing were his passions.

He is survived by his wife, Patricia, sons, Zane and Zachary, and daughter, MacKenzie, father and mother, Robert and Teresita, sister, Kari Eby (Eric), and uncle, John Feazelle (Donna).

Plans for a celebration of life will be announced at a later date.

MOORE, Seth Adam Age 36, Santa Barbara, CA

Seth Adam Moore, 36, passed away in his sleep on December 17th, 2022, at his home in Santa Barbara, California. Seth was born on June 18th, 1986 in Nassau, Texas to parents, David Wayne Moore and Angela Sullivan Moore. Seth grew up in Jacksonville, Florida, graduating from Terry Parker High School, where he played clarinet in band. Seth continued his education at Celebration Church, Florida State College, and later at Mt. Hood Community College in Gresham, Oregon. One of Seth’s much-loved activities was running. Seth completed the Inaugural 2008 26.2k with Donna and 2009 26.2k 2nd with Donna National Marathon to Fight Breast Cancer.

Seth also served in missionary work deploying to Peru with Celebration Church members. Seth loved the ocean, hiking, camping and traveling. Seth was always present with his family, always willing to lend a helping hand.

Seth settled and worked in Santa Barbara, CA. He loved Santa Barbara and his friends there.

Seth was preceded in death by his Grandmothers, Roseanne Sullivan and Corrinne Joyce Taylor, Aunts, Cora Lynn Babineaux, Suzanne Sullivan, and Grandfather, Orie Gaylon Moore.

Left to cherish his memory are his parents, David, and Angela Moore, his siblings, Jeremy Moore, Wesley Moore, Cora Lynn Luttrell and Kenny, of Jacksonville, FL, his Grandfather, Sidney Vern Sullivan of Baytown, TX, his Step-Grandmother, Bonnie Moore, and Uncle, Robert Moore and Holly, cousins of Bronson, TX, good friend, Jim Lemon, of Santa Barbara, CA.

Private services were held December 28th, 2022, for family and friends at Welch-RyceHaider Funeral Chapels, 15 E. Sola St., Santa Barbara, CA.

In lieu of flowers please donate to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. To leave an online memory or condolence, please visit www.wrhsb.com. Arrangements entrusted to Welch-Ryce-Haider Funeral Chapels.

SOUTHER, Richard Lawrence

4/24/30 - 12/3/22

Dear Reader:

In honor and sadness, we said goodbye to our father, Richard Lawrence Souther, who passed away in Santa Barbara, CA at the age of 92. With him until the end, we witnessed him leave this earthly life in peace, love and resolve.

Dad was born and raised in Richmond, CA. He was the only child of Lester Kerchival Souther and Jeanette Charlotte Deubner. From the window of his home, perched on a hill in, he watched the Golden Gate Bridge being built with awe and delight. His love for the Bay Area’s 49ers, Giants and Warriors started early and were lifelong passions for him. Dad’s parents and extended family were close, loving and devoted. Tragically, when he was just 14, his mother died of colon cancer. As his father continued to work as a foreman for Richmond Standard Oil Company, sleeping during the day and working at night, our dad had to become an independent and responsible young adult overnight. This seemingly set the stage for him to continue through his life as a survivor - forever having the will to push forward. Dad’s “key” mantra was that you must play the cards you’re dealt, and that’s exactly what he did.

During the years of WWII, school was only half day for Dad, because his community in the bay was part of the war effort. Therefore, he started working at a young age. He swept the floor of a refinery, worked at a gas station, and he even spent time working on an oil tanker off the coast of San Francisco. After high school, being a numbers guy, he worked at a bank. Later, he was drafted to serve in the Army during the Korean War. This proved to be a seminal time in his life. He endured and thrived in the rigor, discipline and patriotism of it all despite the hardships he experienced. He often shared with pride that his commander had said, “Souther, you’re a survivor.” Upon his return stateside, Dad decided banking was no longer for him and he headed off to Los Angeles to pursue a business degree from Woodbury College.

At Woodbury, he met Carole Jean Shrode who later become his wife and our mother. She was also born on April 24th, but in the year 1937. Her family loved Dad as their own. We thank him deeply for choosing her to be our mother, as she was simply the best! They were married for almost 50 years. Devastatingly, though, our mother passed away when she was only 68 years old. During her crippling illness, Dad showed his true character through and through. He was committed to her well-being until the end - kind, compassionate, and loyal. Although heartbroken, Dad survived this, too, and continued without Carole for 16 more years.

We were happily raised in Goleta, where Dad lived at 6201 for 62 years. In the Los Carneros neighborhood where we grew up, our life was idyllic. We thank Dad for supporting our family with his career as an accounts/credit manager throughout Santa Barbara so Mom could stay home with us. He worked for businesses such as Seaside Oil Company, Jordanos, Santa Barbara Medical Clinic, and Cox Cable. Companies genuinely loved his meticulous, thoroughly planned, fair and strategic ways in turning their business woes around.

We remember with fondness all the fun camping trips (particularly the oft repeated Memorial Day trips to El Capitan as well as to Richardson’s Grove and Indian Mary) and spending time with our extended family together and many awesome days at the beach as a family. We recall his piercing whistle which called us home from neighborhood games of “Hide and Seek” and which on one occasion kept Brad from getting lost after fishing until darkness fell at Lake Shasta. We appreciate the efforts of both our parents to provide us with a thoughtful life of safety, love and unity.

Dad liked to travel and followed in his father’s footsteps there. Dad took pride in having encouraged his father to retire early, so Lester could travel to Peru, Egypt, Hawaii and Europe. Dad’s discussion about the merits of grain vs grass fed beef with a waiter in Puerto Vallarta was the stuff of family legend. Dad also loved to eat - perhaps this was triggered by his “artichoke and bacon only” diet as a child.

Dad was good-hearted and cared more about what we and our families were doing than talking about himself. He is survived by his son Brad Souther, his wife Ann, and his daughter Laura Miller and her husband, Rick. He also leaves behind his grandchildren: Kevin, Neil, Reed, Greyson, Hailey, Ethan, Julianna, Nina, and Leon.

As a rule, Dad was very, very, appreciative of any and everyone’s efforts on his behalfhe was generous with his thanks and praise for those who crossed his path in a positive way. Until the end, he was forever concerned that his need for help might be too much for whomever was assisting him - worrying more about them than himself. Also ever interested in finding common ground with others, Dad always enjoyed talking to and learning from all those he met along his journeys through life.

We will dearly miss Dad’s attentive ear, big belly laughs and his earthly presence in our lives.

Thank you, Reader, for your attention in reading the story of a life well-lived by our survivor dad, Richard Lawrence Souther. In lieu of flowers, we’d encourage donations in Dad’s name to 911AEI.Org.

OBITUARIES

BOURQUIN,

LaSelle “Sal” David LaSelle “Sal” David Bourquin peacefully passed at home 11/20/2022. Sal was born 4/12/1923 in Santa Barbara, Ca. He was a WWII and Korean CIB vet and retired with 38 yrs service. Sal enjoyed the outdoors, gardening, family and friends. Sal is survived by his wife, Ruth Culbertson, his step daughters Teresa Smith and Shnaell (Shane) Owen, and his son David Bourquin. He was predeceased by his daughter Carol Harman (Bourquin).

SHAFER, Evelyn “Lynn”

Evelyn “Lynn” Shafer passed away peacefully in her sleep on Dec. 27, 2022, at Casa Dorinda in Montecito. Born June 14, 1931, in San Fernando, CA to Frank Wheeler and Nell McElhenney Wheeler. Predeceased by her son, Carter W. Cordner, Lynn is survived by her daughter, Carlye Cordner (Richard Tricker) of Pasadena; daughterin-law, Lynn G. Cordner of Truckee; her sister, Becky Wynn (Gary) of Coto de Caza; and eight grandchildren: Elisabeth Cordner (Christian Cattell) of Modesto; Evelyn Cordner (David Wardlaw) of Truckee; Patrick Tricker of Richmond, VA; Emily Cordner of Truckee; Catherine Tricker (Jonas Noack) of Playa del Rey; Andrew Tricker of Berkeley; Amelia Tricker (John Hunnell) of Reston, VA; and Carter Cordner III (Sandra Deal) of Le Grande, OR. The family thanks everyone at Casa Dorinda for her loving care.

JORGENSEN, Paul Erik

1944 - 2022 Paul Erik Jorgensen was born in Fredericia, Denmark on March 25, 1944 bringing light to his parents in a dark time near the end of World War II. His parents, Ulla and Erik Jorgensen, immigrated to the United States in 1947 with their 3-year-old son, Paul. Living first in Wisconsin where Marilynn was born in 1950 and then Kenny in 1955, which completed the family. A family vacation to California in 1957 exposed the Jorgensen family to an environment that stimulated them to advance their dreams! The Jorgensen family of 5 found joy in Santa Barbara and many members have remained in this lovely community.

Paul graduated from San Marcos High School in 1962 and after a series of endeavors found his passion in the field of Oceaneering and Marine Sciences, becoming the first graduating class in the program developed at Santa Barbara City College. He brought his natural inclination for engineering to building & maintaining deep sea equipment, specializing in the diving bell. In the course of his career, he traveled across the United States, Canada and on to Borneo. He returned to take on the Shasta Dam project in order to create an environment to support the survival of the salmon population. His expertise was sought in the diving world from oil wells to salmon! In his later years he supervised his crews with great attention to their safety and to the success of the assignment.

Paul’s parents died in December of 2017 at Valle Verde. He is survived by his wife, Marilyn, of 44 years. They lived in Palo Cedro, California, and enjoyed boating, fishing and caring for their canine companions. Paul is also survived by his daughter Natasha Sill, her Mother Lene Shutt, and grandchildren Gabrielle and Jacob Sill. His extended family includes in-laws through marriage and many wonderful nephews, nieces, and their families who we honor.

Family will gather in the Spring of 2023 to honor Paul’s life.

BOHN, Dr. David Wallace

Dr. David Wallace Bohn was born October 9, 1930, to Ben and Bertha Bohn in Milbank, South Dakota. He was one of nine brothers and sisters and a devoted family man. With the assistance of his siblings, he was able to graduate from South Dakota State, Pittsburg University, and ultimately Northwestern University Dental School where he specialized in Orthodontics. During the Korean War David served as a Captain for the US Army.

Upon his graduation from Northwestern, David married Mary Joan Sawyer in 1956. Together they traveled across the country to California where they chose to settle down in Santa Barbara, start his Orthodontics practice, and raise their three children, Debi, Lori, and Jeff.

David was a humble, loving man who would take the time to talk with anyone (especially if they were at Starbucks!) and help anyone in need. He was also an avid outdoorsman who loved to travel, golf, sail, bird watch, hike, hunt, alpine ski, backpack, and fish.

David practiced Orthodontics in Santa Barbara for over 40 years and was very active in his community. He served on the Boards for the Santa Barbara Cancer Foundation, the Santa Barbara Symphony, La Cumbre Country Club, and was a proud supporter of the UCSB Athletic Foundation and Flying Doctors of America. David loved to sing, and you would sometimes catch him alone singing a church hymn. He was a member at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church and loved to sing in the church choir.

David passed peacefully with his family at Heritage House. He is survived by his son, Jeffrey and daughter, Lorine; grandchildren, Taylor Schulte, Trevor Goetz, Austin and Alexander Bohn; and great-grandchildren, Sawyer, Sutton, and Cece Schulte.

A memorial service will be held Friday January 20th at 10:00 AM at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, 4575 Auhay Dr., Santa Barbara, CA 93110. In lieu of flowers, his wishes were to have donations sent to St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church or to Santa Barbara Cancer Foundation.

GREGORY, Linda

(1949 - 2022)

Linda passed away unexpectedly and suddenly on December 30, 2022. Her family and friends will miss her quiet, steady presence and her “always being there” for them, like an angel by their side. She was a fun, lighthearted person, not one to criticize, and was rarely angry. Linda grew up near Los Angeles, first in Wilmington and later in Rancho Palos Verdes. She loved music, and both Linda and her mom played the accordion and the piano throughout their lives. Linda loved anything to do with music, and it was her passion. As a teen when she wasn’t practicing her accordion or piano, she enjoyed the nearby beaches, accompanied by her purple, Bing surfboard.

Linda was the first child of Betty and Robert Gregory, and she had a younger sister, Roberta. Their father worked for North American Rockwell, rendering aircraft as a draftsman, and as a Publications Analyst. He later wrote and illustrated cartoons, particularly the Disney character Donald Duck for Dell and Gold Key comics. He was an artist and her mother was a homemaker.

Linda lived a very secure and safe childhood, and will be missed dearly. She was very creative, and her great sense of imagination and wonder permeated throughout her life. She and her childhood best friend were also known for various projects and pranks, which sometimes got them into mild trouble, especially at summer camp. Linda was fortunate as a teen to see the Beatles in their debut at The Hollywood Bowl, sparking her lifelong love of live rock and roll concerts.

Linda attended Rolling Hills High School and graduated from California State College, Dominguez Hills, earning a BA in sociology. She later became the Deputy Clerk for the City of Redondo Beach for many years, also working in Elections. Coming to Santa Barbara in 1990, she served the Juvenile Probation Dept., applying her sociology degree with a compassion for helping teens.

She was active in the Santa Barbara Accordion Club and played in the local Solstice parades. She also played piano and performed at various events. She was interested in songwriting and took workshops, collaborating with musicians on songs. She had some music published under her own label, called “Gold Coast Records”. Her piano instructor was Renee Hamaty, who teaches locally. She was a supporter for the Santa Barbara Jazz Society, and an avid social dancer (especially Salsa). She attended classes and danced at many local social events.

Linda was a member of the Native Daughters of the Golden West for 31 years and a past President of Tierra de Oro Parlor No. 304. She was the Parlor’s organist for many years. She also played music at official visits with the Grand President. Linda was always willing to attend or assist in a Parlor activity. It had been planned for Linda to play at the Grand President Installation Ceremony this coming June. Linda could frequently be seen with the Native Daughters for the Wednesday Fiesta Pequeña shows every August.

Professionally, Linda worked as a consultant for the City of Goleta since 2003. She initially served as the Recording Clerk for the Planning Commission and the Design Review Board. She continued to do so up until the time of her passing. Her services included clerking at the public hearings of the Goleta Planning Commission and the Design Review Board. She recorded the proceedings, as well as the production of the minutes. She later provided additional services associated with the Planning Department’s Document Imaging Program. Linda provided approximately 19 years of consultant Services to the City of Goleta. This was a demanding job. Her quiet dedication and steady presence have been much appreciated, and she will be missed. Linda also spent a number of years working for the Santa Barbara County Water Department in the early 1990s.

Linda regularly attended Catholic church services with quiet faith, and especially enjoyed the Mission. She also performed volunteer work ushering at church programs, music and film events. She was especially a friend to seniors, and Veterans. She loved animals and had a number of cats and dogs during her lifetime. She was known for her genuine sweetness and kindness.

Just before Christmas 2022, Linda contracted Covid; and combined with other health factors, she shockingly died suddenly within one week of the Covid symptoms onset.

Linda is survived by her sister, Roberta, cousins, aunts, and her two lovely cats, Destiny and Miko who she loved dearly. Linda is also survived by her dear friends in Santa Barbara and Los Angeles, who will miss her daily friendship and cherish her memory always.

Arrangements entrusted to McDermott-Crockett Mortuary www.mcdermottcrockett.com

UNZUETA, Martin On the morning of January 3rd, our Dad, Martin Unzueta, departed this world, to join our Mom, Catalina Unzueta, in Heaven. Our hearts break at this separation, even as we rejoice that our parents are together. Inclement weather prevents us from being able to proceed with any arrangements at this time. We anticipate scheduling a rosary and funeral mass for mid-February and as soon as we confirm details, we will publish a complete obituary and a more fitting remembrance of our father.

LINK, Mary Pamela (née Taylor)

Pamela Mary Link (née Taylor), born on October 2, 1954, to Valdez and Lorine Taylor, passed away on January 3, 2023, in her home city of Los Angeles, California. She was 68 years old. She is survived by her husband, Jim, her four sons, five grandchildren, brother, and three sisters.

Pam, as she preferred to be called, was born in Pomona, California. Her family relocated to Santa Barbara, California, where she spent most of her childhood. Pam attended college at the University of San Francisco where she studied nursing and met her husband. Pam and Jim were married on January 8, 1977, at the Old Mission of Santa Barbara. Pam and Jim made their home in Los Angeles and started a family, having four children over the next twelve years.

Pam was a devoted mother, daughter, and sister. She was a devout Catholic and raised her family in accordance with her religion to be kind, loving, and accepting people. She had a fantastic wry sense of humor, taking great pleasure in scaring the pants off of her children any chance she could get. She loved long conversations and could spend hours on the phone everyday; she knew how to foster relationships with her loved ones better than most. Even after her diagnosis of metastatic pancreatic cancer, and until her final moments with us, her focus remained on the well-being of her family and friends. She was a beautiful, wonderful soul. She will be greatly missed and forever remembered by her family and friends.

Funeral services are pending. In lieu of flowers, please send a donation for pancreatic cancer research in Pam’s name to City of Hope.

ARMOUR, Joan Allen

May 17, 1929 - December 21, 2022 93 Simsbury, CT and Montecito, CA Joan Armour, a resident of Casa Dorinda in Montecito, CA, passed away peacefully on December 21, 2022, after a brief illness.

Joan was born on May 17, 1929, in Buffalo, NY to Dr. Thomas G. Allen and Doris Robinson Allen. Joan was a graduate of Buffalo Seminary and Middlebury College. While attending Middlebury, she met Norman Armour, the love of her life, who she married in June of 1953.

Joan and Norman settled in Simsbury, CT where they lived for over 50 years and raised their five children. She was very active in Simsbury with her family and friends; playing tennis and bridge, and volunteering with many organizations, including the library board, Child and Family Services, McLean Home, and others in the greater Hartford community. Joan loved spending time in, on, or by the water. She had soft spot for animals, rescuing several. She was renowned for her delicious treats, including Christmas toffee and sticky buns.

For the past 14 years, Joan and Norman lived in California, where she quickly developed a new group of friends. She was constantly active, always on the move; swimming, playing bridge, visiting with friends, sightseeing and relaxing at the beach in Carpinteria with Norman and family.

Joan will be remembered for her outgoing nature, the constant giving of her time, and her care for others, as well as her great love for family. She had a huge heart and expressed it in everything she did. Joan was predeceased by her loving husband, Norman, and is survived by five children - Paul, John, Sarah, Tim and Becky; thirteen grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren. The family will hold a private memorial service. In lieu of flowers, donations may be directed to The Santa Barbara Humane; 5399 Overpass Road Santa Barbara, CA 93111 or at sbhumane.org.

BERTRAND, David Gilbert

3/21/1929 - 10/18/2022

David “Gilbert” Bertrand died suddenly on October 18 at the age of 93, and was actively in charge of his business until his very last day. He was born in St. Francis Hospital in Santa Barbara to a family with long-standing roots in the community. His great grandmother settled in Santa Barbara in the 19th century. Gilbert grew up in the jovial and charitable home of his maternal grandparents, John and Gabrielle de Ponce. As a child growing up during the depression, he learned sympathy for those who were struggling to survive from his very compassionate and devoutly Catholic grandmother.

Gilbert’s mother, Henriette Akers, had a life-long career in the jewelry business. For many years she owned Henriette, Inc., a highly respected jewelry store in the upper village with a distinguished clientele. After his mother retired, David kept the shop open for several years. Young Gilbert attended what is now The Notre Dame School when it was known as The Delores School. He later went on to graduate from Stanford with a degree in economics, and received a master’s degree from the Sorbonne in literature. Gilbert was fluent in three languages and a life-long appreciator of fine French cuisine.

Mr. Bertrand was an astute business man, and during a long career with the California Board of Equalization, he saved his money to invest in properties in order to develop them. He was someone who wanted to contribute to his community by creating worthy projects. The two buildings at 529 and 559 San Ysidro Road are prime examples of his legacy.

David was known as a gentleman with old-fashioned values and considerable integrity. As a landlord he never arbitrarily raised rent just because he could. Many of his former and current tenants became life-long friends. He earned similar loyalty from all the people who worked for him, and all who knew him are better off for having known him. He is survived by his cousins, Adrienne de Ponce Bates; David de Ponce; Michael de Ponce; and Bryan de Ponce, all of Santa Barbara.

No services are planned. A major portion of his estate will benefit Stanford University, The Notre Dame School, and Visiting Nurses. His ashes will be scattered on the property where he resided for many years in Montecito. He will be missed by all who knew him.

RATZLAFF, Bette Anne

Born 12/20/1935 - Died 11/7/2022

Bette Anne Ratzlaff passed away on Monday, November 7 in Santa Barbara at the age of 86. She was a loving wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and dear friend. She passed away after a long and courageous battle with Parkinson’s Disease. A Celebration of Bette Anne’s life will take place on Saturday, January 14, at 11:00 A.M., at Santa Barbara Community Church.

Bette Anne was born in Peoria, Illinois to Pat and Lucille Riley. Seeking a warmer climate for Lucille’s health. They settled in Bakersfield where Bette Anne completed junior high and graduated from East Bakersfield High School. During this formative time, Bette Anne developed a steady commitment to following Jesus Christ and was active in her church and related ministries. Bette Anne and Stan met during their senior year in high school. They began dating after graduation and continued dating throughout college, with Bette Anne at Westmont College, and Stan at Bakersfield College and San Jose State University. They married in July 1957 in the Mennonite Brethren Church of Bakersfield (now Heritage Bible Church) where they were members.

Bette Anne graduated from Westmont and taught school in Bakersfield for the first year of their marriage. Stan and Bette Anne relocated to Los Angeles where Bette Anne gave birth to their daughter Deborah in September 1958. Eventually, she and Stan were the parents of two more children - Stephen and Diane. Her children, grandchildren (8), and great-grandchildren (2) were the joy of her life. She loved reading to them, teaching them, and playing Rummikub with them. She enjoyed her many trips to visit the grandchildren in Austin and Seattle as well as spending lots of family time at the beach and on ski and RV trips.

Bette Anne’s gifts shone in the areas of study, service, and hospitality. She always made time to study the Bible in small groups, leading the groups at times. She was a poised and polished speaker. She led children’s groups and volunteered at the school as well as substitute taught whenever needed. Both her children and their friends considered

Bette Anne a mother who was warm and welcoming to all and was an excellent cook who generously shared her home and food. It was never too much work for her to host family, friends, missionaries, or large work and church parties.

Bette Anne and Stan’s hobbies included sailing, skiing, RVing, and travel. They enjoyed traveling extensively in the US and abroad.

Bette Anne was a loving and encouraging wife to Stan. She was a great supporter of Stan in his demanding executive and volunteer life. They enjoyed their church life and serving in various Christian ministries, including the Union Rescue Mission in Los Angeles, where Stan served as a board member for 28 years.

In 2010, Bette Anne and Stan moved to Samarkand Covenant Living community, where they enjoyed being with their many new friends.

Bette Anne is survived by her husband, Stan, and their children, Debbie Huff (Ron), Stephen Ratzlaff (Kristie), and Diane Whitfield (Bill) along with eight grandchildren, Allison (and husband Curtis), Tim, Liam, Stanley, Trammell, Katherine (and husband Marcus), Nils, and Peter and two great-grandsons Charlie and Jack, and Scott Ely (nephew) and wife Cindy.

In lieu of flowers, gifts may be made to Westmont College, Union Rescue Mission of Los Angeles, Parkinson’s Research Foundation, or Samarkand Benevolent Fund.

Business/Real Estate

Honoring Egg McMuffin inventor

By CALEB BEEGHLY NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT

Just over 50 years ago, Herb Peterson invented the Egg McMuffin.

On Tuesday, McDonald’s fans will celebrate his legacy with Herb Peterson Day, which will honor the late co-owner of McDonald’s restaurants in the Santa Barbara area.

Implementing the metal ring that keeps the eggs circular, Mr. Peterson created the convenient handheld sandwich (a working person’s eggs benedict) and brought it to Ray Kroc, the CEO of McDonald’s. Mr. Kroc loved it, adding it to the chain’s menu.

Santa Maria bank announces earnings

This was McDonald’s first fastfood breakfast service, and today, breakfast accounts for about 30% of McDonald’s profits.

In addition to inventing the McDonald’s breakfast staple, Mr. Peterson is known for his relationship with Santa Barbara and Goleta. According to his son, David Peterson, Herb was a special man who loved his community and loved giving back.

Dating back to 2009, the annual Herb Peterson Day celebrates Herb’s legacy by combining two of the loves in his life: giving back to his community and, of course, the Egg McMuffin.

At participating locations in Goleta and Santa Barbara,

SANTA MARIA — Earnings have been announced for Community Bank of Santa Maria for the period ending Dec. 31.

Year-to-date unaudited net income increased 26.3% from $2.850 million at Dec. 31, 2021 to $3.599 million at Dec. 31, 2022. Basic earnings per share increased from $1.32 in 2021 to $1.66 in 2022. The increase in unaudited net income is primarily attributed to increased interest income on interestearning assets and loan growth.

Net loans, excluding Paycheck Protection Program loans, increased 8.2%, from $201.9 million at Dec. 31, 2021 to $218.4 million at Dec. 31, 2022.

Egg McMuffins will be sold for $2 each (for a maximum of five McMuffins), and all of the profits will go to the Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics.

In 2021, Herb Peterson Day raised around $4,000 in order to help with COVID-19 vaccination efforts.

This year, David Peterson, who owns the two McDonald’s restaurants in Goleta, hopes to raise just as much money or even more. David said that the Santa Barbara Neighborhood Clinics do an amazing job. They were hit hard by the pandemic, so he wants to support them as much as possible.

email: cbeeghly@newspress.com

Total deposits decreased 2.4%, from $378.2 million on Dec. 31, 2021 to $369.2 million on Dec. 31, 2022.

The decline in total deposits is attributed to shifting customer behaviors related to personal and business investment, according to the bank.

“We’re proud of the return we provided our shareholders in 2022 and the support we continue to provide our community,” said Janet Silveria, president and CEO of the bank’s parent company, Community Bancorp of Santa Maria. “Our balance sheet is steadfast with strong core deposits and excellent credit quality.”

Community Bank of Santa Maria opened for business on March 1, 2001 and has two full service branch locations in Santa Maria, For more information, visit www.yourcbsm.com.

Naples-inspired pizzeria opens in Santa Barbara

By CALEB BEEHGLY NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT

L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele recently opened on State Street, bringing a slice of Naples to downtown Santa Barbara.

The pizzeria may be new to Santa Barbara, but its relationship with pizza goes back centuries.

Best known for its authentic Neapolitan pizza, L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele was established in Naples in 1870 and passed its recipe down the generations until it landed in the hands of owner Francesco Zimone, who has stayed true to the restaurant’s tradition of freshness and flavor.

The flour, tomatoes and cheeses are imported straight from Naples. Even the stone oven was imported from Naples. And everything is made

fresh daily.

The only differences one will find between L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele in Naples and in America are the water used in the dough, the size of the pizza (don’t worry, it’s bigger), and the variety of pizzas, pastas and drinks that were added to the menu.

“We are thrilled to bring the taste of Italy to Santa Barbara and be a part of the downtown community,” Mr. Zimone said. “We can’t wait for everyone to try our delicious pizzas and experience the warmth and hospitality of L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele.”

L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele is located at 1031 State St. For more information, go to damicheleusa. com/sbmenu.

email: cbeeghly@newspress.com

KENNETH SONG / NEWS-PRESS

L’Antica Pizzeria da Michele recently opened at 1031 State St.

DAVE MASON / NEWS-PRESS FILE PHOTO

David Peterson sits with a tray of Egg McMuffins at the McDonalds on Fairview Avenue in Goleta. Behind Mr. Peterson is a photo of his father, Herb Peterson, who invented the Egg McMuffin.

Herb Peterson Day to salute local entrepreneur who gave back to the community

Reservoirs filling up

Is Prince Harry victim of ‘cult of psychotherapy and Meghan?’

ERINGER

instead focuses on the difference between the files Mr. Biden retained and those retained by Donald Trump.

• “The Real Message from Kathy Hochul’s State of the State? Escape New York.”

PRIMARY CARE DOCTOR

Just when you thought governors could not get any worse than Andrew Cuomo, along comes Kathy Hochul, a cross between Princess Momby from Oz and Cruella de Vil. At least Andy issued travel bans when a bad snowstorm was about to strike. Kathy failed to do so ahead of a blizzard in Buffalo that took 37 lives.

Now she has introduced big new

JACQUELINE DESITTER KROCK, MD

government programs that cost a lot of brazhort.

And she also wants to ban gas stoves by prohibiting “the sale of any new fossil fuel-powered heating equipment by 2030.”

This applies to residences and restaurants alike, no exceptions.

Are these people nuts or what?

“Jump on a bus and head down to Florida where you belong,” she told her gubernatorial opponent Lee Zeldin last summer.

Many New Yorkers are doing just that.

And while we’re on the subject of people voting with their feet…

• “California Continues Chasing People Away.”

Texas has 471,000 new residents, courtesy of blue state politics and ruined economies. Florida has 417,000 new residents, courtesy of blue state politics and ruined economies. California has lost 343,000 residents.

Reason.com offers this explanation about why there has been a mass exodus from the leftcoast Sunshine State: “Endless regulations, punitive tax rates, untouchable public-sector unions that are ransacking budgets and opposing reforms, shoddy school systems and decrepit (but pricey) public services, traffic congestion, absurd housing prices, growing crime rates, failing efforts to provide basic infrastructure and a sprawling homelessness crisis.”

Add the cost of natural gas: five times the benchmark U.S. price, “explained” in this email from SoCalGas: “An unprecedented cold snap across the nation in part has caused natural gas market prices in the West to more than double.” According to the bill we just received, the price doubled indeed.

• “Chair of California’s Reparations Task Force Says Black People Are Owed $1 Million Each.”

Based on this un-reasoning, every black person residing in California would become a millionaire overnight.

What about Native Americans? What are they owed for having their territory stolen out from under them? What about Japanese-Americans who were unjustly interned during World War II?

Reparations Task Force chair Kamilah Moore claims that providing these funds would boost the economy.

Moronic Moore seems not to comprehend that giving money away does not boost any economy but, on the contrary, causes the price of everything to go up, up, up.

Aside from anything else, if this nonsense comes to fruition, there will be a mass exodus of black people everywhere in the United States funneling into California to take up residence and claim a million bucks (your taxes at work).

• “California Facing $24B Budget Shortfall Amid Economic Uncertainty.”

And yet the Reparations Task Force thinks California should pay $1 million with money it does not have to every black person in the state?

Chuckle, oink, barf

• “Gavin Newsom Takes Hits from Twitter after Heralding California as the ‘True Freedom State.”

Responded Phil Labonte to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s nonsensical assertion: “Hi, New Hampshire resident here. I don’t pay income tax to my state. I don’t need permission to carry a firearm. I can collect rain water, and we have way less crime. We’re The Free State, thank you very much.”

Indeed, Phil’s got it right.

According to the Cato Institute Freedom Index, New Hampshire is the No. 1 freest state in the union.

Sorry, Gav, but California ranks a dismal No. 48.

• “Kevin McCarthy Removes Adam Schiff and Eric Swalwell from Intelligence.”

U.S. Rep. Swalwell’s presence on the Intelligence Committee was a mockery after his four year long association (2011-2015) and sexual liaison with Chinese spy Christine Fang, a.k.a. “Fang Fang.”

“If you got the briefing I got from the FBI,” said House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, “you wouldn’t have Swalwell on any committee.”

As for U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff: The Burbank Democrat’s incessant assertions that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia in the 2016 presidential campaign — now proven to be a hoax contrived by the Hillary Clinton Campaign — should most definitely disqualify this fool from serving on any committee remotely related to intelligence.

Shifty Schiff is no better than the 51 intelligence community liars who signed a statement falsely claiming that Hunter Biden’s incriminating laptop was fabricated by Russian intelligence.

• “House Republicans to Form Subcommittee to Investigate the Government.”

Pundits are already calling this the new Frank Church Committee, invoking the name of the U.S. Senator from Idaho who, in the early 1970s, investigated the CIA.

When I was involved with the U.S. intelligence community, I bought into that culture’s collective belief that the Church Committee, which investigated and exposed CIA’s highly questionable activities such as assassinating foreign leaders (and our own, as it turned out) was destructive to our democracy.

But now, based upon how our intelligence services have devolved of late, say, since 2016, these agencies, especially the blatantly politicized FBI, have most definitely earned a comprehensive and intense congressional investigation.

That the Dems, including mindless miscreant U.S. Rep. Jerrold Nadler of New York are having conniption fits over this (in a House they no longer control) demonstrates their fearfulness that transparency (necessary for a democracy) will reveal how politicized the intelligence services have become.

We say, unearth the decayed rocks and shine a spotlight upon the creepy crawlers beneath. And spray them with Bonide Captain Jack’s DeadBug Brew.

• “Viewers Blast Golden Globes as ‘Woke’ as Ceremony Returns.”

’Tis the season of Hollyweird mutual admiration and selfcongratulation, this year with a twis t— as in twisted. Host Jerrod Carmichael said it best in his

monologue: “I’m here because I’m black.”

Beyond that, according to viewers (many fewer than in recent years), the “Gold Globes” show was more snooze than woke.

• “Mass Evacuations in Montecito as Storm Pounds with Intense Rain, Flooding.”

Been there, done that. A lot of other folks have too.

Truth is, despite no one dredging this up in the media for all to comprehend, floods, mudslides and debris flows have been taking place in Montecito about five times each century — an every 20-year trend that now appears to have accelerated due to cyclical climate patterns.

Truth is, Santa Barbara County never should have allowed builders to construct houses so near to the creeks, especially Montecito Creek and the neighborhood east of Olive Mill Road below Casa Dorinda.

Truth is, local Realtors should be more honest with buyers about historical and contemporary flooding and mudslide concerns. Many appear to be guilty of omission in their greed for a commission.

But at least, Ellen DeGeneres braved the elements and, instead of sheltering in place, stood beside a furiously flowing Montecito Creek to scold everyone about climate change and the importance of being nice to Mother Nature.

Perhaps dear Ellen has not considered that Mother Nature is emotionally indifferent to all living species, and it is just as easy for her to discard living beings as it is to create them.

Or, as Robert McKee, the master of storytelling, succinctly put it at a “Story” seminar I attended just over five years ago: “Mother Nature is not your friend.”

NOT SO WILD ABOUT HARRY

Reviewers are calling his book “Harry Kiri” because that is what hapless Harry appears to have committed…

Prince Harry wrote in “Spare” that he killed 25 Taliban while serving in Afghanistan and thought of them as “chess pieces.”

This not only enraged the Taliban, which now wants to put him on trial for war crimes, but also the British Army he served for suggesting the enemy was less than human.

Former Royal Marine Ben McBean who served with Harry wrote on Twitter: “Love you #Prince Harry but you need to shut up!”

Instead of doing so, Harry insulted all Britons by spouting off and calling them “credulous” for reading and believing newspapers.

And this from the New York Post: “’Spare’ is not so much ghostwritten as haunted. Harry believes he has found himself, ‘Spare’ shows he has lost the plot.”

If there is one unwritten cardinal rule within the Royal Family it is this: NEVER reveal private conversations. Says a royal source: “There has been a complete breakdown of trust.”

Harry’s relatives back in Blighty “can’t engage (with Harry) because everything they say will be shared with the media, potentially for commercial

benefit.”

And now — file under “Hard to Believe” — Harry and his missus have now turned the disgraced Black Lives Matter movement against them. Says BLM organizer Imarn Ayton, Harry and Meghan “have proven themselves to be liars” after Harry told a TV interviewer that he had not accused his family of racism.

Jimmy Kimmel parodied what others are calling the Battle of the Dog Bowl — a physical altercation between Princes William and Harry during which Harry fell and landed on a dog bowl, which cracked and cut into his back, after which he called his therapist.

And he may need to place another call to his therapist now that Buckingham Palace has apparently banned him from attending in any official capacity his father’s coronation this spring. Which means if he chooses to be present he’ll have to join the throngs of well-wishers along The Mall because the royal family he referred to as a “death cult” is unlikely to welcome him.

Which brings us to …

— “Royal Family Thinks Prince Harry has been ‘kidnapped by a cult of psychotherapy and Meghan.’”

Could Harry’s logorrhea be a case of brainwashing by psychotherapy?

It certainly seems possible if not probable.

For instance, Harry writes that following a physical altercation with his brother he phoned none other than his therapist. And he claims in a TV interview he “had to” write that he killed 25 Taliban “for my own healing journey.”

Question: Who is this therapist guiding Harry’s healing journey? When Harry writes that it was his duty to provide, “if necessary, a spare part,” to his elder brother William, “a kidney perhaps.

Blood transfusion. Speck of bone marrow…” it sounds awfully like he was programmed to believe this.

Given that ”recollections may vary” (said Queen Elizabeth II before her death), one has to wonder if repressed memory therapy (largely discredited) plays a role in Harry’s psychiatric “healing” treatment. This might also explain the alarming number of errors that fact-checkers have discovered in his kiss-and-tell. Says an astute source we know: “Don’t be surprised if it turns out that the shrink had a role in organizing the selling of this to Netflix, etc. Part of that cult includes taking their scoop of ice cream at the expense of the patient’s life. The worst thing you can do is take away that patient’s support system such as destroying his connection to his family, friends and military buddies. Unless, that is, you have an ulterior motive such as money, power and California cult liberal influence.”

More and more, we dare say, His Harryness looks and sounds like a Manchurian candidate.

Robert Eringer is a longtime Montecito author with vast experience in investigative journalism. He welcomes questions or comments at reringer@gmail. com.

KENNETH SONG / NEWS-PRESS

Above, water flows out of Gibraltar Dam as seen from East Camino Cielo on the Santa Ynez Mountains on Friday. By 8 p.m., it was at almost 1,399 feet. The reservoir has exceeded its capacity. At right, Lake Cachuma is seen from State Route 154 on Friday. By 8 p.m. Friday, the lake’s level was 744.57 feet. It is expected to fill and spill this weekend, and plans call for releasing water from the lake’s spillway into the Santa Ynez River at 10 a.m. today. The release is expected to be 2,000 cubic feet per second.

California attorney general sues insulin makers, pharmacy managers for alleged overcharges

By TOM JOYCE THE CENTER SQUARE CONTRIBUTOR

(The Center Square) - California

Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a lawsuit against the country’s largest insulin makers and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) on Thursday.

The Democrat said in a press release from his office that these companies are, “driving up the cost of the life-saving drug through unlawful, unfair and deceptive business practices in violation of California’s Unfair Competition Law.”

Mr. Bonta noted in the release that some Americans ration insulin due to its high cost and that doing so can kill people. He also said that more than three million Californian adults — more than 10% of the state’s adult population — have diabetes.

The lawsuit says that manufacturers like Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi, and pharmacy benefit managers CVS

Caremark, Express Scripts, and OptumRx, have “leveraged their market power to overcharge patients,” according to the release.

Mr. Bonta said that insulin costs about 10 times more in the United States than in other countries.

“Insulin is a necessary drug that millions of Americans rely upon for their health, not a luxury good,” Mr. Bonta said in the release. “With today’s lawsuit, we’re fighting back against drug companies and PBMs that unacceptably and artificially inflate the cost of life-saving medication at the expense of vulnerable patients. No one should be forced to ration or go without basic medication that could mean the difference between life or death. California will continue to be a leader in the fight to ensure everyone has equal access to affordable healthcare and prescription medications they need to stay healthy.”

The three manufacturers the

state is suing produce more than 90% of the world’s insulin supply; the three PBMs administer pharmacy benefits named in the suit account for about 80% of prescription claims managed.

The lawsuit says that due to a lack of competition in these markets, these companies will continue to dramatically increase the price of insulin, at the expense of those with diabetes.

“People from low-income households and communities of color are disproportionately impacted by the practices of insulin manufacturers and PBMs,” the release from Mr. Bonta’s office said. “According to the California Department of Public Health, Hispanic and Black people are much more likely to be diagnosed with Type-2 diabetes, the predominant form of diabetes, than non-Hispanic white people, and much more likely to die as a result of complications from it.”

The lawsuit says that manufacturers and PBMs are

overcharging people for insulin, so they can receive larger rebates from insurance companies rather than setting prices that people can afford.

“As a result, the drug becomes unaffordable for uninsured or underinsured patients, who have to pay the full price of insulin,” the release from Mr. Bonta’s office said. “High list prices also make insulin unaffordable for other patients as well, including those with high deductible health plans or coverage gaps.”

“These out-of-pocket costs have had severe consequences on the lives of patients,” it continues. “The California Health and Human Services Agency (CalHHS) reported this year that according to national data, as many as 1 in 4 diabetics cannot afford their insulin, and thus ration or stop taking insulin altogether. This rationing is extremely dangerous and can lead to serious health consequences, including death.”

Americans needing help with food feel impact of $1.7T omnibus

By VICTOR SKINNER THE CENTER SQUARE CONTRIBUTOR

(The Center Square) – Emergency allotments for food benefits were more than $2 billion nationwide from March 2020 to this past December.

Congressional passage and Democratic President Joe Biden’s signing of the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill the last week of December signaled the end to those extra

SM boys soccer defeats Pacifica

The San Marcos High boys soccer team overcame Pacifica, winning 2-1.

“Pacifica has a strong front line that was a handful for our backline,” said San Marcos Paul McLean. “We had a few things go against our team tonight and we were really pleased as coaches to see how our boys responded. Our composure improved and our movement became even better.”

Pacifica drew first blood in the contest, scoring its goal in the opening minutes of the game. The team kept its lead for only 20 minutes, when San Marcos tied it up with a goal from Justin Hess.

In the second half, San Marcos struck again with a header from Jose Ramirez. From there, the defense managed to stifle Pacifica to earn the win.

“Jose Ramirez was the man of the match for us. He was absolutely dominant in the mid field and then came through with an excellent goal.” said McLean. “The backline of Steve Bradley, Justin Hess, Leo Vico and Easton Rose defended well all night. Steve won several one on one battles for us.”

The Royals are 8-1-2 and 60 in league. They play again on Saturday at home against Oxnard at 3 p.m.

Cate boys soccer beats St. Bonaventure

The Cate boys soccer team won over St. Bonaventure, winning 3-1 in a game hosted by Cate at San Marcos High School due to flooding on Cate’s soccer pitch.

The Rams took a 1-0 lead in the 25th minute, when Samuel Anum scored. This lead would stand until the final minute of regulation play, when the Seraphs managed to even up the game.

Cate came out strong in overtime, scoring a goal on a header by Max Moore in the 81st minute. Two minutes later, Suhuyini Abdul Nafeo provided an insurance goal, giving the game its final score.

“We did an excellent job of possessing, passing and defending, but we still need to learn balance and consistency,” said Cate Coach Jorge Reynoso. “We have a very young team that has lots of individual talent and we are still in the process of learning to play as a team. I’m very proud of how these young men responded after the opponents tied the match.”

Cate will return to action with a game against Bishop Diego on Tuesday.

DP girls soccer falls to Ventura

The Dos Pueblos High girls soccer team lost to Ventura on

benefits. Many states, in the two weeks since, have been steadily announcing changes to their respective Food and Nutrition Services programs. February will be the last of the additional help.

In North Carolina, which made the announcement this week, the benefit per person per day drops from $8.12 to $5.45 beginning in March. It’s about $95 per month.

“Families needed these additional benefits to get healthy and nutritious food throughout

SPORTS ROUNDUP

Thursday, falling by a score of 1-0. The game stayed scoreless until the final two minutes, when Ventura managed to score the lone goal of the match.

“It was a physical, fast-paced game for 80 minutes,” said Dos Pueblos Coach Marco Medina. “We worked relentlessly on defense and created a handful of scoring opportunities in the attacking 3rd. We are getting close to playing a complete game. The players were clearly disappointed in the result.”

Dos Pueblos fell to 3-5-3 with the loss. The team will return to action on Tuesday at Buena.

Carp boys soccer shuts out Malibu

The Carpinteria High boys soccer team defeated Malibu, winning by a score of 2-0.

“It was a constant battle for control of the ball right from the start, but we couldn’t control the ball or connect a pass since the field was very muddy,” said Carpinteria Coach Gerardo Rodriguez. “Although the field wasn’t in great shape, we still managed to push forward and look for the go-ahead goal.”

That opportunity came in the 50th minute on a goal by Angel Zepeda with an assist from Raul Reyes.

Despite continual pressure from Malibu, the Carpinteria defense held firm, holding their opponent scoreless.

Carpinteria’s second goal was scored by Ulises Segura with an assist from Ricardo Rodriguez.

“I felt like this was a great win for us to help the boys get motivated for our next games after a couple losses on the road last week,” said Coach Rodriguez. “The boys fought hard today and got a well-deserved win.”

DP boys

soccer

defeats Ventura

The Dos Pueblos boys soccer team came away with a victory against Ventura on Thursday, winning by a score of 2-0.

Dos Pueblos’ first goal came in the first half off the foot of Matt Sillers, while Tiago Rodriguez scored in the second half to give the team some breathing room.

In addition to Sillers and Rodriguez, Dos Pueblos Coach Matt York singled out Noah Severson and goalkeeper Bryce Hemman as contributing significantly to the win.

Dos Pueblos improves to 2-9-1 with the win.

SY boys basketball slaughters Orcutt Academy

The Santa Ynez High boys basketball team dominated Orcutt Academy, winning 76-25.

Five players finished in double figures for the Pirates. Leading

the pandemic,” said Susan Gale Perry, North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services chief deputy secretary for Opportunity and Well-Being. “While FNS emergency payments are ending, the need is not. We will continue to prioritize food security for all North Carolinians.”

Louisiana was another making the announcement this week.

“Emergency allotments were always going

Please see OMNIBUS on A8

the way was Caleb Cassidy with 18 points and 14 rebounds, while Jackson Ollenburger scored 13 points, Hale Durbiano contributed 12 points, Landon Lasson added 11 points and seven rebounds, and Jaiden Mendoza scored ten points.

DP girls basketball falls to Buena

The Dos Pueblos girls basketball team lost to Buena on Thursday, falling by a score of 5436.

Gianna Nichols led Dos Pueblos with 11 points, five rebounds and three blocks, while Lauren Robles scored nine points and two rebounds. Leading the team in rebounds were Evette Allen and Justin Kats with six each.

Dos Pueblos Coach Manny Murillo said the team was hurt by 20 turnovers.

Dos Pueblos will play Ventura tonight, going into the game with a 7-11 record after the loss.

Carp girls basketball loses to Nordhoff

The Carpinteria girls basketball team fell to Nordhoff on Thursday, losing 51-42.

Carpinteria Coach Henry Gonzalez said the team “played with tremendous effort, enthusiasm and Warrior Pride for a full 32 minutes. However, it just wasn’t to be.”

Carpinteria led 16-9 after the first period, with ten of those points scored by Jamaica Cook while providing multiple rebounds. The Rangers staged a comeback in the second, cutting Carpinteria’s lead to 29-26 at the half.

Nordhoff took the lead in the third quarter, outscoring the Warriors 13-4 in the period. A back and forth battle ensued in the fourth, with Nordhoff making the plays necessary to retain the lead.

“Our effort was excellent, but the execution in putting the ball in the hoop was not what we wanted,” said Gonzalez. “We will get better at sustaining our high level of execution and learn to finish out games.”

Carpinteria was led by Cook’s 17 points and 12 rebounds, while Charlotte Cooney added 12 points and Amarisse Camargo contributed 11 points and 14 rebounds.

Carpinteria will play tonight against Hueneme, taking an 8-9 record into the game.

Carp girls water polo dominates

Santa Paula

The Carpinteria High girls water polo team annihilated Santa Paula, winning by a lopsided 15-1.

Despite the score, Carpinteria started out slow, scoring two goals in the first quarter. The offensive explosion began in the second, when Carpinteria scored four goals in the first 1:31.

Giulia Piccoletti led Carpinteria with six goals. Lilli Nemetz scored three and Taassen added two, while Kate Isaac, Francis Bennett, Monica Delgado and Devyn Clayton each added a goal.

Goalie Erin Otsuki registered only nine blocked shots on the day, but assisted four goals.

The Warriors improved to 8-4 on the season with a 2-0 league mark after the game.

-Compiled by Matt Smolensky

Cost of living increase largest since 1981

OMNIBUS

to be temporary,” said Havana Howard, the assistant secretary of Family Support. “We requested approval to issue the supplements each month and messaged our SNAP households when the USDA approved them.

“Still, we know this news will be unsettling to recipients who have counted on the additional food assistance for the past three years, especially as they struggled with the health and economic crisis brought on by the pandemic.”

Thirty-three states were acknowledged to have emergency allotment extensions into at least January 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s information page.

The change comes as federal cost of living increases for Social Security retirement, survivors and disability insurance, supplemental security income, and some Veterans

Administration payments are forcing benefit reductions in federal food programs.

The 8.7% cost of living adjustment is calculated by the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, based on the Consumer Price Index. The 2023 increase is the largest since an 11.2% jump in 1981. That fourdecade gap mirrors the timespan since inflation was this bad in America.

The situation means the increases that took effect this month are pushing many over the eligibility limit for SNAP and other programs, while others will receive less food assistance.

“We encourage the public to support food banks, nonprofits such as the United Way, faithbased partners and others who will no doubt be stepping up to fill the gap created by the loss of the additional assistance,” Louisiana’s Howard said. “We will be working with these partners over the next several weeks to support them in this effort.”

City of Santa Barbara reports only minor damage during storms

By KATHERINE ZEHNDER NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

The city of Santa Barbara staff has shifted to assessment and community recovery after winter storms this week caused flooding and minor damage, but no major injuries.

All city roads and bridges remain structurally sound, and all roads within city limits are passable, according to a news release. Debris cleanup continued ahead of this weekend’s storms in the lower East Side and West Side and in storm beds and creeks.

Damage at Santa Barbara Harbor and Stearns Wharf was minimal, according to the city, which added that city staff will work with the Army Corps of Engineers to perform dredging.

The harbor entrance remains unnavigable. As more rains come through, city staff will continue to assess whether to limit public access as needed.

As the city moves forward, staff is coordinating with local partners to create an in-person, bilingual Local Assistance Center at the Eastside Library.

The city staff prepared for this week’s storms by adding staff to response teams and coordinating with county and National Weather Service officials to communicate information to residents, according to the news release.

Planning began over the weekend of Jan. 6-8

with messaging to the public via multiple online channels, and television and radio interviews alerting residents to prepare for the upcoming storm. Teams surveyed local creeks to alert unsheltered individuals and get them to safe places. Departments began ensuring appropriate staffing levels and readied the city’s Emergency Operations Center, according to the city.

The city fire department was up-staffed with a brush engine, a patrol and extra rescue swimmers on duty. And the police department had up to 30 officers out in the field, including specialized units. Working with the county, city staff brought in an incident management team, had heavy equipment stationed nearby, and assembled a 30person urban search and rescue regional task force.

During the storm, the fire department responded to 110 calls for service, with most of them calls to rescue people trapped in vehicles, and the police department answered 160 stormrelated calls that included welfare checks, active flooding, and motorist rescues using BearCat equipment. In addition, the police department answered 241 regular emergency calls for service. Partnering with the American Red Cross, the city also established an overflow evacuation shelter that housed 30 residents. email: kzehnder@newspress.com

State Route 33 closed today

OJAI — Caltrans plans a full closure of State Route 33 at Fairview Road in Ojai/Meiners Oaks to all traffic beginning at 8 a.m. today for safety reasons due to heavy rainstorms that could further damage the roadway.

Residents who have been allowed through the existing closure at Fairview Road in recent days were advised to stock up on provisions Friday because no one will be permitted access beyond the State Route 33 closure beginning Saturday. The duration is unknown. Storms are forecast to last through Tuesday.

State Route 33 has been closed in both directions this week because of storm-related mudslides and rockslides from Fairfield Road to Ozena Fire Station/Lockwood Valley Road.

All work is subject to change due to weather. Motorists should expect delays. Real-time traffic information can be found at quickmap.dot.ca.gov.

— Katherine Zehnder

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campaigns and manages relevant website content. Fields communications requests from the media and coordinates research communications. Is responsible for website governance, maintenance, and content strategy for a dynamic website for the Bren School in collaboration with other Bren School staff and faculty. Arranges for photography/videography and manages school photos and video archives. Reqs: Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience and/or training in Communications, Marketing or related field. Experience working in and managing media communications, working knowledge of outreach software. Experience with marketing, publicity and social media, working knowledge of marketing analytics and social media platforms. Notes: Satisfactory conviction history background check. Top candidates will be required to submit examples of their work. Budgeted/Hiring Pay rate/range: $68,700 - $100,600/yr. The University of California is an Equal Opportunity/ Affirmative Action Employer, and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Open until filled. Apply online at https://jobs.ucsb.edu Job # 41066.

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LINDA C. GREGORY Case Number: 23PR00003 To all heirs, beneficiaries,

will or

and

or

LINDA C. GREGORY A Petition for Probate has been filed

COUNTY OF SANTA

The Petition for Probate requests that ROBERTA S. GREGORY be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent. The petition requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.)

The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A hearing on the petition will be held in this court as follows: Date: 02/23/2023 at Time: 9:00 AM, in Dept.: 5, located at SUPERIOR COURTOF CALIFORNIA, COUNTYOF SANTA BARBARA, 1100 Anacapa Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101; PO Box 21107, Santa Barbara, CA 93121-1107, Anacapa Division.

If you object to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney. If you are a creditor or a contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or(2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code. Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult with an attorney knowledgeable in California law. You may examine the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250. A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk.

Attorney for petitioner: STEPHEN E. PENNER Address: 1215 DE LA VINA STREET, SUITE K, SANTA BARBARA, CA 93101 Phone: (805) 965-0085 JAN 14, 21, 28 2023-- 59011

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE OF:

who may otherwise be interested in the

estate,

both, of:

by ROBERTA S. GREGORY in the SUPERIOR COURTOF CALIFORNIA,

BARBARA.

Life theArts

CALENDAR

‘Wild Neighbors’

Wildlife photographer to present program at Wildling Museum

By MARILYN MCMAHON NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

Those who have been following the recent demise of P-22, the popular wild mountain lion in Los Angeles, will find the Jan. 22 program at the Wildling Museum of Art and Nature especially timely.

“Capturing Imagery of Our Wild Neighbors” will be presented by wildlife photographer and cinematographer Roy Dunn from 4 to 5 p.m. at the museum located at 1511-B Mission Drive in Solvang.

Mr. Dunn will provide a fascinating look behind his work in camera trapping and ethical wildlife photography along with stories behind his photography on view as part of the current Wildling Museum main floor exhibition, “Wildlife on the Edge: Hilary Baker.”

He is well-known for his expertise in capturing incredible images of hummingbirds interacting in flight using high-speed flash techniques and equipment he personally developed as well as his fine art Essence portraiture.

To explore more of his work, visit www.humanstohummingbirds.com.

More recently, Mr. Dunn has focused his efforts on Southern California mountain lion conservation. Using state-of-theart camera traps, which he helped develop, he has captured images and high-definition footage of these apex predators in and around Los Angeles at night, including the world-famous P-22.

Mr. Dunn is an advocate for ethical wildlife photography, and his mountain lion footage has appeared in Apple TV’s landmark series “Earth at Night in Color” as well as the recently released “America the Beautiful” on Disney+/NatGeo.

Mr. Dunn is Australian, and following his electrical studies at university in Australia, he began his career in 1983 doing microchip design in London. He became a global technical marketing manager in electronic design automation, which brought him and his wife to the U.S. in 1996. Since then, he has consulted in many areas: radiofrequency identification for histology, high-speed photographic flash design and advanced technology application. He now consults solely with Hadland Imaging Inc., solutions for all high-speed imaging requirements from 20 up to 20 million frames per second.

Mr. Dunn’s lifelong passion for photography has seen him perform workshops and research projects for Canon, and he has presented to numerous natural history and photography organizations.

He also helps with the annual short course on high-speed imaging at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He now shoots Sony cameras and Cognisys camera traps exclusively and regards himself as “the luckiest guy alive.”

email: mmcmahon@newspress.com

The calendar appears Mondays through Saturdays in the “Life & the Arts” section. Items are welcome. Please email them a full week before the event to Managing Editor Dave Mason at dmason@newspress.com.

TODAY 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. “Interlopings: Colors in the Warp and Weft of Ecological Entanglements” is an exhibit that runs through March 12 at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden, 1212 Mission Canyon Road, Santa Barbara.Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. The exhibit features weavings dyed with pigments from non-native plants on Santa Cruz Island. The weavings were created by artists Helen Svensson and Lisa Jevbratt. For more information, see sbbotanicgarden.org.

10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. “The Search for the Modern West,” an exhibit, continues through Feb. 20 at Sullivan Goss: An American Gallery, 11 E. Anapamu St., Santa Barbara. The gallery is open 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily. For more information, see sullivangoss.com or call the gallery at 805-730-1460.

11 a.m. to 5 p.m. The exhibit “Parliament of Owls” runs through Feb. 5 at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, 2559 Puesta del Sol, Santa Barbara. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Mondays. For more information, go to www.sbnature.org.

JAN. 14

7 p.m. Mariachi Garibaldi de Jaime Cuélla will perform a free concert at Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes Center, 1065 Guadalupe St., Guadalupe. The concert is presented by Viva el Arte de Santa Bárbara .

JAN. 15

7 p.m. Mariachi Garibaldi de Jaime Cuélla will perform a free concert at The Marjorie Luke Theatre at Santa Barbara Junior High School, 721 E. Cota St., Santa Barbara. The concert is presented by Viva el Arte de Santa Bárbara.

JAN. 17

1:30 to 6:30 p.m. Vitalant blood drive at the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office, 4436 Calle Real, Santa Barbara. For more information, go to vitalant.org.

JAN. 19

2 to 5:30 p.m. Vitalant blood drive at the Jewish Federation of Greater Santa Barbara, 524 Chapala St., Santa Barbara. For more information, go to vitalant.org.

7 p.m. Photographer, writer and kayaker Chuck Graham,

JAN. 21

7:30 p.m. The Santa Barbara Symphony will perform its “Plains, Trains & Violins” concert at The Granada, 1214 State St. The concert includes Miguel del Aguila’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, “The Journey of a Lifetime” (El viaje de una vida) with violin soloist Guillermo Figueroa and the concert world premiere of Elmer Bernstein’s “Toccata for Toy Trains.” The orchestra will also perform Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 (“From the New World”). Tickets cost $35 to $175. To purchase, go to granadasb.org.

JAN. 22

3 p.m. The Santa Barbara Symphony will perform its “Plains, Trains & Violins” concert at The

COURTESY PHOTO Peter Bernstein, above, created a new arrangement of his father Elmer Bernstein’s “Toccata for Toy Trains.” And the Santa Barbara Symphony will perform it Jan. 21 and 22 at The Granada. See the story in the Jan. 17 edition of the News-Press.

At top, Roy Dunn took this photo, of a Gray Fox pair (Urocyon cinereoargenteus) in 2018 above Los Angeles.

It’s a digital photographic print on aluminum. Mr. Dunn took this photo of a bobcat (Lynx rufus) with its woodrat (Neotoma) prey in 2018 in Glendale. This is a digital photographic print on aluminum.

PHOTOS © ROY DUNN

This mountain lion was photographed by Roy Dunn, who uses camera trapping technology.

Wildlife photographer and cinematographer Roy Dunn plans ahead for a mountain lion shot, using camera trapping technology.

Granada, 1214 State St. The concert includes Miguel del Aguila’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, “The Journey of a Lifetime (El viaje de una vida)” with violin soloist Guillermo Figueroa and the concert world premiere of Elmer Bernstein’s “Toccata for Toy Trains.” The orchestra will also perform Dvorak’s Symphony No. 9 (“From the New World”). Tickets cost $35 to $175. To purchase, go to granadasb.org.

4 to 5 p.m. “Roy Dunn: Capturing Imagery of Our Wild Neighbors” will take place at the Wildling Museum of Art and Nature, 1511-B Mission Drive, Solvang.

JAN. 24

2 to 6 p.m. Vitalant blood drive at Camino Real Marketplace, 7046 Marketplace Drive, Goleta. For

Marissa Freeman joins Dream Foundation board

By MARILYN MCMAHON NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

Marissa Freeman, chief marketing officer of Union Square Hospitality Group, has joined the board of directors of Dream Foundation, the only national dream-granting organization for terminally ill adults.

The foundation is based in Santa Barbara.

Ms. Freeman will work closely with the marketing and communications team on strategy and creative direction as well as establish relationships to broaden awareness about the organization and its mission across the country.

A globally-recognized business and creative leader, Ms. Freeman was part of the leadership team that led USHG out of the pandemic, building an industry-leading group of innovative marketers and communication professionals to help restore the business to pre-pandemic levels.

“This foundation’s work is personal to me. I lost my mom to cancer when I was 19. My family faced its darkest time, and those memories are still painful. Dream Foundation

more information, go to vitalant.org.

7 p.m. UCSB Arts & Lectures presents mezzosoprano Joyce DiDonato and a music ensemble in “Eden” at The Granada, 1214 State St. “Eden” explores the individual human connection with nature and features music from four centuries.

Tickets cost $46 to $131 for general admission and $20 for UCSB students with ID, one hour before the performance, and youths 18 and younger. To purchase, go to granadasb.org.

JAN. 25

10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Vitalant blood drive at Allan Hancock College, 800 S. College, Santa Maria. For more information, go to vitalant.org.

7:30 p.m. The Chicago Symphony Orchestra will perform at The Granada, 1214 State St., Santa Barbara. The ensemble will perform Beethoven’s “Coriolan” Overture and Symphony No. 8 in F Major, Opus 93; Anatoly Lyadov’s “The Enchanted Lake”;

brings moments of real joy when these families need it most,” said Ms. Freeman. “I feel privileged to be joining this board.”

Before joining USHG, Ms. Freeman was the chief brand officer at Hewlett Packard Enterprise. She has held executive positions at BBDO, DDB and Deutsch LA, inspiring creative teams and driving business growth. She has been awarded the AMA Marketer of the Year Award and named one of 2019’s Brand Innovators Top 100 Women in Brand Marketing.

“Marissa’s creative leadership will be instrumental as we strategize for the year ahead,” said Kisa Heyer, Dream Foundation’s CEO. “The marketing and communications team welcome her insight, expertise and imagination with intrigue and optimism. We are delighted to welcome her to the Dream Foundation.”

email: mmcmahon@newspress.com

FYI

For more information, visit dreamfoundation.org.

and Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition.” The concert is being presented by the Community Arts Music Association of Santa Barbara. TIckets cost $36 to $156. To purchase, go to granadasb.org.

JAN. 28

7:30 p.m. The Santa Barbara Chamber Players orchestra will perform at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 28 at the First United Methodist Church of Santa Barbara, 305 E. Anapamu St. Tickets cost $16. To purchase, go to sbchamberplayers.org.

FEB. 1

10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central Coast artist and London native Annie Hoffman’s exhibit “Seeing Ourselves in Colour” will be displayed through Feb. 28 at Gallery Los Olivos, 2920 Grand Ave., Los Olivos. For more information, visit anniehoffmann. com.

Sansum Clinic awarded 5-Star Elite Status by APG

SANTA BARBARA — America’s Physician Groups has awarded Sansum Clinic “Elite Status,” its highest possible ranking.

To achieve this 5-star “Elite Status,” a physician group must receive five-star ratings defined by peer-defined benchmarks in care management practices, patient-centered care, information technology, group support of advanced primary care, and accountability and transparency, which Sansum Clinic has accomplished 10 times.

Dr. Kurt N. Ransohoff, CEO of Sansum Clinic, sees this award as “a testament to our team members who are always working hard to meet rising expectations despite

the many challenges throughout this global pandemic. We also could not have received this honor without a tremendous effort by our Medical Director Marjorie Newman, M.D., who spearheaded the huge task of collecting, organizing and presenting all of our reporting data.”

Sansum Clinic seeks to continue its 100-year history and further APG’s mission to improve the quality and value of healthcare by driving down cost and improving the health of the population.

To learn more about Sansum Clinic, visit www.sansumclinic. org.

— Caleb Beeghly

Local congressional award winner

(800) 676-1595 www.sbautogroup.com

BY MICHAEL LIEBERMAN, ADAM WAGNER AND RAFAEL MUSA / EDITED BY WILL SHORTZ

Happy Hour at MOXI begins Jan. 26

By MARILYN MCMAHON NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

Why should kids have all the fun?

It’s the grown-ups’ turn to play as MOXI opens late for its first Happy Hour of 2023 on Jan. 26.

The interactive museum, which serves youths and their families, is encouraging adults to “com, play, drink and be curious” from 5:30 to 8 p.m. MOXI is at 125 State St., Santa Barbara.

Those attending the Happy Hour are encouraged to explore the three floors of exhibits, including the MOXI Arcade and rooftop Sky Garden with panoramic city and ocean views.

This month, you can make something in the Innovation Workshop, or try your hand at

glass etching for an additional $7 fee, which includes guided instruction and souvenir glass.

It’s first-come, first-served at the event, and space is limited. Beer, wine and non-alcoholic drinks are available for purchase.

MOXI will host Happy Hour events again on April 14, June 23 and Oct. 13. MOXI’s Winter Happy Hour tickets are on sale now at moxi.org/happyhour. Cost is $14 for adults 21 and older and free for members. The Glass Etching workshop, which costs $7, includes a souvenir glass.

MOXI members can purchase discounted tickets by logging into their accounts. To learn more about memberships, visit moxi.org.

email: mmcmahon@newspress. com

— Dave Mason

COURTESY PHOTO

Dr. Kurt N. Ransohoff, CEO of Sansum Clinic, and Dr. Marjorie Newman, the clinic’s medical director, stand with a plaque commemorating the clinic receiving an Elite Status rating from America’s Physician Groups.

COURTESY PHOTO

Santa Barbara resident James B. North III, left, receives the Congressional Gold Medal from U.S. Rep. Salud, Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara. The award was presented in December.

COURTESY PHOTO

Marissa Freeman

Barton Goldsmith is taking a break. His columns will resume later.

Thought for Today

HOROSCOPE

Horoscope.com Saturday, January 14, 2023

ARIES — Work you do today, whether related to your job or something you do on your own, could lead to a temporary boost in income, which is going to elevate your mood. This could involve a bonus, a project outside work, or your own enterprise. You should be feeling healthy and enthusiastic, Aries, ready to tackle just about anything.

TAURUS — You might toy with the idea of getting some kind of project or enterprise going with a close friend or love partner. If you’re serious about it, Taurus, this is definitely the day to start. Any partnership formed at this time is likely to be successful and beneficial for all involved. This is even a good day to work out the terms of a legal agreement. Go for it.

GEMINI — Work that you’re doing either at home or on your home is likely to go well today and bring you the results you’re hoping for, Gemini. Members of your household might want to pitch in and help. You will probably spend most of your time inside, but you may also have to spend some time out gathering supplies and materials that you may need.

CANCER — Today you’re likely to feel especially communicative, Cancer. You might want to get on the phone and run ideas for new projects by colleagues or perhaps make arrangements to complete current projects. Success through creativity is strongly indicated at this time. This is a great day to seek success through writing or speaking.

LEO — Business transacted today either in your home or concerning your home is likely to be successful and bring some extra money your way. You probably feel especially optimistic about this. You’re looking forward to new opportunities that may come your way. Your intuition is high, so you’re likely to be able to separate the wheat from the chaff where opportunities are concerned. Go for it.

VIRGO — Today your intuition should be sharper than usual, Virgo. You might get a few calls involving possible business opportunities. You can use this heightened ESP to discern which ones might be successful. You could also hear from friends proposing participation in a group activity of some kind, which you may want to do. Don’t hesitate.

Have a great day.

LIBRA — Today you should feel especially optimistic and enthusiastic, Libra, although you may not know why, at least at first. Later in the day some good news could come your way, possibly involving business and money. This should tell you that you were intuitively picking up on something wonderful.

SCORPIO — A new sense of closeness to those around you might have you feeling especially happy today, Scorpio. Your business and financial life should be going very well, your future seems bright, and now this puts the icing on the cake. Your mind may turn to projects that you want to try in the future, and this could increase your enthusiasm.

SAGITTARIUS — Intuition plays a large part in your work, Sagittarius. You’re apt to sense what others want or need and foresee the consequences of one course of action over another. This is definitely going to make a positive difference in what you accomplish. You’re likely to be quite pleased with what you do. Exercise this intuition today so it will stay with you in the future.

CAPRICORN — Information that you receive from far away could make doing business with a group you’re affiliated with that much easier, Capricorn. All looks promising for group activities and advancing your education, so these are good focuses for today. Travel might also be on your mind. Friends could be inclined to consider the idea, so it might be fun to go out on the town with them tonight.

AQUARIUS — This could prove to be a gratifying day, Aquarius. Recent success in business might now be making a positive difference in your financial situation. This is apt to boost your mood quite a bit and you’re probably feeling optimistic and enthusiastic about your future. You could lapse into some very pleasant daydreams about the possibilities, but don’t get carried away. Try to remain practical.

PISCES — This is a great day to start a partnership of any kind, as it will prove cooperative, rewarding, and stable. Any legal papers executed today should definitely work for you, Pisces. If you’ve been thinking about signing up for a class or workshop, this is the day to do it. You’re more likely to get the results you want. Make plans for travel, too. You’ve got a lot to think about.

SUDOKU

CODEWORD PUZZLE

By FRANK STEWART Tribune Content Agency

Saturday, January 14, 2023

My “Simple Saturday” columns focus on improving basic technique and developing logical thinking.

Cy the Cynic, a member of my club and a confirmed bachelor, asserts that the secret to having a good marriage remains a secret. Here’s a secret for the defenders’ play: Keep “parity” — the same length — with a long suit held by declarer or dummy.

At today’s 3NT, dummy’s king wins the first spade, and declarer starts the clubs. East correctly grabs his ace immediately to return a spade: jack, queen. South’s ace wins the third spade, and South then cashes three clubs. West must discard twice. What should he throw?

LAST SPADE

West must keep his last spade, and he must save all four hearts, keeping “parity” with the four-card length in dummy. So West must discard the five and king of diamonds. If declarer leads a diamond next, West wins, and East gets two more spade tricks for down one.

If West ever discards a heart, dummy wins four heart tricks, and South makes his game. DAILY QUESTION

You hold: 10 7 6 5 4 J 10 3 6 2 A 8 5. The dealer, at your left, opens one club. Your partner

doubles, you respond (“advance”) one spade and he raises to three spades. What do you say?

ANSWER: Your partner has, or should have, a mammoth hand. Your one spade promised neither any points nor decent spades, yet he was willing to undertake a nine-trick contract. Since you have a five-card suit and an ace, bid four spades. You should make it easily.

South dealer N-S vulnerable

Codeword is a fun game with simple rules, and a great way to test your knowledge of the English language.

Every number in the codeword grid is ‘code’ for a letter of the alphabet. Thus, the number 2 may correspond to the letter L, for instance. All puzzles come with a few letters to start. Your first move should be to enter these letters in the puzzle grid. If the letter S is in the box at the bottom of the page underneath the number 2, your first move should be to find all cells numbered 2 in the grid and enter the letter S. Cross the letter S off the list at the bottom of the grid. Remember that at the end you should have a different letter of the alphabet in each of the numbered boxes 1- 26, and a word in English in each of the horizontal and vertical runs on the codeword grid.

“Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time.” — Lyndon B. Johnson

Celebrity have their special tastes in art and furniture

have had a few celebrity clients over the years as an appraiser, and although I can’t discuss my own clients’ collections, Town and Country, Vanity Fair and Art Net News have reported on celebrity tastes this past month.

Netflix’s documentary series “Harry and Meghan” shows the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s Archewell Foundation Offices in Montecito decorated with a copy of the 1836 “Portrait of Louise Mayer” by Ferdinand Georg Waldemuller.

A beautiful young woman in a fabulous gown is seen blowing a huge pink bubblegum bubble.

The first couple of American pop music, Beyonce and Jay-Z, own works by Tracy Emin, Donald Judd and Ed Ruscha, all modern contemporary masters.

Jay Z has worked with images by Jeff Koons and Damien Hirst on stage. In 2018, the couple shot a music video in the Lourve singing and dancing alongside the Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, the Mona Lisa in the Denon Wing, David’s Oath of the Horati and his Madame Recamier, and Gericault’s Raft of the Medusa.

Leonardo DiCaprio is reported to be a regular at many International Art Fairs, and he is a generous donor of works of art he has owned to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

He studies art history, remaining true to his namesake. He is bringing Leonardo da Vinci to life in a biopic based on Walter Isaacson’s book. Sources say Leonardo DiCaprio collects surrealism and hyperrealism.

Barbra Streisand is a notable collector of American art and furniture. Rumor has it that at one time she had a wonderful Arts and Crafts collection, as well as American folk art and design. She began to collect American traditional painters after she was given a tour of the art in the White House by President Bill Clinton in 1992. She is generous to LACMA, where she was a trustee from

2007-2014. She donated an 8 foottall John Singer Sargent oil on canvas (1900) to the Los Angeles museum.

Sean Combs (or P-Diddy) set a world record for black artist Kerry James Marshall when in 2018 he made the winning bid at Sotheby’s for the artist’s “Past Times” (1997) at $21.1 million, the highest price paid up to that point for a living black artist.

P-Diddy’s friend Swiss Beatz (Kasseem Dean) and his wife Alicia Keys are super collectors in the contemporary art world. Mr. Dean bought 70 major works last year. He likes overscale contemporary sculpture, especially the work of KAWS.

An Instagram post shows the impresario and the artist on the feet of one such wooden carved KAWS work at 19 feet tall.

The Dean Collection Foundation supports the work of contemporary black artists. They own the largest collection of Gordon Parks photos in private hands, lately shown at the Fogg at Harvard. They own Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Andy Warhol.

Mr. Dean is on the board of the

Brooklyn Museum and has never accepted money for any work he has deaccessioned, he accepts trades only. He is serious about artist’s rights.

Sir Elton John has a museum quality collection of major photography. Works by Cindy Sherman, Nan Goldin, Robert Mapplethorpe, Minor White, Irving Penn and Man Ray are on his walls. The Tate Modern borrowed his collection for their show “The Radical Eye: Modernist Photography from the Sir Elton John Collection.”

Cheech Marin is building a Riverside museum with California State funding of almost $10 million. The building will have a unique design and will house Mr. Marin’s collection of Chicano paintings, the largest in private hands.

Madonna? She collects nude portraiture, Frida Kahlo (The Tate has borrowed this artist from her), and Tamara de Lempicka. She loves Art Deco design in painting and in furniture.

Steve Martin, who has lived in Santa Barbara, sold a friend a Willem de Kooning painting in 1991 that sold recently for $68.9 million. You might say he

has “an eye.” He also studies art history and wrote a great play, “Picasso at the Lapin Agile” (Picasso and Einstein meet at a French bar...) He is a fan of 1920s-40s Canadian painters and has donated millions to the Huntington to benefit the American Collection of Art. He is also a former trustee of LACMA.

Tennis star John McEnroe, who commissioned Andy Warhol to create a portrait of him and his wife (at the time Tatum O’Neal) in 1986 (in the Studio 54 days) has turned back to art. Mr. McEnroe currently owns a Manhattan-based art gallery. His works there have sold for more than $12 million per canvas.

If you’ve got it, flaunt it!

Dr. Elizabeth Stewart’s “Ask the Gold Digger” column appears Mondays in the News-Press.

Written after her father’s COVID-19 diagnosis, Dr. Stewart’s book “My Darlin’ Quarantine: Intimate Connections Created in Chaos” is a humorous collection of five “what-if” short stories that end in personal triumphs over presentday constrictions. It’s available at Chaucer’s in Santa Barbara.

Santa Barbara Zoo plans Snow Leopard Festival

SANTA BARBARA — About 80 tons of snow will land Jan. 29 at the Santa Barbara Zoo for its Snow Leopard Festival.

The event is set for 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., and the snow will be enjoyed by kids and zoo animals — including the snow leopard Kisa.

The snow play area is open to children 12 and younger (and parents/guardians), and there will be sledding for children ages 4-12 only (but no adult sledding). Sleds are provided, so there is no need to bring your own.

Regular admission or zoo membership is required for entry, and there is an additional fee ($10/ pass, $8/pass for zoo members) for sledding and snow play.

For more information, call the zoo at 805-962-5339 or visit www. sbzoo.org.

SB Blues Society presents Tommy Castro

SANTA BARBARA — Tommy Castro and The Painkillers, which won the 2022 B.B. King Entertainer Of The Year award, will play Friday during a Santa Barbara Blues Society concert. Marking 30 years on the road, Mr. Castro’s show will take place at 8 p.m.at the Carrillo Recreation Center, 100 E. Carrillo St., Santa Barbara. Doors will open at 7 p.m. In addition to Mr. Castro, the concert will feature a renowned surprise guest.

General admission is $30, and VIP admission (seats in front of the stage and a free drink) costs $40. You can buy tickets at the door or online, and discounts are available for college and high school students.

For discount tickets for groups of five or more, leave a message at 805-722-8155.

COURTESY PHOTO

Katharine Hepburn is featured in a photo. Celebrities like their collections of special items or art.

— Caleb Beeghly

COURTESY PHOTO

Snow leopard Kisa awaits the Snow Leopard Festival, set for Jan. 29 at the Santa Barbara Zoo.

—Caleb Beeghly

COURTESY PHOTO

Tommy Castro and The Painkillers will perform Friday in Santa Barbara.

Biden isn’t taking responsibility for border

to the party, his own party. The pressure finally got to his people that he had to say something about the border nightmare.

Once again in typical liberal fashion, he takes no responsibility for the colossal disaster taking place. And once again, the fallback is to blame the “maga crowd” and extreme Republicans for the catastrophe, which is mind-blowing to say the least. I’m just surprised he didn’t add that anyone who cares about our country and doesn’t want open borders are racists. Oh wait, they have said that.

wakes up and is shocked over something that’s been going on since he took the oath of office to protect the constitution and became commander-in-chief. It’s no surprise he didn’t have a clue how powerful the drug actually is. I’m sure he doesn’t know that a dozen eggs costs over $9 either. And former President Donald Trump was impeached over a phone call?

Nothing about President Biden’s vague admittance that there might/could be a problem on the border held any value. It accomplished nothing but toss more salt on the border’s wound.

marching in the jungle, none of whom speak English, would have even cared what he was talking about? And just for giggles say they did. Would they respond by saying, “That sounds cool? I’ll just charge my phone under the bridge here somewhere and download my golden ticket into America. First, I’ll inform my Mexican guide, who I paid thousands of dollars to, and who raped my sister, I don’t need him anymore and I’d like a refund. President Biden said all I need is an app.”

What is it going to take to put a stop to this? Vice President Kamala Harris stands in the background, nodding her head, so no help there.

If there was ever a better example of the term “gas lighting,” it was President Joe Biden’s word salad of garbage about the border.

I have never been more insulted in my life. Either President Biden is even dumber than I thought, or his handlers shoved words in his mouth hoping to try and fool us “stupid” Americans again, and Mr. Biden just didn’t know what he was saying.

Talk about someone coming late

The man of gaffs, even when the words are written for him, still can’t get things right.

President Biden said 20,000 pounds of fentanyl (Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said 355 million lethal doses) was confiscated. Then the press preached to us how bad that is. Where the hell has he been?

The blame of all the fentanyl flooding in, and the deaths thereof, is President Biden’s fault — and his fault alone!

Suddenly two years later he

I kept yelling at the TV, wondering who President Biden thinks he was even talking to. Telling the invaders, “Do not cross the border,” when not a single one of them was watching a TV. Though I suppose some could have watched on their free Obama/Biden iPhone, the phones President Biden was telling them to download an app to, an app to help with the processing of entering the United States.

Does he think the millions of souls huddled around fires and

And honestly, I don’t have much faith in the new Congress either. I thought I had a pretty good understanding of politics, but these last two years only affirmed how naïve I really was. America is just as corrupt as all the other countries of the world. We just do it wearing sheep’s clothing.

While thousands have been arrested for attending, or not, the Jan. 6, 2021 rally, hundreds are still in prison, and so many lives were ruined to advance a political agenda. Yet millions of people

continue to break our laws and get a pass. And we give them money for it.

The border hoax perpetrated by the Democrats and media is right up there with the climate hoax. Even to this day, we’re still being fed that these millions of immigrants, from around the world, are seeking asylum. Stop it already. How about giving those arrested by former Speaker

A trip down Memory Lane in the face of memory loss

Iattended a Republican gathering some years ago where the featured speaker was comic actor Bob Hope, then in his 90s.

As he stood at an outside podium to give his speech, he began by reading a lengthy yarn that elicited quite a few laughs. But just as he finished telling it, a gust of wind came up and blew his notes to the ground. The papers were quickly gathered and put back in order, and Mr. Hope, nonplussed, began to read word for word the exact same lengthy joke he had read, not 10 minutes before. All with the same timing and emphasis he had just given.

He had, apparently, no memory of having already read his humorous account.

The audience played along, laughing nervously again at the same points and at the eventual punchline, but it was obvious to all that Mr. Hope had lost much of his cognitive acuity, that he was in an advanced state of mental decline. His condition had likely been brought on by Alzheimer’s disease, but one wouldn’t have realized that had the wind not blown his

notes to the ground.

Another incident also comes to mind. When singer/songwriter Glen Campbell came to the Lobero to give one of his final concerts a couple years before his death in 2017 at the age of 81, he apologized to his audience, informing us that he indeed was suffering from Alzheimer’s and could no longer remember the words to the songs he had not only written but had also recorded and made famous.

His guitar playing was as good as ever, but he needed to place the words of his songs on the floor in front of him as he sang. It was a brave and poignant performance, and he and his wife, Kim, did their best to smile and greet fans and supporters on the patio behind the Lobero after the concert.

HEADING FOR THE SUNSET OF HIS LIFE

And then there was President Ronald Reagan, whose cognitive

debilitation became noticeable during the last two years of his administration. He left office in January 1989 with most of his faculties intact, but one could see he was failing.

On Nov. 5, 1994, he penned a letter that he had written himself addressed to “My Fellow Americans.” In it, he announced that he was “one of the millions of Americans who will be afflicted with Alzheimer’s Disease.”

He wrote the letter after having been medically diagnosed with the ailment and expressed hope that his going public “might promote greater awareness of this condition.”

He finished with a generosity of spirit that most of us pray we can muster when our time comes.

“At the moment,” he wrote, “I feel just fine. I intend to live the remainder of the years God gives me on this earth doing the things I have always done. I will continue to share life’s journey with my beloved Nancy and my family. I plan to enjoy the great

outdoors and stay in touch with my friends and supporters.”

He added that as the disease progresses, families are often tasked with the “heavy burden” of care that is required and wished “there was some way I could spare Nancy from this painful experience.” He then thanked the American people for giving him “the great honor of allowing me to serve as your President,” and he expressed his “great love for this country of ours.”

He ended his missive with the lines that will live long after the memory of his earthly existence goes cold: “I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life. I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead. Thank you, my friends. May God always bless you. Sincerely, Ronald Reagan.” His heartfelt exit was applauded by a grateful nation. After his death in 2004, tens of thousands of people and vehicles crowded the roads along which the former president’s body was taken from Santa Monica to a hilltop burial service at sunset some 65 miles to the Reagan

Library in Simi Valley. They came with signs, flowers, flags and banners, offering a last salute to a beloved president.

Joe Biden, our current president, is in an advanced state of mental decline. It is obvious to anyone with eyes and ears. He has put himself and his country in a precarious position. If he were a Republican, there would be calls to activate the 25th Amendment to remove him from office.

But there is no pressure from Democrats or from the farleft fringes of the party for two important reasons.

Firstly, the people in charge of this presidency (senior advisers Susan Rice and Jake Sullivan and a small coterie of radical mentors) are accustomed to relaying outright falsehoods with straight faces (i.e., Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, and of course, Susan Rice) and are reliably left-leaning.

Secondly, Vice President Kamala Harris, though probably as pliable as President Biden,

Let’s stand up together for Santa Barbara

‘The preservation of freedom calls for the cultivation of virtue, selfdiscipline, sacrifice for the common good, and a sense of responsibility towards the less fortunate,” said Pope Benedict XVI during his only visit to the United States. “It also demands the courage to engage in civic life and to bring one’s deepest beliefs and values to reasoned public debate.”

It is hard, it is exhausting, and as Pope Benedict said, it takes courage to work for the common good.

Locally, if we don’t stand up and band together, we will lose the grace, charm and unique qualities that make Santa Barbara such a grand place to live and to visit.

Some of the extremely vital issues before us, besides the condition of State Street, and the Modoc Preserve, is now that we are facing the imminent closure of our La Cumbre Plaza within the next five years! If we are to lose our Macy’s at La Cumbre, why not put Macy’s back where it formerly was in Paseo Nuevo, try and really work at making that downtown mall vital and thriving again, and bring retail back the way we have enjoyed not that many years ago.

Bottom line, we need retail in downtown Santa Barbara. Let’s save our town so that we can go shopping, try on the jeans, rather than order three pairs online and send back two. How green is that? Instead, during in-person shopping, you can feel the fabric and have a choice. At the same time, you can enjoy being with your friends, shopping downtown.

We still have some good shops there. Banana Republic has great clothes and good sales. There are the Gap and the Gap for Kids and many other shops, not to mention the Metro Theatre movie houses, and Center Stage Theater, as well as many other shops.

By the way, we hear that the Santa Barbara City Council is in dialogue with a company out of New York to revitalize our Paseo Nuevo. We hope the City Council is prudent and does not make it so difficult that new investors walk away from what is an opportunity to rebuild a tried-and-true center of community and commerce.

Speaking of the closing of Macy’s at La Cumbre, why couldn’t the Macy’s building stay in place at La Cumbre. and above the parking on the State Street side, someone could build apartments? To an extent. A developer wouldn’t have to build as many as 700 housing units perhaps and keep the mall parking.

With the rains, welcome as they are, the roads in our area are a disaster, it took 45 minutes to get across town, zigzagging through street closures, normally a 15-minute drive.

Since both the West Side and East Side flooded and were blocked with mud, freeway onramps closed due to the overflow, where is the escape route for Santa Barbara residents? Wouldn’t it have been nice to have been able to use State Street when Garden, Chapala, Castillo, Bath, etc. were all closed due to mud and water?

On the subject of muddied waters, the rampant hypocrisy in our government shows no end in sight, and bare-faced lies are the order of the day.

President Joe Biden and others continue to bleat how much we must sacrifice for “the kids” and their rights. Their right to equity in education and role modeling, which only the teachers and administrators, we are told, are best able to

DID YOU KNOW? Bonnie Donovan

James Buckley

PURELY POLITICAL

Henry Schulte

The author lives in Solvang

President Joe Biden

Texas Gov. Joe Abbott

COURTESY PHOTOS

“Nothing about President Biden’s vague admittance that there might/could be a problem on the border held any value,” columnist Henry Schulte writes.

von Wiesenberger Co-Publisher Co-Publisher

Dems went too far with Trump’s taxes

State Street is no longer a stroll down memory lane

I would like to share with the readers about a recent experience I had walking down State Street in the evening.

Sudden Adult Death Syndrome: A diagnosis of nothing?

The headlines indicated that Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin “collapsed” on the field. The sad truth is that Damar died on the field and had to be resuscitated. How could this happen?

Dr. Jane Orient has written at WorldNetDaily (wnd.com) “People are learning from well-polished presentations about commotio cordis, an extremely rare event. A sudden impact to the chest throws the heart into a fatal rhythm disturbance.” However, she also indicates that, classically, “this occurs in young boys not wearing protective gear who get hit in the chest with a baseball or similar projectile traveling around 40 mph — not an older, well-protected football player”.

Dr. Orient also notes that, “By now, people have noticed that a lot of athletes have been collapsing on the field, and a high percentage of them die. Many are not even engaged in contact sports. Sudden death when engaged in strenuous activity that triggers a surge of adrenalin is not new. Certain congenital heart conditions, such as hypertrophic obstructive cardiomyopathy, predispose to it, and aspiring athletes should be carefully screened for this.”

These two explanations are the standard response of establishment medical experts and government bureaucrats. Thankfully, Dr. Orient and many other brave doctors and medical research scientists are floating other possible explanations to what has caused a tremendous rise in deaths among young people the world over, including people in the military, and professional athletes. It has to do with a phenomenon known as Sudden Adult Death Syndrome.

According to the Australian College of General Practitioners, SADS usually occurs in apparently healthy adults under 40 years of age, wherein no definite cause could be established even after autopsy or postmortem examination.

Cardiologist and researcher Dr. Elizabeth Paratz from the Melbourne’s Baker Heart Institute explained that these unfortunate victims had the cardiac arrest “with no cause found on the back end.” They died from “a diagnosis of nothing.”

Dr. Paratz echoed the

dilemma of her international colleagues about SADS remaining a diagnostic challenge because the majority of these SADS deaths — around 90% — occur outside the hospital, and the victims don’t reach the hospital alive. They’re proclaimed DOA (dead on arrival).

The medical and research professionals of Philippines CDC believe that SADS may possibly result from the vaccination rather than nothing. Imagine that. This is attributed to the spike proteins generated with vaccination, which may damage the lining of arteries all over the body. Moreover, data in Germany reveals a startling increase (1,000% or more.) in sudden, unexpected deaths in Germany after COVID-19 vaccines were rolled out. In Singapore, the Ministry of Health advises the vaccinated to refrain from strenuous activities for two weeks after the jab.

Whereas it is true that correlation is not causation, the experts around the world floating the alternative theory about the cause of sudden, unexplainable deaths are not alone. In a 2023 Rasmussen poll, nearly half of Americans think COVID-19 vaccines may be to blame for many unexplained deaths, and more than a quarter say someone they know could be among the victims.

Nevertheless, because of confirmation bias, culpability and liability, our government and medical establishment are in the mode of hear no evil, see no evil, and speak no evil while they cancel anyone who does otherwise.

For example, California passed a law threatening the medical license of any doctor who challenges the pro-vax narrative.

Moreover, data indicating excess deaths among otherwise healthy people is being suppressed. This has to do with the human tendency that makes it nearly impossible to convince somebody that they have been fooled. It is harder still to get anyone to admit they perpetrated a falsehood that has cost people their lives.

Andy Caldwell is the COLAB executive director and host of “The Andy Caldwell Show,” airing 3 to 5 p.m. weekdays on KZSB AM 1290, the News-Press radio station.

A week or so prior to Thanksgiving a gentleman friend and I had dinner at Arigato, located in the 1200 block of State Street.

We finished our dinner around 8 p.m. and decided to take a walk down State Street to the Red Piano. It was early enough that some of the other restaurants and bars were still open so there was some activity and lights on. We left the Red Piano around 10 p.m. and started walking up State Street to the 1100 block, where our car was parked. The walk back up State Street was very different than the walk down.

Red Piano is located in the 500 block of State Street. From the 500 block to the 700 block, there were still some bars open so there was lighting and activity. Once we hit the 800 block — and continuing up to the 1100 block — most of the businesses were closed and or the buildings were vacant. This caused little to no lighting for any one walking on the sidewalk or the street.

We also encountered many homeless individuals lying or sitting in almost every doorway in each of the buildings. In several instances, we were asked for money. Both of us felt very uncomfortable and not safe. We commented on how we felt vulnerable and would never want to take this walk again.

I have lived in Santa Barbara since 1977. State Street used to be this lively safe area with great shopping, restaurants and a sense of community. The stroll down State Street was filled with clothing stores, jewelry stores, ice cream shops, and one could always do window shopping when walking in the evening. Now State Street has become a dirty, run down, dark, vacant and unsafe area taken over by the homeless.

When will law-abiding, taxpaying residents get our beautiful city back again?

Maybe if Santa Barbara City Council members took this walk the way I did, they might have a different attitude about what needs to be done to keep us safe.

Judy Frank Santa Barbara

A blizzard of bills — again!

Our state elected representatives are at it again, producing a blizzard of new bills in the 2022 session.

Just who of everyday Joes on the streets are going to know anything about any of these? These bills are for the biggest paying supporters or the biggest attention getters. Most of these bills are “penny dreadful, junk bills.”

The basic problem is that California has a 120 full-time paid members of the Senate and Assembly, with expense accounts, so these fellows have nothing to do but pass bills.

Each representative is allowed 40 bills, but this was increased to up to 50 bills for the assembly in the 2019 term.

But each bill passed costs the taxpayer money in taxes! Every bill costs us one way or another. Every bill must be managed, so your reps can stand up before you at town hall meetings and say, “Look what I have done for you.”

Remember that they are giving us more taxes, and it is not

necessarily a gift. Every aspect of government has to be paid for — the more government, the more taxes for all of us.

We should ask ourselves, “Why are our reps not telling us how much they have reduced the government and how much they have reduced our taxes?” How about giving us the number of canceled old bills each year?

Don’t we care? Why don’t we give them incentives to do so? Is voting them out of office the only incentive?

There are so many bills becoming law that the everyday taxpayer has no idea what they are, and without any malice of his own, he can be found guilty of one or more of them, only to be told by some politically appointed activist judge that their ignorance is no excuse.

At the rate we are going, we will all become criminals at some point in our lives in California by simply going outside our house. It is no wonder that California has more people in prisons than any other state and most countries, and the most highly paid prison

Internal Revenue Service data on thousands of wealthy Americans over the past decade provides insight into the finances of wealthy Americans like Michael Bloomberg, Rupert Murdoch, Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, George Soros, Mark Zuckerberg and others. It shows their income and taxes, their investments and stock trades, and the number of times they have been audited and the results.

Analyzing this data supports the cornerstone of our tax system: that everyone pays their fair share and the rich pay the most. Records also show that the wealthy can perfectly, legally pay taxes that are only a small portion of the millions of dollars their fortunes grow each year. Annual wealth accrued by the wealthy is not taxable income. Only when sold are those assets considered income.

When Donald Trump was running for president in 2016, he declined to release his tax returns since he was being audited, which is not uncommon for people in his income bracket. But Democratic operatives for Hillary Clinton claimed he was hiding information that would disqualify him for office.

“It is obvious Donald Trump has done a lot of things he needs to hide from voters.”

— Hillary Clinton

The U.S. Constitution sets forth a very limited list of qualifications for those running for president: A candidate must be a natural-born citizen over the age of 35 who has lived in the United States for at least 14 years. The Supreme Court has ruled against states adding any additional requirements.

Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway said, “I can’t find out why this is a big issue to the liberals.”

Rudy Giuliani retorted, “The way media is treating this shows why nobody would want to release their tax returns. His political opponents will go through them and make issues out of non-issues.”

Wasting time and money in Los Olivos

Reminiscent of the disastrous chain of events that led to bankruptcy for the Los Olivos sewer project, the fiveyear odyssey of the Los Olivos Community Service District’s sewer plan appears to be headed for implosion under the weight of the LOCSD Board.

The LOCSD was voted in to maintain “local control.” Locals could tackle the town’s groundwater challenges cheaper, faster and better than the county or the state. Instead, a much larger and more expensive sewer project is moving forward, but the LOCSD seems to have “forgotten” to inform the community it is supposed to serve.

The project has gone off course. In August 2019, after a series of public workshops with residents, the LOCSD Board unanimously adopted Board Resolution 19-04,

describing a phased approach that would start with the downtown core and expand only as necessary based on groundwater monitoring data. In 2020, the LOCSD acquired from Santa Barbara County a small parcel of land between St. Mark’s-in-the-Valley Episcopal Church and Mattei’s Tavern to accommodate a treatment system for the downtown core.

Unfortunately, a large chunk of the property tax assessments the LOCSD has collected did not fund the expected groundwater monitoring. Instead, it funded contracts to design an extensive sewer system that looks nothing like the one presented to the community in Resolution 19-04. The project has also grown to include a 2-plus-acre, above-ground sewage treatment plant, potentially including effluent ponds.

Suppose the LOCSD Board is allowed to continue on this

misguided course. In that case, all district residents, regardless of owning an advanced onsite wastewater treatment system, will be forced to hook up to a centralized sewer system and pay for the construction, ongoing operations and maintenance of a new sewage treatment facility in perpetuity.

The board needs to be more forthcoming about the changes it made. Unfortunately, when the pandemic hit, public engagement diminished, local newspaper coverage was almost non-existent, and fewer than five board members often attended the LOCSD’s virtual meetings. The board dramatically changed the project scope without revoking or amending Resolution 19-04 or notifying the public. One more bizarre detail: descriptions of the legal work the LOCSD was paying to the law firm meant to serve the district suddenly became hidden from the public in 2021. A lack of transparency erodes public trust.

During Mr. Trump’s entire tenure as president, Democrats, liberal media and progressive naysayers invented and theorized reasons why Mr. Trump refused to reveal his tax returns. And these same groups did not mention that Mr. Trump gave back most of his salary to the government. During the pandemic, he gave his entire paycheck to the FDA to help develop the COVID-19 vaccine.

Desperately trying to fill in the blanks to parlay their witch hunt, when the Democrats petitioned the Supreme Court to obtain Donald Trump’s taxes, the justices reluctantly agreed. Without legal precedent to do so, this is the first time in history a president was forced to reveal his tax returns by any court.

“Whenever you put a man on the Supreme Court, he ceases to be your friend.”

— Harry S. Truman

Democrats unleashed a nuclear political weapon on the president that they spent four years trying to impeach on conspiracy theories invented

“It takes a magician, not an accountant, to figure out the U.S. income tax code.”

— Albert Einstein

Wendy McCaw

Arthur

Andy Caldwell

COURTESY IMAGE

Michelle DeWerd

The author lives in Los Olivos.

KENNETH SONG/NEWS-PRESS

People walk past the Restoration Hardware store in an active part of State Street during the day. But Santa Barbara resident Judy Frank said she felt unsafe when she and a friend recently walked in other parts of State Street at night.

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Lompoc resident Justin M. Ruhge says limits should be placed on the number of bills that the California Legislature may pass.

COURTESY PHOTO Donald Trump

Kevin McCarthy is a Republican leader for complex times

Amid the post-mortems of the four-day, 15vote marathon to elect Kevin McCarthy House speaker, I remind readers of the headline of my Nov. 30 column, “Kevin McCarthy, a Republican Leader for Complex Times.”

I thought then that that captured our reality, and I think the process that followed confirmed it.

It is human nature to want things neat and clear. But life never cooperates.

Which is why freedom is so important. And which is why we need a speaker who can keep focus and move the ship forward despite heavy gale winds blowing in many different directions.

Speaker McCarthy emerges from the ordeal with plenty of criticism.

And the House Freedom Caucus cabal, some 20 strong, that held U.S> Rep. McCarthy, R-Bakerdsfield, along with 201 of their Republican colleagues captive also emerges with plenty of criticism.

Speaker McCarthy is accused of conceding too much because, per his critics, it’s all about personal ambition.

Regarding the obstructionists, they’re accused of exploiting unique circumstances to gain personal power and attention.

In my column, I noted that polling shows that indeed Democrats are more unified than Republicans.

But I don’t see Democrat woke uniformity as any strength. Democrats’ cookie-cutter mentality regarding human reality is why they love big government so much.

But freedom is so important because there is no cookie cutter for human reality.

In November 2016, newly elected Vice President Mike Pence attended a showing in New York of the hit play “Hamilton.”

When he entered the theater with his daughters, finding their way to their seats, they were met with boos.

At the end of the play, a

spokesman for the cast directed critical remarks toward Vice President-elect Pence.

When asked about the incident, Mr. Pence said he was not offended. He said, “I nudged my kids and reminded them, that’s what freedom sounds like.”

In May 1856, as Congress debated the future of slavery in America, South Carolina Rep.

Preston Brooks entered the Senate Chamber and accosted abolitionist Sen. Charles Sumner with his cane, beating him until he was unconscious.

So regarding chaos and absence of civility, the U.S. Congress has seen days much worse than what we have just been through.

Having built my own organization and worked with many others, my rule of thumb is that good people will accomplish things and get things done despite a poorly designed organization. And bad people will cause damage even in the most perfectly designed organization.

Organization charts and job descriptions matter.

But what matters most is individual character.

Certainly, the rules about how the House operates and the job description of the speaker are of great importance.

But of greatest importance are courageous leaders who are committed to the principles of a free nation under God.

Leaders, for instance, who have the courage to take on our broken entitlement programs that suck up to 80% of our $6 trillion federal budget. These bankrupt programs, going back to 1936, don’t need to be tweaked but reinvented.

Every young American now entering the workforce is paying Social Security payroll taxes into a bankrupt system that will not be able to pay them their benefits.

The answer is not raising taxes or the retirement age. The answer is a new system based on real ownership and investment.

But taking on Social Security and other entitlements requires

real courage and commitment to principles. Do these Republicans have the courage to lead where Americans need leadership?

Polls show the American people are not happy with how things are going. This is a good sign.

The Republican oppositionists should be given benefit of the doubt that their obstructionism was rooted in genuine concern about principles and ideals.

And Kevin McCarthy should be given benefit of the doubt that he is indeed a Republican leader for complex times who knows he can’t win every battle but has wisdom to know which to fight.

Star Parker is president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education and host of the weekly television show “Cure America with Star Parker.” To find out more about Star Parker and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit www.creators. com.

Copyright 2023 by Creators.com.

Controlling the water in Santa Barbara

This week’s torrential rains were a grim reminder of the damage done by the flooding some five years ago where the Thomas Fire had burned the vegetation that would have prevented at least part of the soil from forming the “mud river” that destroyed so much on its trip to the Pacific Ocean.

So, who is “controlling water in Santa Barbara?”

Congress, in 1948, took control of “navigable water” by passing the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1948 and later amended it with the Clean Water Act of 1972, in order to “restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and land biological integrity of the nation’s water.”

The Clean Water Act functions, in part, by requiring a permit prior to discharging pollutants into any “navigable waters,” which are defined as “the waters of the United States (WOTUS), including territorial seas.” Amazingly, even after 50 years, in 2023 the Supreme Court is hearing a case, Sackett v. EPA, that may decide whether “navigable waters” includes such places as Mission Creek in Santa Barbara and the wetlands near Elwood Bluff. How can this be?

Once laws are passed, federal agencies reporting to the president interpret, administer and enforce them. For the Clean Water Act, that agency is the Environmental Protection Agency. However, agencies, such as the EPA, are just that: “agents.” As “agents,” their jurisdiction cannot exceed the jurisdiction of the laws that empowered them. It is this restriction that has stirred controversy for so long.

In the 1980s, the EPA, in an interpretation so convoluted that it would confuse the designers of

Rubik’s Cube, defined “navigable waters,” or WOTUS, as including wetlands that were adjacent to other waters identified as WOTUS. Since “wetlands” are where water covers the soil or is near the surface for at least part of the year, this was a huge expansion.

The U.S. Supreme Court, in 1985, in U.S. v Riverside Bayview Homes Inc., concluded that the EPA had the authority to regulate wetlands that were “adjacent” to navigable waters, which meant that if a wetland was classified as a WOTUS then so would the

wetland adjacent to it, and so forth. This appears to include Mission Creek and multiple wetlands.

The Supreme Court, in 2001, in the Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County case, limited the jurisdiction of the EPA to “navigable” waterways, where “navigable” waterways meant subject to the ebbs and flows of the tides, and which might be used for interstate or foreign commerce. This does not appear to include Mission Creek or wetlands.

In 2006, the U.S. Supreme

Court in the Rapanos case challenged the jurisdiction of the EPA to regulate non-navigable waterways that did not directly “abut” a navigable waterway. However, the EPA demonstrated that the bureaucrats sometimes do not feel obligated to follow Congress or the Supreme Court. The EPA decided to determine on a case-by-case basis whether the wetland had a “significant nexus” to another WOTUS. So the EPA expanded its scope with “nexus,” which is a significant link of things, especially that are part of

a chain of causation.

For example, in 2007 after the Rapanos case, the EPA issued a compliance order formally concluding that the Sacketts’ property contained a wetland subject to Clean Water Act jurisdiction because it was part of a wetland system that drained into a tributary, which fed Priest Lake in Idaho. The Sacketts objected based on the pond being solely on their land.

The Clean Water Act authorized states to create their

Please see ZEPKE on C4

Look beyond media scare stories

‘Let a smile be your umbrella … A smile will always pay.”

That is from a tune which became very popular through a 1957 recording by singer Bing Crosby.

By custom and habit, this writer regularly — though not always — devotes a column relatively early in the New Year to positive and encouraging economic, political, social and other trends in our world.

That becomes increasingly necessary, as well as more educational, as the years go by. Our television and radio media, more and more, focus on catastrophes of various kinds: geophysical, meteorological and human.

This does not mean our world is becoming more dangerous, difficult or disaster prone.

Rather, radical transformation is overturning established media and many other areas of our lives, driven significantly by technology.

Holman Jenkins, contrarian

columnist for The Wall Street Journal, writes regularly with great insight on media hysteria.

This constant fear reflects not objective reality but rather the tremendous challenges confronting those businesses.

Theirs is not the real world in which the vast majority of the population lives and works.

Consequently, describing significant positive developments and trends is more necessary than ever. First on the list, and perhaps most important, from which many other great benefits derive, is the dramatic increase in the average human lifespan.

This is particularly pronounced in economically advanced nations.

In industrial nations, the average human lifespan doubled in the 20th century. Stephen Moore and Julian Simon describe and analyze this transformation in detail in the CATO Institute’s “It’s

Getting Better all the Time.”

Second, there is the extraordinary recent movement of the vast mass of people in the world out of abject poverty.

As recently as 1980, approximately one-half of the population on the planet lived in “extreme poverty.”

The World Bank defines that condition as below $2.15 per day valued in 2017 dollars, an estimate that takes account of drastically different cost and price structures in various countries and regions. Less than that amount means essential conditions of life cannot be met.

Through the long sweep of human history, the vast majority of the population lived in destitution, unhealthy misery and often starvation. Imminent death was a fact of life. That is no longer the case.

The COVID-19 pandemic interrupted this progress.

Nevertheless, still less than 10% of the world’s population is now in that terrible state.

Third, democracy is spreading. As recently as four decades ago, the people of Latin America lived almost uniformly in various degrees of authoritarian regime.

Today, Cuba is the only remaining dictatorship in the Americas. Despite pervasive and ruthless state political control, the desperate need for foreign investment is forcing even Havana’s geriatric communists to loosen their iron grip.

Once tiny Costa Rica was a beacon of freedom south of our border. Now that light spreads throughout the Americas. Even the autocrats currently in charge in Venezuela are obliged to face the people, in referendums as well as elections.

Likewise, genuinely representative governments are spreading in Africa, Asia, and elsewhere. Japan, South Korea and Taiwan are sometimes overshadowed by negative news

from China and North Korea. That is unfortunate. The three democracies represent vital progress.

Undeniably, free competitive economies and representative democracies are interconnected.

Adam Smith’s classic “The Wealth of Nations” appeared in 1776, the year the American Revolution began.

For Americans, perhaps our greatest danger is our own mediafueled fears, reflected today in isolationist and extremist sentiments.

Calm realism is required. Successful businessman Bing Crosby would agree.

Arthur I. Cyr is author of “After the Cold War - American Foreign Policy, Europe and Asia” (NYU Press and Palgrave/Macmillan). He is also the director of the Clausen Center at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisc., and a Clausen Distinguished Professor. He welcomes questions and comments at acyr@carthage.edu.

COVID-19: Who was right?

It’s now been three years since COVID-19 hit. At the start of the pandemic, “experts” shouted: “Stay home!” “Close schools!” “Wash your hands!” “Disinfect countertops!” Clearly, disinfecting countertops and washing hands made no difference. What about closing schools and lockdowns? The media trashed Gov. Ron DeSantis when he lifted Florida’s lockdown. “Acting irresponsibly!” roared MSNBC’s Dr. Vin Gupta. Reporters praised New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s lockdowns.

On CNN, Andrew’s brother Chris gushed, “I am wowed by what you did!” By contrast, he said, Florida was “in such dire straits.”

But actually, adjusted for population, Florida and New York had about the same number of deaths. Given that Florida has more old people, Florida did better than New York. Much of the media just reports what it wants to believe.

My new video this week covers which states and countries handled COVID well and which didn’t.

For the most part, there are few dramatic differences between states that opened up and those that didn’t. The two states in the continental U.S. with the fewest deaths: Vermont and Utah — a red state and a blue state.

The leftist media also got a lot wrong covering the rest of the world.

When Swedish health officials let the virus spread to try to reach herd immunity (and allow younger people to live normal lives), the media’s “experts” were horrified.

Time: “A Disaster!” NBC: “Sweden’s failed experiment.” But it wasn’t a failed experiment. COVID deaths did surge at first, but data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development show that Sweden has done better than most European countries.

The OECD ranks countries by comparing “excess deaths,” deaths above the pre-COVID average. That’s a better way to compare because some countries undercount COVID.

India reported fewer than a million COVID deaths, but

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Brent E. Zepke

The author lives in Santa Barbara.

Star Parker

KENNETH SONG/NEWS-PRESS FILE PHOTO

This year, the U.S. Supreme Court is hearing a case, Sackett v. EPA, which may decide whether “navigable waters” in the Clean Water Act includes Mission Creek in Santa Barbara, above and the wetlands near Elwood Bluffs.

Arthur I, Cyr

Nancy Pelosi the chance to seek asylum from the government that is supposed to protect THEIR civil rights?

President Biden made an appearance to a sanitized El Paso, “See I visited the border. So come on man, stop bugging me about it. It looked great.” Then he continued on his way to visit one of our enemies, Mexico, and its spineless president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. After all, the thousands of people dying on both sides of the border are not nearly as important as discussing the planet

undergoing normal climate cycles. Mexico is a free-for-all. Everyone and everything there is corrupt, not unlike the direction our own country is going. But as the Democrats will undoubtedly continue to try to take our guns away, the Mexican terrorists are almost better armed than our own military, and the terrorists love to see that happen. We made them billionaires, and they have the ability to purchase anything they want. We defended America going after terrorists who killed our citizens.

As Gov. Abbott of Texas is advocating, we need to label the Mexican cartels for what they are,

terrorists. Then we need to go on the offensive. Right now we’re a bunch of wussies letting criminals dictate to us. You think any other country in the world would put up with stuff?

I’ll keep repeating and writing about this atrocity until it ends. I just don’t get why it continues to be allowed. It’s beyond belief and a slow death for America. As we focus more on there being too much snow, rain or heat, Mexico is in a war with itself, and Mexico is bringing it to a border near you.

We have no real friends. England has gone completely woke. Europe is just as bad. Israel

is our buddy, but how does Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deal with Bumbling Biden? Our military is focused on equity and transitioning while our enemies are building theirs up and become further dedicated to how effectively they can destroy us.

We really have become a laughing stock the world over. For those of us who want to reverse this terrifying reality, we can’t scream loud enough from under the cone of silence.

Henry Schulte welcomes questions or comments at hschulteopinions@ gmail.com.

Freedom is why people come here

provide, and it will be legislated! Don’t forget the youngster’s right to gender choice. The parents of the children are sidelined and apparently so are some children — no matter their race or social standing. Just depends on if you are an insider or an outsider, so to speak.

Yesterday instead of protecting the children they purport to care for so much, the children who survive abortion, were voted against. In fact, 64 Catholics — all Democrats — voted against the measure called The Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act. Gratefully for these survivors, the bill still passed this week. How horrible that we must legislate laws to protect the helpless from agencies that claim freedom of choice.

Another related bill (H.Con. Res.3) also passed this week, which condemned violence

against pro-life organizations. This addressed attacks on women’s clinics, churches and pro-life facilities, which have experienced approximately 200 acts of fire bombings, vandalism and violence since May. Why would U.S. Salud Carbajal, D-Santa Barbara, vote against both bills, which are simply a stand against violence?

However, once again Congressman Salud Carbajal just asked for help on his New Year’s Resolutions. No. 7 on his list is “fighting back against attacks on abortion rights.” If that represents 50% of the population, why is he not representing his constituents equally, the other 50%? Shouldn’t violence against any part of the population be forefront in what our government does to protect its citizens?

Freedom is why people come here, and why people fought to create this free nation in the first place. Yet now we see that protection is only served to those

who agree with those in charge. By the way, first on his list is to “combat climate change.” Isn’t that leading the witness?

Ironically, President Joe Biden and company say they want to protect children who have asthma. The president’s “green” proposals continue to focus on the eradication of natural gas, an abundant resource in the USA. Now they want to ban gas stoves in homes due to the claim that 12% of children with asthma COULD have problems.

Wouldn’t the prudent normal response be for those families with an asthmatic child to purchase an electric stove? Who is it who thinks they have the right to decide for the rest of the population whether they can cook with gas or must use electric?

The clean energy battle of electric vs. gas is another barefaced green lie, or at least a difference of opinion depending on where the facts are trolled.

Yet the ban makes no sense from a science-based perspective since the electric stoves that would replace gas ones would be powered by fossil fuels, including coal and oil. Gas stoves are more efficient than normal electric stoves, and the cheapest induction stoves cost approximately twice as much as basic gas stoves. They also need special pots and pans to work.

A recent report from the Department of Energy stated that the cost of clean electricity is four times higher than the cost of natural gas. All one has to do is compare their gas and electric bills to see the difference in cost.

We have choices. It has never been one size fits all.

In fact, that size does not fit anyone.

Bonnie Donovan writes the “Did You Know?” column in conjunction with a bipartisan group of local citizens. It appears Sundays in the Voices section.

‘Trump’s federal tax returns were unfairly released

HAUPT

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by Adam Schiff. To add insult to injury, they revealed Mr. Trump’s tax returns to liberal media so all of America could see them.

Politicians, political scholars, journalists and even many in the liberal media are outraged by the Democrats’ unethical militancy.

Political attorney and scholar Rogan O’Handley remarked Democrats opened up a can of worms and they will regret it. “The left just set a precedent they’re going to severely regret. Now we can see everybody’s tax returns. Let’s start with McConnell, Pelosi, Schiff, Schumer and Biden Corp.” Mark Levin said, “Trump’s tax returns only verify how proudly successful Donald Trump has been.”

U.S. Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, opined, “I’m not interested in seeing the tax returns of President Donald Trump, a guy who left office poorer than when he entered it. I am, however, interested in seeing the tax returns of all the elected officials who became millionaires while they were in office.”

Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said: “The Pelosi gang’s abuse of power to obtain and release the tax returns of former President Trump should result

in the removal of all responsible Democrats from the Ways and Means Committee.”

Fox News host Geraldo Rivera agreed: “Trump’s federal tax returns were unfairly released out of spite just to harass him. They illegally invaded his privacy!”

Sirius XM talk radio host Andrew Wilkow retorted: “There is no statute that requires a presidential candidate to release tax returns. Republicans must now employ this political weapon in Congress. They have no choice since Democrats found another way to silence those that stand in their way.”

The 4th Amendment grants every citizen a reasonable expectation of privacy, free from invasion of their private space, whether it is physical or electronic, or from a person or from the government.

“The greatest danger to liberty lurks in the insidious encroachment by men of zeal.”

— Louis D. Brandeis

Donald Trump is the wealthiest man to ever run for president. Revealing his income tax returns to anyone would have been a tremendous security risk for Mr. Trump and his entire family. For the sake of protecting him and his family, he had a legal right to

keep his tax returns private from everyone.

By using the Supreme Court to get a copy of Donald Trump’s tax returns, the Democrats showed their disdain for Trump and his family’s security. This is a stain on our democracy, and it is now embedded in the Supreme Court rulings. Now Democrats feel they have “unlimited power to target and make public the tax returns” of private citizens and political enemies any time they wish.

In 2018, the nation’s most liberal state, California, passed a bill requiring presidential candidates to release their tax returns before they could be put on the ballot, a blatant dig at Donald Trump. The Supreme Court struck it down as unconstitutional. Even former, far left Gov. Jerry Brown agreed.

Wolfgang Goethe wrote, “We are our own devils.” According to Pew research, most Americans feel the Democrats have spent far too much time investigating the Jan. 6 protest and not enough time running the nation. They also feel that former U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyoming, is obsessed with trying to blame Mr. Trump for the Jan. 6 protest, instead of chastening those who infiltrated a protest and turned it into a cacophony of chaos.

After Elon Musk blew the whistle on the Democratic Party, federal agencies, and the Bidens for being

in bed with Twitter executives last election, more Americans than ever have concerns about federal overreach. If government and its agencies can convince Big Tech to censor conservatives and refuse to print news about a presidential candidate’s son’s illegal activities, that’s scary! Political activists, conservative candidates and even private citizens, fear that President Joe Biden and the Democrats will use federal agencies, such as former President Barack Obama did with the IRS, to silence everyone they desire.

The 4th Amendment protects your income tax returns from public scrutiny. And it protects us from selective audits requested by politicians who fear those who disagree with them. When any political party shows no respect for the Constitution and nobody stops them, that’s when we must vigilantly protect ourselves from the government.

“Government exists to protect us from each other. Where government has gone beyond its limits is in deciding to protect us from ourselves.”

— Ronald Reagan

This commentary was provided to the News-Press by The Center Square, a nonprofit dedicated to journalism.

Public agencies must be open and transparent regarding taxpayer money expenditures, which has yet to happen in Los Olivos.

If the LOCSD Board is interested in being good custodians of taxpayer dollars, they are grossly uninformed.

Spending years of assessment fees on a project the public knew nothing about was reckless. Their premature and arbitrary decision to pursue a hostile taking of a parcel of agricultural land from a local family not interested in selling the land for such a grossly incompatible project is not only deeply offensive but will also be incredibly expensive.

Finally, can we call out the

NIMBYs here? The incumbent board decided to pursue a giant, expandable sewage plant only once they convinced themselves they could put it amid homes owned by our Solvang neighbors, who would have no say, no vote and no benefit from a sewage plant near their bedrooms and backyards.

Sadly, the LOCSD Board needs to get realistic about the inevitable consequences of its oversized plans that lay the groundwork for unchecked sprawl that will leave the quiet, bucolic town of Los Olivos unrecognizable.

The Los Olivos CSD meets at 6 p.m. on the second Wednesday of the month at St. Mark’s Church. The next LOCSD Sewer Workshop is 6 p.m. Jan. 24.

is regarded as something of a loose cannon who may not be as easily controlled as the current president. For example, when put in charge of the border she did … absolutely nothing. No statements, no policy suggestions, not even a visit to her assigned station. She could easily have rattled off a half-dozen good leftist-approved

LETTERS

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guards in the US.

A certain outcome for all of these bills is to paralyze the state of California from doing anything sans committing a crime. Total dysfunction is in store for us.

To help limit this out of control bill-passing train wreck from continuing, let’s insist that our representatives sponsor a bill that limits the number of bills in every two-year session to one per representative. A provision of this bill will be to review and eliminate past bills, every year, and to notify the public about the bills.

However even this restriction, if passed, would still result in 120 bills every two years — still more that any citizen could read.

If the governor can get those other bills passed for special interests, why not this one for the taxpayers?

Justin M. Ruhge Lompoc

reasons why the administration is allowing hundreds of thousands of border crossers easy access to the United States and its benefits. But she didn’t.

That President Biden reads everything he says, and he even had to read his short closing statement at the end of what has been dubbed The Three Amigos meeting of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada, Joe Biden of the U.S.A. and President Andrés Obrador of Mexico last week. It was

Crusade against gas stoves

President Joe Biden and his fellow Democrats want to control the lives of everyday Americans. Recently, they hit a new level of absurdity: a ban on gas stoves.

Robert Trumka, a Consumer Product Safety commissioner, revealed the agency plans to propose new regulations for gas stoves, which could include a ban. The agency is concerned that gas stoves cause indoor air pollution and asthma. Never mind that the EPA does not require certification and that there is little or no actual evidence to support Mr. Trumka’s claims.

Therefore, the questions should be asked, “Where is all of this coming from?” Why are all Democrats moving in lockstep to ban gas stoves, and is the entire issue a manufactured crusade?

Surprise, surprise. The company behind the study about gas stoves is called “Carbon Free

laughable and embarrassing. If he had the courage of Glen Campbell or the dignity of Ronald Reagan, he would resign his office, but he won’t; he has neither. His long and undistinguished service as U.S. senator, vice president and now president has left him feeling as though he is entitled to the office, and he clings to it like a remora on a shark.

Since he is likely to remain as president, at least you now know why he reads everything he says.

As of this writing (Jan. 12, 2023 at 9:19 a.m.), we have 662 days, 14 hours, 42 minutes and 25 seconds before election day on Nov. 5, 2024. Keep your fingers crossed.

James Buckley is a longtime Montecito resident. He welcomes questions or comments at jimb@ substack.com. Readers are invited to visit jimb.substack.com, where Jim’s Journals are on file. He also invites people to subscribe to Jim’s Journal.

own agencies to administer the CWA under the same jurisdictional restrictions as the EPA. Unfortunately, sometimes these agencies try to exceed “navigable waters.”

For example, the Delaware Division of Natural Resources DDNR) issued a cease-anddesist order to the contractor hired to strengthen a spillway, aka a “dam,” for a pond so small that even a bath tub floater could not navigate it. Even after the DDNR admitted that they neither had seen nor could locate my pond on their maps, they still required an application on the same form used for permits to dam the Delaware River. Since this undoubtedly would lead to a hearing, the project was abandoned.

In Santa Barbara, there is the Santa Barbara Urban Creeks Council in the Creeks Division of Parks and Recreation.

Former President Barack Obama’s EPA in 2013, without congressional approval, in a “reversal” that would make the former professional wrestler Jake-the-Snake proud, extended the jurisdiction of the EPA to more than navigable waterways.

Former President Donald Trump’s EPA, in yet another “reversal,” reduced the jurisdiction of the EPA back to the Supreme Court’s standards in the SWANCC and Rapanos cases of “navigable water.”

President Joe Biden’s EPA, on Dec. 30, made a move

worthy of the “Spy v Spy” comic that appeared in Mad magazine, by again extending the EPA’s jurisdiction to small streams, such as Mission Creek; wetlands, such as Ellwood Bluffs; and other waterways by requiring special permits for activities, such as construction. In 2023, the Supreme Court in Sackett v EPA is scheduled to, again, decide if the EPA should apply the CWA standard, as defined by the Supreme Court and adopted by former President Trump’s EPA, that “navigable waters” are “waters used in interstate commerce.”

In Sackett, the Biden EPA is arguing that the Supreme Court should not rule since they, the EPA, some 17 years after issuing their order to the Sacketts, will decide the standards. Sadly, the EPA has its own bureaucracy that far too often is guided by the politics of presidents, or in the words of former President Obama, “Elections have consequences.”

However, it appears that this year the Supreme Court may, again, decide who controls the water in Santa Barbara.

Brent E. Zepke is an attorney, arbitrator and author who lives in Santa Barbara. His website is OneheartTwoLivescom. wordpress.com. Formerly, he taught law and business at six universities and numerous professional conferences. He is the author of six books: “One Heart-Two Lives,” “Legal Guide to Human Resources,” “Business Statistics,” “Labor Law,” “Products and the Consumer” and “Law for Non-Lawyers.”

Buildings.” The company is a partner of the World Economic Forum and its CEO wants to get rid of all carbon emissions. In other words, this is part of the green new deal where electricity

is the only answer.

I wonder if the Dems are ready to get rid of their gas stoves.

the World Health Organization says the real number is probably much higher, because there were 5 million excess deaths in India over the past three years.

Maxim Lott’s excellent website, Maximum Truth, covers this “COVID Fudge Factor” in detail.

Former Soviet countries often undercount. Belarus’ dictator bragged, “There are no viruses here!” But Belarus had many more excess deaths.

Two countries that did well during COVID were in subSaharan Africa. I found that surprising since Africa has low vaccination rates and sparse medical care. Mr. Lott attributes it to Africa’s very young population. COVID rarely harms young people.

What does the data say about countries like Australia that imposed brutal lockdowns?

It’s not clear that the brutality helped. But Australia’ rules did save lives, mostly because for two years, the island sealed its borders. That dramatically limited COVID’s spread.

But once almost every Australian was vaccinated and the government lifted its lockdown, COVID cases soared, like they are in China now.

Adjusted for population, Australia has now had more COVID cases than the United States.

But fewer Australians died, partly because the less-deadly omicron variant was circulating when the country lifted its lockdown.

Was Australia’s strict lockdown worth it? The average Australian lived two weeks longer. To me, it’s not worth it. Being locked in my apartment or shot with rubber bullets if I went out to protest just isn’t worth two extra weeks of life.

Even people in China, where protesting is illegal, recently protested enough that China lifted its most severe rules.

Lockdowns also hurt us financially. New York lost 400,000 jobs since the start of the pandemic. Florida gained 400,000.

In New York, where schools were kept closed, child obesity increased by 5%. In Florida, obesity fell.

Kids’ education suffered. Last year brought America’s lowest math and reading scores in decades. In Sweden, which never closed its primary schools, kids suffered no learning loss.

I understand that three years ago, frightened politicians wanted to do something. A highly contagious virus does require some public health restrictions.

But I wish they’d be a little humble. All of us have different values about safety versus freedom.

Life is better when we get to make our own decisions.

Every Tuesday at JohnStossel.com, Mr. Stossel posts a new video about the battle between government and freedom. He is the author of “Give Me a Break: How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media.”

Diana Thorn Carpinteria

Was Australia’s strict lockdown worth it?

EPA has its own bureaucracy

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Carpinteria resident Diana Thorn describes a proposed ban on gas stoves as “a new level of absurdity.”