Santa Barbara News-Press: November 12, 2022

Honoring veterans

Speakers, bands, choir and color guard participate in ceremony at Santa Barbara Cemetery

Control of Congress remains undetermined three days after election

By CASEY HARPER and DAN MCCALEB THE CENTER SQUARE

(The Center Square) – The fate of the U.S. House and Senate remain undetermined on Veterans Day, three days after voting concluded in the midterm elections.

As of Friday mid-morning, FiveThirtyEight has 211 House seats under Republican control compared to 204 for Democrats, leaving both short of the 218 needed to control that chamber.

“There were a few individual races with projected winners over the course of Thursday, with more likely to come today, but neither party has won enough seats in either the House or Senate to determine a call for balance of power,” FiveThirtyEight reported Friday.

Some races remain separated by only a handful of votes.

Outspoken supporter of former President Donald Trump, Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., is leading her opponent by just about 1,200 votes at time of publication.

Arizona, California, Nevada and other states also have close House races.

49% to 48%, a difference of about 16,000 votes.

Gubernatorial races are tight as well. The closely watched governor’s race in Arizona has Republican Kari Lake behind Democrat Katie Hobbs by about 13,000 votes as counts continue Thursday.

Overall, election night disappointed many Republicans who hoped for the “red wave.”

“So after all the analysis it is clear the most likely case is both houses of Congress will go Red and the mega states of TX and FL go redder,” Matt Schlapp, chair of the Conservative Political Action Committee, wrote on Twitter. “We lost too many close races but all in all I go back to VA very pleased.”

Former President Donald Trump has taken criticism after many of the candidates he backed did not fare well.

Speaking at a press conference Wednesday, President Joe Biden said he always expected Democrats to do “fine” and wants to work with Republicans going forward.

By DAVE MASON NEWS-PRESS MANAGING EDITOR

When the Prime Time Band of Santa Barbara played “God Bless America,” some audience members couldn’t help but sing along at the Santa Barbara Cemetery.

And far up in the sky, the sound and sight of freedom continued with the Condor Squadron soaring above the large audience of civilians, veterans and active military personnel who gathered on Veterans Day.

The Pierre Claeyssens Veterans Foundation and Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1649 led a ceremony at the picturesque Montecito cemetery, under a blue sky and against the backdrop of mountains.

In that setting, the Santa Barbara Choral Society sang favorites such as the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” and “Shenandoah.” The Gold Coast Pipe Band performed selections such as “Green Hills” and “The Su Gan Set.”

Later came “Taps,” played by Howard Hudson on his bugle.

The choral society sang “America the Beautiful,” and the Prime Time Band played the “March of the Armed Forces,” during which veterans from various branches of the service stood and were recognized.

It was definitely a morning of patriotic music, including a powerful rendition of the national anthem by retired Santa Barbara police Sgt. David Gonzales.

It was also a morning of symbolic actions and heartfelt words. The Color Guard from the UCSB ROTC (Surfrider Battalion) presented the colors. Lt. j.g. Christina Sandstedt of the U.S. Coast Guard led the Pledge of

And the master of ceremonies — Lt. John Blankenship, a former Navy pilot and the co-founding director of the Pierre Claeyssens Veterans Foundation — talked about a hero.

Lt. Blankenship told the audience about the heroic actions that retired U.S. Air Force Col. Phil Conran took to save his fellow troops in Laos during the Vietnam War — actions that led Col. Conran to receive the Air Force Cross.

see VETERANS on A3

Control of the Senate is still undecided and may come down to a Dec. 6 Georgia runoff between Republican Herschel Walker and Democrat Raphael Warnock. Arizona’s Senate was won by Democrat Mark Kelley, who defeated Trump-endorsed Republican Blake Masters. Following Sen. Kelley’s win, the Democrats need only one more victory to retain control of the Senate. This could come in the Georgia runoff or from Nevada’s uncalled Senate race, in which Republican Adam Laxalt leads Democrat Catherine Cortez Masto

“While we don’t know all of the results yet – at least, I don’t know them all yet – here’s what we do know,” he said. “While the press and the pundits are predicting a giant red wave, it didn’t happen. And I know you were somewhat miffed by … my optimism, but I felt good during the whole process. I thought we were going to do fine.

“The American people have made clear, I think, that they expect Republicans to be prepared to work with me as well,” he added.

La Kaiser Jewelry celebrates grand opening

By KATHERINE ZEHNDER NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

La Kaiser Jewelry this week hosted an after-hours store opening party to celebrate its first Santa Barbara location at 1101 State St.

“It was great. It turned out really well. We had a really good

FYi

For more about La Kaiser Jewelry, go to www.lakaiser. com, To learn more about My Trees Trust or make a donation, go to mytreestrust. org. And for more business stories, see pages A5 and A8.

crowd come; it was awesome,” owner Cindy Kaiser told the News-Press. Ms. Kaiser estimated there were at least 50 attendees at Thursday’s event.

“It was upbeat and lively. There was music playing, and people drinking wine. It was pretty upbeat,” said Ms. Kaiser.

The celebration featured a charm room where attendees made personal charm pendants and picked out a permanent bracelet.

Partnering with the store for the opening was My Trees Trust and its executive director, James Egremont-Lee. He made a small presentation and gave a short speech about My Trees trust alongside wine and hors d’oeuvres.

Fifty percent of the profits made that night were donated to

News-Press Associate Editor Matt Smolensky contributed to this report.

Allegiance, and retired Chaplain Jerry Gray of the U.S. Air Force delivered the invocation.

KENNETH SONG / NEWS-PRESS PHOTOS

Former Navy Lt. John Blankenship, left, who served as master of ceremonies, shakes hands with retired Air Force Col. Phil Conran, the keynote speaker during a Veterans Day ceremony Friday at the Santa Barbara Cemetery.

The Condor Squadron flies over the Veterans Day ceremony.

Veterans of the U.S. Army stand to be recognized for their service as the Prime Time Band of Santa Barbara played “March of the Armed Services.” Please

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. was born 100 years ago Friday.

Kurt, the author of mostly satirical and darkly humorous, sci-fi novels including his bestseller “Slaughterhouse-Five,” has the finest answer I ever heard about why you can’t go home.

“Where is home?” Mr. Vonnegut said. “It’s Indianapolis when I was 9 years old. I had a brother and a sister, a cat and a dog, and a mother and a father and uncles and aunts. And there’s no way I can get there again.”

Mr. Vonnegut is why I became a writer, and he became a writer because of Mark Twain. Both were Humanists who believed that the universe is a crock and that humanity, said Mr. Vonnegut, is here just to fart around.

It was my friend and Montecitobased author T.C. Boyle — when we ran into one other at a Colorado airport — who suggested I seek Mr. Vonnegut’s ghost at the Red Key Tavern, Kurt’s local hangout in Indianapolis and maybe where he found the inspiration to write my favorite fiction book in high school, “The Sirens of Titan,” about which I scribbled on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 27, 1972: “Wow, that Vonnegut book is so weird. It is one of the best books I’ve ever read … unbelievably I’d sure love to have a discussion with Vonnegut someday.”

“The Sirens of Titan” awakened me to reading and thinking and learning.

ONE IS DOUBLES

Just five days after penning that journal entry in ’72, I awoke from a dream with the phrase “one is doubles, one is doubles, one is doubles” reverberating within my skull and in my mind (according to my journal).

I attributed “one is doubles” to Mr. Vonnegut, who was supposed to appear at the American School in London and speak to my creative writing class, an event I greatly anticipated and felt hugely let down when he failed to appear. I’d wanted to ask him the meaning of “one is doubles.”

(The principal’s staff whispered that he’d been distracted by his mistress that dark drizzly day or hungover and perhaps seeing double.)

Our paths (Mr. Vonnegut’s and mine) crossed twice, fleetingly, about 10 years apart.

The first time, in New York City, took place in 1988 after I’d lunched at a French brasserie with Doubleday editorial bigwig David Gernert and, as he and I stood outside Jean Lafitte on West 58th Street wrapping up our literary discussion, I looked left toward Avenue of the Americas and observed a familiar-looking figure weaving on the pavement toward us.

“Is that…?” I thought to myself. “Is that Kurt Vonnegut?” I vocalized to Mr. Gernert while motioning with my eyes.

He turned and studied the zombie-like figure and replied, “Yeah.”

As Kurt neared, I discerned his eyes were low and glazed with booze, and since his footing was also unsure, I whispered to Mr. Gernert, “I think he’s drunk.”

Although David was a seasoned editor who worked with some of the best-known authors of the time, he was as awed as I by Mr. Vonnegut’s proximity to us.

I should have said something to Kurt and with hindsight I know exactly what: “May I buy you a drink?” We might have gone into Jean Lafitte and at its bar gotten to the bottom of “one is doubles.”

The second time our paths crossed was at Crown Super Store in McLean, Va., where Mr. Vonnegut appeared on Oct. 25, 1997 to sign copies of his final book “Timequake.”

Upon entering, I discovered that a queue to reach him snaked around three aisles. I realized there was no point joining it because the time allocated for this event would soon expire, and Kurt’s

egendary temperament would not allow him to stay a second longer than commitment required.

So I stood and watched him from a distance. He was animated that day and smiling affably for the occasional snapshot taken by a fan.

TURTLE BAY

A few years after Mr. Vonnegut died (in 2007), I was on a journey from “The Exorcist” steps in Georgetown, Washington, D.C, to Salem, Mass., chasing the devil with my artist friend Thomas Van Stein.

After dropping in on Edgar Allan Poe’s grave in Baltimore, we decided on impulse to overnight in New York City and look up Mr. Vonnegut’s haunts. We began by visiting Kurt’s last home at 228 East 48th St., a brownstone in a neighborhood called Turtle Bay where he lived for a couple decades and where he died a few days after he tripped on his dog’s leash and tumbled down the steps.

Mr. Vonnegut would walk Flour every day to nearby Dag Hammarskjold Plaza and sit upon a favorite bench to smoke cigarettes, read newspapers, watch humanity fart around and stare inward hoping not to be recognized. (All he needed to do was shave his mustache, but perhaps he secretly liked being noticed.)

After visiting the park, we searched for Kurt’s favorite restaurant armed only with a few clues provided by an old British newspaper interview: “Italian, Second Avenue, walking distance from his brownstone, a Ralph Steadman drawing on the wall.”

Pescatore seemed right, but it was Spanish. The maître d’ pointed me to Lasagna, corner of 50th Street and Second Avenue.

Standing in the doorway I could not see a Steadman drawing. But as I turned to leave, a swarthy man tapped my shoulder and said, “This is the place — he came here every day, lunch and dinner.”

It was uncanny that he knew my mission.

“But where is the Steadman drawing?”

“We re-did the place a couple of years ago. It’s in the back office.”

“What did Vonnegut drink?” “Dewar’s on the rocks.”

“Do it.”

And I ordered his favorite meal too: a Caesar salad and linguine with clam sauce.

From Mr. Vonnegut’s favorite table against the wall, Van Stein and I surveyed the scene.

“We should ask to see the cartoon,” he said.

Five seconds later, before we had a chance to ask, the manager reappeared with the Steadman drawing, which turned out to be a caricature of Mr. Vonnegut himself.

“Usually, he would come on his own,” the manager told us. “And he’d sit by the bar, back to the wall. If anyone tried to approach, he would raise both hands close to his face and wave them away.”

We ate solemnly in a kind of séance seeking Mr. Vonnegut’s presence.

After dinner, we returned to Kurt’s brownstone in the dark where it became clear his spirit wanted nothing to do with a pair of scruffy adventurers and he did not appear in any way, shape or form.

Death had not changed this Humanist’s desire to be left alone.

LONDON

Fast-forward four years when I fly to London with my buddy Curt.

Arriving at the Cavendish Hotel on Jermyn Street my mind boggles when Curt steps from the elevator to claim his room, 1111, which with a space in the middle pops from the door (directly across from the elevator) as 11 11, an image that solves my 45-year-old “one is doubles” dream riddle.

In my own room, I excitedly consulted several websites and learned that 11:11 is a sign of awakening, “a key to unlock the subconscious mind,” with a message to “be more aware than usual because a spiritual presence is reaching out.”

INDY

A couple of years after that, on a road trip with friends that landed me in Nashville, I realized that Indianapolis was not far and decided to leave the group and solo north for my pilgrimage to Mr. Vonnegut’s hometown.

Trying to avoid the car rental rigmarole, I tried my luck finding a car and driver through a local cab company: Ninety bucks an hour both ways, figure a grand. I

said to the gal, “That’s ridiculous. Isn’t there anyone who’ll do it for a fair price?”

She apologized, no.

A couple minutes later a text came in: “Hello I just spoke to you … How much were you thinking? And when? I may know someone.”

Someone turned out to be herself, and we negotiated an agreeable price.

Nashville (my nickname for the driver) was pleasant and efficient, and we zoomed northward toward autumn, mercury falling, rain clouds gathering. A glittery fairy who looked like Tinker Bell dangled from Nashville’s rearview mirror so I knew I was in good hands as we zipped past Abe Lincoln’s birthplace in Hodgenville, Ky., and Hunter S. Thompson’s in Louisville.

Four hours later, we rounded into the forecourt of the old Severin Hotel, built by Kurt Vonnegut’s grandfather, Bernard, who shaped the Indianapolis skyline with his landmark architecture.

I dumped my bags, and we carried on to Red Key Tavern, Kurt’s old hangout, but they didn’t open till four o’clock and there was no time to waste. As we rolled back toward the city center ,we passed Crown Cemetery, where the Vonnegut clan is buried — all except Kurt whose whereabouts remain a mystery, though I suspect his ashes were spread near his tribe.

I’d read about this graveyard but hadn’t placed it on my itinerary, yet here it was anyway. Nashville, sharing the spirit of my adventure, glided her vehicle through the gateway, and on this gray moody day, we cruised the Vonnegut family’s final neighborhood.

KURT VONNEGUT MUSEUM AND LIBRARY

Downtown Indianapolis was quiet this Sunday, and Mr. Vonnegut’s tidy memorial library was even quieter. Nashville and I were its only visitors. On display: Mr. Vonnegut’s electric typewriter, reading glasses and his last pack of Pall Malls (found hidden on a bookshelf after his death).

Thereafter, Nashville dropped me at the Severin, and I went to Bluebeard, a restaurant named after one of Mr. Vonnegut’s novels and whose decor featured vintage

typewriters. It served the best Caesar salad I’ve ever eaten and one dollar apiece “pink” oysters on the half-shell.

Finishing up, I realized I was not done, that I must revisit Red Key Tavern while open and even better in the dark — and not 30 minutes later, I was sitting at the long bar nursing pale ale and coaxing Kurt’s spirit to manifest itself.

After draining my glass, I aimed for Mr. Vonnegut’s childhood homestead and alighted from the cab into darkness and quiet. The house was vacant and lonely and, I gather, haunted by Mr. Vonnegut and his siblings.

I didn’t know for certain until the next morning when I lightened my pitch-black digital photographs to reveal a single orb hanging between tree branches, then another photo with three distinct orbs hanging around the front yard checking me out.

I smiled, knowing that Kurt Vonnegut had found a way, after all, to get back home with his siblings.

Happy 100th birthday, Kurt, born on 11/11 — or “one is doubles.”

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

WIKIMEDIA COMMONS Kurt Vonnegut’s satirical, sci-fi novels varied from “The Sirens of Titan” to “Player Piano.”

ROBERT ERINGER

Jewelry line inspired by creator’s international travels

JEWELRY

Continued from Page A1

the My Trees Trust. Ms. Kaiser estimated approximately $1,000 was raised for My Trees Trust, which has worked to replant, restore and protect indigenous

forests across the country and provide alternative sources of incomes to affected communities.

“Thank you to the sponsors and to everyone who came and made the event a success,” said Ms. Kaiser.

The grand opening celebration was sponsored by Grassini Family Vineyards, Blue Owl,

D’Angelo Bakery and Andersen Bakery.

La Kaiser is a fine and demifine jewelry line designed and made in the U.S. It was started by Ms. Kaiser, a Swiss native who grew up in South Africa, and it’s inspired by her many international travels.

The line features gemstones with an emphasis on opals, but includes labradorite, tanzanite, mother of pearl and topaz. In addition to her ready to wear pieces, La Kaiser takes custom orders and creates engagement rings. email: kzehnder@newspress.com

‘We should think about the warriors serving our country’

VETERANS

Continued from Page A1

“Phil is probably the most highly decorated man in the Tricounties,” Lt. Blankenship said as he finished introducing the ceremony’s keynote speaker.

Col. Conran started his speech on a light note, explaining that when he was stationed in Hawaii, he and other football fans had to watch NFL games at 8 or 9 on a Sunday morning because of the time difference with the rest of the U.S. He said the chaplain was also eager to watch the football games, so instead of a long sermon, he delivered one-sentence homilies.

“Those one-sentence homilies last a long time,” Col. Conran said. “One was: ‘Be kind to your neighbor.’ That means a lot. If you’re kind to your neighbor, your neighbor may be kind back to you. If a nation is kind to fellow nations, there may be peace.”

Col. Conran promised he would deliver a one-line homily, but first he wanted to discuss the Santa Barbara Cemetery and the challenges faced by active duty military personnel and veterans.

“Santa Barbara Cemetery is over 150 years old. They have Civil War veterans buried here, Union and Confederate,” Col. Conran said. “There are over 5,000 veterans buried in this cemetery. “I think we should thank the cemetery staff for the fantastic job that they do, for allowing us to have this setting,” said Col. Conran, with the mountains

behind him and the cemetery’s big, grassy hills around the audience. “As John Blankenship said (during his opening remarks), this is paradise.

“The second subject I want to talk about is the armed forces,” Col. Conran said.

“We have 1.5 million men and women defending our country. That includes active duty, national guards, reserves,” he said. “That is less than one-half of 1% of the population. Think about that. Less than one-half of 1 percent of the population is defending the country.

“And I personally don’t feel it’s enough,” he said.

“Needless to say, there isn’t much that we can do about that in the near term,” Col. Conran said. “I think we should think about the warriors serving our country.

“They have gone to places most of us have never even heard of,” Col. Conran said.

He noted that back during the Vietnam War, most troops served one tour of duty, then returned to the U.S. But during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, troops had to go on several tours of duty, and Col. Conran said they’ve paid an emotional price for that.

“There is a problem with going back and forth, back and forth, from civilian peace time living to wartime conditions. I think it is wearing on the minds of our younger veterans,” Col. Conran said. “They are going back and forth three, four, five, six, seven times.

“We have 20 suicides a day in

Monte Schulz to speak and sign book, ‘Metropolis’

SANTA BARBARA — Chaucer’s Books will host a book talk and signing for Santa Barbara author Monte Schulz, whose new book, “Metropolis,” is a dystopian narrative of love in a time of war and moral disintegration.

The event begins at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the store, 3321 State St., Santa Barbara.

In “Metropolis,” Regency College senior Julian Brehm’s uneventful student life is derailed

the military,” Col. Conran said. “As a matter of fact, this morning, I heard it was 22 a day.”

He stressed the need to help today’s veterans, to do something more than simply say, “Thank you for your service.”

“Let’s think about that in the coming weeks and see if we can do something to support these young warriors we have on active duty and the warriors who are retired or out of service,” Col. Conran said.

Then as promised, Col. Conran delivered his one-line homily: “Let us be the rainbow for those veterans who are still living in the clouds.”

In that spirit, the ceremony continued with more patriotic music, including the choral society’s performance of “Tribute to the Armed Forces” and

when he falls for Nina Rinaldi, a beautiful young revolutionary engaged in political activism against the authoritarian regime that rules the country and wages a deceitful, distracting war.

Mr. Schulz, who is the director of the Santa Barbara Writers Conference, received his master’s degree in American Studies at UCSB, published his first novel, “Down by the River,” in 1990, and spent the next 12 years writing a novel about the Jazz Age. His father is “Peanuts” cartoonist Charles M. Schulz (1922-2000).

— Marilyn McMahon

TRAFFIC, CRIME AND FIRE BLOTTER

Man arrested on suspicion of attempted kidnapping

CARPINTERIA — Santa

Barbara County sheriff’s deputies have arrested a Santa Barbara man on suspicion of an attempted kidnapping that allegedly occurred earlier in the week.

On Tuesday, Community Resource Deputy Bryan Dickey was notified by Carpinteria Middle School staff of an attempted kidnapping incident that allegedly occurred at approximately 4 p.m. Monday, in the 5500 block of Carpinteria Avenue near the entrance to the bicycle path.

CRD Dickey spoke with the female juvenile reporting party who provided a thorough account of the incident and a suspect description, according to Raquel Zick, the Sheriff’s Office public information officer.

SRD Dickey and patrol deputies conducted a followup investigation, identifying the suspect as 51-year-old Elias

Maldonado from Santa Barbara and tracking him to a motel in the 5500 block of Carpinteria Avenue.

Deputies also learned that Mr. Maldonado had an outstanding warrant for his arrest.

On Thursday, at approximately 9:50 a.m., SRD Dickey, along with patrol deputies and a sheriff’s K-9 unit, contacted Mr. Maldonado at the motel, where he was taken into custody after briefly attempting to flee, Ms. Zick said.

Mr. Maldonado has been booked at the Main Jail in Santa Barbara on suspicion of attempted kidnapping of a child under the age of 14 (felony) and suspicion of obstructing a peace officer (misdemeanor) as well as his outstanding warrant for domestic violence (felony) and false imprisonment (felony). He is being held on $150,000 bail.

— Katherine Zehnder

Man dies during collision

GOLETA — On Highway 101 northbound, one-fourth mile south of Fairview Avenue, a male pedestrian was struck

early Friday morning by an Uber vehicle.

The man was pronounced deceased at the scene, said Capt. Scott Safechuck, the public information officer for the Santa Barbara County Fire Department. The call time was 1:48 a.m.

— Katherine Zehnder

Surfer rescued

GUADALUPE — An unconscious surfer, who was experiencing a cardiac arrest, was pulled to shore and successfully resuscitated during CPR Friday morning at Guadalupe Beach.

There were “amazing efforts” in the rescue by surfers, including an off-duty registered nurse, said Capt. Scott Safechuck, the public information officer for the Santa Barbara County Fire Department.

In addition to County Fire, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office, the Guadalupe Fire Department, California State Parks and CalStar responded. Call time was 9:32 a.m., Capt. Safechuck said. — Dave Mason

Said

“May

email: dmason@newspress.com

KENNETH SONG / NEWS-PRESS PHOTOS

Cindy Kaiser, the owner of La Kaiser jewelry, right, celebrates the grand opening of her store at the corner of State and Figueroa streets in downtown Santa Barbara with a party. At right, La Kaiser is a fine and demi-fine jewelry line designed and made in the U.S.

the Prime Time Band playing “Hallelujah.”

Chaplain Gray during his invocation,

no veteran ever feel forgotten.”

KENNETH SONG / NEWS-PRESS

Veterans salute the colors retired by the UCSB ROTC’s Color Guard.

Westmont women’s basketball take home win Thursday

Victory is 400th of Head Coach Kirsten Moore’s career

By RON SMITH WESTMONT SPORTS WRITER

Stefanie Berberabe scored 13 points and Aleena Cook added 11 more as #2 Westmont Women’s Basketball (3-0) defeated the Gold Nuggets of Xavier (La.) (1-1) by a score of 61-45 in Murchison Gymnasium on Thursday night.

Berberabe added five steals and three assists to her stat totals while Cook pulled down five rebounds, including four from the offensive glass.

With the victory, the Warriors provided head coach Kirsten Moore with the 400th win of her storied career. Moore, who is in her 18th year leading the Warriors, has a record of 400128, for a winning percentage of .758. Her teams have won two national titles and Golden State Athletic Conference championships in nine different years.

“I think what it shows is the consistency of success that this program has had,” said Moore. “If anything, it is indicative that I have coached some phenomenal young women over my time here at Westmont and I have had amazing assistant coaches that have helped me along the way. I am grateful for all the Warriors and assistant coaches past and present.”

The victory marked the first time that Westmont has defeated Xavier (La.). Their last meeting was in the first round of the 2014 NAIA National Championship in which the Gold Nuggets prevailed 66-53.

“It was great to play a national tournament caliber team and be challenged with their level of physicality, athleticism, and the pressure with which they play defense. I thought we handled that phenomenally in the first half. It always starts with our defense, and our defense in the first half was great. We didn’t give them anything easy and didn’t let them get loose on the o-boards. We came into halftime in a really good place.”

Down 7-2 four minutes into the game, Westmont reeled off a 10-0 run to end the first quarter of play. After a jumper by Cook, Laila Saenz (8 points, 4 steals) knocked down a three to tie the game at seven. Destiny Okonkwo (7 points, 9 rebounds), drained

a couple of free throws before Cook hit another jumper and Saenz added a free throw.

In the second frame, Westmont outscored Xavier 21-9 with Berberabe going four-for-four from the field and making her only free throw attempt of the game. Sydney Brown (8 points, 5 rebounds) added six points in the second quarter on three field goals.

“Stef led us in all aspects with her presence and her confidence against the pressure,” noted Moore. “They were trying to trap her all over the court, but she handled that so well, getting other people open looks.”

Xavier would find its bearing in the second half, though they were unable to reduce the point differential below 10.

“With a good team like Xavier, you know they are going to make some runs,” explained Moore. “So, we were trying to keep them at bay and not let any of those runs get out of control in the second half. They sure did make some runs, but I thought we staved them off and responded when we needed to.”

The Warriors won the battle of the boards 45-35, turning 22 offensive rebounds into a 167 advantage in second chance points. Westmont also forced 25 turnovers by the Gold Nuggets, including 15 steals.

“Our inside game was working well tonight. We were able to go inside and get it done on the boards. Our posts are starting to play with a lot of great presence and togetherness. I see great potential in our post game for this year.

“Between the turnovers and the rebounding, that is a lot of possessions. We needed it tonight on a night when we didn’t shoot the ball very well from the perimeter or from the free throw line.”

Before starting Golden State Athletic Conference play next week, Westmont will host Southern Oregon (4-0) tonight in a battle of undefeated teams. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m.

Ron Smith is the sports information director at Westmont College.

email: sports@newspress.com

Righetti football coach to step down

SANTA MARIA — Righetti High School head football coach Tony Payne is stepping down to dedicate more time to his family

Sokhela named West Region Athlete of the Year

By JACOB NORLING WESTMONT SPORTS WRITER

For the fourth time in his collegiate career, Westmont’s Zola Sokhela has been honored with an annual award by the U.S. Track and Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. After being honored three times previously by the USTFCCCA due to his accomplishments on the track, this time around, Sokhela has been honored for his work in cross country.

On Wednesday, the USTFCCCA announced that Sokhela was named the 2022 NAIA Cross Country West Region Men’s Athlete of the Year.

The honor for Sokhela comes less than a week after the greatest cross country race of his career, one saw him dethrone the

and his special education classes.

Payne, who took over the program in 2018, made the announcement during a team meeting Thursday afternoon at the Santa Maria school.

“It’s been an honor to be part

reigning Golden State Athletic Conference individual champion. At the GSAC Championships in Rocklin on November 5, Sokhela ran a career-best time of 23:45.5 in the 8K, and in doing so, became the new individual GSAC Champion.

“Zola demonstrated his full capabilities, by making the choice to compete,” said Westmont head coach Russell Smelley. “He was rewarded not only with this win, but with a lot more confidence and relaxation. His accomplishments have been well-earned.”

In five regular season races, Sokhela finished in the top10 each time, including three races where he finished in the top-five. After winning the individual GSAC Championship, Sokhela and the rest of the ninth-

of the Warrior football program and a dream come true,’’ said Payne, who graduated in 1995 from Righetti. “I love Righetti High School, and I’m not going anywhere. I plan to help this program to continue to grow and thrive.

“I am proud of what we have accomplished in the last five years, and I am forever grateful for the chance to coach and teach at my alma mater,” Payne said.

“There are so many people that have supported our program and I greatly appreciate all of them. Football is a tough sport for tough kids, and I appreciate the commitment and the sacrifice that my Warriors make for this

ranked Warriors will compete in Tallahassee, Florida on November 18 at the NAIA National Championships.

“It’s exciting going into Tallahassee, because the team is responding to his lead,” added Smelley. “The entire team has been stepping up to their capabilities. It could be a very fun trip for us.”

Sokhela, who earned AllAmerican status at the Cross Country National Championships in 2021, will be looking to earn his 13th NAIA All-American honor since beginning competition in spring of 2021.

Jacob Norling is the sports information assistant at Westmont College.

email: sports@newspress.com

program. Shout out to the ‘Chosen Ones’!”

The search for a new head coach will begin in a few weeks under the guidance of Righetti Athletic Director Kevin Barbarick, said Principal Ted Lyon. “The goal will be to find an individual who is committed to improving our student athletes as players and citizens. The school is very grateful for Coach Payne and his work with our student athletes over the past five years.’’

Last year, the team, assistant coaches and Payne won the CIF-Central Section Division 5 Championship.

— Dave Mason

Joanne was welcomed home by her Lord and Savior on November 1, 2022 – a day appropriately known as “All

Joanne was raised in Loves Park, Illinois. She graduated from Harlem High School where she met her first and only true love, Theodore James “Jim” DePew. They were married on November 26, 1949.

The DePews stayed two years in Illinois where daughter Dayna was born. They moved to Pasadena, California for five years where daughter Traci was born. A career change for Jim moved the family to Omaha, Nebraska for a year and then to Prairie Village, Kansas for 12 years where son Doug was born.

While living in Kansas, the family were Charter Members of Hillcrest Covenant Church and Joanne established the Nursery/Cradle Roll at this new church.

Joanne loved being a homemaker and her dream was to be a Librarian. Though that goal was never achieved, her love of books and learning never left her. While living in Kansas City, she attended Johnson County Community College with an emphasis on Creative Writing courses. So gifted was Joanne’s talent for writing and expression, her professors stated they were learning from her as she aced her classes.

In 1973 the DePews moved to Santa Barbara, California for the next 30 years with two years living in Montecito, California.

Once established in Santa Barbara, Joanne enrolled in the local community college and eventually received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Antioch University, Santa Barbara, Ca in 1985. In June of 1986, Joanne received a Clinical Certificate in Chemical Dependency Studies from Antioch University. Following this, Joanne received a Certificate of Alcohol and Drug Counseling Skills Degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara. November of 1986, Joanne completed her Counseling degree in Chemical Dependency from Pinecrest Hospital. Joanne studied for years to become a Myers-Briggs Counselor and finally obtained her certification in 1995 with further training in The Communication Wheel in 1996.

Jim and Joanne were members of El Montecito Presbyterian Church in Montecito, California.

When Jim passed in 2001, Joanne moved to Lompoc, California where she lived for 4 years. She moved back to Santa Barbara and was independently living at Maravilla for several years until joining her daughters in Oklahoma in 2013. Joanne resided at Legends at Rivendell, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

Left to cherish her memories are: daughter Dayna Drake and grandchildren, Danielle and husband Joe Korzen, Connor and wife Amber Drake, Torrey Drake. Daughter Traci and husband Tim Robbins and grandchildren, Tyler Robbins, Tiana and husband Jacob Albertson with great-grandchildren, Dylan and Finley, Travis and wife Jenny Robbins with great-grandchildren, Harlie, Hudson, Jackson and Kimber. Son Doug and wife Susan DePew and grandchildren Shannon Whinnery with great-grandchildren, Lincoln and Dexter, Shelby DePew, Brennan DePew and wife Joardan Blankenship.

Joanne is further survived by her brother Craig and wife Betty Day, sisters-in-law Sandy Day and Betty Harrington and brother-in-law Rev. Clarence Twigg along with numerous nieces and nephews.

Joanne was predeceased by her parents and brothers, Richard Day and wife Dorothy and Brian Day.

Joanne was a loving wife, mother and friend to all. Most important, Joanne was a Christian made more obvious in her walk and treatment of everyone. We will miss you Mom. You are perfect and whole and finally given the gift of rhythm so dance on with Dad until we see you again.

Joanne’s graveside celebration will be held on Wednesday, November 16, 2022 at 1:15 pm at the Santa Barbara Cemetery, 901 Channel Dr., Santa Barbara, Ca. Announcement of a reception will follow the Service. Arrangements entrusted to Welch-Ryce-Haider Funeral Chapels.

After graduating from Santa Barbara High School, Carolyn attended Prairie Bible School in Alberta, Canada, and later Wheaton College in Illinois, where she majored in Bible and prepared for the mission field. She married George Jackson Gibb in June, 1950, and after a brief period as missionaries in Chile, the couple returned to the United States, where they joined Carolyn’s mother Grace. Carolyn was to spend some years caring for her mother, and later, her elder sister Constance, and finally, her husband.

For most of their adult lives Carolyn and George engaged in home missions, conducting Bible classes for children and hosting adult Bible classes in their home. Often they sought to share their home with needy youths who lacked a functioning family, for whom they provided food, shelter, counsel, and affection. During this period Carolyn published a volume of devotional meditations, “More Than Enough”. After Grace’s death the couple moved to Carpinteria, where Carolyn and George became active members of the Carpinteria Baptist Church. Carolyn cared devotedly for George in his later years, until he expired peacefully in their home at the age of 93 in 2020.

Carolyn was a woman of high intelligence, scrupulous honesty, an exact memory, and consistent ideals. She was an energetic homemaker and hospitable cook with a concern for healthy foods and an interest in health care. In personal habits she was unselfish, un-materialistic, abstemious, and self-denying; her response to every compliment was, “I cannot do anything myself; it is only through God’s grace,” thus embodying her highest aspiration, “That through my life Thy loveliness may show.”

STANLEY, Vickie Lynn

In memory of Vickie Lynn Stanley, the beloved mother of her only daughter Melissa Stanley and son Kyle Stanley, along with the most devoted canine and best friend ever named Pi, who is now in the loving arms of Melissa Stanley resident of Hollywood. Vickie was the surviving sibling of both brothers Peter Stanley and Rocky Stanley, who passed in 2021 and 2022. It is without a doubt that Vickie was a true-grit modern day pioneer and a hero to all those who knew how she kindheartedly persevered in all of life’s challenges, especially as a 30-year kidney transplant recipient and doing the amazing feat of raising her 2 children as a single mother. A born teacher SHE WAS and a VERY special speech pathologist that forged an innovative interactive science and nature center. The last 10 years Vickie dedicated her creativity, smiles laughter and loving passion as a house director of sororities (she was a beloved house MOM). Her last employment and home was ADPI UCSB in Santa Barbara CA, where she passed suddenly on the grounds. It is with such deep grief and knowledge that she will be sincerely missed by all her friends and colleagues. For more information on the memorial please contact Melissa Stanley at vickiepistanley@gmail. com

Obituary notices are published daily in the Santa Barbara News-Press and also appear on our website www.newspress.com To place an obituary, please email the text and photo(s) to obits@ newspress.com or fax text only (no photos) to (805) 966-1421. Please include your name, address, contact phone number and the date(s) you would like the obituary to be published. Photos should be in jpeg format with at least 200 dpi. If a digital photo is not available, a picture may be brought into our office for scanning. We will lay out the obituary using our standard format. A formatted proof of the obituary and the cost will be emailed back for review and approval. The minimum obituary cost to print one time is $150.00 for up to 1.5” in length -- includes 1 photo and up to 12 lines of text, approximately 630 characters; up to approximately 930 characters without a photo. Add $60.00 for each additional inch or partial inch after the first 1.5”; up to approximately 700 characters per additional inch. All Obituaries must be reviewed, approved, and prepaid by deadline. We accept all major credit cards by phone; check or cash payments may be brought into our office located at 715 Anacapa Street. The deadline for Weekend and Monday’s editions is at 10a.m. on Thursdays; Tuesday’s edition deadlines at 10a.m. on Fridays; Wednesday’s edition deadlines at 10a.m. on Mondays; Thursday’s edition deadlines at 10a.m. on Tuesdays; Friday’s edition deadlines at 10a.m. on Wednesdays (Pacific Time). Free Death Notices must be directly emailed by the mortuary to our newsroom at news@ newspress.com. The News-Press cannot accept Death Notices from individuals.

Today Sun.

City Hi/Lo/W Hi/Lo/W

Cuyama 59/36/s 54/32/s

Goleta 64/41/s 66/40/s

Lompoc 63/42/pc 61/38/s

Pismo Beach 61/41/pc 61/37/s

Santa Maria 63/42/pc 64/35/s

Santa Ynez 68/41/s 67/34/s

Vandenberg 60/44/pc 60/39/s

Ventura 64/47/s 62/46/s

Bakersfield 61/42/pc 58/36/s

Barstow 64/42/s 62/38/s

Big Bear 50/22/s 44/18/s

Bishop 57/29/pc 51/23/s

Catalina 58/47/s 55/48/pc

Concord 60/39/c 61/40/s

Escondido 70/46/s 66/41/sh

Eureka 53/37/sh 53/39/pc

Fresno 60/40/pc 56/38/s

Los Angeles 69/49/s 67/47/pc

Mammoth Lakes 43/15/pc 36/9/s

Modesto 59/41/c 59/38/s

Monterey 59/44/c 58/41/s

Napa 60/37/sh 62/37/s

Oakland 60/43/c 60/44/s

Ojai 66/42/s 66/41/s

Oxnard 64/46/s 64/46/s

Palm Springs 71/48/s 71/48/s

Pasadena 67/47/s 67/48/pc

Paso Robles 62/34/pc 62/31/s

Sacramento 58/40/c 59/37/s

San Diego 67/54/s 63/50/pc

San Francisco 59/46/c 59/46/s

San Jose 60/43/c 62/41/s

San Luis Obispo 65/42/pc 65/38/s

Santa Monica 66/49/s 65/46/s

Tahoe Valley 40/15/sf 39/13/s

Atlanta 66/34/pc 54/35/s

Boston 72/50/t 55/36/pc

Chicago 38/26/c 38/24/s

Dallas 53/33/s 55/41/pc

Denver 52/23/s 49/17/c

Houston 60/37/pc 60/46/pc

Miami 86/70/t 82/69/s

Minneapolis 32/22/c 33/21/pc

New York City 72/49/r 52/36/pc

Philadelphia 70/48/pc 53/34/pc

Phoenix 74/48/pc 71/44/s

Portland, Ore. 50/35/pc 47/35/c

St. Louis 38/25/pc 42/26/pc

Salt Lake City 44/28/pc 40/24/pc

Seattle 48/36/pc 47/35/c

Washington, D.C. 71/45/pc 51/35/s

6:37 p.m. 0.2’ Nov. 13 11:12 a.m. 5.0’ 7:35 p.m. 0.5’ none none Nov. 14 12:05 p.m. 4.6’ 8:42 p.m. 0.6’ none none

Beijing 57/29/c 50/30/pc

Berlin 59/45/pc 57/44/pc

Cairo 79/61/s 81/62/s

Cancun 87/69/s 87/71/pc London 65/51/s 65/52/s

Mexico City 78/51/s 77/51/s

Montreal 59/41/r 44/29/c

New Delhi 82/57/pc 81/60/pc

Paris 65/48/pc 63/46/pc

Rio de Janeiro 80/72/t 84/76/t

Rome 68/50/c 62/52/sh

Sydney 79/66/c 82/72/r

Tokyo 69/59/pc 72/56/r

DEPEW, Joanne Evelyn (Day)

Joanne Evelyn DePew (Day) was born on August 14, 1930 to Celestine and Mildred Day (Shroyer) in Montreal, Canada.

Saints Day.”

GIBB, Carolyn Coane

Carolyn Coane Gibb was born July 8th, 1930, the younger daughter of Grace Gragg Sheridan Coane and Ralph Waldo Coane, At age fourteen, she experienced a vision of Jesus Christ, who appeared to her and called her to his service, an invitation which was to determine the course of her future life.

SANTA BARBARA CHANNEL

COURTESY PHOTO

Zola Sokhela

COURTESY PHOTO

Tony Payne, who’s stepping down as the head football coach at Righetti High School, plans to dedicate more time to his family and his special education classes.

Business/Real Estate

The road to wellness

By KATHERINE ZEHNDER NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

Santa Barbara-based Expond is an online booking platform that connects individuals and companies with health and fitness professionals offering customized services. Expond recently raised $1.25 million in seed round funding in less than a year.

The total investment will allow Expond to expand into new markets, launch a more robust platform and further develop its user database.

“I started as a trainer 20 years ago,” Jason Baker, founder and CEO of Expond, told the News-Press. “Working as a trainer, there are only so many hours in a day. I always wanted to create a platform system to help fitness trainers increase their businesses.

“I started Fitness 805 in 2006, which created a bridge between health and fitness officials and clients trying to find health professionals. It worked, but we didn’t have the technology to streamline,” he said. “Fast forward to the pandemic when we saw trainers losing jobs and fitness businesses going under. What Expond does is we have created a platform business to bring out fitness professionals and give them benefits they didn’t have before and help fitness professionals create and build their own business.”

Expond’s intuitive software creates a marketplace for health and fitness professionals, by connecting users to service providers offering fitness, wellness, and experiences.

The demand has exploded to the point that today’s global wellness economy is worth $4.8 trillion. People are looking for outdoor adventures and better ways to address their

Please see EXPOND on A8

FYI

To learn more about Expond, visit goexpond.com.

note: Today marks the debut of a new investments column by Tim Tremblay of Santa Barbara-based Tremblay Financial Services (www.tremblayfinancial. com).

I have been in the financial services business since 1983. It has been an amazing journey.

The 30-year treasury was paying 19.1% in the early ’80s, Home mortgages were in the high teens.

In the early 1980s, the Dow Jones Industrial average had just passed the 1,000 point barrier.

In November 2021, the Dow closed at a record high of 36,327!

The U.S. markets have weathered some very difficult storms over the past 40 years on their way to our recent highs. We had “Black Monday” on Oct. 19, 1987, where an unexpected, severe global stock market crash took place. The markets fell more than 20% that day.

The Milken-Boesky junk bond fiasco took place in the late 1980s, sending the markets down during a period of financial uncertainty. The savings and loan business was abolished in 1995 amid a serious financial crisis.

Sept. 11, 2001 saw the single worst terrorist attack on the United States. The financial markets were in disarray with Wall Street and our economy shut down for days. The markets lost half their value by 2003 with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. 2008 brought the Great Recession. In a year’s time the markets dropped by 60%.

The markets and the economy have been resilient over the past four decades. In many ways we have a stronger and a more diverse economy as a result. The free enterprise system works.

Prudent advice during those difficult times was “stay the course!” The U.S. economy made it through crisis after crisis with thoughtful planning and good old fashioned hard work. And we will do it again!

We have headwinds in front of us as we move forward. Inflation continues to be a big concern for the U.S. and global economy.

As world leaders strive for an elimination of fossil fuels, there is a heavy price to pay. The oil industry’s financial repercussions

INVESTMENTS

are not just the result of the “price at the pump.” Oil affects all aspects of the U.S. economy. The rubber and tire industry, the medical industry, the plastics industry, the asphalt industry and the delivery of our goods and services are all derivatives of the oil industry.

Oil is the biggest single factor with the inflation we are now experiencing. Our politicians and country must come together and establish a comprehensive plan to gradually move to a “green” economy.

Diversification is critical during times of uncertainty and volatility. Investors should consider implementing different asset classes in their investment portfolios. A foundation of “safe money” is important. “Non correlated” assets should be a part of the mix.

These investments are not traded in the stock market and may pay regular distributions. A portfolio of individual securities in a separately managed account should be a part of the plan. During the “growth mode,” the distributions from the non-correlated assets should “dollar-cost-average” into the managed account. When the time comes for income, the portfolio can seamlessly go from “growth” to “income.”

Volatility and uncertainty are guarantees in life, along with death and taxes. It is more important now than ever to continue to do the proper planning, updating and review of that plan to ensure your retirement goals and objectives are met — regardless of what this economy may bring.

Stay the course!

Will it be 2008 all over again?

Editor’s note: Daniel Encell of Berkshire Hathaway (www. danencell.com) joins the NewsPress’ roster of real-estate columnists today.

Wow. What a difference a couple of months can make!

From the first quarter of 2022 to the fourth quarter, we have gone from the hottest seller’s market in history, to a real estate market that is eerily quiet where sales are few and far between. So what changed to cause such a dramatic turnaround?

The answer: interest rates.

In early 2022, and for much of the recent real-estate boom (also known as the “Pandemic Seller’s Auction Market”), homebuyers were enjoying record low interest rates hovering around the 3% level. Then, starting in early 2022, in a rapid series of increases, 30-year fixed mortgage rates eclipsed 6% and are now nearing 7%.

Between interest rates’ meteoric rise and double-digit home price increases for two years straight, local buyers suddenly find themselves priced out of the market.

Homes that previously were flying off the shelves with multiple offers are now sitting.

Showings have declined rapidly, and buyers’ enthusiasm seems to have evaporated.

The days of “sight unseen offers” and “no loan, no appraisal, no inspection and no contingency offers” have vanished. As quickly as it had started, the buying frenzy has ended.

And what has happened to all the buyers who were actively looking to purchase a home prior to the jump in rates? In droves, they have become renters, creating the largest rental crisis in history.

Nationwide, rent rates increased nearly 20% in the past year, and selection is at an alltime low.

So does the end of the strongest seller’s market in history mean that we are now

in a buyer’s market, similar to 2008? Are home values going to plummet? Can buyers expect huge discounts off asking prices and extensive repairs from sellers?

The answer is no.

At least not yet.

The problem for buyers who are expecting the strength of the Buyer Market/Seller Market pendulum to swing in their favor is inventory (or lack thereof). There is still nothing for sale.

Inventory levels are at record lows — around half of prepandemic levels.

According to the National Association of Realtors, “Despite weaker home sales, multiple offers are still occurring with more than a quarter of homes selling above list price due to limited inventory. The current lack of supply underscores the vast contrast with the previous market downturn from 2008 to 2010, when unsold inventory levels were four times higher than they are today.”

There are two main reasons why Santa Barbara does not have enough homes offered for sale. The first reason is that an inventory shortage is somewhat self-fulfilling. Many people who want to list their home for sale are reluctant because, “there is simply nowhere to go.” No one wants to sell their home without a reasonable expectation that they can find something suitable

Editor’s

TIM TREMBLAY

When times get bad, stay the course

Expond raises $1.25 million in seed funding, connects clients with fitness professionals

KENNETH SONG / NEWS-PRESS PHOTOS

Jason Baker founded Santa Barbara-based Expond to connect people with health and fitness professionals.

The Expond team includes, from left, Logan Retamoza, Vince Rains, Jason Baker and Derek Martinez.

Smart Coast California co-founders honored for coastal protection work

By MARILYN MCMAHON NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

Marta Golding Brown and Krista Pleiser, co-founders of Smart Coast California, made history recently when they became the first non-Realtors ever awarded Leadership Awards from the California Association of Realtors.

The pair were honored by Otto Catrina, CAR president, for being the driving force behind the creation of Smart Coast California, a nonprofit that works hand-inhand with local and state agencies and the California Coastal Commission to ensure the rights of property owners, and visitors are protected as governments

FYI

For more information about Smart Coast California, visit www.smartcoastca.org.

plan for ways to adapt to future sea-level rise.

Ms. Brown is vice president of advocacy and public affairs for the Ventura County Coastal Association of Realtors, and Ms. Pleiser is government affairs director for the Santa Barbara Association of Realtors.

Ms. Pleiser and Ms. Brown recognized five years ago that cities and counties along the coast were all dealing independently with the Coastal Commission on how to deal with sea-level rise. They believed that it was necessary for local governments to stand together to work for solutions that would protect important coastal resources instead of abandoning them in an approach called managed retreat.

Smart Coast California was formally created in 2019 and has become a recognized information source that works closely with the Coastal Commission, local governments, environmental

groups and private property advocates.

Among its accomplishments was the first-ever sea-level rise summit in May that brought together representatives from all stakeholders to discuss multiple strategies and exchange ideas.

Joe Prian, a San Luis Obispo Realtor and this year’s Smart Coast California president, said Ms. Brown and Ms.Pleiser’s leadership was invaluable in the group’s formation.

“Marta and Krista recognized the need for Smart Coast before anyone else did and worked tirelessly to persuade CAR and other organizations to provide initial funding. They both work tirelessly for the continued growth of Smart Coast in addition to their ongoing responsibilities at their local association of realtors,” Mr. Prian said.

“Our magnificent 1,100-mile coast is a treasure, and thanks to Marta and Krista, Smart Coast is leading the way in working

for environmentally sustainable solutions such as artificial reefs, oyster beds and dune restoration that in many cases can protect important waterfront properties

from Imperial Beach to Crescent City for future generations to enjoy.”

email: mmcmahon@newspress.com

Exponders conduct almost 400 session per month

health and fitness professionals to use the platform.”

‘about as close to neutral as it could possibly be’

REAL ESTATE

to replace it. And don’t expect new construction to solve the problem. The hurdles to build here — in time, effort and money — are daunting.

The second reason is more permanent. Most homeowners who have a mortgage, either purchased their home recently at a 3% mortgage rate or refinanced their existing loan to get that same attractive 3% rate. With home prices and mortgage rates rising so rapidly, it doesn’t make sense for most homeowners to sell.

mental and physical well-being.

Expond responds to this demand by identifying qualified providers and building a collection of offerings that include meditation, hiking, surf lessons, kayaking, massages, yoga and more through the ease of the Expond platform.

“One sector of business that has really benefited from us is the hospitality industry,” Mr. Baker explained. “During the pandemic, 30% of hospitality jobs were lost. Our platform allows hospitality clients to book services through us. The platform has become an uber for health and fitness professionals. The hotel can offer services available through the hotel to the guest. The hotel received a percentage of the profits.”

Catherine Gee Boutique to hold grand opening

SANTA BARBARA — Fashion

designer Catherine Gee is celebrating the opening of her new boutique located at 1114 State St., Suite 24.

The community is invited to the grand opening celebration of Catherine Gee Boutique from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday at the store in La Arcada.

Ms. Gee is a fashion designer and artist based in Santa Barbara. Starting her business in 2015 as an all silk collection, Ms. Gee became known for her core slip dress style and has

since grown the brand into full ready-to-wear fashions with an emphasis still on silks, printed blouses and dresses with luxe velvets, high quality cottons and bold eye-catching jacquards.

Ms. Gee won industry recognition when she became the winner of WWD and Galeries Lafayette (Paris) Creme de la Creme Emerging Designer competition in 2016.

Over the years, Ms. Gee’s designs have attracted celebrities such as Halle Berry, Charlize Theron, Naomi Watts, Mila Kunis, Kate Bosworth, Olivia Wilde, Alessandra Ambrosio, Debra Messing, Jessica Alba, Rebecca Gayheart, among others.

Currently, there are more than 65 Exponders providing approximately 155 recurring monthly classes. In the last three months, they have facilitated 45 large group events.

On average, Exponders conduct almost 400 sessions each month.This initial funding will strengthen the company’s position to develop stronger partnerships in 2023.

“I founded Expond in 2021,” Mr. Baker told the News-Press. “There are two ends of the software platform. The first side creates gigs for health and fitness professionals. The second side helps to develop and build health and fitness professionals.

“Everyone is really great at what they do,” he explained further. “They just need help with the backbone of the business and generating income.”

The News-Press asked Mr. Baker about the latest seed funding for Expond.

“The recent round of funding enables us to put more money into development,” he explained. “The specific breakdown is 40% development, 20% marketing and 40% operational costs. By development, I mean the current work being done to develop an app to make it an easy experience for

Mr. Baker said his business is working mainly with two local hotels — the Rosewood Miramar Resort in Montecito and the Ritz-Carlton Bacara, Santa Barbara, resort in Goleta.

“We provide three categories of services,” Mr. Baker said. “Personal training, which includes one-onones, boot camp, hit training, fusion cardio and more. Wellness, which includes all forms of yoga, including reformer and floor pilates. Thirdly, meditational services that would include mindfulness meditation, sound bath healing and reiki.”

“I think the most exciting part is we are now able to help so many more people in need of services,” Mr. Baker said.

He said his company’s goals include helping people learning the trade to become certified trainers.

“We have seen a huge uptick in anxiety and depression after COVID, and we want to do our part to provide health and wellness professionals at the click of a button,” he said. “We strongly believe our platform is making the industry better and providing a place for health and fitness professionals to develop their businesses and generate revenue.”

email: kzehnder@newspress.com

Absent death, divorce, etc. (all of the involuntary reasons people sell) everyone is essentially locked-in to their present home. And they will remain locked-in for the rest of their attractive 3%-30year-fixed-interest-rate-life. Homeowners are going to cling to those loans like they were a Wonka Golden Ticket!

So where does that leave the Buyer’s Market/Seller’s Market pendulum? About as close to neutral as it could possibly be. The local realestate playing field has been leveled to favor neither buyers nor sellers. There are very few listings available and fewer buyers to purchase them.

Homes are taking longer to sell. Multiple offers are less common

In short, we are back to the balanced market we had before the pandemic — just with fewer sellers and buyers.

Expect a thinly traded local real estate market over the next year where the number of sales remains low, but prices stay constant.

And that pesky inventory shortage? Better get used to it. It is here to stay. Forever.

BIKE SHOP LEAD

MECHANIC

Associated Students

Bike Shop. The Lead Mechanic implements the training for student employees, outlined in the AS Bike Shop training manual, to student employees for the repair and maintenance of a wide range of bicycle types and other rolling stock. Responsible for ensuring staff’s adherence to safety standards in all repair procedures.

Reqs: Must possess a broad knowledge and technical aptitude related to bicycle maintenance and mechanic functionality. Must be able to communicate about processes clearly and effectively to customers and staff in a fast paced work environment. Ability to complete mechanical tasks left uncompleted by Student Mechanics. Understanding or experience with community based bicycle spaces. 1-3 years Technical aptitude related to bicycle maintenance and mechanic functionality. 1-3 years Repair and maintenance of a wide range of bicycle types. Notes: Satisfactory completion of a criminal history background check. Campus Security Authority. $22.25 - $23.18/hr.

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 # 44251

ing good judgement, interpersonal and technical skills and is professional in every respect. Communicates well with clients, co-workers and supervisor, promoting teamwork and positive relations. Notes: Maintain a valid CA driver’s license, a clean DMV record and enrollment in the DMV Employee Pull-Notice Program. Satisfactory conviction history background check. Able to frequently lift up to 70 lbs. Occasional Weekends May Be Required. $22.73 - $26.64/hr. 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 # 44821

COURTESY PHOTO

Marta Golding Brown and Krista Pleiser, co-founders of Smart Coast California, recently received Leadership Awards from the California Association of Realtors. Standing with them is Joe Prian, the Smart Coast California president.

— Katherine Zehnder

COURTESY PHOTO

Catherine Gee Boutique will hold a grand opening celebration Friday.

Managing Editor Dave Mason dmason@newspress.com

Truth stranger than fiction in sensational murder case

By MARILYN MCMAHON NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

The headline read “Missing Nurse Sought by Police, Friends.”

The story appeared in the News-Press on Nov. 19, 1958:

“Olga Duncan, 30, of 114 Garden Street, Apt. 11, was the object of a police search today. She has been missing from her home since 11:00 p.m. Monday, friends told police.

“Mrs. Duncan is the wife of Santa Barbara attorney Frank Duncan and was home alone Monday night after she said goodbye to two friends who visited her at her apartment. She has not been seen since. She is employed as a surgical nurse at Cottage Hospital. However, she did not go to work yesterday and did not notify the hospital of her whereabouts. Friends said she is expecting a baby in two months. Anyone with information is asked to call the Santa Barbara Police Department.”

Deborah Holt Larkin was 10 years old and living in Ventura when this short article caught her eye. It was in a copy of the NewsPress that her father, Bob Holt, a reporter for the Ventura County Star-Free Press (now the Ventura County Star), had brought home.

“At the time, I was a passionate ‘Dragnet’ and Nancy Drew fan,” said Ms. Larkin, now 74 and the author of her first book, “A Lovely Girl: The Tragedy of Olga Duncan and the Trial of One of California’s Most Notorious Killers” (Pegasus Crime Publisher, $29.95).

“My life-long interest in true crime stories began in 1958 when Olga Duncan vanished from her apartment in the middle of the night,” Ms. Larkin told the NewsPress by phone from her home in San Diego. “When her brutally beaten body was discovered a month later in a shallow grave on a lonely road near Ventura, my focus shifted to the real-life mystery.

”I had a constant source of information from my father’s newspaper articles about the grisly murder. I became obsessed with the true crime story of Olga Duncan, the young pregnant woman who was married to Frank Duncan, a Santa Barbara attorney and the only child of Elizabeth Duncan, who despised her daughter-in-law and hired two men to kill her. Her brutally beaten body was found in a shallow grave, apparently buried alive.

“Olga was a lovely quiet girl from Canada without an enemy in the world, which is why I titled the book ‘A Lovely Girl.’ Olga was frequently described as a lovely girl. Her landlady called her a lovely sweet girl.” said Ms. Larkin, who was in Santa Barbara recently for a book signing at Chaucer’s Books.

“One of Elizabeth Duncan’s nieces was in the audience, and she told me that no one had anything good to say about her,” said Ms. Larkin, adding that in her research she found the mother-inlaw described “as a well-dressed, matronly woman who spent most of her time doting on her 30-yearold son, Frank, a successful Santa Barbara criminal attorney whom she called Mama’s little boy.

“She vehemently opposed his marriage to Olga and secretly tried to get it annulled. When strategies of harassment to get rid of her son’s new wife failed, she turned to stronger measures. She decided to hire someone to kill Olga.

“One of the biggest surprises to me in writing the book was that Elizabeth shopped all 0ver town for someone to kill Olga, and none of the people went to the police. She even told Frank, but he didn’t believe her. Something could have been done to prevent this,” said Ms. Larkin, who relied on numerous sources to recreate the investigation and trial scenes.

Her research included more than 5,000 pages of court transcripts; news articles from four newspapers; her father’s files and personal recollections; interviews with the daughter

Life theArts

‘A Lovely Girl’

CALENDAR

of the Santa Barbara detective who broke the case; letters Olga wrote home to her parents; and an exclusive review of the unpublished memoir about the investigation and trial written by the young district attorney, Roy Gustafson, who prosecuted the accused murderers, Luis Moya and Gus Baldonado, and Elizabeth Duncan, who became the last woman to be executed under a death sentence in California.

“My biggest challenge was to authenticate everything, which is why it took nine years to write,” said Ms. Larkin who holds a bachelor’s degree in American History and Literature from the University of California at Davis, and she studied creative writing at the University of California at San Diego. She has a master’s degree in the education of exceptional

FYI

children from San Francisco State University.

One of her first jobs in education was teaching special education at a small rural elementary school located in the historic gold mining town of Julian, which is in San Diego County.

“At the time, teaching jobs were scarce, and I thought that I could make the 63mile commute from my Ocean Beach apartment for a year until I found something closer to home,” said Ms. Larkin.

“But when the year was up, my husband Tom and I moved nearer to the school, and the ‘temporary’ job turned into a 32-year career.

“I loved the mountain-top school, the students, the other teachers and the community. I became principal for the final

The calendar appears Mondays through Saturdays in the “Life & the Arts” section. Items are welcome. Email them to Managing Editor Dave Mason at dmason@newspress.com.

TODAY 9:30 a.m.: The Los Angeles chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation will host its Santa Barbara Great Strides walk at Chase Palm Park, 323 E. Cabrillo Blvd., Santa Barbara. Check-in for the three-mile walk is at 9:30 a.m., and the walk will start at 10 a.m. To register, go to fightcf.cff.org/site/ TR/GreatStrides/120_Southern_C. 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.: The Santa Barbara Printmakers’ annual PopUp Print Sale will take place at the Community Arts Workshop, 631 Garden St., Santa Barbara. This annual exhibition features distinctive hand-pulled prints made with traditional techniques — linocut, woodcut, screen printing, etching, lithography, collagraph, monoprint and monotype as well as contemporary techniques of digital editing and photopolymer etching. Those attending can meet the artists in person and learn more about the art of printmaking.

5 p.m. The Gwendolyn Strong Foundation will host its second annual Butterfly Ball at Dos Pueblos Ranch in Goleta. Andrew Firestone will serve as the emcee at the event, which will feature music and silent and live auctions. Proceeds will benefit Gwendolyn’s Playground, an inclusive playground. For more information, go to nevergiveup.ejoinme.org/ MyEvents/ButterflyBall2

10 a.m. to 7 p.m.: The Yes Store, featuring works of art by an annual, nonprofit holiday cooperative of artists, is open in La Arcada Plaza, 1100 State St., Santa Barbara. For more information, go to theyestore.com.

7:30 p.m. Cookbook author Nigella Lawson will talk with KCRW host Evan Kleiman at The Granada, 1214 State St. The program is being presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures. To purchase tickets, go to artsandlectures.ucsb.edu or granadasb.org.

7:30 p.m. Santa Barbara City College theater students are performing “The Importance of Being Earnest” at the Jurkowitz Theatre on the West Campus in the 900 block of Cliff Drive, Santa Barbara. To purchase tickets, go to www.theatregroupsbcc.com. 8 p.m. Lyle Lovett and John Hiatt will perform together at the Chumash Casino Resort’ Samala Room, 3400 State Route 246, Santa Ynez. Tickets cost $59 to $94. To purchase, go to chumashcasino. com. The venue is for those 21 and older.

SUNDAY

10 a.m. to 4 p.m.: The Santa Barbara Printmakers’ annual PopUp Print Sale will take place at the Community Arts Workshop, 631 Garden St., Santa Barbara. This annual exhibition features distinctive hand-pulled prints

made with traditional techniques — linocut, woodcut, screen printing, etching, lithography, collagraph, monoprint and monotype as well as contemporary techniques of digital editing

COURTESY PHOTO Lyle Lovett, above, will perform with John Hiatt tonight at the Chumash Casino Resort in Santa Ynez.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/COURTESY DEBORAH HOLT LARKIN

As his mother, Elizabeth Ann Duncan, watches him, Frank Duncan closes his eyes as the district attorney related details of the strangling of his wife, Olga Kupczyk Duncan, in court in Ventura on March 12, 1959.

“A Lovely Girl: The Tragedy of Olga Duncan and the Trial of One of California’s Most Notorious Killers” (Pegasus Crime Publisher, $29.95) by Deborah Holt Larkin is available at Chaucer’s Books, 3321 State St., Santa Barbara, and at amazon.com.

ELLIS R. BOSWORTH/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/COURTESY DEBORAH HOLT LARKIN

Frank Duncan, then 30, poses with his mother Elizabeth Duncan in the Ventura courtroom where she went on trial Feb. 16, 1959 on a charge of murdering his pregnant wife, Olga Duncan. Mrs. Duncan was convicted of hiring two men to kill her daughter-in-law, received the death sentence and was the last woman to be executed in California. The district attorney established that the motive was Olga Duncan took her son’s attentions away from her.

15 years of my career, and Julian Elementary was recognized as a California Distinguished School.

It was my dream job!” She revealed that she had always wanted to be a writer. “But I didn’t seriously get started until I enrolled in a creative writing program at the

University of California San Diego soon after my youngest son left for college. I made the 80mile round trip once a week to classes with a plan to write cozy mysteries. I eventually joined a read-and-critique group at San Diego Writers Ink, and somehow, my cozy mystery turned into true crime.

“As my book progressed, I attended many writing conferences and heard stories

about ‘older’ first-time authors being unable to get agents or publishing contracts with traditional publishers. I soldiered on.

“Just write the best book you possibly can, I told myself. Twenty years after my first writing class, I signed with a wonderful agent who believed in my book. I am definitely a woman of ‘a certain age,’ and my first book, “A Lovely Girl’ was released by Pegasus

Crime on Oct. 4.”

Ms. Larkin told the News-Press she decided to write about the sensational Duncan case because “the story stuck with me all these years, and it was so compelling.

“At first I planned to fictionalize it, but then I realized that the truth was stranger than fiction, and there was so much material to work with.”

email: mmcmahon@newspress.com

Amelia Earhart once said, “The most difficult thing is the decision to act; the rest is merely tenacity.

“The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process, is its own reward.”

Ms. Earhart was one of the bravest people in modern history, and she knew about confronting our fears.

Unfortunately, when you’re feeling frozen and trapped by them, it can be difficult to do almost anything.

The truth is, if you believe you can’t do something, it’s your mind playing tricks on you.

You may be suffering from depression, or you may get angry and indignant or just turn your back on an opportunity because internally you feel doing something is too much for you. You may even tend to find problems that are not real.

If you notice these tendencies in yourself, it would be a good idea to get yourself checked out by a mental health professional.

Although medical doctors are much better at screening for mental health issues these days, you may need to probe deeper.

This is one way to help get unstuck from a life of excuses and the doldrums.

When your moods run your life, you miss opportunities and you may also be hard on yourself, which makes everything harder.

When someone gives you advice to go out and experience the world, you may not take it in very well and may be a little resentful, or you may hear the advice but not know how to respond positively. It’s an internal battle. If you want to break free, you have to fight the moods that tell you that you can’t do it. Even if you don’t

circumnavigate the globe, you can still have a full life. Understanding that feelings aren’t facts is a good place to start. Your moods don’t have to control you.

If you are feeling low or not wanting to engage with the world, or even with your dog, something is holding you back. You don’t have to know what it is, but simply taking action — petting the dog or taking a walk or having lunch with a friend — will help immensely. Even though part of you is fighting against feeling good, you have to fight back by allowing yourself to have some fun, feel the love, and take a moment to feel good about life.

Try it for one minute. Seriously, walk outside and look at the sky. That’s all. Just look for one minute. Then try petting an animal and feel the love you are giving and getting for that whole minute. Then maybe call someone you love and tell them about how you feel about them. It only takes a minute. The next day, do similar things for two minutes, and the next day do them for three minutes, and so on until you create a whole day of more positive actions.

Look for small bits of daily improvement, and soon you will experience more positive moments than negative ones, which are caused by moods that do not serve you. There are numerous paths to improving your emotional headspace. It just takes one step at a time.

Barton Goldsmith, Ph.D., is an award-winning psychotherapist and humanitarian. He is also a columnist, the author of eight books and a blogger for PsychologyToday. com with more than 28 million readers. He is available for video consults worldwide. Reach him at barton@bartongoldsmith.com. His column appears Saturdays and Mondays in the News-Press.

Acme Hospitality partners with school for career week

By MARILYN MCMAHON NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

Acme Hospitality is partnering with Santa Barbara Middle School Career Studies Week from Monday through Friday at Lucky Penny, Helena Avenue Bakery and La Paloma Cafe.

Career Studies Week is back for the first time since the pandemic, and local businesses and nonprofits from all over Santa Barbara are joining in to support the city’s future leaders.

During Career Studies Week, eighth-grade students will be placed at Acme’s businesses for a total of 25 hours to provide a firsthand insight into life outside of school.

Acme Hospitality will host four Santa Barbara Middle School students in entry-level positions at Lucky Penny, Helena Avenue Bakery and La Paloma Café, where they can learn life skills and interact with the public.

This placement is in full compliance with Department of Labor Standards Enforcement, and there is no exchange of

money.

Lucky Penny, 127 Anacapa St., features artisanal pizzas from a wood-burning oven, gardenfresh salads, seasonal small plates, house-made hot and cold sandwiches and house-made baked treats. The exterior is covered with 156,000 pennies.

Helena Avenue Bakery, 131 Anacapa St., is a home-style artisan bakery and kitchen offering rustic, organic breads, handmade seasonal pastries, scratch-made breakfast fare, gourmet sandwiches on freshly baked bread and seasonal salads.

La Paloma Cafe, 702 Anacapa St., is a California barbecue restaurant where flavors reflect the past and present of the community. Paying tribute to the age of the vaquero, La Paloma uses indigenous ingredients prepared with Mexican and Spanish influences and cooked over California live oak.

For further information, visit www.acmehospitality.com.

email: mmcmahon@newspress. com

Farmers market launches mobile market

LOMPOC — The Lompoc Valley Chamber of Commerce invites the public to a ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate Route One Farmers Market launching Santa Barbara County’s first mobile market.

The ceremony will take place at 4 p.m. Nov. 26 during the Old Town Market Shop Small Saturday event taking place from 3 to 6 p.m. in the 100 block of South H Street in Lompoc.

Route One Farmers Market, a three-year-old market based in Lompoc, is the sole market

between San Luis Obispo and Solvang that offers customers both EBT and Market Match. The market is held from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sundays at 3745 Constellation Road in Vandenberg Village. Route One Farmers Market will be using a custom-designed truck with fresh produce for sale at various locations in the Lompoc Valley. For more information on the ribbon cutting, call the Lompoc Valley Chamber at 805-736-4567.

— Marilyn McMahon

ELLIS R. BOSWORTH/THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/COURTESY DEBORAH HOLT LARKIN COURTESY DEBORAH HOLT LARKIN

Elizabeth Ann Duncan is escorted to jail, on March 16, 1959, by Deputy Sheriff Mary Forgey, right, a few minutes after the jury retired to deliberate her fate. At right, Olga Duncan was murdered by men hired by her mother-in-law.

Thought for Today

HOROSCOPE

Horoscope.com Saturday, November 12, 2022

ARIES — You seem to be a specialist at relationships, and you’re very sensitive to the ups and downs in your own. But today you may wonder if people love you less than they did before. This is rather an odd question, but another one may be hiding underneath. Do you really have to make such a big effort in order to be loved? Only you can answer that question.

TAURUS — You’re usually full of energy, Taurus, but today you may not feel so vivacious. There’s nothing to worry about. In fact, you may have the time to do some thinking about your personal life and what you expect to get out of your relationships. You might also want to think about how you intend to go about getting it!

GEMINI — You may have had a hard time lately reaching your objectives. Unfortunately for you, Gemini, today will be no different. You may begin to feel a bit dissatisfied with the way your life is going at the moment. You will ask yourself certain questions about your goals. Does your personal life live up to those goals? Can you express your wonderful creativity as much as you’d like?

CANCER — Your sense of responsibility is probably the catalyst for most of your motivation, Cancer. But what happens when events are beyond your control and you’re powerless to do anything about them? You may have to admit that sometimes you can’t control everything, especially your family and friends.

LEO — Today you could put a stop to your activities for a little while, Leo. You may take a good, hard look at things and realize that the climate of trust you need in order to be productive and creative is missing at the moment. It’s a good time to get some order back into your relationships and remind others of their responsibilities to you.

VIRGO — What are you after in life, Virgo? Deep down, does the kind of work you do satisfy your most intimate desires? The little problems you encounter in your professional life over the next week could be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. Take a look around to see if the work you do and the people in your life

take your profoundly spiritual nature into account.

LIBRA — It’s possible that you’re trying to do too much, Libra. If look at the days you spend working, you may realize that too much of your energy goes to some very meager results. Today, consider taking some time off to take advantage of life. Why not go out for a nice dinner with friends, or even better, go on a little vacation? Try and let things happen.

SCORPIO — It’s possible that you could be in conflict with people of the opposite sex today, Scorpio. You may feel as if they put obstacles in front of you and slow you down. But instead of getting into conflicts that could eventually escalate into fullblown confrontations, try and ask yourself what they think you’re doing wrong.

SAGITTARIUS — You have a very dynamic day ahead of you, Sagittarius. You may feel the need to put all your energy into a group project. You will want to roll up your sleeves and get to work. You’re usually a meditative, pensive person, but today you’re looking for concrete results and actions. Who knows? This hard work might even help you relax a little.

CAPRICORN —Have you ever thought of yourself as a CEO or any other kind of leader, Capricorn? Today is a great day to begin a project involving other people - with you in charge! The strong, assertive side of your personality will come out in your decision making and charisma. Go for it! After all, this is the first day of the rest of your life.

AQUARIUS — There’s a lot of tension in the air today, Aquarius. Perhaps you feel like no one is listening to you, and that people are draining your energy. You may act defensively and even occasionally become very angry. It’s possible that no one has seen in you in such a state before. Don’t be afraid to express your anger.

PISCES — As a Pisces, you have an innate gift for healing and calming other people in crisis situations. If this isn’t what you do for a living, you should think about doing something with this natural talent. The positions of the planets today may be telling you to think about this in more concrete terms.

SUDOKU

CODEWORD PUZZLE

By FRANK STEWART Tribune Content Agency

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.

“Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears.”

— Marcus Aurelius

History of fans goes back 2,000 years or more

G.K. had me over to look at her vintage fan from the turn of the last century.

It was in perfect condition and was a souvenir of an event, perhaps a fair, in the first quarter of the 20th century. But the history of the art form called the fan starts in ancient history, about 2,000 years ago or more. Because the fan moves the stuff of life — air — the fan has taken on symbolic proportions.

The English word “fan” derives from the Chinese character word “shan,” a tool used in that culture since A.D. 121. China has the longest world record in using and making fans.

A second century A.D. Chinese dictionary defines the word “shan” as the architectural feature used indoors that was attached to the ceiling and had access to air from a door or window. This was a large ceiling fan mounted on a pulley system that one’s servants could operate. Ropes were put on a piece of fabric adorned with feathers (what better to move the air?) and pulled back and forth. Such fans became, in the highest rank of homes, a symbol of prestige.

If one was a commoner, one had such a fan in the house made of goose feathers. If one was an official, one had a fan of pheasant or peacock feathers. Thus, fans became synonymous with rank.

The idea of a handheld fan

Arkenstone to perform at Center Stage Theater

SANTA

that folded, and could be stored in a pocket, then whipped out to deflect heat and thwart bugs, originated in Japan in the 12th century when an artist observed the folded wings of a bat.

However, flat fans were used for about 1,000 years in Asia as personal cooling devices. They became a symbol of rank, and therefore, became to be decorated with the “three excellences”: poetry, calligraphy, and painting.

Other cultures created handheld fans, as we can attest in the gift that none other than Columbus brought back: six fans to the Spanish Crown from the Americas, specifically from the Aztec people, who assigned him with the task of presenting their fans to Ferdinand and Isabella.

The Egyptians made fans to be handheld, out of metal, again, flat; or upon fabric, flat, for the nobility, made from ostrich feathers, and this feather was synonymous with a reference to the god of the determination of the soul’s worth, “maat,” also portrayed in myth as a bird.

So fans have held symbolic content for thousands of years in many cultures.

The American South adopted the Chinese version of the ceiling fan in Southern architecture in the 19th century and called these fans by a Chinese name, but anglicized: “chuke fans” As a measure of status, one had servants use the fans to cool off

the room.

Two hefty strings were attached to two boards on a lever system, and two servants pulled to get the desired cooling effect.

On the other hand, literally, a handheld and decorated fan was recorded as early as 33 B.C.E. in China, when a flat fan was decorated with a poem or a painting or calligraph, but the best of them were decorated with all three excellencies.

By the time the Japanese folding fan made its way to China in the Sung dynasty (960-1279), we see the very same form of G.S.’s fan, a paper folding fan on a wooden stick, which can be refolded and stored, and was painted and

decorated. This form was called a “wo-shan.”

Surprisingly, Asian families would change out their relative’s fan’s papers, and keep the delicate ribs, and thus, it was not the decorations on paper that were venerated, but the ribs. The ribs were considered a family treasure, perhaps for the fine engineering involved.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, fans were exported from Asia to Europe and were highly desirable. They were often painted in the “western taste,” which meant that these fans were not abstract, did not contain calligraphy, or Chinese poems. But at the turn of the 20th century, these fans were banished as exports to the West by the new Chinese Republic.

G.K.’s fan, however, dates from the early 20th century when American manufacturers saw the profitability of paper and simple wood to create such souvenirs. I have seen many as emblazoned with certain world’s fair emblems from this period.

G.K.’s is a delightful symbol of the lingering appeal of the fan, and hers is in perfect condition. The value of G.K.’s fan is $150.

Dr. Elizabeth Stewart’s “Ask the Gold Digger” column appears Saturdays 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.

The Santa Barbara concert will feature heartwarming stories, dramatic visuals and special music.

Tickets cost $28 for general admission and $43 for VIP seats.

For tickets, go to www. davidarkenstone.com.

— Dave Mason

and photopolymer etching. Those attending can meet the artists in person and learn more about the art of printmaking.

10 a.m. to dusk: The Santa Barbara Arts and Crafts Show takes place at Chase Palm Park, 236 E. Cabrillo Blvd., Santa Barbara. The show is located along the boulevard from Stearns Wharf to Calle Cesar Chavez.

11 a.m., noon, 1 p.m. and 2 p.m.: The Santa Barbara Empty Bowls will take place at the Foodbank of Santa Barbara County warehouse, 4554 Hollister Ave., Santa Barbara. To purchase tickets, go to foodbanksbc. org/sbeb22.

MONDAY

8 p.m. The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Company will perform at The Granada, 1214 State St., Santa Barbara. To purchase tickets, go to granasb. org. The dance concert is presented by UCSB Arts & Lectures.

NOV. 18

11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The NEW Santa Barbara Antique, Decorative Arts and Vintage Show and Sale (formerly known as the CALM Show) will be held at Earl Warren Showgrounds, 3400 Calle Real. Santa Barbara. Admission is $8, $6 with a flier: sbantiqueshow.com/discount-flyer.

Children under 12 are free, and so is parking.

NOV. 19

11 a.m. to 6 p.m. The NEW Santa Barbara Antique, Decorative Arts and Vintage Show and Sale (formerly known as the CALM Show) will be held at Earl Warren Showgrounds, 3400 Calle Real. Santa Barbara.

Admission is $8, $6 with a flier: sbantiqueshow.com/discount-flyer.

Children under 12 are free, and so is parking.

NOV. 20

11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The NEW Santa Barbara Antique, Decorative Arts and Vintage Show and Sale (formerly known as the CALM Show) will be held at Earl Warren Showgrounds, 3400 Calle Real. Santa Barbara.

Admission is $8, $6 with a flier: sbantiqueshow.com/discount-flyer. Children under 12 are free, and so is parking.

COURTESY PHOTO

This fan dates from the early 20th century when American manufacturers saw the profitability of paper and simple wood to create such souvenirs.

BARBARA — Grammy nominee David Arkenstone and his friends will perform “A Winter’s Eve Concert” Dec. 23 at Center Stage Theater, upstairs at Paseo Nuevo.

COURTESY PHOTO

Grammy nominee David Arkenstone and his friends will perform in December at Center Stage Theater.

Democrats did better in congressional races than columnist James Buckley predicted.

There really was a red wave.

It made its presence known in Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis and fellow Republican office seekers romped over Democrats of all colors.

You could feel it, taste it, sense it. Voters throughout the country were moving away from lockdown, masked-up, school-closing, nodrilling Democrats toward Republicans and their ideas. The last two weeks of this midterm election were almost as much fun as the 2016 surprise of Donald Trump’s election. Everything — and I mean everything — was moving Republicans’ way. If only there were two weeks less or two weeks longer.

We needed, in other words, a shorter election.

YOU KNOW?

Bring back the State Street that we love

Did You Know? was forwarded a letter from Kelly Brown, the owner of The Natural Cafe on lower State Street. His letter so profoundly explains the problems and issues with the Santa Santa Barbara City Council’s and city administration’s failures in preserving the center of our city. This is from a man who for 30 years has done business there.

It is time to remove the parklets and return State Street to normality. It’s time to give the retail business some breathing space to survive and prosper. It’s time to make State Street attractive enough for us locals to promenade there and visit the shops once again.

Here is Mr. Brown’s letter to his landlord, in its entirety:

“Mr. Knell,

“I am writing to inform you that after 30 years, The Natural Cafe on State Street is closing its doors.

“Although we have been dealing with the same issues since the day we opened, things have taken an extreme turn for the worse the last few years.

“Homelessness, whether it is guest and staff interaction or aggressive panhandling, has always been challenging but it has now turned into straight-up criminality. Consuming alcohol and drugs in public, using planters for toilets, camping in empty storefronts or locking themselves in our bathrooms and showering, sleeping and using drugs is an everyday occurrence.

But Democrats outsmarted Republicans again, just as they had in 2020. And with the same tactics. While Republicans were busy getting to know its candidates, especially the new dynamic ones such as Kari Lake and Blake Masters in Arizona, Lee Zeldin in New York, and many others, Democrats had already set up their voter registration booths and election centers in every college and university, public housing development, in every mall that would allow it (and virtually all did). Democrats were ready, set, go, on the very first day of extended voting in every state that had adopted the longer voting schedule.

It was a race all right, but

Republicans were still lacing up their running shoes while Democrats were taking a break at the half-way mark.

Republicans let themselves get giddy as the polls began to tighten two weeks from “Election Day.” They were convinced that this Red Wave would crash ashore and wash over everything in its wake.

That Red Wave did come in with the tide just as predicted.

Wave, even a really big one. Republicans were not. The sluggish response by Republican “leaders” in reaction to a repeat of the highly successful Democrat machinations of the 2020 election is hugely responsible for the failure of the Red Wave to produce a meaningful change in the makeup of Congress.

But, after predicting greater gains than occurred, I must admit I was wrong.

With its latest interest rate hike, the Federal Reserve is desperately trying to repair the economic damage caused by the fiscal and regulatory policies of the Biden administration. Unfortunately, persistence in this course will only “solve” the problem by crashing the economy, which it is perversely intended to do.

The Fed’s attempts to correct for overspending by Congress and the president are a problem, not a solution.

“The Federal Reserve and other central banks are raising interest rates to beat back inflation by slowing economic growth,” The Wall Street Journal reported.

The Fed’s manipulation of interest rates has a strange logic. When the federal government overspends (note: it never underspends) and thereby fuels inflation, the Fed reins in the

However …

Millions of votes had already been harvested weeks earlier, especially from battleground states such as Pennsylvania, Michigan, even Wisconsin.

You can see this from the results in the state of New York, where four House seats flipped from Democrat to Republican (blue to red). New York is a state that Democrats figured they had safely in the bag, so they let their guard down or ignored piling up that massive early vote they are so good at. Without those four New York seats and the three Florida flips, the House of Representatives would have remained in Democrat hands.

I wrote that on Wednesday morning, the day after the election, Republicans would end up holding as much as a 54-46 edge in the U.S. Senate because: Mr. Laxalt would take out Ms. Cortez Masto in Nevada (he still may); Mr. Walker would oust Mr. Warnock in Georgia (maybe, but not until a Dec. 6 run-off); Johnson would hold his seat in Wisconsin (he did); Mr. Budd would eke out a victory in North Carolina (he did); Dr. Oz would win over Mr. Fetterman (he didn’t); Mr. Masters would beat Sen. Kelly in Arizona (he still may), and J.D. Vance would prevail in Ohio (he did).

“The rat/vermin problem, which starts with the city and their lack of any program to address this, has, in the last few years, become intolerable. Look under any parklet, and you will find rat nests. Food is just falling on them from above. Did I mention the bicycles and skateboarders speeding down the closed street, running stop signs and putting themselves and all pedestrians at constant risk?

Please see BUCKLEY on C4 e weakening of the Red Wave

Democrats were ready for a Red

economy by increasing interest rates, which makes it more difficult to borrow money with which to invest in productive enterprise or finance consumer purchases.

When that causes high unemployment, the Fed reverses course and pumps money into the economy to spur investment and personal spending.

Buckley S.T. Karnick The authoris with The Heartland Institute

As a result, the Fed routinely sees good news as bad and bad news as good. A growing economy and low unemployment are seen as inflationary, and the solution is a recession.

The Fed implemented recordlow interest rates throughout President Barack Obama’s tenure, to mitigate the damage of his high-spending fiscal policies and repressive regulatory regime in the wake of the 2008 recession.

The Fed then increased the federal funds rate during the Trump administration until the

2020 COVID lockdowns. President Donald Trump’s tax cuts and regulatory reforms stimulated economic activity

I predicted that Democratic

“All of these issues have become exacerbated by COVID and the ‘parklets.’ Not sure why you call them parklets. For the most part, it’s cheap looking, trashy 2 x 4 wood structures that greatly diminish what was once one of the great main streets in the country.

“To be clear, the parklets were a great idea when we lost our dining room, but most of us put up basic patio platforms as no one expected this to go on for multiple years, much less permanently. We took our parklet down last month as it no longer looked good. The city has an outdoor dining program that is more than adequate. We have our dining rooms back. We need State Street back.

throttled investment. Those irresponsible decisions pushed inflation to levels not seen in more than 40 years.

Now the Fed craves a good, hard recession to make everything better.

“The Fed is operating on the assumption that the only way to get inflation down is with decreased demand. And the only way they’re going to do that is if the unemployment rate ticks higher,” Thomas Simons, an economist at Jefferies Financial Group Inc., told The Wall Street Journal.

“Government’s job is to level the playing field. This parklet program favors the few at the expense of the many.

“We need to remove the parklets, clean up State Street and police it. Why is it so hard for the City to do these simple things? Seems like Job #1 to me.

“Do with this letter what you like. After 30 years as your tenant, I felt I owed you a detailed explanation for leaving.

“Thanks again.”

After the record-swift recovery from the COVID depression during President Trump’s final year in office, President Joe Biden and the congressional Democrats engaged in a spending spree ostensibly intended to stimulate the economy, which was already expanding nicely. The Fed added accelerants by keeping interest rates at nearrecord lows, and President Biden went on a regulatory binge that

Uh-oh: New claims for unemployment compensation fell slightly during the last full week of October, the Department of Labor recently reported.

That is awful news, according to the Fed.

“The broader picture is of an overheated labor market where demand substantially exceeds

James & COMMENTARY Please see DONOVAN on C4 Please see KARNICK on C4 COURTESY PHOTO Jerome Powell

and raised wages — bad news! — so the Fed applied interest rate hikes to keep people from wanting to buy too many goods and services and presumably unleash inflation. The economy expanded anyway, because President Trump’s supply-side reforms unleashed greater production of goods and services.

DID

Bonnie Donovan

Kelly Brown Founder, CEO Natural Cafe, Inc.

IDEAS

COURTESY PHOTO

Arthur von Wiesenberger Co-Publisher Co-Publisher

Wendy McCaw

Government is accelerating cycles of brokenness

California is spending billions attempting to eradicate homelessness after the fact instead of dealing with the primary origins of homelessness, three of which too often form a cycle of brokenness: fatherless homes, military service and incarceration.

Frederick Douglass wrote, “It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.”

Nevertheless, today, the lack of family (nuclear) formation first and divorce second has created a virtual Niagara Falls of broken children, a significant number of whom will succumb to a lifestyle of drugs, alcohol, crime, poverty and mental illness. Specifically, upward of 85% of the youth in prison come from fatherless homes as do upward of 70% of the adult male population in prison.

Eleven percent of homeless are veterans, many of whom are struggling with PTSD and drug and alcohol abuse. That number is hopefully in decline due to some successful programs to treat and house veterans along with the fact we have not been at war recently, as war churns out these struggling veterans in large numbers.

As for jails and prisons, upward of 50% of the homeless were formerly incarcerated, and the formerly incarcerated are 10 times more likely than the general population to be homeless.

Thanks to Gov. Jerry Brown and duped voters, California has been dumping prisoners onto our streets in mass quantities. For instance, Assembly Bill 109, the so-called prison realignment, amended some 500 criminal statutes to eliminate the possibility of state prison time. Hence, many of the criminals living on our streets should otherwise be in prison. AB109 reduced our prison population by more than 30,000 inmates over a twoyear period.

Then there were Propositions 47 and 57, which respectively eliminated prison sentencing for scores of would-be felons, while the latter released thousands of prisoners before their time was up, despite the fact that most of them reoffended (by most counts, over 50%).

Not to be outdone, Gov. Gavin Newsom has announced increasing early release credits

for 76,000 inmates, including violent and repeat felons, as he closes prisons in California.

More than 63,000 inmates convicted of violent crimes will be eligible for good behavior credits that shorten their sentences by one-third instead of the one-fifth that had been in place since 2017. This will include nearly 20,000 inmates who are serving life sentences with the possibility of parole — er, read that, the probability of parole.

As usual, there is no plan to successfully reintegrate these people into society. They will come out with no job skills or prospects, no money for housing, and in too many cases (see above) no family to speak of.

Meanwhile, Gov. Newsom is closing the last facilities in our state juvenile justice system.

In the 1990, there were 10,000 youth incarcerated in the juvenile prisons with another nearly 10,000 youth in the California Youth Authority’s parole system. Just as Gov. Brown’s realignment sent scores of state inmates to county jails, these juveniles were sent to county juvenile detention facilities. In both cases, these state inmates pushed out those who would have otherwise been incarcerated in local detention facilities.

Closer to home, Santa Barbara County supervisors are foolishly closing the Los Prietos Boys Camp that has been successfully helping youth since 1945. The camp provided male authority, discipline and leadership in a remote setting to boys who need father figures in their lives.

The alternatives to the once stable nuclear family construct are working just as well as the so-called criminal justice reform movement, which seeks to avoid jail and prison altogether, in that both have become a societal disaster leaving criminals, addicts and derelicts roaming our streets with little to no chance for redemption. Moreover, the government is throwing a house (via the housing first policy) at the homeless when what they really need is a home — something the government can’t provide.

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.

Santa Barbara needs marketplace

A s noted by Bonnie Donovan (Voices, Oct. 23), Capt. Salisbury Haley may have been “a wise and careful planner” when it came to street plans.

Given the narrow natural corridor the city occupies, his plan for a long State Street, with east and west side streets, makes inevitable good sense, as a traffic plan. But it is not a city plan, and especially not a plan for the Mediterranean-style city that Pearl Chase dreamed of.

Large or small, no typical Mediterranean city is without a marketplace or plaza that functions as its physical and social center. With a church or cathedral at one end, the plaza is also a spiritual and cultural center.

Pretending downtown State Street is a large central plaza where one can stroll about, dine out, visit shops or farmers markets, and still bring a car, has only turned Pearl Chase’s dream into an eat-in-the-street nightmare.

Whereas Goleta is a marketplace in search of a city, Santa Barbara is a city in search of a marketplace. While there are a couple of places to put one on the west side of State Street, where it would be open to and not block mountain views, Carrillo Street would probably be the best. And we have to replace Paseo Nuevo with something hopefully useful and beautiful.

We have Mediterranean buildings galore; we just need a Mediterranean city to put them in. That starts with designing and locating a central marketplace.

Bill Marks Santa Barbara

In mortals we trust

There is a reasonable balance between a woman’s right to choose and a child’s right to live.

Certainly rape will always be an exception (this is not a lateterm issue). But waiting to decide after the fetus is viable is as unconscionable as being forced to give birth against your will — the will of both must be considered legally.

When God was still trusted in America, abortion was not protected because it defied one of the Ten Commandments. The right to life was guaranteed specifically in the Constitution. You have to have a lot more rules in a secular world because there is

no moral compass or agreed-upon social-or-self responsibility. You stop at the traffic light, you pay your bills, you don’t kill if it suits you, so you need the government watching your every move and lots and lots of rules.

So now we must dispassionately come up with abortion rules. That’s all there is to it. Guttural and godless, but negotiable to a reasonable solution that satisfies no one equally. In mortals, we trust now, right?

A gloating Joe Biden emerges as unlikeable as ever and informs us that the fact that exit polls indicated that 75% of the country thinks he is going the wrong way is due to lack of gratitude because the people don’t know how brilliantly his plan is working. Energy independence is tossed to the wind, and we’re embarrassed on the world stage.

If only we understood how successful his agenda has been but, sadly, he can’t brag because essentially what he has done is treason.

“Watch me,” he hisses. “That’s how you will find out who you are and like where I am taking you (against your will) better.”

Thing is, though, that there was supposed to have been a blue wave hat crested by now with socialism installed before anyone realized democracy had been commandeered in social justice reform, nationalized rigged elections, a packed Supreme Court, widespread censorship and state-controlled media, IRS and FBI intimidation of resistance, criminals claiming cities for cartels. By now, we were supposed to be fully in the grip of fear and grateful for all the free drugs that make the humiliation of it ... fine. We did not get a Red Wave in the general election, but we stopped their Blue Wave. Don’t worry, though. When asked what he would change based upon public rejection of his vision for America, President Biden replied, “nothing.” Honesty at last. That’s a start at least.

Derrick Harrison Hurd Santa Barbara

Looking back at Vietnam

Action in the Black Sea in the war in Ukraine brings back memories of my part of what was perceived by the locals as an invading force that destroyed the civilians and their homes in Vietnam.

I was a Navy noncommissioned

officer aboard a destroyer participating in Operation Sea Dragon. It is generally acknowledged that both Sea Dragon and Rolling Thunder were war crimes as they invariably destroyed civilian targets, and we had not declared war on North Vietnam.

Our duties aboard the destroyer were, along with a cruiser, to destroy the railroads, highways and fuel depots along the North Vietnamese coast.

There was much less justification for an invasion of Vietnam than Russia has for their actions in Ukraine. Vietnam is not on the U.S. border and cannot threaten the U.S. Vietnam never was part of the U.S. or a territory of the U.S. Few Vietnamese speak English or are interested in becoming part of the U.S. The Vietnamese, like the Ukrainians, were persistent in rejecting the invasion of their country.

Vietnam had been a colony/ possession of China, France, Japan and, again, France. In every case, the Vietnamese opposed occupation and prevailed. The U.S. military was likely to say that we never lost a battle, but the politicians lost the war. We killed more than a million Vietnamese in the process, mostly civilians. I also lost more than 58,000 of my comrades, and today it is estimated that almost a million of them have debilitating conditions due to their participation in that war.

The war in Vietnam was a great success for what President Dwight “Ike” Eisenhower called the military industrial congressional complex, as have been our other invasions of other countries. Afghanistan surpasses Vietnam as the most profitable war for the MICC.

The wars in Iraq — or was there just one long one? — enriched former Vice President Dick Cheney, Halliburton and other war profiteers. Now we have finally figured out how to enrich the MICC without getting our fellow Americans killed. As I have heard, we will oppose Russia to the last Ukrainian.

Rowland Lane Anderson Santa Barbara

Editor’s note: Mr. Anderson served in the U.S. Navy from 1965 to 1968, which included 14 months of combat in Vietnam, He is a lifetime member of Veterans of Foreign Wars, Disabled American Veterans, Veterans for Peace, Vietnam Veterans of America and Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

The pandemic’s impact on airlines

My Nov. 4 had begun with the sadness that the much COVID-delayed time with my sons Chad and Grant was ending with my arrival at the Philadelphia airport at noon for my 2:45 flight to the Dallas/Ft. Worth airport and then an hour later a flight to Santa Barbara.

Yet at 11 p.m., I was “No.144” in a line that was rapidly expanding to over 200 at Gate D-24 at the DFW airport. What the heck had happened?

On Nov. 4 at 8 a.m., my American Airlines flight was on time. At the gate, I learned it was delayed to 4:15 p.m., which I later learned was due to a thunderstorm shutting the always busy Dallas/Ft. Worth airport with 290 daily flights carrying 150,000 passengers, for an hour and a half.

At my gate at the Philadelphia airport, a line longer than could be handled by the lone gate agent immediately formed. I was the

only person to walk to customer service in the next terminal to plan for an alternative in case we did not make our DFW connection, and obtained the last seat on the next flight to Santa Barbara that left at noon the next day. Why were so few agents available?

It appears that the airlines were fighting the effects of the COVID “war,” where “war” is defined as a state of “hostility, conflict or antagonism,” since COVID has caused almost twice the number of deaths as World War II — 819,167 to 420,000. How did this happen?

Members of the Obama-Biden team set it in motion a decade ago when they approved Dr. Anthony Fauci’s funding research at the Chinese lab on how to change the “function” of a very rare bat virus so that it could be used as a weapon in a “war” against humanity since humans have no natural immunity.

President Donald Trump relied upon Dr. Deborah Brix, who later bragged she lied to him, and Dr. Fauci, who later admitted that the masks were never effective, to issue an order, in May 2020, that required employees to wear masks. He also created the best “defense” against the COVID-19 invasion through his program that created vaccines.

President Joe Biden’s executive orders empowered his nominees running the federal agencies to “invade” the airlines.

His first order required employees to wear masks. It was leveraged by the agencies, including the Federal Aviation Administration, as part of the Department of Transportation headed by Pete Buttigieg; TSA, as part of Homeland Security headed by Alejandro Mayorkas; the CDC, despite not running its own testing, as part of the Department of Health and Human Services headed by Xavier Becerra; and the OFCCP as part of the Department of Labor headed by

The answer is not blowin’ in the wind

The greatest crime any president ever committed on its American citizens in modern times, maybe at any time in history, is allowing millions upon millions of people from all over the world to pour unfettered into America with no accounting of who they are or where they’re going.

And it appears we may be subjected to this invasion for the next two years. Where will it end: 10 million, 20 million, 50 million?

But there’s another treasonous crime being committed equally, if not more so, than doing away with our border, and that’s placing the entire country in even greater jeopardy by playing chicken with our energy.

President Joe Biden got tons of heat and rightfully so, from Democrats no less, for speaking the words placed in his mouth by the aforementioned stringpullers. He had no idea what he was saying when screeching about how he was going to shut down all coal plants and stop all drilling and that we’re going to become a wind society.

The only wind blowing for President Biden is what’s blowing between his ears. He has zero clue of all the potential impacts saying something stupid like that has on thousands of Americans he’s supposed to care about. That is unless they’re evil MAGA terrorists.

He also has no idea what it takes to make a wind turbine and how they stop working when the wind stops. He doesn’t realize that there’s no battery backup or even how much energy the turbine can really put out in the first place. Likely neither does anyone in his administration or the likes of Sandy Cortez or even former Vice President Al Gore.

Those ugly massive windmills put out two megawatts of power and could supply energy to about 1,500 homes a year. But they don’t turn all the time. They only generate full power about 30% of the time. To build one requires 260 tons of steel and 300 tons of iron ore — and ironically the stuff President Biden wants to get rid of: 170 tons of coking coal (which burns cleaner and hotter). Then all those materials need to be transported by — guess what? — hydrocarbons.

As the story goes, the windmill could spin until it turns to rust and never generate as much energy that was required to build it. Add to the equation the blades need to be disposed of over time (most if not all are not recyclable), massive amounts of concrete are required to secure the towers, as well as the bats and birds of prey that are slaughtered in the blades. Strangely enough, the environmentalists stay quiet about the endangered species laws they created to protect these creatures.

President Biden and his army of energy haters don’t care about blowing with the wind. It’s all another ruse. The climate change pushers have created fanatics and continue to campaign how vile oil, coal and gas are until your head hurts. Those wonderful forms of energy producers are what make a modern society a modern society and allow us to remain a first world nation.

I’ve asked the question before, what is the real motivation? It can’t be that they want to go back to candles and horses. Is it something more sinister? To bring down America by weakening the nation’s ability to function? If

Andy Caldwell

Henry Schulte

The author lives in Solvang

Brent E. Zepke

The author lives in Santa Barbara.

COURTESY PHOTO

DAVE MASON/NEWS-PRESS

Letter writer Bill Marks says pretending State Street is a central plaza isn’t working.

Why Texas must declare an invasion at the southern border

While many may view what’s happening at the southern border as an immigration issue, what’s fundamentally at stake is a question of constitutional authority, responsibility and state sovereignty – safeguarded by the founding fathers when they drafted, and the states ratified, the U.S. Constitution creating the federal government.

Texas has a constitutional authority under the U.S. Constitution to declare an invasion at its border with Mexico and to repel it – for the same reasons that Arizona does. This is best explained in a formal opinion issued by Arizona’s attorney general earlier this year.

While neither Arizona’s outgoing governor nor its county judges have declared an invasion, judges and commissioners representing at least 33 Texas counties have.

In July, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order citing Texas’ constitutional authority to defend its sovereignty. His order, and the resolutions filed by Texas counties, cite the U.S. Constitution (Article 1, Section 10, Clause 3) and the Texas Constitution (Article 4, Section 7) granting this authority.

And while Gov. Abbott has arguably done more than any other governor to secure Texas’ border, his order stopped short of formally declaring an invasion and repelling it by using his full constitutional authority to “engage in war when actually invaded, or in such imminent Danger as will not admit of delay.”

The county resolutions have called on him to do so, citing

transnational cartels trafficking a record number of people and drugs into Texas that’s created an imminent threat to the lives of Texans.

But many officials have also expressed confusion over what an invasion looks like. Some say Texas isn’t being invaded because those coming across aren’t wearing national military uniforms carrying AK-47s. That’s true from a conventional warfare perspective, but conventional warfare isn’t what’s being waged at the southern border.

Others have argued those illegally entering Texas aren’t “invaders” and are coming for a better life to work. Still others claim many illegal aliens are seeking asylum. While this may be true for some, the orchestrated movement of people from over 150 countries through “mass migration” is being weaponized by transnational criminal narcoterrorist organizations. They’re using an unconventional and hybrid form of warfare utilizing narco-terrorism, counter-lawfare and migrant-warfare, all of which I witnessed in Afghanistan.

In Afghanistan, insurgents didn’t wear national military uniforms. They waged irregular guerrilla warfare like the cartels are doing.

They’d establish territorial insurgency shadow governance regimes and take control over local jurisdictions. While the U.S. worked to build partners and establish “whitespace” to counter underground shadow governance, in reality insurgency forces would exercise full command and control of large areas, regulating violence and illicit economic activities in the shadows. They’d exploit

and murder the local populace as needed, move weapons and drugs to expand their profit, terrorize everyone in their path, and ultimately seize control of Afghanistan after waging war with the U.S. for 20 years – and killing nearly 2,500 American servicemen and women.

The same strategy is used in Texas. The cartels understand the only way for illegal aliens to make an asylum claim (even invalid ones) is to go through a port of entry, which they control. There isn’t a single person who gets across the Rio Grande River from Mexico without owing the cartels. The cartels control which groups of people (several hundred at a time) cross, when and where, using a counter-lawfare tactic to exploit U.S. laws to their advantage.

The cartels use illegal aliens as mules – to bring in drugs – and as weapons to exploit U.S. laws.

The millions coming into the U.S., unknowingly or knowingly, are participating in migrant-warfare strategy. While Border Patrol agents become overwhelmed in one area to process large groups of people, they’re taken away from defending the border. Cartels exploit these openings by bringing through record amounts of fentanyl and groups of people they are trafficking north and weapons and money south.

Similarly, law enforcement officers in rural counties have caught either gang members or “scouts” working for the cartels – who’re looking for vulnerable areas to establish control. But law enforcement officers actively looking for them have found safe houses, stash houses and other logistics hubs being used to move people, drugs, weapons, money, stolen goods and other contraband further into Texas. Applying pressure to dominate territory and establish control, guerilla warfare tactics, is what was done in Afghanistan.

In major U.S. cities, cartels have already embedded themselves including in Houston, the largest city closest to the southern border and major human and drug trafficking hub. Houston began 2022 with the highest homicide rate. Its escalation of violent crime and police shootings is no coincidence.

Unfortunately, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and his staff don’t appear to share this viewpoint of irregular warfare establishing a shadow governance and foothold in Texas. First Assistant AG Bruce Webster has suggested only those wearing uniforms through a conventional military force constitutes an invasion, although there’s no historical or constitutional basis for this argument. He also said

Mr. Paxton wouldn’t be issuing an invasion opinion citing a federal law, Section 242, which I’ve argued is a misunderstanding of the federal preemption doctrine.

Mr. Paxton’s office also published information about illegal immigration to assist impacted Texans, which pointed to U.S. v Arizona, a case in which the Supreme Court ruled states cannot enforce federal immigration law.

But what’s at issue isn’t Texas enforcing federal immigration law. It’s a matter of the state protecting its sovereignty and the safety of its citizens in the absence of federal enforcement of immigration law.

Former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Scalia explained why in his powerful dissent in this case.

Justice Scalia wrote, “The Government complains that state officials might not heed ‘federal priorities.’ Indeed, they might not, particularly if those priorities include willful blindness or deliberate inattention to the presence of removable aliens in Arizona … The State has the sovereign power to protect its borders more rigorously if it wishes, absent any valid federal prohibition. The Executive’s policy choice of lax federal enforcement does not constitute such a prohibition.”

Ten years later, the federal priorities of willful blindness and deliberate inattention has led to the ensuing invasion of irregular warfare unleashed at our southern border.

In the absence of the constitutionally required federal guarantee to repel this invasion, Texas has the duty and responsibility to protect its sovereignty by asserting its constitutional authority to protect the lives and liberties of its

Please see HULLIHAN on C4

Australia, U.S. ally, reconfirms commitment

With little media notice, the United States plans to deploy up to six B-52 strategic bombers to northern Australia.

This imposing, and enormously capable, long-range strategic bomber is one of the most durable and respected military aircraft in history.

The B-52 has been a mainstay of the nation’s strategic nuclear bomber force since 1955.

Development of Intercontinental Ballistic and SubmarineLaunched Ballistic Missiles in the 1960s overshadowed but did not remove the need for flexible — including recallable

— aircraft. With some irony, the B-52 participated in massive conventional bombing raids during the Vietnam War.

China represents an important, growing challenge to both the U.S. and Australia. In 2011, President Barack Obama addressed a session of the Australia parliament, and thenPrime Minister Julia Gillard announced an agreement to station U.S. Marines in that country.

The United States opposes China’s access to disputed reefs and islands in the South China Sea. Beijing has an aggressively expanding presence in the area.

China is already protesting the planned deployment of B-52s as a provocation.

In this tense context, Australia remains a vital U.S. ally. ANZUS, the Australia-New Zealand-U.S. security alliance, was dramatically re-energized by the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

Australians were targets in the 2002 terrorist bombings in Bali. In 2004, the Australian Embassy in Jakarta was attacked.

The American-Australian special relationship was forged in the crucible of World War II. In that war, the enormous Japanese military drive south was finally blunted just short

of Australia. Knowledgeable jungle-savvy Australian troops provided vital support to generally inexperienced Americans.

The Vietnam War led to strengthening the AustraliaUnited States partnership even while straining U.S. relations with Britain and other allies. A total of 50,000 Australian military personnel served in Vietnam. Five hundred twenty were killed, and 2,400 were wounded. Reflecting these pressures, Australia reintroduced military conscription in 1964.

In October 1966, Lyndon B. Johnson became the first U.S. president to visit Australia, underscoring cooperation with

Prime Minister Harold Holt. This characteristically dramatic LBJ expedition was undertaken to cast the Vietnam War in global terms.

Australian forces gained valuable guerrilla war experience during the Malaya Emergency from 1948 to 1960, fighting the Malayan National Liberation Army. The insurgency was finally suppressed, confirming the value of long-term patience in employing sustained, carefully directed military force.

President Richard M. Nixon and National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger tried to apply Malaya insights to Vietnam. Sir Robert

Please see CYR on C4

Cross-class friendships are foundation for economic mobility, human flourishing

Economic mobility involves more than material benefits and moving up the income ladder.

Community-level friendships between lower- and higherincome individuals that create economic connectedness are the foundation for economic mobility.

These cross-class friendships boost upward mobility by helping young people develop the knowledge, skills, and social networks they need to pursue opportunity and human flourishing.

That’s the main conclusion of a study by Harvard economist Raj Chetty and his research team of zip code level information on 72.2 million U.S. Facebook users, 84% of all American adults between the ages of 25 and 44.

These friendships are the strongest available predictor of upward mobility for low-income children, more than school quality, job availability, family structure, or a community’s racial makeup.

Schools can foster cross-class connections that lead to economic mobility and greater opportunity in three ways.

The first is from an analysis of high schools in the study.

Large high schools generally have a smaller share of crossclass friendships since they have less mixing and more incomerelated student groups. So do more racially diverse schools and those with high Advanced Placement enrollment and gifted

and talented classes. On the other hand, smaller and less racially diverse schools have more friendships between students with different class backgrounds.

Large high schools can nurture cross-class relationships by assigning students to smaller and intentionally diverse “houses” or “hives.” Their cafeterias, libraries, and science labs can be organized to mix students when they socialize or learn. Extracurricular activities can be structured to blend students from diverse backgrounds.

Public charter schools are a second example.

My work colleague Jeff Dean analyzed the 214 charter high schools in the study’s public database. On average, these charter schools perform better than 80% of traditional public schools in creating cross-class friendships, raising questions to research.

For example, do the autonomy and community-building features of public charter schools contribute to this? Can their results be explained simply by their smaller size? Are there lessons learned that district public schools should follow?

I believe a third way to promote civil society and cross-class friendships is by expanding career pathways education and training programs.

These partnership programs acquaint learners with employers and workforce demands, engaging students and adult mentors from diverse classes and backgrounds.

They weave together education, training, employment, support services, and job placement, spanning K-12, postsecondary, and workforce development.

They include a wide range of models: apprenticeships and internships; career and technical education; dual enrollment in high school and college; career academies; boot camps for acquiring specific knowledge or skills; and staffing, placement and other support services for job seekers.

There are statewide partnership programs created by governors and legislators from both political parties, like Delaware Pathways by Democrat

Jack Markell and Tennessee’s Drive to 55 Alliance by Republican Bill Haslam. Similar programs exist in politically diverse states like California, Colorado, Texas, and Indiana.

There are local partnership programs between K-12, employers, and civic partners, like 3-D Education in Atlanta; YouthForce NOLA in New Orleans; Washington, D.C.’s CityWorks D.C.; and Cristo Rey, 38 Catholic high schools in 24 states.

Finally, organizations like Pathways to Prosperity Network, P-Tech Schools, and Linked Learning Alliance create regional or local partnerships and provide advice and other support to those creating pathways programs.

These programs have five common features: an academic curriculum linked with labor market needs leading to a recognized credential and decent income; career exposure and work, including engagement with and supervision by adults; advisers helping participants make informed choices, ensuring they complete the program; a written civic compact among employers, trade associations and community partners; and supportive local, state and federal policies that make these programs possible.

These programs are successful. The federal Administration for Children and Families Pathways to Work Evidence Clearinghouse reviewed more than 8,000 research studies identifying 221 pathways interventions, concluding that 38% of the

interventions improved outcomes in at least one domain of interest. Twenty-seven percent of the examined interventions improved employment, 24% increased earnings, and 14% reduced the use of public benefits.

These programs create new social networks and information sources that shape a young person’s expectations and aspirations. Teachers, coaches, and other mentors and supporters establish relationships with young people that shape their aspirations and behaviors and show them worlds and opportunities they’ve not imagined. Over time, this combination of new connections and information have a powerful snowball effect.

Cross-class friendships form the basis for improving individual life prospects and advancing human flourishing. These friendships place young people on a trajectory to social and economic well-being, informed citizenship, and civic responsibility. They help lay a foundation for adult success and a lifetime of opportunity. That’s good for individuals and our society.

Bruno V. Manno is senior advisor to the Walton Family Foundation education program and a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Education for Policy. This commentary was provided to the News-Press by The Center Square, a nonprofit dedicated to journalism.

Election 2022: The good, the bad and the ugly

The Good: We have a divided government. Since Democrats no longer control Congress, they can’t bankrupt America quite so fast!

The Bad: Prediction markets, which I touted as the best guide to elections, didn’t do so well. Yes, they correctly said Republicans would take the House, but they’d also predicted Republicans would take the Senate. Polls and statistical modelers like Nate Silver did a bit better this time. They also said Republicans would win both, but they gave them only a slight edge.

As I write this Wednesday morning, Republicans have (according to ElectionBettingOdds.com, the site Maxim Lott created that tracks election betting around the world) a 19% chance of winning the Senate.

Nineteen percent isn’t zero. They could still win the Senate, but Republicans don’t have the 60-70% chance that bettors gave them in recent weeks.

The Good: Bettors at least adjust their predictions quickly. Last night, while clods on TV still said “Democrats and Republicans battle for control of the House (CBS),” those of us who follow the betting already knew that Republicans would win the House.

Historically, bettors have a great track record. Across 730 candidate chances we’ve tracked, when something is expected to happen 70% of the time, it actually happens about 70% of the time.

That’s because people with money on the line try harder than pundits to be right. They also adjust quickly when they see they’ve made a mistake. At 8:23 p.m., with just 12% of the New Hampshire vote counted, bettors gave Democrat Maggie Hassan more than a 90% chance of winning the Senate seat, up from 63% earlier in the day. You wouldn’t

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Arthur I. Cyr

Bruno Manno

The author is with the Walton Family Foundation

Jonathan Hullihan The author is with County Citizens Defending Freedom

COURTESY PHOTO Gov. Greg Abbott

COURTESY IMAGE

look. A thoroughfare that by city staff design mixes old, middleaged and young children, and pedestrians with speeding electric bikes, pedal bikes and skateboarders in what they assure us is a safe environment. Would somebody explain the meaning of “pedestrian” to them?

Do you remember about one and half years ago there was a large fire on Bath Street and the railroad track? Two homeless men were doing drugs there adjacent to a storage unit. They started a fire that quickly got out of control and caused over $100,000 in losses and damages.

What would make you think that could not happen on State Street, with enormously, larger consequences?

We noticed that almost every parklet has propane heaters inside its structure. On our field trip, we also noticed that many of the propane heaters are left out at night. We have also seen some spare propane tanks stacked in wire storage containers on the sidewalk next to the main building structures.

We have to ask whether, at the end of the night, when the diners have gone, are any of these heaters left in the parklets with their propane tanks still in them? If they are, and as the nights become

colder and the wind whistles down state street at night, wouldn’t a nice, cozy, heated parklet be an attractive place for homeless people to spend the night?

If so, can we imagine in the early hours of one morning that a heater might be set too close to a fabric awning, setting off a fire? if other heaters are out in the open, possibly with their gas tanks still in them, the fire could spread rapidly.

The thing is, we don’t know the answers to these questions. Basically, we use this example to ask whether the parklets, their electrical supply connections, and heating sources meet the electric codes and fire codes that would be applied to any other, similarly

enclosed structures that would be permitted for any public use. Furthermore, are all these structures frequently inspected by the building and fire departments for violations of such codes?

Back to Mr. Brown’s letter to the Santa Barbara City Council and City Administrator Rebecca Bjork regarding the part on “The rat/vermin problem, which starts with the city and their lack of any program to address this has, in the last few years, become intolerable. Look under any parklet and you will find rat nests. Food is just falling on them from above.”

During our rain this past week, most likely this all ended up in our ocean.

Also in the letter, “Homelessness, whether it is guest and staff interaction or aggressive panhandling has always been challenging but it has now turned into straight-up criminality. Consuming alcohol and drugs in public, using planters for toilets, camping in empty storefronts or locking themselves in our bathrooms and showering, sleeping and using drugs is an everyday occurrence.”

The Santa Barbara City Council just approved the staff recommendation to once again issue yet another check to City Net to take care of our homeless with only Mayor Randy Rowse asking when we will get our progress report. We believe this letter is your progress report.

In conclusion, what we have gained is just another empty storefront on State Street Promenade.

To be continued. We were just forwarded another letter as we are turning in our column.

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

Editor’s note: News-Press staff writer Neil Hartstein has written about the problems on State Street and is continuing to do so with stories that will appear next week in the News-Press.

An ignorant bully who only cares about himself

have noticed that shift watching TV. The AP didn’t call the race until 11:39 p.m.

Bettors also failed to predict President Donald Trump’s win in 2016. But they at least gave him a 20% chance, much higher than most “expert” statistical modelers, like the Princeton Election Consortium, which gave him an absurd 0.01% chance.

Big picture: Betting odds remain the single best, and fastest-updating predictor.

The Good: Last night, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ odds of becoming the Republican presidential nominee jumped from 16% to 27%, while Donald Trump’s odds fell to 18%. That’s probably because of Gov.

DeSantis’ nearly 20-point blowout win in a swing state. I put this in the “good” category because, watching Mr. Trump on TV last night, I’m reminded that he’s an ignorant bully who only cares about himself. His mere presence on the public stage hurts America by creating more division and hate. His election “denier” candidates like Doug Mastriano, Doug Bolduc, Tudor Dixon, and John Gibbs all lost.

Also, if Gov. DeSantis is nominated in 2024, bettors give him a 74% chance of winning, whereas they give Mr. Trump just a 47% chance.

The Good: If Kamala Harris is nominated, bettors give her just a 36% chance of becoming president.

The Ugly: Long-term incumbents won again: Patty Murray, Mike Crapo and Chuck

Schumer (29 years in Congress). Ron Wyden and Chuck Grassley won, too (42 years).

The Good: Iowa passed an amendment protecting gun rights. Three states passed measures protecting reproductive freedom. Anti-abortion measures in two states lost. Maryland and Missouri legalized recreational weed.

Maybe Good: Ranked-choice voting leads in Nevada.

The Bad: Recreational weed lost in Arkansas, North Dakota and South Dakota. Sports gambling lost in California. California also banned e-cigarettes, which will create a new criminal black market and kill more cigarette smokers.

The Ugly: Chuck Schumer will probably be Senate Majority Leader again.

The Ugly: The Wall Street Journal reports: “Europe Doubles

Down on Big Government ... adding hundreds of thousands of public-sector jobs, guaranteeing business loans.”

Won’t voters ever ask government to leave people alone? It’s so sad. All around the world, we don’t learn.

By the way, ElectionBettingOdds. com also tracks football odds. The Buffalo Bills, despite losing last Sunday, still lead the Super Bowl pack. The Eagles, Chiefs follow; 49ers, Ravens and Cowboys follow.

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.”

Copyright 2022 BY JFS Productions Inc.

‘There is no place for travelers to fly to’

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Martin J, Walsh. The agencies used the strings of federal funds to issue regulations. It was not until April 2022 that TSA no longer required the wearing of masks.

President Biden’s executive order requiring companies with more than 100 employees to ensure their workers were vaccinated caused all the above regulatory agencies to enforce these requirements.

In response, American Airlines CEO Doug Parker said, “Employees who cannot be vaccinated due to disability or religious beliefs can request a waiver” although the government would not grant any. Employees who were not vaccinated had their lives disrupted by losing their jobs, and airlines lost trained employees.

Except in states run by

Republicans, such as Florida and Texas, states requiring businesses to close caused an airline executive to say “There is no place for travelers to fly to” as the airlines struggled to avoid what would be, in essence, governmentforced bankruptcies.

I felt for the executives and employment counsels at American Airlines, a position I almost took at Continental Airlines, for having to deal with their decline in employees from 133,700, in 2019, to 123,400 today. Hiring and training 10,300 will be expensive in time and money.

At the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, the departure for Santa Barbara kept getting delayed until finally, around 11 p.m., the flight’s cancellation sent all of us to customer service.

And that’s how I became No. 144 in the line at Gate D-24.

Standing in a line that was inching forward one flooring tile every 10 minutes, I realized

I could not stand much longer. I considered spending the night in a chair in an Admirals Club, but it was closing. Since I had the last ticket for the next flight, which was not until noon tomorrow, with the only other one not leaving until 6:51 p.m., I’d better do something before everyone in my line realized that the thunderstorm that closed the airport was an “act of God” — meaning each of us would be scrambling to find a room.

The other “line-waiters” had their thumbs working on their smartphones, greatly exceeding the capacity of my thumbs, which were restricted by the beginnings of arthritis and the fact that my thumbs were bigger than the letters on my screen. In any case, none of these folks were having any success. The guy standing next to me reminded me of John Candy in the 1987 movie “Trains, Planes and Automobiles,” with Steve Martin, as he desperately made plans to fly to Phoenix tomorrow and drive overnight to Santa Barbara.

I resorted to doing something many senior men will relate to. I called my wife, Carol, in Santa Barbara and asked her to set her laptop keys humming. She found the last room at a Super 8.

At midnight, I sat on my bed and reflected that the COVID “war” set in motion by Obama-BidenFauci team — and exacerbated by federal and some states regulations — will linger for airlines much as they did for so many after World War II.

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 NonLawyers.”

Jerome Powell is channeling his inner Paul Volcker

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supply,” Fed Chairman Jerome Powell told the press.

This is a particularly destructive line of thinking because unemployment is a lagging indicator: It rises after the economy has begun to slow, not the other way around.

Relying on unemployment to indicate economic tightening is like seeing ice-skaters as a harbinger of cold weather.

In hoping for a “real softening” of the labor market,

Mr. Powell is channeling his inner Paul Volcker, the Fed chair from 1979 through 1987, who has been lionized for beating inflation by raising interest rates radically — as high as 22% — and bringing on two deep recessions.

Mr. Volcker, however, had the benefit of pro-market federal government policies absent today. Congress and President Ronald Reagan lowered federal taxes and carried out muchneeded economic deregulation. That enabled the American people to increase the amount of goods and services they

49 edge

‘Texas must continue our efforts to secure our border’

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citizens. In other words, this is not an issue of criminal enforcement, but rather the separate and distinct question of utilizing the lawful constitutional framework that provides the state of Texas authority to repel not only migrant warfare being waged against it, but all other irregular forms of warfare unleashed by transnational narco-terrorist criminal organizations.

Since last January, an estimated more than 5 million illegal aliens have been apprehended by Border Patrol agents or evaded their capture. Since last March, Texas law enforcement officers alone made more than 21,400 criminal arrests, including more than 18,900 felony charges, according to state data. They’ve also seized over 350 million lethal doses of fentanyl, enough to kill every man, woman and child in America. An enemy bringing in enough drugs to kill everyone in the U.S. is an act of war.

The difference between Afghanistan and America is we have the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law to defend our citizens and protect state sovereignty.

It’s the most important legal document in the western world.

The Biden administration has abdicated its responsibility to defend the Constitution from threats both foreign and domestic.

While Gov. Abbott has called on Congress to reinstate federal policies to secure the border, Congress, even with a slim Republican majority, will likely be unable to do so. He also said, “where and if Congress falls short, Texas must continue our efforts to secure our border.”

As Gov. Sam Houston said, “Texas has yet to learn submission to any oppression, come from what source it may.”

Texas counties can support Gov. Abbott in his efforts and in Texas’ struggle against oppression by passing resolutions declaring an invasion and calling on him to use his full constitutional authority to repel it. The Texas Legislature must also take action and support the governor to repel the invasion and irregular warfare being waged in Texas.

Jonathan Hullihan is the lead attorney in Texas for County Citizens Defending Freedom. He’s served on active duty in the Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps for over 13 years, being designated as an expert in International Law and National Security Law. He has acted as legal counsel and adviser to the Navy SEAL teams, the United States Navy Blue Angels, and Special Operations units in the United States Central Command (USCENTCOM) theater of operations. This commentary was provided to the News-Press by The Center Square, a nonprofit dedicated to journalism.

This green stuff is being shoved down our throat

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so, they’re on the right track. And they continue to allow millions more illegals to flood in, take root and sponge even more of our energy. So dumb.

The other delusion so many on the left share without having any idea what they’re sharing is the production of solar panels.

Like the windmills, it takes 3,000 pounds of that horrible coal to make 11 tons of solar panels.

Toxic metals also make up each solar panel and pose a risk if they get into the water supply.

And while there are those who think solar is the answer to all our woes, it takes water and electricity to make them and coal and gas to produce the electricity. Which of course, according to the climate zealots, fills the air with more of those evil greenhouse gasses.

The irony is it’s not possible to create renewable energy without the use of dead dinosaurs in the process. And so, the wheels on the bus go round and round. Same story as with the wind turbines, you need boats, trucks, planes that use fossil fuels to deliver those unenvironmentally friendly solar panels.

In the end nothing is really accomplished except maybe some people feel warm and fuzzy because they’re doing their part to save the environment.

I’m not against solar power, or for that matter wind power either. I have a large array of

solar panels on my home, and I love them. But let nature run its course. The day will come when technology catches up and the shift will happen according to plan. It is already under way. In the meantime, Earth blessed us with natural organic resources to make it a better place to live. Don’t get sucked into the vortex of guilt and propaganda.

This green stuff is being shoved down our throats, and Americans are suffering because of it. If you really care, go to the countries where you can try and make a difference. By forcing the issue prematurely, Americans must pay higher and higher energy costs, and now the threat of not getting any energy at all in any form is looming. It is uncalled for in a country where there’s no reason (except California) we can’t have at least $2 a gallon gas, dirt cheap natural gas and low electricity bills, if there wasn’t a political agenda in play.

I’m running out of room, and I didn’t even touch on natural gas. Again, without thinking, the move to make everything electric requires coal and fossil fuels to accomplish that goal. All that energy didn’t just vanish over the last 20 months. It can be ramped back up tomorrow, and America can flourish and flex her muscles again.

But I’m afraid with how things look, it’s going to get worse.

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

produced, which resulted in strong, steady economic growth.

Relying on the Fed to reduce inflation created by high government spending and tight economic regulation damages the economy without solving the underlying problem, which is the dead weight of government that is holding down productive enterprise.

The real solution is for the federal government to return not to Mr. Volcker’s recessioninducing rate hikes but to the pro-market policies of the Reagan administration.

Fortunately, the likely

incumbent Sen. Hassan would squeak by Gen. Bolduc in New Hampshire (she did). I also wrote that Ms. Smiley had a “fighting chance to overtake” incumbent Sen. Patty Murray, a Democrat, in the state of Washington.

Ms. Smiley did better than any Republican had in many years, but it wasn’t enough.

If Sen. Walker wins the Georgia run-off, Republicans will (hopefully) still end up with a 51-

However, I did suggest that if Republicans didn’t do as well as predicted (they didn’t), and we ended up with a 50/50 Senate (we might), I would have to prepare my bowl of Crow Stew.

I’m no cook (though I’m pretty good with eggs), so I had to go online to figure out first how to pluck the feathers out of a bird.

Luckily, I came upon the Family Farm Livestock website, hosted by a friendly animal-loving farmer named Kathy whose advice included “How to Pluck Chickens Without a Plucker!”

A “plucker,” I learned, is a small tool ($31.99 on Amazon) that “grabs” feathers out of a scalded carcass. I had no such thing, and Kathy informed me that pluckers were on back order and not readily available but that hand plucking was “simple, easy to learn and faster than you think!”

“To pluck a (crow) by hand,” she advises, “repeatedly dunk and swish the bled-out bird in a 5-gallon bucket of hot water (160 degrees) for 1 minute to scald.”

I was advised elsewhere to take the scalded carcass to a table and to start plucking with the longer

upcoming GOP control of the U.S. House of Representatives provides an opportunity to put the brakes on President Biden’s bizarre plan to destroy the nation’s economy. With a president who gleefully states his intention to cancel the Industrial Revolution, the American people desperately need the checks and balances of a more-sensible Congress to ensure that does not happen.

S. T. Karnick is a senior fellow and director of publications for The Heartland Institute, where he edits Heartland Daily News.

wing feathers since they are the hardest to pluck. Oh, and to wear an apron because plucking is “a messy, wet business.”

My Crow Stew four-hour recipe features wild onions, ash, lemon juice, garlic, and flour.

I’ll let you know how it tastes. 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

War strengthened ties between Australia and the U.S.

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Thompson, a highly respected British guerrilla warfare expert, was consulted and provided an encouraging estimate of the prospects of the South Vietnamese military.

Gen. Creighton Abrams, after succeeding Gen. William Westmoreland as Vietnam commander, redirected U.S. forces away from massive searchand-destroy operations to small unit actions, reflecting the strategy successfully employed in Malaya. The war strengthened ties between Australia and the U.S. among military and civilian government professionals.

The Afghanistan insurgency was somewhat similar to Malaya and Vietnam. David Kilcullen, a retired Australian army officer, is influential in American security circles. Australians also do humanitarian work in Pakistan and elsewhere.

Australia provides important bridges between developed and developing nations, reflecting historical legacies as well as geography. Rather ironically, the nation’s economy is greatly aided by proximity to China.

In September 2021, Australia, Britain and the United States announced the new AUKUS partnership. Britain, following departure from the European Union, signed a comprehensive free trade agreement with Australia in December 2021.

The three nations combine deep Asia diplomatic along with military experience, and expertise.

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.

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