Santa Barbara News-Press: December 10, 2022

‘The nutcracker’ at the Arlington Theatre

Santa Barbara Festival Ballet to perform Christmas classic this weekend

FYi

Santa Barbara Festival Ballet will perform “The Nutcracker” at 2:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. today and 2:30 p.m. Sunday at The Arlington Theatre, 1317 State St., Santa Barbara.

Tickets vary from $35 to $58. To purchase, go to santabarbarafestivalballet. com/buy-nutcracker-tickets.

A “Nutcracker” boutique in the Arlington lobby will raise additional funds during the intermissions for Santa Barbara Festival Ballet.

And State Street Ballet will perform its production of “The Nutcracker” next weekend at The Granada in Santa Barbara. See the story in Tuesday’s News-Press.

By DAVE MASON NEWS-PRESS MANAGING EDITOR

Professional ballerina Alexandra Hutchinson has been dancing in “The Nutcracker” since she was 5, and she’s played nearly all the roles.

The 27-year-old member of the Dance Theater of Harlem hasn’t danced as the central character Clara, and there’s one other character she has yet to tackle.

“I haven’t done the Rat King,” Ms. Hutchinson, dressed as the Snow Queen from “The Nutcracker,” told the News-Press with a big smile in the lobby of the Arlington Theatre. “I feel like I could add a little twist to it!” She laughed.

It was the laugh of a dancer who loves the sensation of becoming a character and stepping, turning and spinning with grace during a magical journey. That’s the power of dance.

“The chance to be a queen on stage is really exciting to

me,” said Ms. Hutchinson, who portrays the Snow Queen in Santa Barbara Festival Ballet’s production of “The Nutcracker,” set for 2:30 and 7 p.m. today and 2:30 p.m. Sunday at The Arlington Theatre.

“The adrenaline you get on stage is immeasurable,” the enthusiastic dancer said. “That’s always something I enjoy when I perform.”

This weekend’s production features dancers from Santa Barbara Festival Ballet and principal guest dancers: Ms. Hutchinson and Kouadio Davis from the Dance Theater of Harlem and Angelo Greco and Misa Kuranaga, from San Francisco Ballet. Also

performing are students from the UCSB Department of Theater and Dance and Santa Barbara City College.

Valerie Huston is Santa Barbara Festival Ballet’s interim executive director and resident choreographer.

This is the second of three “Nutcracker” productions that Ms. Hutchinson and Mr. Davis, 24, who portrays the Snow Cavalier/ King, have danced in with ballet companies. Both dancers say they’re enjoying their roles.

Santa Barbara High School senior Anya McCue is portraying Clara, and Jesse Cuevas from UCSB is playing the Nutcracker Prince.

“I would say the students are

very talented,” Ms. Hutchinson said about the various dancers in this production of “The Nutcracker.” “I see a lot of promise in their work.”

Ms. Hutchinson said she’s excited to see the Santa Barbara Festival Ballet production. This weekend’s shows mark the company’s 47th annual production of “The Nutcracker.”

Ms. Hutchinson also has her milestone.

“This is my 22nd year of doing ‘The Nutcracker,’” Ms. Hutchinson said. “I’m so happy. The music is so beautiful. It really takes you to a fairyland, a winter wonderland. I really like to be

sinema’s decision to leave democratic Party sparks criticism, speculation

By CASEY HARPER THE CENTER SQUARE

(The Center Square) – Arizona

U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s announcement that she is leaving the Democratic party to be an Independent sparked a flurry of speculation Friday about what this could mean for the Democrats’ Senate majority and the future of the party itself.

After U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock of Georgia bested Herschel Walker earlier this week, Democrats were left with a 5149 seat majority in the Senate, when including independents who caucus with the major political parties. That gave them breathing room after navigating a narrow 50-50 split with Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris’ tiebreaking vote during the first two years of Biden’s administration.

Many speculated that Sen. Sinema’s departure could pave the way for U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., to leave the party as well.

Sen. Manchin and Sen. Sinema have been among the most centrist Democrats, often halting, slowing or modifying the Biden agenda in the past two years.

“Joe Manchin is next, except he should go the whole hog and become a Republican,” conservative filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza said after Sen. Sinema’s announcement.

As President Biden pushed his agenda since taking office, Sen. Manchin has cited concerns over energy costs as well as worries about inflation and elevated federal spending, often Republican messaging points. Sen. Manchin’s resistance forced Democratic leadership to meet with and cater to him, though they were still able to pass trillions of dollars in new federal spending.

Sen. Warnock’s victory this week gave Senate Democrats hope they may be free from that kind of catering, but Sen. Sinema’s decision may nix those hopes.

SINEMA

Hospitalizations rise in county during tridemic

By KATHERINE ZEHNDER NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

Santa Barbara county hospitals have seen a rise in hospitalization over the past week due to the tridemic.

As the county and the rest of the nation deal with COVID19, respiratory syncytial virus and the flu, the Food and Drug Administration has approved the bivalent vaccine for use down to six months of age.

The approval comes as hospitalizations increase.

“There has been a significant change in the last week,” Dr. David Fisk, medical director of infection prevention and control

for Cottage Health, told the NewsPress Friday.

“A significant increase in COVID-19 cases in hospitals has led us to reopen a dedicated unit to COVID-19 patients with adults driving the majority of the overall increase,” Dr. Fisk said. “Previously numbers were small enough that patients were cared for in rooms with specialized air filtration.”

Dr. Fisk, though, did report some good news: “RSV in the pediatric division has diminished in the last two weeks.”

In Santa Maria, Marian Regional Medical Center has seen admissions increase, Dr.

Please see TRIDEMIC on A8

KENNETH SONG / NEWS-PRESS PHOTOS

Kouadio Davis and Alexandra Hutchinson, from Dance Theater of Harlem, are portraying the Snow King and Snow Queen in Santa Barbara Festival Ballet’s production of “The Nutcracker.”

Fingers crossed that Goleta Old Town Holiday Parade proceeds tonight

By KATHERINE ZEHNDER NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

The Goleta Old Town Holiday Parade will start at 6 tonight — if the weather cooperates.

Originally scheduled for Dec. 3, the parade on Hollister Avenue in Old Town Goleta was postponed because of rain. Well, the forecast calls for rain again today, but parade organizers — the Goleta Lion Club — are watching the timing closely with the assistance of the National Weather Service.

The club will decide by noon today whether the three-hour parade will proceed. To find out the parade’s status, go to

goletaholidayparade.org or www.cityofgoleta. org.

The parade route is on Hollister Avenue from Orange Avenue to Kinman Avenue.

Orange Avenue between Hollister Avenue and Carson Street, and Gaviota Street between Orange Avenue and Magnolia Avenue. Streets will be closed at 4 p.m. for parade staging.

Hollister Avenue will be closed to traffic including e-bikes starting at 5 p.m. and is scheduled to re-open at approximately 8:30 p.m.

If your vehicle is parked on the parade route, it will be cited and towed, according to the city of Goleta. Those attending the parade are asked to allow enough time for parking and to

carpool if possible.

Public parking is available in the Yardi parking lot at 430 S. Fairview Ave.

“The Goleta Lions Club has been working hard behind the scenes to make this parade happen, and we are hoping for a great turnout, weather permitting,” the city of Goleta said in a statement.

After the parade, Santa Claus will be in the gazebo at the Goleta Valley Community Center, 5679 Hollister Ave., for photo opportunities. And the center’s Swing Along Band will perform holiday songs in the gazebo before the parade.

email: kzehnder@newspress.com

Parenteau pioneers environmental sustainability in Santa Barbara

By KATHERINE ZEHNDER NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

Alelia Parenteau — who was Santa Barbara’s first recycling coordinator and the city’s first energy and climate manager — can add another “first” to her resume.

She’s the first director of the city’s new Sustainability and Resilience Department. Ms. Parenteau has been the department’s acting director since September 2021.

“We have launched Santa Barbara Clean Energy, the city’s community choice aggregation program, the Solid Waste Franchise Agreement and an updated climate action plan roadmap to achieve the goal of carbon neutrality. These are just a few of the highlights of what we have accomplished in the last year,” Ms. Parenteau told the News-Press. “Our teams run programs every day cleaning up homeless encampments, building solar rays and more.”

Ms. Parenteau, who grew up in Santa Barbara, started out as an intern riding on trash trucks in the city in 2006.

“I then became the first recycling coordinator for the city, followed by the first energy analyst, the first energy and climate manager, and now the first director of the new sustainability and resilience department,” she said. “This new department was created in 2020.”

Ms. Parenteau provided some background.

“The city council passed 100% renewable energy goals in 2019,” Ms. Parenteau said. “When they passed that, our whole purview

Rain advisory issued for county beaches

shifted. The community choice aggregation program brought the whole community along. There was a 95% participation rate, reducing the city’s carbon emission rate by 20%. This gave us a viable pathway to 100% carbon neutrality.”

Ms. Parenteau said it feels great to be a pioneer of environmental sustainability in Santa Barbara “because it shows we have the support of leadership and council. It shows they listen, and that there is support for implementation.”

“I grew up with a mother who is an eco-warrior and understood the importance of taking care of the planet,” she said. “That has always been instilled from a young age, and I want to pass that on to my own children. There has been a series of global and local events that have emphasized the importance of these issues.

“The modest silver lining to the 2018 Montecito debris flow is that it underscored the importance of these issues and minimizing future impacts,” said Ms. Parenteau. The News-Press asked Ms. Parenteau about her goals in her latest role in her environmental career.

“My biggest goal is to achieve the carbon neutrality directive,” she said. “If we can even get substantially closer, that is a big achievement. I hope to work with the region collaboratively for greater change and instill sustainability throughout the culture and community.”

“To an extent, it’s a defined role. The environmental service and creeks division are longstanding and well-oiled machines,” Ms. Parenteau said. “The teams are very capable and

SANTA BARBARA — With rainfall forecasted for the region this weekend, Santa Barbara County Environmental Health

Alelia Parenteau

innovative. I get the fun job of supporting the really good ideas and working through the less good ideas.

“Energy and Climate is our newest division, and I am more involved in how that is manifesting as I developed that division. I get to create the role as I go, but with guidance of leadership and they are generally supportive,” said Ms. Parenteau.

The News-Press asked Ms. Parenteau on how she plans to lead the fight against climate change.

“The first step was council taking a stand and giving us the best sense of how aggressive to be,” she said. “Step two is figuring out the pieces of the climate

Services wants to remind residents about potential health risks associated with the stormwater runoff at beaches.

Stormwater is untreated rainwater that flows through the drain system into creeks, the ocean, and other waterways.

Contact with stormwater while swimming

PHOTO

action plan that sets us up for a work plan every year. I’m really excited for that to come out and design the next few years for us. Santa Barbara Clean Energy is important to the community’s carbon goals.”

She added, “I can’t speak highly enough of the team I oversee and the leadership. The city council has been supportive and my leadership, the city administrator and city assistant administrator, have seen the need for the department and acted on it. I am a big picture strategist.

“I get excited about what might be possible. I want to find a way to do the impossible.”

email: kzehnder@newspress.com

or surfing may increase the risk for certain types of illnesses such as rashes, fever, chills, ear infections, vomiting, and diarrhea, the health services department noted.

— Katherine Zehnder

County installs progress pride flag curb cuts in Isla Vista

By KATHERINE ZEHNDER NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

State Assemblymember Gregg Hart and 2nd District County Supervisor Laura Capps celebrated the installation Thursday of a Pride Block at Pardall Road and Embarcadero Del Norte in Isla Vista.

They were joined by county staff and representatives from the Isla Vista Community Services District and Isla Vista Recreation and Park District. On Wednesday, the Santa Barbara County Public Works Department connected curb cuts at Pardall Road and Embarcadero Del Norte with Progress Pride Flags.

“Earlier this year, I was approached by UCSB student leaders about using public art to celebrate the Isla Vista community’s commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion,” Assemblymember Hart said in a statement. “This project is the first of its kind in Santa Barbara County and brings visibility to the LGBTQ+ community in Isla Vista and in the county.

“The Progress Pride Flag celebrates the diversity of the LGBTQ+ community and calls for a more inclusive society,” Mr. Hart said. “Visibility matters, and I am proud to support the LGBTQ+ community with this project and hope to see similar projects countywide.”

“One of our goals is to provide a safe environment for the public and our employees. Safety isn’t just about good engineering and

construction for the Public Works Department,” said Scott McGolpin, director of public works. “It’s about promoting a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion that preserves the health and well-being of every community member. Crosswalk delineators and traffic signals help reduce physical conflicts between vehicles and pedestrians. We hope these symbols on Pardall Road support a safe community for all.”

Portland artist Daniel Quasar

created the Progress Pride Flag to highlight HIV/AIDS awareness and remembrance, LGBTQ+ communities of color, and the trans community. The white, pink, and light blue stripes represent the Trans Pride flag.

The black stripe symbolizes those lost during the AIDS crisis, people living with HIV, and the continued search for a cure.

Brown and black stripes signify LGBTQ+ communities of color.

These five stripes form a chevron visually representing progress while recognizing the need to continue forward movement.

The Pardall Progress Pride Flag curb cut installation was designed by public works staff, material was provided by Sharpline Solutions, and installation was completed by Property Prep Services.

email: kzehnder@newspress.com

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

COURTESY

COURTESY PHOTO

2nd District Supervisor Laura Capps and Assemblymember Gregg Hart, standing in the middle, assist with the ribbon cutting for flag curb cuts at Pardall Road and Embarcadero Del Norte.

Monaco spy story: Columbus group

Editor’s note: This is the first of two parts about a club of intelligence services representing small countries.

During one of my briefings with Prince Albert of Monaco as his intelligence chief, I proposed my vision to engage the intelligence services of micro-Europe — Monaco, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Andorra, San Marino, and Malta — into an intelligence club, an association of services that would share information on bad actors and create a cooperative/ combined shield.

The prince already held a soft spot in his heart for microEuropean countries evidenced by the high regard and courtesy he extended them during his investiture in July 2005. They were treated with the same dignity as large powerful countries. So it was no surprise that Albert gave this idea his full backing and authorized me to proceed.

I brought this up with senior Italian intelligence officials because I hoped they would help organize introductions to their counterparts in San Marino and the Vatican. Foreign intelligence chief Albert Manenti was not only supportive but offered to personally introduce me to the director of the Vatican’s intelligence unit. He thought Liechtenstein would be the most difficult to crack, but I’d already made a breakthrough with that principality tucked between Switzerland and Austria.

Indeed, when I had the opportunity to meet Rene Brulhart, director of Liechtenstein’s Financial Intelligence Unit, Rene wholeheartedly welcomed this idea. Liechtenstein, he told me, had no meaningful contact with Monaco so he was happy just to be in contact with us. It would be amazing, he agreed, if we could extend this concept to the other microstates.

In Washington D.C., soon after I met with recently retired CIA senior officers (including Tyler Drumheller, formerly European division chief) and broached with them my micro-Europe intelligence club concept. They thought it was brilliant and provided me with a senior contact in Luxembourg’s intelligence service.

Enter Frank Schneider, Luxembourg’s foreign intelligence chief, who traveled to Monaco and described his service to me. I immediately grasped that Luxembourg was the model to which we in Monaco should aspire — a streamlined, nonbureaucratic old-fashioned spy service that truly operated under the radar screen.

Over steak and frites in Le Beefbar, Frank showed great enthusiasm for an association of micro-Europe intelligence

ROBERT ERINGER

services and vowed to get the ball rolling with his counterpart in Malta. The Luxembourg service, he added, had no contact with Liechtenstein, Andorra and San Marino yet would relish establishing such relationships.

LUXEMBOURG

A couple weeks later Mr. Schneider greeted me at Luxembourg airport and checked me into Hotel Parc Beaux Arts in the old town around which we toured on foot.

Over mugs of the world’s finest hot chocolate in Oberweis, Frank told me that his chief had already discussed with Malta my idea of a micro-Europe intelligence association and the Maltese were receptive. We also talked about including Iceland, whose police intelligence unit had no club of their own and had been excluded from the Club of Berne, Europe’s intelligence association.

That evening Frank and his chief Marco Mille hosted me at Cercle Munster, a private bankers dining club. He too was highly enthusiastic about a micro-Europe association.

“We thought of this,” said Marco, “but didn’t have the contacts.” Marco and Frank made an excellent team, Marco a sophisticate to Frank’s everyman.

Through dinner — asparagus with Hollandaise sauce and smoked ham followed by filet of sole on a bed of peppers followed by a selection of gooey French cheese — we enjoyed a substantive discussion on how to proceed.

Luxembourg was extremely gracious in their willingness to open doors for us into other intelligence services for liaison partnerships. Though after retiring to the library for single malt whisky and cigars, I wasn’t sure my heart and liver would survive many more liaison relationships.

Marco offered to introduce me to anyone in the world of intelligence whom we needed to know. This was significant as he was extremely well liked within Europe’s intelligence community and, significantly, the Club of Berne’s current chairman.

“Talk to everyone,” he counseled.

I knew I had created a very special relationship, perhaps our most important, not least because this impressive service had offered us their country as an operational playground for

sensitive meetings and logistical support.

MICRO VERSUS MACRO

A month later I flew to Rome. A SISMI officer met me at the airport and whisked me to lunch with Alberto Manenti after which Alberto accompanied me to the Vatican to meet Dr. Domenico Giani, director of Gendarmeria Vigilanti di Vatican, which he described as the Pope’s “intelligence group.”

Dr. Giani told me he had been appointed by the pope one month earlier to oversee all security and intelligence and to brief His Holiness personally.

I made my pitch for the Vatican to join the micro-Europe intelligence association that we in Monaco and Luxembourg had created. Dr. Giani was quick to give us his blessing for our club but could not understand why I thought the Vatican (the world’s smallest country at 0.2 square miles) was a microstate. As far as Dr. Giani was concerned, the Vatican was a macro-state with global reach. (Later, Alberto joked all priests are case officers, all parishioners are agents; all confessions noted, cross-indexed and filed away…)

Nonetheless, Dr. Giani asked that I send him an invitation when we had a date for our first meeting.

A UNITED SHIELD

Our first ad-hoc meeting of the Micro-Europe Intelligence Association took place in July, lunch in the open air at Quai des Artistes with representatives from Monaco, Luxembourg and Liechtenstein. Over a bottle of cold Pouilly Fume we agreed some basic club rules:

• Nobody wears ties.

• We eat gourmet food and drink fine wine.

• At the earliest opportunity, we purchase a yacht as association headquarters with funds confiscated from arms-dealing

Please see ERINGER on A7

By KATHERINE ZEHNDER NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal, DSanta Barbara, this week joined nine other members of Congress in a letter outlining improvements needed for the decommissioning process for California’s offshore oil and gas infrastructure.

Those signing the letter, which went to the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, included eight congressional representatives from California and U.S. Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva, D-Ariz., who chairs the House Natural Resources Committee.

The two bureaus are the agencies primarily responsible for managing and overseeing offshore energy activities, including enforcement of environmental protection.

Lawmakers pointed out that retired offshore oil and gas infrastructure “poses a significant risk to the environment, other offshore infrastructure, and frontline communities.” They also said the decommissioning

processes are currently inadequate.

Last year, a report by the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan watchdog, highlighted several major shortcomings in the decommissioning of offshore pipelines in particular.

The letter also highlights issues with BSEE’s “Rigs-to-Reef” program, which facilitates the transition of decommissioned oil and gas infrastructure into artificial reef habitats.

In addition to U.S. Reps. Carbajal and Grijalva, the letter was signed by Rep. Julia Brownley, D-Ventura, and several other California members of the House: Reps. Alan Lowenthal Nanette Diaz Barragán, Jared Huffman, Mike Levin, Ted W. Lieu, Doris Matsui, Katie Porter and Mike Thompson.

The full letter is available here: carbajal.house.gov/ uploadedfiles/2022.12.08_grijalva_ et_al_letter_to_bsee_boem_ decommissioning_draft_peis.pdf.

email: kzehnder@newspress.com

Carbajal, others seek improvements to decommissioning process for offshore oil, gas infrastructure

NUTCRACKER

able to feel the music and express the music with my body.

“There are so many great ballets that people don’t know, but this is one of the ballets everyone’s familiar with,” Ms. Hutchinson said. “It’s a nice sense of tradition. It’s my favorite time of the year. “It reminds me of when I was

younger, and my family would come out and see me perform every year,” Ms. Hutchinson said.

“I’m from Washington, D.C., so I would dance at the Washington School of Ballet.”

When she first appeared in “The Nutcracker” at age 5, she played one of the kids at the Christmas party in the opening scene. “I was the smallest one!

That was really fun,” said Ms. Hutchinson, who earned her bachelor’s in dance in 2017 at Indiana University.

HEINTZE, Nancy Marjorie

Born in Evanston, IL on Feb. 26, 1939, Nancy moved to Santa Barbara. After 83 years, Nancy Marjorie Heintze left her illness behind to be with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on Nov. 28,2022. She left behind her devoted husband, Richard Rudolf Heintze, children: Robert, Virginia (Pokotylo), Richard Henry, 6 Grandsons, 2 Great-Granddaughters and 6 Great-Grandsons. She loved her family, and when healthy, spent many years enjoying their company always with a smile on her face and hugs for all.

Nancy was a receptionist and PBX operator where she met her life-mate of 62 years. She also worked as a yard duty monitor at Cathedral Oaks, opened the Goleta Valley Hospital as a receptionist, and did duty at Santa Barbara High and La Cumbre Junior High. Nancy loved camping and RVing from coast to coast. She also had fun on cruises to Alaska, the Caribbean, and the rivers of Europe. Emanuel Lutheran Church kept Nancy busy helping the blind ministry and LWML - always with her loving smile. We thank The Sarah House and Assisted Living for her end-of-life care. She will be laid to rest with her Mother, Dad, and Sister Joan at Calvary Cemetery at 10AM with a memorial at 11AM in Emanuel Lutheran Church on Dec.14, 2022.

MERCADO, Alberto Nino

Mr. Alberto Nino Mercado passed away suddenly on October 26, 2022 at his home in Santa Barbara, CA, surrounded by his wife and family. Born in January 1940 in Turin, Italy, Alberto and his parents immigrated during World War II to his father’s native country, Bolivia. In 1957, Alberto immigrated to Los Angeles, CA where he eventually received his BSEE from Cal State Los Angeles and MSEE from UCLA while working as a Petroleum Engineer for Shell Oil and later as an Aerospace Engineer for Litton, Magnavox, and TRW. He collaborated on many landmark government projects including the Lunar Lander Module, the Global Positioning System (GPS), the International Space Station and other classified assignments. Alberto enjoyed traveling, entertaining, playing violin, listening to opera (especially those by Puccini), drinking wine, donating to his favorite charities, and most importantly, spending time with his family. He was an avid athlete his entire life and played soccer as a center forward for UCLA and the Los Angeles Soccer League. Selected to play for the US League, Alberto traveled to Israel for the Maccabiah Olympic Games in 1965. He was preceded in death by his mother, Italia Todros Debenedetti, his father, Jose Mercado Cadima, and younger brother, Pablo Mercado. Survivors include his wife of 62 years, Nelly; his three sons, Albert and his wife, Ana, Giancarlo and Franco; his grandchildren, Ryan & Gina; his great-granddaughter Adelina; sister Fiamma and her husband Gianni Canepa; sister-in-law Maria Mercado of Walnut Creek, CA; and numerous family members in Europe, North and South America. Catholic services were held on November 9, 2022 at San Roque Church in Santa Barbara, CA.

CAVALETTO, Catherine

Catherine Cavaletto was born at Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital in 1938, the 2nd child of Joseph and Selina Cavaletto (née Giorgi) after her brother Michael. She was the first granddaughter to her Cavaletto grandparents after 10 male cousins, completing the football team. She may have been a little spoiled as a result, at least until her sister Cecilia came along 2 years later.

She grew up in Goleta surrounded by her family and many cousins. Active in 4H, she received honors including Santa Barbara County All-Star. She attended Goleta Union School, Santa Barbara Junior High, and graduated from Santa Barbara High School in 1955. She received a B.S. in Home Economics from the University of California, Davis in 1959.

In 1962 she took a job as a research assistant in the Department of Food Science and Technology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. The position, meant to last a few years, turned into a 41-year career at the university. She received her M.S. in Food Science in 1968, and worked as a Food Technologist, Horticulturalist, Associate Professor, Associate Dean and Department Chair throughout her career. Always curious, she continuously educated herself and innovated in the field, publishing her research on papaya, guava, macadamia nuts, and coffee in numerous scientific journals. A lover of travel and culture, she seized opportunities to do sabbaticals in Australia in conjunction with the Department of Primary Industries in Queensland and the University of Davis; in Costa Rica through the Food and Agriculture Association of the United Nations; and in Switzerland at the Nestlé Research Center. She made lifelong friends all over the world as a result.

Although she lived far away, the family could count on her to be there for holidays and important events, always bearing leis and chocolate covered macadamia nuts from Hawaii. Her family was incredibly important to her, living and passed. She acted as the family historian, which was no small feat. Her large family represents two branches of long-time residents of Santa Barbara County - the Giorgi family in Santa Ynez and the Cavaletto family in Goleta. She had an incredible memory for names and dates, and could tell you the lineage of both sides of the family from Italy to California. She retired to Goleta in 2003, where she enjoyed spending time with cousins and family again. She moved back into the historic family home at Rancho San Jose, which houses the San Jose Winery, the oldest structure in Goleta. Remaining active in her retirement, she volunteered as a Historian at the Goleta Valley Historical Society, oversaw a renovation of the family home, and enjoyed having space to garden.

Catherine loved to cook, taking as much pride in the presentation as she did in the flavor. Her fruit tarts were legendary. She looked forward to gathering family, especially the younger generations, to make family recipes like ravioli, Swiss pancakes, and bagna cauda. Every summer since her retirement, she hosted the Cavaletto Family BBQ at the ranch. She loved to travel, and visited family in Italy many times over the years.

Catherine’s quiet voice and deliberate manner of speaking made her quick wit and dry sense of humor all the funnier. She was generous, caring and thoughtful to those close to her, and deeply engaged in and informed about the world around her. She approached everything in her life with great care and consideration. A role model to many, she leaves behind an enduring example of a life lived independently with grace and dignity.

The last few months of her life were spent with her sister CC in Aliso Viejo, CA. Never one to skip a meal, she ate breakfast before passing away peacefully in her sleep.

Catherine is a beloved sister, aunt, great-aunt, and friend. She is survived by her brother Michael and his wife Mary Lou Cavaletto, her sister Cecilia Villines, her nieces Lisa Thygeson, Laurie Moore, Jennifer Villines-McCue, and Carrie Villines, and their families. She will be greatly missed by friends, family, and colleagues.

A funeral service will be held at Saint Raphael Church in Santa Barbara on Wednesday, December 14 at 10am. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made in her name to the Parkinson Association Santa Barbara (mypasb.org) or Goleta Valley Historical Society (goletahistory.org).

She said that as the Snow Queen, she strives to be elegant and mature.

Ms. Hutchinson also noted that because she and Mr. Davis frequently dance together at the Dance Theater of Harlem, they find they are connecting more in their movements.

“We’re pushing ourselves to be our best technically and artistically.”

Mr. Davis told the News-Press that he enjoys the opportunity that the pas de deux with the

Snow Queen gives him to focus on acting and expressing emotions. He said that’s in contrast to solos in which he might be focusing more on placement and technicalities.

“It’s an opportunity to focus on a different part of technique,” he said.

“It’s an opportunity to dance with my partner, to smile at her and be in the moment.”

email: dmason@newspress.com

HAINLINE, Kathleen Walker

Kathleen Walker Hainline passed away on November 27, 2022 at the age of 78. Kathy was a wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. Kathy was born on February 06, 1944 in Long Beach, CA to her parents Gordon and Elizabeth Walker. Kathy had two children from her first marriage to Rocky Marshall, Michele and David. During her marriage to Rocky they owned and operated a Nursery in Rolling Hills Estates, CA. Kathy was very involved with her children, often signing up for room mother and team mom. Kathy loved sports and was an avid golfer and tennis player. Kathy met and married Tomas Hainline and they moved to Morro Bay, California and lived a wonderful life filled with family and good friends. Kathy was loved by many and will be greatly missed. Kathy is survived by her husband Tom, daughter Michele Marshall-Long, son David Marshall (Kathleen), grandchildren Alexandria, Isabella, Carlo and Marshall. Great grandchildren Jack, Knox and Amelia, several nieces and nephews and her siblings Pam Meisel and Jim Walker. Kathy was preceded in death by her parents and her sister Maureen.

EGGLER, John Clarence

John Clarence Eggler, a forty-five year resident of Ventura and former Santa Barbara City College History Professor, passed away peacefully in his sleep on December 2, 2022, at age 78 of natural causes.

John is survived by his partner Peter, of Ventura, and numerous cousins in Washington and Arizona, friends and his beloved dog Spikey.

John had years long ties to the Santa Barbara City College community, and the San Buenaventura Mission community as a catechism instructor, eucharistic minister and San Buenaventura Mission Museum docent.

John was born in Nogales, Arizona in 1943 and there until 1958 later moving to Santa Barbara with his mother and father, Maia and Clarence. After attending the University of California Santa Barbara, he became a professor, teaching history, cultural studies and Chicano Studies at Santa Barbara City College, until his retirement in 2006.

He continued to teach at Santa Barbara City College in a limited capacity until he fully retired in 2010. John was an avid traveler and led groups of students on various trips abroad including Mexico, Cambride. Salamanca and Granada, Spain, his favorite destination. He continued as an active member of the San Buenaventura Mission Parish as a eucharistic minister. Being a history buff, he also took an active role in the remodeling of the mission grounds and museum, becoming a museum docent passing on his knowledge to visitors to the mission.

John’s life will be celebrated at a mass at San Buenaventura Mission Basilica on December 12, 2022 at 11 A.M. A private reception will follow after the mass service. We ask no flowers be sent, and instead donations can be made to the donors’ favorite charity or the Santa Barbara City College Foundation.

DODDS, Cynthia Nelson

Cynthia “Cindy” N. Dodds, 71 years old, passed away on November 30, 2022 at home. She was the wife of Larry Dodds. They shared 49 years of marriage together. Their 50th wedding anniversary is this New Year’s Eve.

Born in Hibbing, Minnesota, she was the daughter of Audrey and Clayton Nelson. She is survived by five siblings. The family moved to Arizona for part of her childhood. The family then resided in Santa Barbara, California for her teen years. She graduated from San Marcos High School in 1969. After high school she attended a local business college and worked at a law firm until she married Larry in 1972.

After the wedding she and Larry moved to Orleans, California for Larry’s career with the US Forest Service. In 1975 they moved to Hat Creek, California. In 1977 they bought their home in Burney, California, where she and Larry raised their three children, Bernadette, Nelson and Abigail.

Cindy was the founder and executive director of Tri County Community Network from 1990 to 2019. She was instrumental in developing multiple projects that increased health and joy in the community. Some of her favorite projects included Bailey Park, KidFit, the skate park, and the early days of the teen center. She will be remembered for the impact she had with children and families in the community. She loved serving those who were most in need.

Cindy loved vacations with her husband, especially if it included time on the central coast near Cambria. She spent numerous hours working in her flowerbeds and beautifying the property where she and Larry live. Her favorite place on earth was her back porch, in the sun, enjoying the fresh air. Her family will remember her immense love, laughter, encouragement, humor, homemade fudge and the pancakes she made for her grandsons during every visit.

She is survived by her husband, three children and their spouses, three grandchildren and seven granddogs. She was predeceased by her parents, and favorite granddog, Rudy.

There will be a family celebration in the spring when Cindy’s tulips are blooming in the yard. Memorial donations may be made to the Tri County Community Network (www. burneytccn.org). In lieu of flowers she would want you do a random act of kindness in your community.

Obituary notices are published daily in the Santa Barbara News-Press and also appear on our website www.newspress.com

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Sinema: Political parties disconnected from the public

At the same time, the Republican majority in the House could make the discussion moot unless Democrats are able to sway some House Republicans for their agenda.

Critics said Sen. Sinema’s decision was self-serving and intended to avoid a difficult Democratic primary because of her moderate stances.

“Rather than risking a primary defeat, she’s created a scenario where if Democrats run a candidate in the 2024 general they risk throwing the race to the likes of Kari Lake,” Matthew Gertz of Media Matters said.

Sen. Sinema explained her decision in an op-ed with the Arizona Republic.

“There’s a disconnect between what everyday Americans want and deserve from our politics, and what political parties are offering,” she wrote. “Becoming an Independent won’t change my work in the Senate; my service to Arizona remains the same.”

Sen. Sinema blasted Washington, D.C., partisanship, saying it makes it difficult to get anything done.

“Arizonans expect our leaders to follow that example – set aside political games, work together, make progress and then get out of the way so we can build better lives for ourselves and our families,” she wrote. “It’s no surprise that Washington, D.C., often fails to reflect

that expectation. Everyday Americans are increasingly left behind by national parties’ rigid partisanship, which has hardened in recent years. Pressures in both parties pull leaders to the edges, allowing the loudest, most extreme voices to determine their respective parties’ priorities and expecting the rest of us to fall in line.”

Republicans welcomed Sen. Sinema’s decision.

“Good to see [Sinema] leaving the Democrat Party,” said U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo. “Just this year we’ve had [Tulsi Gabbard and] Senator Sinema – both high profile Democrats –change parties. Hope many more see the light!”

Arizona Democrats attacked her.

“Through several pieces of historic legislation and Senator Sinema’s help, Democrats have made huge headway on delivering that for Arizonans,” Arizona Democratic Party Chair Terán said. “However, Arizonans also need their voting rights protected and corporations to pay their fair share. Unfortunately in those areas, Senator Sinema has fallen dramatically short leaving Arizonans behind. As a party, we welcome Independent voters and their perspectives. Senator Sinema may now be registered as an Independent, but she has shown she answers to corporations and billionaires, not Arizonans. Senator Sinema’s party registration means nothing if she continues to not listen to her constituents.”

Today Sun.

City Hi/Lo/W Hi/Lo/W

Cuyama 58/46/r 53/37/r

Goleta 58/52/r 59/44/c

Lompoc 62/48/r 56/42/r

Pismo Beach 60/48/r 53/43/r

Santa Maria 61/47/r 55/42/r

Santa Ynez 61/48/r 55/40/r

Vandenberg 61/49/r 57/45/r

Ventura 58/55/r 60/45/r

Bakersfield 64/49/r 55/38/r

Barstow 63/44/pc 56/38/sh

2.9’ none 5:28 p.m. -0.3’ Dec. 11 12:37 a.m. 3.4’ 3:59 a.m. 3.0’ 10:15 a.m. 5.4’ 6:08 p.m. -0.1’ Dec. 12 1:31 a.m. 3.4’ 4:43 a.m. 3.1’ 10:53 a.m. 5.1’ 6:50 p.m. 0.0’

Mammoth Lakes 38/25/sn 29/10/sn

Modesto 57/44/r 54/40/sh

Monterey 60/45/r 52/44/r

Napa 57/40/r 52/38/sh

Oakland 57/43/r 53/43/sh

Ojai 53/51/r 60/38/pc

Oxnard 58/54/r 59/43/r

Palm Springs 69/48/pc 59/43/r

Pasadena 60/53/r 55/41/r

Paso Robles 60/48/r 55/40/c

Sacramento 54/44/r 50/41/sh

San Diego 64/52/pc 62/50/r

San Francisco 57/46/r 54/44/sh

San Jose 58/44/r 51/42/sh

San Luis Obispo 60/49/r 54/42/r

Santa Monica 61/56/pc 59/42/r

Tahoe Valley 38/24/sn 28/15/sn

Atlanta 62/49/c 54/48/r

Boston 36/28/c 35/28/c

Chicago 42/35/c 42/33/pc

Dallas 67/50/r 62/51/pc

Denver 52/30/c 61/34/s

Houston 79/65/t 76/62/pc

Miami 83/66/s 83/66/s

Minneapolis 36/26/c 35/26/c

New York City 41/34/s 42/36/r

Philadelphia 46/38/s 47/39/r

Phoenix 67/44/pc 69/49/s

Portland, Ore. 48/41/r 43/39/pc

St. Louis 48/32/r 51/32/pc

Salt Lake City 43/35/c 43/28/sn

Seattle 46/39/r 45/38/c

Washington, D.C. 47/39/pc 48/40/c

Beijing 38/17/s 38/19/pc

Berlin 31/25/pc 29/27/c

Cairo 76/58/s 75/59/s

Cancun 83/73/pc 84/71/s London 38/26/pc 35/29/sn

Mexico City 71/49/s 70/50/s

Montreal 26/17/s 26/18/c

New Delhi 78/54/pc 77/51/pc

Paris 37/27/pc 35/27/c

Rio de Janeiro 84/75/s 84/75/pc

Rome 63/48/r 59/40/r

Sydney 71/60/pc 81/70/s Tokyo 60/46/s 58/42/pc

Performer: ‘This is one of the ballets everyone’s familiar with’

KENNETH SONG / NEWS-PRESS

Dancers rehearse “The Nutcracker” Friday at the Arlington Theatre.

Your CBD Store opens in SB

By JARED DANIELS NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

After working for years as a residential and commercial electrician, Devin Pearson was no stranger to chronic and at times debilitating back pain. On Wednesday afternoon, he and his wife, Jessica, cut the ribbon for a business selling the very product that he says gave him his life back.

“I had a couple times where I was stuck in bed for weeks or months at a time — I had to crawl across the room on my hands and knees,” Mr. Pearson told the News-Press. “My back went out on the job one day, and I decided to make it to the end of the day before I told my boss that I can’t work. And he came up to me before I went up to him, and he laid me off.”

Unemployed and bedridden, Mr. Pearson was approached by Mike Lerch, a friend and entrepreneur

in the CBD industry, who offered him a jar of SunMed CBD pain cream. With the help of the cream, Mr. Pearson says that his back has “never been better.”

Three years later, the Pearsons became owners of Your CBD Store in Santa Barbara after managing the storefront since it opened in December 2019. Their mission is to help people explore the potential benefits of CBD and get the help they need the same way Mr. Pearson describes he did.

“CBD, scientifically known as Cannabidiol, is a naturallyoccurring compound that is found in high concentrations in hemp,” according to a handout provided by the business. “CBD is also the best-researched cannabinoid to date, and the list of its applications is constantly expanding … and can deliver unique health benefits to our bodies.”

The Food and Drug Administration has so far

approved one CBD product for market — a prescription drug used to treat seizures associated with Lennox Gastaut syndrome, Dravet syndrome, and tuberous sclerosis complex — and states that the agency “has seen only limited data about CBD safety,” and that further research into the health effects of the compound are needed.

The store itself, which is located at 10 W. Calle Laureles in Santa Barbara, features a calming boutique atmosphere with an open floor plan smartly furnished with modern farmhouse and midcentury modern pieces.

Different displays dot the walls offering a wide variety of CBD products including creams, oil tinctures, supplement powders, beverage enhancers, and even bath bombs.

Everything in the store is made in America, produced in-house by SunMed, and “third party labtested from soil to oil,” according to Mrs. Pearson.

Despite opening only months before the onset of the COVID19 pandemic, Mrs. Pearson saw during lockdowns that their products were improving the lives of their customers, and was confident that the store would thrive.

“We did not know that three months (after opening) the whole world was going to change,” she said prior to the ribbon cutting.

“But luckily we had a few months to cultivate loyal customers. I was driving CBD all over Santa Barbara, and I think at that point I knew we would be okay because

FYI

To learn more about Your CBD Store in Santa Barbara, visit cbdofsantabarbara.com.

Preparing for retirement

One of the most important investment decisions in one’s life is the retirement plan.

Some of the traditional retirement vehicles (e.g. pension plans) are no longer available. Social Security’s unfunded liability is now over $22 trillion! In the not-too-distant future, Social Security benefits will have to change. We must rely on 401Ks, 403Bs, SEP IRAs, traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs as well as non-qualified retirement accounts when planning for our “golden years.”

Often I hear the question, “When is the best time to begin a retirement plan?” It reminds me of the question, “When is the best time to plant an oak tree?” The best time is now!

Folks just getting started with their career should begin a retirement plan right away. If you don’t contribute to your retirement plan, you will be giving money to Uncle Sam that you could have working for your future. Tax deductions and tax deferral are great “carrots” that should encourage everyone to begin planning for their “nest egg.” Most employers will contribute to the plan along with you. Set lifestyle goals. Really think about what the ideal retirement would look like for you. Would traveling the world be a part of it? Would you like to work on your golf game? Perhaps a retirement “village” with activities and a community of other retirees would be your desire. Whatever it might look like, there is a cost involved, and it must be planned for.

Take control and stay flexible with your retirement plan. Things change in life. Health issues can change your lifestyle overnight. It’s important that your portfolio has flexibility to change with life’s changes. Evaluate long-term care alternatives. The cost of long-term care has increased dramatically over the years. There are ways to take care of long-term care costs via life insurance with a “long-term care rider.” The earlier you begin this process, the better as

qualifying for life insurance becomes more difficult and costly as you age.

Estate planning should be a part of the retirement planning process.

It’s important to have a tax attorney as a part of the planning team. Plan for estate taxes. This is a “moving target,” as estate tax laws continue to change and many estate professionals believe that estate taxes will increase.

A living trust is an important tool that can help you avoid taxes and delays with the proper estate plan.

Tax considerations should be included in your retirement plan. A quality CPA will bring valuable tax advice into the planning process.

For example, your tax situation will determine if you should convert your IRA to a Roth. It is important to consider all the pros and cons.

Finally, ensure that your portfolio is working for you according to your goals and objectives. Your “retirement team” should include an estate and tax attorney, a CPA and a fully licensed adviser.

A dynamic financial plan for one could be totally inappropriate for another. The plan should fit “who you are financially.”

Risk tolerance, time frame, income needs and flexibility must be considered carefully. A diversified portfolio with “safe money,” non-traded investments and a portfolio of quality stocks and bonds should encompass the plan. Ensure that your investment portfolio is monitored and reviewed on a regular basis.

As the marketplace and your retirement needs change, it is important that you have the flexibility to adapt.

Stay the course!

Tim Tremblay is president of Tremblay Financial Services in Santa Barbara (www.tremblayfinancial. com).

see CBD on A6

Real-estate agent Cristal Clarke gives $50,000 to foundation

By DAVE MASON NEWS-PRESS MANAGING EDITOR

Longtime local real-estate agent Cristal Clarke has given the Santa Barbara/Ventura chapter of The Charitable Foundation one of the largest donations in its history.

Ms. Clarke gave $50,000 to the foundation, which is run by the real-estate agents and employees of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties. Ms. Clarke works in Berkshire Hathaway Home Services’ Montecito midtown office.

Ms. Clarke, who’s also a realestate columnist for the Santa Barbara News-Press Weekend, and her husband, Nigel, have been supporting local small businesses for several years.

“It is an honor and a privilege to live and work in our local community,” Ms. Clarke said in

people need this.”

According to Mrs. Pearson, the clientele of Your CBD Store

JARED DANIELS / NEWS-PRESS PHOTOS

Devin and Jessica Pearson are the owners of Your CBD Store in Santa Barbara.

Above, the Pearsons cut the ribbon during the store’s grand opening on Wednesday. Below, this topical pain relief cream is among the products sold at the store.

Please

COURTESY PHOTO

Local real-estate agent Cristal Clarke recently gave $50,000 to The Charitable Foundation.

TIM TREMBLAY INVESTMENTS

Alfie’s Fish & Chips to celebrate 53 years of business

By KATHERINE ZEHNDER NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

The Lompoc Valley Chamber of Commerce is inviting the public to a ribbon cutting ceremony celebrating Alfie’s Fish & Chips’ 53rd year in business in the Lompoc Valley. The ribbon cutting ceremony will take place on Dec. 23 at 5 p.m. at 610 North H Street in Lompoc.

Alfie’s started in 1969 as a franchise. However, it seems opening hundreds of stores in the first few years was too much, too fast. The Alfie’s corporation went bankrupt in 1972. The first Alfie’s in Texas City,

Texas closed in 2019, making the Lompoc location the very last Alfie’s.

Opened in 1969 by the Scottish couple Jack and Margaret Cairney, they passed it on to their daughter Colleen Staffel. In 2001, Colleen sold the business to Mike and Nellie Sewall. They have been successful at keeping the quaint English feel, original recipes and family friendly atmosphere.

For more information on this ribbon cutting, call the Lompoc Valley Chamber at (805) 736-4567.

email: kzehnder@newspress.com

CBD used for pain, anxiety, stress and sleep issues

individual who’s benefitted from CBD products offered by the Pearson’s store.

varies widely, ranging from older professionals looking for nonpharmaceutical methods to treat pain to younger people looking for alternatives to retail marijuana that today features record amounts of THC — the compound that gives cannabis its mindaltering effects.

In addition to aches and pains, other common ailments that those who visit Your CBD Store are seeking to remedy include anxiety, stress and issues sleeping.

Michele Schneider, the director of business development for the Santa Barbara South Coast Chamber of Commerce, attended Wednesday’s event both in her role as an ambassador to local business events and as an

“Anyone who’s worked the Lemon Festival or some sort of festival knows that by the end of setting everything up you’re in aches and pains, and my arm hurt so bad (that I had a) brace on,” she said. “And I looked over to Devin and said ‘I’ve got two more days of this, what can you do?’”

“(Mr. Pearson) put the CBD rub on my arm, and I haven’t worn the brace since,” she continued.

Also in attendance at Wednesday’s ribbon cutting was Santa Barbara City Councilmember Oscar Guttierez, who gave a warm welcome to the fledgling business owners.

“I just want to say ‘thank you’ on behalf of the City of Santa Barbara, we’re really grateful that you all are taking this big leap in

these trying times,” he said. “If there’s anything you need from us on the city council, don’t hesitate to ask — we’re here to serve you.”

Near the end of her remarks, Mrs. Pearson took some time to acknowledge her husband’s role in making the new business possible, and praised the care that he shows to customers.

“He’s the foundation of this store,” she said, fighting back tears. “He’s here every single day, and has been here every day for the past three years basically, and he is what holds this up. He takes his time with every customer, makes sure that every question is answered, and that a perfect product is picked out for them.”

“When people come in, they ask for Devin.”

email: jdaniels@newspress.com

Donation to be used to support organizations promoting health, education, community, environment

a statement. “I am truly grateful for the trust placed in me, which enables me to continue to do what I love and give back where I can.”

Martha Mosier, president of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties, noted Ms. Clarke’s generosity is evident in every aspect of her work. “Cristal continues to give back to the communities she serves, and does so with a generous and open heart. Our California Properties family and the Montecito community are extremely fortunate to know and work with Cristal. We appreciate all of our associates who participate in contributing to The Charitable Foundation, and today, we are very grateful for Cristal’s extremely generous gift.”

The foundation said Ms. Clarke’s $50,000 donation will be used to support local organizations that promote health, education, community and the environment.

“Cristal’s generous contribution to Berkshire

Hathaway HomeServices California Properties’ Charitable Foundation is a beautiful expression of her commitment to strengthening and enriching the lives of people throughout her community,” said Gino Blefari, CEO of HomeServices of America and Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices.

“Her extraordinary kindness demonstrates the power within us to uplift others and serves as inspiration for others to follow.”

Kyle Kemp, regional vice president of Santa Barbara, Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices California Properties, described Ms. Clarke as a generous and gracious person who works to fill needs in the community. “Her generosity always comes from a place of humility and grace. We are proud to have Cristal as a member of our company and community.”

Ms. Clarke has specialized in the sale and acquisition of estates and land in Montecito, Santa Barbara, Hope Ranch and Summerland for more than three decades. You can reach her at 805-8869378 or cristal@montecito-estate.com. email: dmason@newspress.com

Westmont women’s basketball edges out Royals

By RON SMITH WESTMONT SPORTS WRITER

In a closely contested battle for first place in the Golden State Athletic Conference women’s basketball standings, #2 Westmont (9-0 4-0 GSAC) outlasted Hope International (9-2, 4-1) by a score of 73-70 on Thursday evening.

The game marked the first time that Kirsten Moore faced a former player as the opponent’s head coach. Jessica Case, who played for the Warriors from 2006-2010, was named to lead the Royals’ program in September.

“I am so proud of Jessica and what she is doing with this group,” said Moore. “She has such a talented group and has them playing so well. They are enjoying the game, playing hard and playing with confidence. I am proud of what she has done with them and, obviously, they showed that tonight in how they played us.”

The Warriors jumped out to a 4-0 lead to start the game on a jumper by Laila Saenz (9 points, 3 rebounds) and a layup by Sydney Brown (18 points, 11 rebounds). However, the Royals responded with a 10-0 run to take a sixpoint lead. Westmont got back on the scoreboard with another jumper by Saenz, but was unable to completely close the gap in the opening frame. At the end of the first quarter, Hope International held a 22-18 lead.

“Syd didn’t miss a shot in the first half while we were struggling,” pointed out Moore. “She was five for five in the first half, had a ton of rebounds and ended up with a double-double.”

The Royals held on to the lead

throughout the second quarter, leading by as much as 12 points (34-22) with 3:25 to play before intermission. In the final three minutes of second-quarter play, the Warriors produced a 12-2 run to pull within two points (36-34) of the Royals at halftime.

Kate Goostrey (27 points, 5 rebounds) started the run with a triple from the left side. It was Westmont’s 15th attempt from beyond the arc and its first successful one.

Destiny Okonkwo (5 points, 7 rebounds) continued the run when she hit a jumper from the top of the key to make the score 3427. Then, Brown received a pass from Saenz and hit a turn-around jumper to pull within five (34-29).

With 1:04 before the break, Goostrey dribbled to her right, stepped back and hit another 3pointer, making the score 34-32. After the Royal’s Jeanette Fine (12 points, 7 rebounds) scored on a jumper to make the score 3632, Goostrey drained a shot from the key to complete the first-half scoring.

“There were a lot of things we didn’t do well in the first half, especially,” said Moore, “but the rally to finish the half was huge. The way we came out in the second half with a different focus and execution level, with the adjustments we made was a really good job.”

Westmont opened the second half with a 12-0 run. After Saenz drained a three from near the baseline to start the third-quarter scoring, Goostrey connected on three 3-point bombs on back-toback-to-back Warrior possessions. The result was a Westmont 10point lead (46-36) just three minutes into the third quarter.

“Kate stepped up when we were struggling offensively,” noted Moore. “She is an ultimate competitor and to see her catch fire putting the ball in the basketball was so great.”

After Hope International responded by scoring the next five points, Westmont scored the next seven points to take its largest lead of the game (53-41). Goostrey hit a pair of free throws, then knocked down her sixth triple of the game. Brown completed the run with a fast-break layup.

By the end of the penultimate period, however, Hope International had narrowed Westmont’s advantage to just three (55-52).

The Royals produced a 12-3 run to take a six-point lead (64-58) four minutes into the final frame. Then, Brown outmaneuvered her defender in the paint to score on a layup and pull Westmont within four (64-60). Berberabe made it a two-point game when she drove the length of the floor before scoring on a pull-up jumper.

Just 20 seconds later, Berberabe grabbed a defensive rebound, drove the floor, and pulled up in the lane to tie the game at 64 with 3:20 to play.

After Shiane Talley (31 points, 10 rebounds) restored the lead to the Royals on a jumper, Goostrey connected on her seventh 3pointer of the game to put the Warriors up 67-66. Talley regained the lead once more with a pair of free throws, making the score 6867 with 2:40 to play.

Talley connected on one of two free throw attempts before Brown grabbed the lead back for Westmont when she hit a 20-foot jumper with 2:26 remaining. One

A

at intelligence operations in Europe

money launderers (and when threatened by fire bombers, we pull anchor and cruise away).

Jocularity aside, we had good reason to band together. First, there was cooperation and a united shield against shady characters wanting to park dirty money in our neighborhoods.

As a collective, we could alert one another so that when a dirty client got turned away from Monaco and aimed himself toward Luxembourg or Liechtenstein, they’d be watching for him.

Luxembourg offered to host our first formal meeting to which we would invite Malta’s intelligence service. Marco, as its host, would follow up on my contact with Domenico Giani at the Vatican and invite him too. And I would drive to Andorra presently and determine the disposition of that microstate’s representatives for attending an October confab.

Iceland and Cyprus would be kept in abeyance for when we were better organized. SISMI had already offered to help with San Marino. I’d wait to see how that played out.

Following lunch, we boarded the boat belonging to my deputy and cruised Villefranche and Cap-Ferrat.

Clair George, the former CIA spymaster, phoned me late afternoon checking to see if I was still alive.

It was a fair question considering when I had visited Rome four months earlier Alberto Manenti told me his service had been taking bets NOT on whether I’d make it through the year but on WHO would eliminate me.

These were their odds:

CIA: 100-1.

Russian government: 20-1.

Corsican terrorists (my ASM football enquiries): 15-1.

French Freemasons: 10-1.

Italian organized crime (“The Organization”): 5-1.

Russian organized crime: 4-1.

French government: 3-1.

Monegasque establishment (“The Clan”): 21.

THROUGH UNITY COMES STRENGTH

The day after our micro-Europe luncheon, I briefed Prince Albert on our progress, recounting my experience at the Vatican, where I’d discovered they were a macro-state, and I informed the prince I would visit Andorra that week and try to enlist into our club that principality tucked into the Pyrenees between France and Spain.

Andorra, I soon discovered, was an odd little place, more of a duty-free shopping center than a country — a consumer paradise staffed

by dark and ugly misshapen natives. Even the hotel — said to be Andorra’s finest — was creepy and surreal and its employees scarce and unfriendly. But I needed to see these microstates up close.

At 10 o’clock the next morning, I appeared at a small office in Prat de la Creu, Unit No. 402. Jordi Pons Lluelles, their one-man Financial Intelligence Unit, greeted me, and I made my pitch. Mr. Lluelles seemed to grasp my position — chief of the unofficial Monaco intelligence service, responsible to the prince — and seemed to grasp the concept — microEuropean states band together to fight money laundering as a united group. I used Andorra’s own motto — “Through unity comes strength” — to clarify and justify what we were attempting to achieve.

Andorra’s banking business, Mr. Lluelles explained, derived from Spain and South America — the safe haven in Europe where Spanish speakers (read: drug cartels from Colombia) launder and/or park their revenues. Russians, said Mr. Lluelles, had not yet discovered Andorra. He smiled a lot and pronounced this a good idea and agreed to attend our kick-off con-fab in Luxembourg come October.

But Andorra’s presence was not to be.

Monaco Police Chief Andre Muhlberger soon provided me with a fascinating tidbit on Andorra that helped explain this: Andorra was not interested in cleaning up their money-laundering problem because for them it was NOT a problem. Because, according to Chief Muhlberger, the sister of Andorra’s interior minister was connected to a big-time Andorra-based money launderer.

Andorra was simply not interested in an association that might cramp the style of a money spinner from which higher circles had been profiting for decades.

CLUB OF LUXEMBOURG

When my Luxair flight landed at 4:40 p.m., Frank Schneider stood on the tarmac to greet me, grab my luggage directly from the hold and speed me through the VIP lounge to the Hotel Beaux Arts.

That evening the Club of Luxembourg (named as such for the purposes of our first meeting) kicked off to a flying start over a long sumptuous dinner in Le Bouquet GarniSt. Michel hosted by Lux intel chief Marco Mille.

Godfrey S, chief of Malta’s intelligence service, graced us with his presence despite a disdain for foreign travel and brought with him his operations chief. Godfrey listened to everything, spoke little and observed everyone with eyes black as oil. Of all the intelligence chiefs I’d met, Godfrey won the award for the longest eye-grip. He could go a full minute before turning his gaze away from my own eyes.

Rene Brulhart of Liechtenstein completed the circle.

Our club meeting that morning took place

at a government conference center called Chateau de Senningen. (“Once we get people to Senningen,” joked Marco, “no one is allowed to leave until the problem is solved.”)

We began — around a large conference table — with presentations of our services.

Luxembourg put on a slide show the first image of which was a donkey in the air and the cart it led overturned.

“This is the problem,” intoned Marco Mille, keeping a straight face.

After my own presentation on the genesis of Monaco’s intelligence service, Marco provided words of support, adding that our joint operations had been working out very well.

Iceland: We all agreed Iceland should be invited and that perhaps we should be a club of Europe’s “small countries” rather than microstates. “The Misfits.”

San Marino: All agreed that San Marino should be contacted, cultivated and invited. I offered to handle this myself, expecting SISMI to provide an introduction even though they kept putting me off by saying the time was not yet right.

We agreed our club should meet three times a year; that Monaco would host the next meeting in five months hence and call it the Club of Monaco on that occasion with a view to creating a permanent name thereafter.

One participant felt that when the services of large countries learned about our club they would ridicule it, “but then they’ll become curious.”

The point we would make to them, said another participant, is that we stand together against criticism about money laundering from the large countries and turn it around on them: “We’re all working together effectively. What are YOU doing about money laundering?” (We already knew that most dirty money was laundered through London and New York City.)

We agreed that our association should be based upon human chemistry; that though we would cultivate the “misfit” countries to join, we must like the service chiefs involved as a pre-condition of inclusion and same for their successors.

The key to our success we all agreed was to be asymmetrical and quirky. If anyone from other services should ask about our club, we would tongue-in-cheek explain it as a wine appreciation society. And, in fact, that evening we drove en masse to Ehnen, a village in Luxembourg’s wine-producing region, for wine tasting at the LindenHeinisch vineyard: Riesling, pino gris and pinot noir. This — the enjoyment of fine wine— would become a running theme as our club evolved.

NEXT WEEK: More on the club.

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

Life theArts

CALENDAR

COLOR FUL CA LENDARS

By MARILYN MCMAHON NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

Can you find the hearts?

There’s one hidden in every painting for the month in the new calendar designed by Lori Mole, a Santa Maria artist who was recently featured in a News-Press article about her participation in the Chelsea Biennale Exhibition on view through Dec. 31 at the Amsterdam Whitney Gallery in New York City.

“There’s a hidden heart in every painting. Sometimes, it just happens. Sometimes I add it in because I love to paint,” said Ms. Mole, a contemporary painter who combines her background of graphic design, art and music to create “The Music Series.”

Tiny, her studio cat, is posing as “Cover Girl 2023” on the desk-size calendars, which are 4.25-by-8.25 inches.

Each month has a name —“Coffee 1st” for January, “How

Sweet It Is” for February, “On the Porch” for March, etc.

The calendars cost $14 each or $65 for a package of five and $120 for 10.

“Many order 25 or more at a time so this makes it easier and reasonable with free shipping. My largest order for a company was 80.They make great client gifts, and art appreciators, neighbors and coworkers love them. They’re the perfect size in your kitchen, by your computer or even while

traveling in your RV,” said Ms. Mole, who grew up in the small farm town of Orland, playing the piano and clarinet and marching in “Mr. Fairlee’s band.”

While living in the Sonoma County wine country for more than 30 years, she operated her own galleries and became the marketing director for a stone sculptor in Healdsburg for 10 years.

“However, creating my own work was always my passion. I was

the selected artist for the Sedona Jazz on the Rocks Festival. My goal to exhibit at ART expo in New York came true in 2018 when I was picked up by Amsterdam Whitney Gallery. My artwork is collected by music lovers from coast to coast,” said Ms. Mole.

In 2014, she moved to Santa Barbara County to be with her family.

“I created a magical studio

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

TODAY 4 and 8 p.m. The Ensemble Theatre Company will perform “A Christmas Carol” at the New Vic, 33. W. Victoria St., Santa Barbara. Tickets cost $40-$84. To purchase, go to etcsb.org or call 805-965-5400.

6 p.m. Goleta Holiday Parade will go down Hollister Avenue from Orange Avenue to Kinman Avenue in Goleta, weather permitting.

DEC. 11

10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Santa Barbara Sea Glass and Ocean Arts Festival will present a PopUp event at the Santa Barbara Maritime Museum’s patio, 113 Harbor Way, Santa Barbara. The event will feature handmade, ocean-themed sea glass jewelry created by dozens of artists.

11 a.m. to 9 p.m. The 36th annual Holiday Parade of Lights will feature a full day of activities at the Santa Barbara Harbor, topped with the parade of lights and its theme, “Deck the Hulls.” Activities including the lighting of the Stearns Wharf Christmas tree at 5 p.m. For more information, go to santabarbaraca.com/ events/36th-annual-holidayparade-of-lights-at-the-harbor.

2 p.m. The Ensemble Theatre Company will perform “A Christmas Carol” at the New Vic, 33. W. Victoria St., Santa Barbara. Tickets cost $40-$84. To purchase, go to etcsb.org or call 805-965-5400.

DEC. 12

5:30 to 7:30 p.m.: The Downtown Community Holiday Mixer will take place at the Broad Street Oyster Co., 418 State St. The $25 ticket price includes a drink and appetizers.

DEC. 14

5 to 7 p.m.: A free candlelight concert series takes place on the steps of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, 1130 State St., Santa Barbara.

7:30 p.m. The Ensemble Theatre Company will perform “A Christmas Carol” at the New Vic, 33. W. Victoria St., Santa Barbara. Tickets cost $40-$84. To purchase, go to etcsb.org or call 805-965-5400.

DEC. 15

7:30 p.m. The Ensemble Theatre Company will perform “A Christmas Carol” at the New Vic, 33. W. Victoria St., Santa Barbara. Tickets cost $40-$84. To purchase, go to etcsb.org or call 805-965-5400.

DEC. 16

8 p.m. Johnny Mathis will perform at the Chumash Casino Resort’s Samala Showroom, 3400 State Route 246, Santa Ynez. Tickets for the Santa Ynez concert are $69 to $109. To purchase, go to www.chumashcasino.com. The Chumash Casino Resort is a

COURTESY IMAGE

The exhibit “Parliament of Owls” runs through Feb. 5 at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, 2559 Puesta del Sol, Santa Barbara.

Paintings by Lori Mole featured for 2023

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CALENDAR

Continued from Page B1

21-and-older venue.

8 p.m. The Ensemble Theatre Company will perform “A Christmas Carol” at the New Vic, 33. W. Victoria St., Santa Barbara. Tickets cost $40-$84. To purchase, go to etcsb.org or call 805-9655400.

DEC. 17

Noon to 3 p.m. The free Big Brass Tuba Christmas Concert will take place in Storke Placita, which is between 722 and 724 State St. and is adjacent to De la Guerra Plaza in Santa Barbara. The Youth Makers Market will be in the same block.

2 and 7 p.m. State Street Ballet will perform “The Nutcracker” at The Granada, 1214 State St., Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara High School student Olivia Pires will play Clara

Architect Detty Peikert wins prestigious AIA award

By MARILYN MCMAHON NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER

The Lutah Maria Riggs President’s annual award recognizes an American Institute of Architect Santa Barbara member or firm whose work, community service and civic engagement have had a lasting influence for the betterment of Santa Barbara’s built environment.

This year, the award was presented to Detlev “Detty” Peikert at the annual AIASB Design Awards Gala on Dec. 1. Over the past 40 years of

at the 2 p.m. matinee. Professional State Street Ballet dancer Emma Matthews will portray Clara at the 7 p.m. show. Tickets vary from $38 to $121, with a discounted price of $26 for children 12 and younger in select price zones. To purchase, go to granadasb.org. A student discount is also available for purchase in person at The Granada’s box office.

3 p.m. The Quire of Voyces, an a cappella choir based at Santa Barbara City College, will perform its “Mysteries of Christmas” concert at St. Anthony’s Chapel at the Garden Street Academy, 2300 Garden St., Santa Barbara. Tickets are sold weekdays at the Garvin Theatre box office at the SBCC campus or at the door 30 before the concert.

8 p.m. The Ensemble Theatre Company will perform “A Christmas Carol” at the New Vic, 33. W. Victoria St., Santa Barbara.

Tickets cost $40-$84. To purchase,

professional practice as an architect in Santa Barbara, Mr. Peikert has been dedicated to serving the community by advocating for sustainable design, affordable housing, livable communities and a vision for the future of Santa Barbara’s downtown. As a natural addition to his architecture roots, Mr. Peikert has also acted as general partner in developing a number of affordable housing projects for low-income families.

According to AIA Santa Barbara, Mr. Peikert’s growing legacy involves many local

go to etcsb.org or call 805-9655400.

DEC. 18 9 a.m. to noon: Mitzvah Day features community projects at Congregation B’nai B’rith, 1000 San Antonio Creek Road, Santa Barbara. Ten goodwill projects will take place at the congregation and throughout the community. The program begins at 9 a.m. with breakfast, followed by a welcoming address at 9:30. For more information, visit cbbsb.org/ mitzvah.

2 p.m. State Street Ballet will perform “The Nutcracker” at The Granada, 1214 State St., Santa Barbara. Dos Pueblos High School student Sophia Kanard will play Clara. Tickets vary from $38 to $121, with a discounted price of $26 for children 12 and younger in select price zones. To purchase, go to granadasb.org. A student discount is also available for purchase in

residential, commercial and civic projects that will benefit residents and visitors for decades to come.

“For me, the most important thing is to do work that is socially relevant, improves our communities, and improves the lives of the members within those communities,” said Mr. Peikert, who has been an active board member of AIA Santa Barbara for more than 36 years and continues to work as co-chair of the AIASB Advocacy Committee.

email: mmcmahon@newspress.com

person at The Granada’s box office. 2 p.m. The Ensemble Theatre Company will perform “A Christmas Carol” at the New Vic, 33. W. Victoria St., Santa Barbara. Tickets cost $40-$84. To purchase, go to etcsb.org or call 805-9655400.

DEC. 19

2 p.m. The Ensemble Theatre Company will perform “A Christmas Carol” at the New Vic, 33. W. Victoria St., Santa Barbara. Tickets cost $40$84. To purchase, go to etcsb.org or call 805-965-5400.

3 p.m. The Quire of Voyces, an a cappella choir based at Santa Barbara City College, will perform its “Mysteries of Christmas” concert at St. Anthony’s Chapel at the Garden Street Academy, 2300 Garden St., Santa Barbara. Tickets are sold weekdays at the Garvin Theatre box office at the SBCC campus or at the door 30 before the concert.

— Dave Mason

The holiday season is what you make of it

People often talk about the holiday spirit, but what is it really? Is it the act of giving and kindness, or is it the ability to not let your negative thoughts override the joy that the season offers?

Maybe it’s a bit of both.

Some people are better than others at compartmentalizing their emotions, so they don’t feel the negative ones when gathering with others for the holidays. They can focus their love and energy on the activities of the day and allow some joy to come into their lives.

There are others who cannot let the bad stuff go and hold on to grudges or losses, which makes them unhappy all the time. As adults, we can learn to compartmentalize our negative emotions, so other people aren’t affected by them and we can enjoy life more. Everyone can benefit from this practice.

I am personally not going to let inflation, high interest rates, the war in Ukraine and other things out of my control dampen the holiday spirit. Instead, my wife and I are choosing to give back.

This holiday season, we rented a bedroom suite to a Ukrainian couple because no one else would rent to them. They had no credit history, so they had been forced to live in motels, but we could tell they were good people. We had the space available and could think of no better thing to do with it than share it with others who really needed it.

They are very appreciative and will bring good energy into the house. This is not just a temporary holiday thing but something bigger, and the impact of doing it will be greater, in our hearts and theirs.

Focusing on the best attributes of the holidays is a great way to move forward. So is letting go of the past. Letting go is one of the healthiest things you can do for your head and heart. If we could

only learn to let go faster and with more power, we would be more content with our lives, and a lot of things that used to bug us (because they triggered old issues) would lose their powerful grip.

Letting go may be the single greatest mental health exercise and holiday gift you can give yourself, and only you can do it. Reading and talking about it isn’t enough. You have to reach down to the depths of your soul and pull up the strength to get rid of the old habit of hanging on. Start with yourself and let go of all the things you are angry with about yourself. Those missed opportunities, those times you embarrassed yourself, and that time when you hurt someone you truly loved— let them go. We all hold on to things we wish we’d done differently, but if you can let go of being angry with yourself about them, it will open up a whole new world for you.

Forgiving others is part of the process as well, but you need to forgive yourself first. Once you feel free of your own past, then you can open yourself up to forgiving those you feel have wronged you. That too will make your life better and a little sweeter.

Not holding on to negative feelings about yourself and others is a great gift to yourself (and perhaps your family members). The results will make the holidays and the year to come better, no matter what else is going on in the world.

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.

Santa Barbara Chamber Players to perform first concert in January

By DAVE MASON NEWS-PRESS MANAGING EDITOR

Anew orchestra has been formed: the Santa Barbara Chamber Players.

The ensemble, which was created by local musicians during the pandemic, will perform its first concert Jan. 28. Emmanuel Fratianni, a Santa Barbara resident, will conduct the Santa Barbara Chamber Player Orchestra as it plays Aaron Copland’s “Appalachian Spring,” Dvorak’s Symphony No. 7, and Ravel’s “Mother Goose Suite.”

Organizers say the Santa Barbara Chamber Players is intended to fill the gap in the local community between professional and educational music events with affordable high quality concerts. All performances will feature local musicians.

“The pandemic showed us that, as musicians, the need to perform our craft for others can go beyond the traditional symphonies and chamber groups,” said Sherylle Mills Englander, co-founder and principal flutist. “With a bit of innovative thinking, we can create the space and inspire our community and the next generation of musicians. And with the talent pool available right here in Santa Barbara, we can provide a way for these great musicians to perform and give back to a

community that we call home.”

Nancy Mathison, co-founder and principal clarinetist, added, “As musicians, performing inspires us to hone our craft and develop as musicians. When the pandemic made that impossible, we had to find new ways to respond. You might say that this was the high note we received from our inability to connect with people on stage and in concerts. We instead found that we could perform outdoors and were amazed at the response we received from our friends and neighbors.”

Santa Barbara Chamber Players began by performing customized chamber music concerts to support local nonprofit’s fundraising and will continue to do so. The organization said it’s now in a position to launch a orchestra consisting of local talent.

“Giving musicians an opportunity to perform benefits them and making attendance affordable benefits our community,” said Simon Knight, co-founder and principal bassoonist. “Our goal, as we grow and hold more concerts, is to add an even richer program of vibrant classical music that everyone can enjoy.”

For more information contact Sherylle Mills Englander at 805259-9170 or englander@ucsb.edu or visit sbchamberplayers.org. email: dmason@newspress.com

Candlelight event to honor loved ones

SANTA

provide name(s) of loved ones via phone, contact Christine Meugniot at 805-614-2032. If leaving your message on voicemail, include your name, phone number and the name(s) of those you wish to be included.

Maria.

The celebration will be offered both in person and virtually. A recording of the event will also be available for viewers after the event.

For event information and/or to

To watch the Light Up a Life ceremony online, go to www. dignityhealth.org/central-coast/ light-up-a-life.

For more information, call Sara San Juan at 805-739-3584.

MARIA — To remember loved ones who have died and honor them during the holidays, Dignity Health Central Coast Hospice will hold a candlelight celebration at the 2022 Light Up a Life event at 6 p.m. Tuesday at First United Methodist Church, 311 South Broadway in Santa

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Detty Peikert

Thought for Today

HOROSCOPE

Horoscope.com Saturday, December 10, 2022

ARIES — An upsetting dream may disturb your sleep tonight, Aries. Some disturbing information about finances could prove upsetting today. This might involve your personal funds, those of a friend, the funds of an organization you’re involved with, or the world economy in general. Don’t go crazy before you find out the true facts.

TAURUS — It could be hard to complete tasks today. A disagreement with other household members might give you the idea that everyone is against you. This isn’t so, Taurus. Try to be objective and consider other points of view, and don’t turn this into a power struggle. Stay calm, take a deep breath, and try to communicate with the others.

GEMINI — Today you might need to run a lot of errands, Gemini. This could prove frustrating. Traffic could be bad, you might not find what you need, and it may be difficult to reach those you need to consult. These are all circumstances beyond your control, so it’s best to find something else to do.

CANCER — Your practicality and good sense prove invaluable today, Cancer. Those close to you might be restless and upset, and you might have to steer them in the right direction. A close friend or lover may experience a financial upset, and you could be asked to help out. This isn’t a good day to make a loan, although it’s favorable for helping others find their own solutions.

LEO — A problem with your house - plumbing, electricity, phones - might necessitate calling in professionals, Leo. This might prove mildly irritating, as strangers could be going in and out all day, and you or other members of your household might be temporarily housebound when you have obligations elsewhere.

VIRGO — An unexpected, upsetting letter or phone call might come today. This isn’t major bad news, Virgo. It’s more likely to be the irritating little setbacks that force you to go more out of your way than you’d expected. Problems might pop up with computers, cell phones, or other forms of technology. Grit your teeth and do what it takes to move on. It won’t help to get

crazy. LIBRA — A sudden, irritating interruption in your routine could come your way today, Libra. A friend may need some advice, and you could feel obliged to give it, which would put your own projects on hold for a while. Don’t be too irritated with this person, however. You might regret it later. You might also have some troubles with computers, cell phones, or other forms of technology.

SCORPIO — Today your progress might slow a bit. Problems with computers, telephones, cell phones, or other forms of technology might interrupt your day, Scorpio. This might be frustrating and irritating. Even though you don’t usually blow your top, today you might be tempted. Try to keep your cool. This should pass by tomorrow.

SAGITTARIUS — Unforeseen problems with travel plans could come up today, Sagittarius. There could be changes or delays in airline schedules, car breakdowns, or bad traffic. It might be a good idea to avoid travel of any sort if you can. It might stress you so much it would take you all day to calm down!

CAPRICORN — Arguments over money might come up, Capricorn. This might not involve your own funds but money belonging to a group with which you’re involved. Try to be logical. This isn’t a good day to set your sights on new goals or make definite plans. Wait a day or two. If you start today, your project could be fraught with delays, interruptions, or disagreements.

AQUARIUS — A disagreement with a business or romantic partner could turn into an argument today. This won’t do anything to increase the effectiveness of your relationship, Aquarius. If the smallest hint of a difference of opinion comes up, try to settle it before it gets too heated. Try to be objective and see the other person’s point of view.

PISCES — Plans for a trip could go awry today because of circumstances beyond your control. A postponement might be necessary. This might prove very frustrating for you because you’ve been anxious to get going. Don’t question the workings of the universe, and don’t make yourself crazy over it.

SUDOKU

CODEWORD PUZZLE

By FRANK STEWART Tribune Content Agency

Saturday, December 10, 2022

Simple Saturday columns focus on basic technique and logical thinking.

Ever wondered why we don’t hear people referred to as “cautiously pessimistic?” Today’s declarer was certainly no optimist. Against two hearts, West led the K-A and a third spade (not best), and South ruffed and started the trumps. East took the ace and led the ten of diamonds. Declarer won with the ace, drew trumps and led a club, and West rose with his ace and continued with the jack of diamonds. Dummy’s king won, but East took the next club and cashed the queen of diamonds. Down one.

DISCARD

South’s play was incautious. To succeed, he needed a diamond discard on dummy’s queen of clubs. But South had to go after his discard quickly; if he led trumps, the defense would have time for a diamond trick before declarer had his discard.

South must delay leading trumps; he has a more important matter to attend to. If South leads a club to dummy’s ten at Trick Four, he can make the contract. DAILY QUESTION You hold: A K 8 5 9 7 2 J 7 A J 8 4. The dealer, at your right, opens two hearts (weak).

Today’s West passed with this hand. Do you agree with that action? ANSWER: I do, though to act could be right. To double — and perhaps oblige partner to bid at the three level — most players would want a bit more strength. The three possible heart losers are a bad sign. Moreover, if partner responded in diamonds, your support would be deficient.

South dealer

side vulnerable

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

Every number in the codeword grid is ‘code’ for a letter of the alphabet. Thus, the number 2 may correspond to the letter L, for instance.

All puzzles come with a few letters to start. Your first move should be to enter these letters in the puzzle grid. If the letter S is in the box at the bottom of the page underneath the number 2, your first move should be to find all cells numbered 2 in the grid and enter the letter S. Cross the letter S off the list at the bottom of the grid.

Remember that at the end you should have a different letter of the alphabet in each of the numbered boxes 1- 26, and a word in English in each of the horizontal and vertical runs on the codeword grid.

“I’ve never dropped anyone I believed in.”

— Marilyn Monroe

Work of art helps to paint a picture of New York City history

E. saw this work of art and bought it for a song. She loved and framed this painting, an oil on canvas that she found at a local thrift store. Yet she wonders why she loves it so much.

Well, she writes that she knew that her mom, who is now 95, was born in the lower east side in New York City in an apartment or a tenement in the 1920s, and that this painting, with the crudely built fire escapes, and each family living on each floor, and a mom saying goodbye for the day to her kids as they drive off in a carriage to work (child labor?) meant something to J.E.

So the painting called out to her, and she bought it for $29.

It is the image of a New York City tenement, and because there is a wagon, I would say it is a 1930s re-imagining of a 1900 tenement in NYC, but with the added feature of the mandated fire escape, because of a 1901 law that required this. And we will get into the weeds about that because I had a mom who was born in one of these tenements.

The history of these buildings date from the early 1800s when lower East Side affluent families took a small 25- by 100-foot lot and built 5-7 story masonry structures on them and designed them to be singlefamily homes. That became where the upper middle class lived. These affluent folks outgrew the homes and left them to go north, leaving landlords to convert these single-family properties to tenement apartments.

These narrow low rise apartment buildings were the dominant housing for the lower middle class throughout the 19th century and well into the 20th century. By 1900,

more than 80,000 tenements were converted from singlefamily housing to multi-family apartments, and these buildings housed 2.3 million people in 1900, two-thirds of the total population of NYC. That was when the city’s total population was 3.4 million people. What was a tenement? It had, as you can see on J.E.’s painting, a distinctive look: tall and narrow, at five to seven stories, it occupied the entire cityregulated minimum lot of 25 by 100 feet. And because each floor was rented by another family, landlords often added a top floor, or a structure in the tiny rear yard.

With less than a foot between buildings, the occupants found

little light and ventilation.

Yes, the rooms on the street received light, but little ventilation and no fire escape structures — and that was a problem. Like today, housing and politics merged.

The New York Draft Riots in 1863 were quite a moment in history, because NYC working men did not want to be forcefully drafted in the Civil War. This also led to complaints about the poor housing in that community of working men with families.

Where you lived was dependent upon your economic situation, and that meant housing and military conscription went hand in hand.

Thus the Tenement House

Act of 1867 legally defined a tenement and set construction standards. One toilet per 20 people, for example, was mandated — and that was a start, although a meager one.

J.E.’s painting owes a great debt to Danish-born photographer Jacob Riis who shot tenement life in NYC in 1889 for newspapers. He also created a book called ”How the Other Half Lives.” He included hard facts — facts that defined the role of the photojournalist for the first time in the history of the medium. He wrote and reported what he saw and shot as well: 12 adults slept in a room 13 feet across. And the infant death rate inside those rooms was 1 in 10.

J.E.’s painting shows fire escapes, which helps me date the painting to after 1901, when the Tenement House Law was passed, which mandated fire escapes and outlawed construction of tenements on those 25 by 100-foot lots.

However, it wasn’t until 1936 that the U.S. government began to pay attention in earnest, beginning a housing project in NYC “First House,” which aimed to rehabilitate pre1901 tenements on the lower East Side. Today the area is trendy and expensive and has wonderful restaurants and a fabulous museum showing us the way it was on the lower east side, called The Tenement Museum, 97 Orchard St.

Because the painting is unsigned, it is impossible to put a value on the piece, but I would say because of the typical NY tenement scene that It portrays in the 1930s, I would guess a value of $1,500.00.

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

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 present-day constrictions. It’s available at Chaucer’s in Santa Barbara.

MOLE

Continued from Page B1

space out of a Golf Cart/Hog Pen garage,” she said. “The gallery names me in Art in America as one of its Emerging Contemporary Masters. I have been creative my whole life, but the ‘Music Series’ took hold in 1992. Thirty years later, it still proves to be popular. Everyone loves music — it is the universal language.”

email: mmcmahon@newspress. com

FYI

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Tiny, her studio cat, is posing as “Cover Girl 2023” on the desk-size calendars, which are 4.25-by-8.25 inches.

Lori Mole is a Santa Maria artist who was recently featured in a News-Press article about her participation in the Chelsea Biennale Exhibition in New York City.

Democrats suppress voter turnouts

“I think most newspapermen by definition have to be liberal. If they’re not liberal, by my definition of it, then they can hardly be good newspapermen.”

— Walter Cronkite

The Georgia Election Integrity Act of 2021 triggered national apoplexy, with Democrats, led by President Joe Biden, admonishing them as Jim Crow 2. The fallout from President Biden’s rant led to Major League Baseball relocating its all-star game to Colorado.

But sorting fact from fiction indicates this was Democratic politics at its worst since Colorado’s voting laws are far more restrictive than any laws in Georgia.

The Washington Post, not known for being pro right on anything, gave President Biden “four Pinocchios” for his claim that SB 202 was “21st century Jim Crow.”

According to the Post, the net effect of the Election Integrity Act was to expand opportunities to vote for Georgians, not limit them.”

Elections expert Charles Stewart said, “The expanded voting hours boosted turnout for all Georgia voters.”

In the first election held under the Election Integrity Act, Georgians showed up in record numbers during three weeks of early voting for the 2022 primary.

Short lines, easy ballot access and security brought out over 850,000 to cast their ballots, which was an increase of 168% over the last election.

This was also a substantial 212% increase in Georgia’s last presidential primary election in 2020.

This election discredited President Biden’s claim SB 202 was Jim Crow 2 and proved he never worked in the civil rights movement as he claimed. There were no literacy tests, poll taxes or fighting off billy clubs and police dogs while trying to vote. Mr. Biden’s remarks were an insult to Georgia’s lawmakers.

“I don’t recall specific times and places we picketed, but I guarantee you, I was there.”

— Joe Biden

Although the Democrats claim to be the champions of higher turnout and making it easier to vote on Election Day, when it comes to scheduling off-cycle elections, the Democratic Party is the king of voter suppression. Offyear elections have much lower turnouts and Democrats want it that way.

Many off-year elections take place for local offices, like city and county commissions and school boards. This also includes referendums to raise property taxes and registration fees. But only a small number of highly engaged voters participate in these

elections, especially those who live in rural areas of the state. Most rural areas are unaware that these elections are even taking place.

Election law expert Rick Hasen notes that there is a philosophical divide between the parties.

For Republicans, some requirements for participation, such as voter ID laws, can help the functioning of a democracy.

Republicans believe voter ID laws prevent fraud and foster confidence in the system. They also argue that ID regulations attract voters who are better informed and educated on issues.

Mr. Hansen claims that the Democratic philosophy about voting is entirely different.

Democrats care far less about “informed voters” and much more about “universal or mandated participation.” The left believes all voices ought to be heard in the electoral sphere, educated or not, about candidates or issues. This herd mentality insists anyone can vote, legal-or-not,. Elections are about counting numbers, nothing else.

Debates over issues like voter ID are politically explosive for both parties, but the motivations and strategies of how and when Democratic states schedule their elections profoundly benefit them.

In the blue state of New Jersey, the election calendar is absolute chaos. New Jersey holds federal elections on the same days as the rest of the country. But elections

for state offices in New Jersey are held in November of oddnumbered years. School district elections are held the third Tuesday in April. And fire district commissioner elections are on the third Saturday each February.

“I try to stay in a constant state of confusion because of the expression it leaves on my face.”

— Johnny Depp

Political scientist Sarah Anzia of UC Berkeley said these off-calendar elections are for politicians, not voters, since voters don’t like making multiple trips to precincts, which sometimes change mid year. It is not uncommon for voters to show up where they voted before only to find it has been relocated.

In a national survey of voters from all political parties, voters were asked if they prefer elections held at different times for different offices because it allowed them to focus on a shorter list of issues or candidates. Most voters said they preferred consolidated elections for all offices.

“Most voters show up for a presidential election, but won’t cross the street to vote for the school board.”

— Henry Young

All blue states are notorious for splitting local office elections from federal campaigns. If they

were to combine all elections, it would boost voter turnout for these elections. Although 93% of all voters prefer combined elections, Democrats refuse to do this. They need to control local government so they can fill school boards and the county commissions with liberals who support big government.

According to Sarah Anzia, more than 200 bills aimed at consolidating elections were filed between 2001 and 2011 across the country. Over half of them were focused specifically on moving school board election dates so they’d coincide with other elections. But only 25 of them passed and were signed into law.

“God made the Idiot for practice, and then He made the School Board.”

— Mark Twain

Every one of these bills to consolidate school board elections with other general election dates was sponsored by Republicans. Most of these bills proposed failed to get out of the first committee due to opposition from Democraticaligned interest groups. Teachers unions and municipal employee organizations united with Democratic legislatures and stopped these bills from getting to the floor.

Democrats, teachers and public service unions fight like junkyard dogs to protect their turf from

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the GOP. When municipal offices and school boards hold separate elections at odd times, few voters even bother to show up. Only those with a special interest in these elections such as friends, family and co-workers go to the polls. This allows big government liberals to set policy and maintain it.

Sarah Anzia points out that deliberately moving school board elections to different dates than other elections always results in higher salaries and better benefits for teachers and other school district employees. She said when elections are combined, salaries are reduced and so are other benefits.

Sophocles told us, “There is no greater evil than deception.”

Local government is the farm system for state and federal offices. If your state splits the election cycle to allow favorite daughters and sons to control schools and local government, it’s time your state legislatures got a wake up call. Local government and the school boards have been playing with a stacked deck. The only ones benefiting from offcalendar elections are teachers, public servant unions and liberal politicians.

“Liberals do things that make them look good, feel good and sound good — but show little interest in the actual consequences of their actions as long as things are done their way.”

— Thomas Sowell

Coming up with a master plan a er the midterms

N

So you and millions of other free-market-libertarianconservative members of this fractured society have probably turtled up yet again in an effort to avoid the smirks and smarm of the Pelosis, the Clintons, the Bidens, and of the other ruling families and individuals who believe they are so much better, certainly way smarter and more deserving, than we are.

Those folks now have even more reasons to believe they are indeed cleverer than our sadly unprepared group after having successfully dumped this so-farleft-of-center-it-can-no-longersee-the-middle-of-the-road administration on an unsuspecting public.

Rather than listening to the news or conservative talk shows in your car, you now tune into the Comedy Channel or ’60s and ’70s music on XM Radio while driving. If you’re like me, instead

early everything that could go wrong in the 2022 election, kind of did go wrong.of catching up with Jesse or Tucker on Fox, you may have reverted to watching “I Love Lucy” reruns or romantic comedies (though, truth be told I could watch “Sleepless in Seattle” or “Notting Hill” another dozen times with little prodding).

If you prefer non-woke cop shows, episodes of “NYPD Blue” are available (and I have it on good authority that its star sleeps on the right side of the bed).

If that’s you, take heart. As a member of the moribund California branch of the nearly defunct, almost dead, in-need-of-serious resuscitation Republican Party, you’ve become accustomed to losing. You (and I) are good at it.

morning.” That was the mantra, and it proved to be accurate.

PURELY POLITICAL

Now that Democrats have as much power as they had hoped and certainly more than they had planned — having won virtually every close race in the recent election and increased their dominance in the Senate by one seat — they no doubt have every intention of influencing who the next speaker of the House will be.

and an even stronger speaker will be required to whip discipline into an often-unruly bunch, but if backbone-deprived RINOS can be convinced they’ll be out of a job if they fail to comply, we could hold out for the next election season.

If we do (and it’s a big if), and the Republican Party can figure out how to reap its own harvest of votes by the bushel basket, we can begin to recover by 2025 (though after my own 2022 prognostication fiasco, I no longer make bets on the future).

education monopoly.

5) The explosion of crime, including everything from murder and rape to petty theft, pickpocketing, and shoplifting.

THE SOUTHERN BORDER

Only U.S. citizens and bona fide tourists should be allowed entry to the U.S. at any border point.

City was warned State Street policy could hurt restaurants

Once again this column advocates for a decision oversight board to apply logic and common sense to the decision-making of the Santa Barbara City Council and its committees.

The latest episode of market economics ignorance appears to be on a par with some council members’ efforts to destroy the private rental housing market.

This is in the Finance Committee’s current push to expand restaurant seating that will effectively cannibalize the restaurant trade on State Street and surrounding areas, as described by downtown business owner Kevin Boss.

In fact, he indicates they want to permanently maintain and increase restaurant seating on the sidewalks and parklets that violated many building and use codes and were permitted only because of a state of emergency proclaimed by the governor. This is now set to expire in February 2023. In fact, after the grace period following the cancellation of the state of emergency, almost all the concessions granted to restaurant owners will become illegal.

This could put the city council in violation of its own legal safety codes and rules and potentially in conflict with those government departments responsible for enforcing the same rules and codes.

In a letter to the city council, its Finance Committee and others, Kevin Boss, has written that the committee, is, by its apparent policy of trying to expand restaurant seating on State Street beyond the already excessive capacity, “encouraging the wholesale destruction of the restaurant industry in Santa Barbara.”

He goes on to say, “What you are advocating will lead to more seats than this small market can support. It is happening now. And, has been happening for the last two-plus years. You are advocating the destruction of my business, my tenants’ business and those of countless others that are not on State Street.”

He says, “Why is it so difficult for you to understand that unlimited expansions of restaurant seating beyond their permitted and legal areas will, in fact, kill the restaurant business in Santa Barbara?”

He says: As has been pointed out to you before, the city policy of allowing restaurants to expand seating beyond their permitted limits is forcing landlords and businesses out of compliance with Uniform Building Codes, The Plumbing Code and Health Department rules.

He goes on to identify some of the specific law-breaking violations that will become effective again after the state of emergency is rescinded in February 2023.

The Democrats’ plan worked. Their operatives changed the rules just before the election, allowing them to harvest votes by the bushel basket in the dead of night.

“Don’t worry if we’re losing when you go to bed,” Democratic voters were told. “We’ll be ahead by the

Oh yes, he’ll probably be a “Republican,” but Democrats will try to maneuver the selection so that it won’t be anyone substantial, not someone with an agenda. There just may be enough spaghettispined representatives in the House with an R after their name who’d just as soon be Democrats, so it may be possible to name a Democrat as speaker.

But, as small as the Republican majority is in the House of Representatives, it is still a majority. A strong majority leader

However, we need a plan. A bold no-nonsense blueprint for a better America.

First, we make a list of the top five problems facing the country; then we offer solutions to fix each one. For example:

1) Open Southern Border and the millions of border crossers now living in the U.S.

2) The homeless encampments sullying downtown American cities.

3) Energy, its cost, and availability.

4) The union-controlled public

All those who’ve entered and have decided to stay illegally will not be eligible to collect any kind of payment or help from a federal government entity. If “sanctuary” cities, counties, or states want to subsidize criminality, that’s their prerogative. But at the federal level, there should be little to no money spent on the care or upkeep of anyone here without a visa or valid asylum. The border will remain closed until all those who’ve applied legally have been given a response from the U.S. on whether they’ll be allowed to enter and/or stay. After that, we can vote on whether to continue to take in the rest of the

The current inflation rate in Southern California was 7.5% higher in October 2022 than in January of this year, and we are now seeing a wave of employment lay-offs. Expanding restaurant capacity now would seem incompetent, to say the least.

Mr. Boss ends with, “This is all such nonsense. Can’t wait to see what a mess the full council makes of this in a month or so.”

Since we are talking about State Street and common sense, Did You Know? did some research on rats.

It is well known that Santa Barbara has a significant rat problem, although there are

DID YOU KNOW? Bonnie Donovan

William Haupt III The author is a Center Square contributor

Arthur von Wiesenberger Co-Publisher Co-Publisher

McCaw

The fall of man in American culture

Ihave been tracing America’s transition from a world of faithful pilgrims to nihilistic pirates — that is, discussing that which has caused cultures and civilizations to either flourish or meet their demise.

It was British anthropologist J.D. Unwin who studied the fall of some 86 cultures and civilizations throughout history, only to find that the longevity, health and well-being of culture was largely determined by their attitudes, customs and mores having to do with sexuality, faith and marriage.

Another brilliant scholar, Carle Zimmerman, a Harvard sociologist, studied the role of family in the rise and fall of civilization, determining that the one thing that advanced civilizations had in common was the nuclear family construct. Tribal and clantype family constructs never amounted to much, and, on the opposite end, when men and women became so narcissistic and hedonistic that nuclear marriages fell by the wayside, the culture soon met its demise.

I previously focused on the unraveling of the home and family by way of events and values that began in the 1960s with a focus on women and mothers. Now, let’s turn our attention to men.

1. The feminist movement was a two-edged sword. As it sought to liberate women, it did so at the expense of men as it attacked so-called toxic masculinity. Along the way, it eviscerated the vital role of men as fathers, heads of households, providers and protectors.

Specifically, society at large encouraged men to get in touch with their “feminineside” as they abandoned their traditional roles in family and society in deference to the ability of women to supplant them as equals.

2

. The attack on men, became a war on boys. Even though nearly all scientific literature indicates that boys and girls mature at different rates and are stimulated by different things, mothers in the home and teachers in schools began to push back against the things that little boys are made of, including boundless rambunctious energy.

In the 1960s, with the dispensing of drugs like

Ritalin, hyperactive young boys were diagnosed as having attention deficit disorders at twice the rate of girls and were deleteriously drugged accordingly.

3. Traditionally, one key God-given role of women in society was to domesticate men by way of withholding sex apart from marriage, and sometimes, in marriage. The free sex movement and the commensurate loss of the fear of God, made possible by way of the pill and abortion, served to throw chastity out the window, and men became somewhat free to roam before, during and after marriage, sans any personal moral constraints. Now at full throttle, the hook-up culture has replaced courtship, and porn addiction among men is epidemic.

4. Subsequent to No. 3, no-fault divorce facilitated awarding primary custody to mothers, which means the fathers ended up spending more time with their subsequent family rather than their first. The destructive and disruptive impact of this resulted in successive generations of boys who were raised without their natural fathers in the home to guide, mentor and discipline them — that is, if a man was present at all. This has proved a disaster for society as nearly every social ill including drug and alcohol abuse, criminality, homelessness, and the like can be traced to boys who were essentially abandoned by their fathers.

5. There has been a massive loss of 7.5 million jobs among men, such as those found in manufacturing, logging, mining and the steel industry.

These sectors virtually vanished, including by way of environmental regulations, thereby destroying head of household jobs for men without a college education. The resultant wage loss put pressure on spouses to find work at the expense of family life.

Jordan Peterson said it best, “If you think tough men are dangerous, wait until you see what weak men are capable of!”

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.

Beware of Don Quixote Political Candidates

In the quiet stillness of early mornings my roaming mind will see similarities in concepts that sometimes will, and sometimes not, survive the sun’s arrival. One such thought is whether there is such a thing as a “Don Quixote Political Candidate?”

Don Quixote refers to the character in the classic book “Don Quixote,” written by Miguel De Cervantes, who was born in Spain in 1547. Little is known about Miguel’s life until he completed his military service in 1575. During his attempt to sail home from Italy, his ship was captured by Barbary Corsairs, who sold him into slavery for a Greek in Algiers. He tried to escape but was caught and sentenced to prison until the Viceroy of Algiers, impressed by his bravery, bought his freedom. Starting in 1582, Miguel began

writing although his new wife’s spending exceeding his moderate success caused him to begin providing provisions for the Spanish Armada. After an agent stole his provisions, he was sent to jail, where he created the character Don Quixote in a short story.

Best bet is Miguel, much like my attempts to write fiction, was inspired by some of the characters that he had encountered to create Don Quixote with a self-righteousness that he, and only he, could save the country.

“Don Quixote Candidates” are candidates so selfrighteous that they believe they, and only they, can save the rest of us by influencing the decision-making process of a specific group of people. These candidates want them to join them in attacking Don Quixote’s imaginary windmills. Identifying Don Quixote

Candidates is sometimes difficult because of the constant bombardment of stimuli that forces us to make those important first impressions quickly.

These candidates typically carry “stage directions,” with such notes on where to stand and who to call on for questions, before they read someone else’s words. Does this sound familiar?

One Don Quixote Candidates start reading from their “script,” here are few of the phases they tend to say.

1. “My opponent discriminates based on (fill in the blanks with whatever the campaigner thinks he/she can sell to the Sanchos of the world). If the candidate is uncertain about what word to use,the candidate simply uses the term “deplorables.”

2. “I am for the environment.”

But that’s meaningless until someone campaigns against the environment.

3. “My regret is that I was not

The age of stolen elections

I’ve written, in my opinion, the 2020 presidential election and the ensuing 2022 midterms had been severely manipulated. More proof of corruption is emerging every day.

And because of that, based upon the recent release of inhouse correspondence Elon Musk is sharing with us from Twitter, I’m going to change my position and become a full-blown election denier and submit the elections had, in fact, been stolen.

There is no question that the collusion between the Democratic Party and the social(ist) media tech big boys , along with the help of the FBI, altered the outcome of the presidential election and likely the midterms. We all knew it. The Democrats, of course, knew it.

The FBI knew it, but how many of the voting public really knew it? When virtually all the news sources and social media are rabid leftists, how many American voters could see through the propaganda haze? More info is surfacing about Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop as well. It was very obvious to those who pay attention that the Biden laptop discovery was real from the beginning, not another Russian hoax. That small hunk of metal was a treasure trove of damning evidence — enough to probably prevent Joe Biden from being elected president. You know the Democrats were quaking over this one. Had it been a Republican, just a whiff of what was on that hard drive would have brought him or her down over night. But not liberals. They have a protective cloak that goes by the name of censorship. It’s supported by the most powerful assemblage of antiAmericans the country has ever had in our history: social media.

Hillary Clinton’s fabricated crusade of Donald Trump’s Russian collusion was a charade that should never have reached the level it did. In the beginning, it wasn’t so much about censorship as it was outright corruption by Hillary, not Donald.

However, that was followed by a new collaborative wave of censorship to smother any voices to the contrary. It still boggles my mind how tightly involved the FBI were in aiding this illegal effort, and the same cooked cop who perpetrated the fabricated story, James Baker, went on to continue his dirty work at Twitter. Millions of tax dollars were wasted trying to prove something everyone already knew wasn’t true. How come Ms. Clinton and Mr. Baker are not locked up?

The point I’m trying to make is, no one on the left who created that destructive boondoggle got punished or even said they were sorry. On the other hand, dozens on the right had their lives destroyed over something that never even happened.

Is free speech dead in Santa Barbara County?

In the air transport industry de-icing of planes keeps planes in the air in the dead of winter. Has the concept of free speech been iced over?

Cars Are Basic Inc. is edging up on a quarter of a century of operation. Never at any time, would the founding members of CAB, ever would have come close to asking this question.

Started by solid, successful middle and upper middle-class residents, we stated to the city of Santa Barbara that their traffic planning was failing and forcing businesses to close. Understand this was not a “going to war” with the city. It was a serious concern in 1998.

The collapse of the economy of downtown Santa Barbara was obvious to anyone. The CAB

Board stated clearly, this is a direct result of removing four lanes of capacity and removing parking in the downtown core. Understand these were supporters of those running for council.

The CAB Board were not outsiders. Or at least that is what we thought. The truth was, and is, political strong armed twisting made sure there was no interest in rational dialogue and supporting the core businesses of the city. Powerful anti-capitalist, anticar and anti-freedom of choice political groups had and have a death grip on the civil service transportation personnel. Often “staff” are hired for their antifreedom of travel stances.

CAB’s “standing” for open dialogue and statistical evidentiary results on business

and transportation was of no interest. The council majorities (except for one period) waved the proverbial middle finger when asked for hard data.

When presented with objective facts against their positions what happened? Zero, by the city of Santa Barbara. Was there a call by mainstream media to prove us wrong? Where were the media questions for facts? It’s now proven that the anti-car street designs have failed to promote “alternative” and/or “active” transportation in any significant manner.

When an FPPC (Fair Political Practices Complaint) was filed with the state of California against a former Santa Barbara city councilman, what was the

When I’d heard Apple helped China remove Airdrop from their phones so the Chinese population couldn’t communicate without the government monitoring them, that revealed whose side Apple is really on. How much worse does it have to get for an American company to help a communist country kill its people?

And when Twitter, Google, Apple, New York Times and others colluded to bury the Hunter Biden story, it’s no different than China freezing its populace from getting truthful information. The censorship campaign really grew legs during the great Fauci COVID event.

From that debacle emerged another scheme to keep opposition voices squelched. The tech giants, our own Federal government and the Biden administration’s weasels fashioned the all-powerful term, misinformation. Along with its

Wendy

Andy Caldwell

Henry Schulte The author lives in Solvang

Brent E. Zepke

The author lives in Santa Barbara.

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J.D. Unwin

FILE PHOTO

Scott Wenz, president of CAB, has questioned the city of Goleta’s plans to reduce Hollister Avenue from four lanes of motorized traffic to two lanes of motorized traffic and bicycle lanes.

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Still against the ‘dead consensus’

a counterattack against the more nationalist- and populist-inclined forces of what has, broadly, been dubbed the “New Right.” A recent anti-national conservatism fusillade from The Federalist’s David Harsanyi is reflective of the broader subgenre.

Right and the Republican Party — and thus for the nation as a whole.

In the aftermath of the Republican Party’s recent midterm elections debacle, right-liberal sharks are circling.

These devoted acolytes of what a prominent 2019 First Things manifesto called the American Right’s “dead consensus” think they see blood in the water. Indeed, the “dead consensus” praetorian guard has apparently decided that now is the time for

The opportunistic timing of this ascendant strand of argumentation is as obvious as its logic is facile. The basic argument is: Donald Trump the individual is largely inextricable from the substantive political commitments of the “New Right”; Mr. Trump was primarily responsible for the GOP’s ballot box losses last month; therefore, the “New Right” is at “best” vicariously responsible itself, and at “worst” is merely hurting badly.

Either way, Republicans’ midterm election disappointments present, for beleaguered rightliberals, a perfect opportunity to turn the tables and go on the offensive.

This cynical strategy must not succeed. A return to the “dead consensus” status quo ante would be a disaster for the American

Mr. Trump’s manifold personal flaws and recent headlinegrabbing self-inflicted wounds aside, there is still much to learn from his dominance of the 2016 Republican presidential primary field. Mr. Trump ran to the “right” of his median competitor on some issues, such as immigration, but he ran well to the “left” of his median competitor on other issues, such as trade, health care and entitlements. On foreign policy, he was the most critical of all candidates on the debate stage of the instinctive ultra-hawkishness that had become post-Cold War GOP orthodoxy.

While it is impossible to ignore the dominant halo effect of Mr. Trump’s global celebrity status, GOP primary voters also rallied to Mr. Trump’s nationalist, populist strand of conservatism. He broke through the Democrats’ Rust Belt “blue wall” in the general election, upsetting Hillary Clinton in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin (not coincidentally, all

states that were disproportionate victims of globalization). He narrowly lost those same states in 2020, but all of them — along with Wisconsin’s western neighbor, Minnesota — are now considerably closer each election cycle, in the age of this more nationalist and populist GOP, than they were during the “dead consensus”/”zombie Reaganism” years of the 1990s through the mid-2010s.

Other examples abound. Also in the Midwest, Ohio, Iowa and Missouri, which were swing states in the not-so-distant past, now all look comfortably red. North Carolina and (especially) Indiana, which went blue for Barack Obama in 2008, are looking pretty red these days as well.

Virginia went red in 2021 due to Glenn Youngkin’s “culture war”centric gubernatorial campaign, and even New York state heavily flirted last month with Lee Zeldin’s law-and-order/crimecentric gubernatorial bid (ditto New Jersey in 2021).

Out West, Nevada is now one of the swingiest states in the whole country — a far cry from the easy wins there for President Obama in both 2008 and 2012. In the

Southeast, Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., the American Right’s preeminent culture warrior, has transformed the once-iconic swing state of Florida into the new capital for red state America.

On the other side of the ledger, there are only two electorally significant states one can point to that are notably bluer now than they were a decade or two ago: Georgia and Arizona. That is pretty much it.

A basic empirical assessment of the American citizenry’s stipulated policy preferences confirms the intuition that a more nationalist- and populistinflected GOP is better suited for electoral success. In June 2017, political scientist Lee Drutman used 2016 election data to plot out voters in a standard scatterplot quadrant, with an X-axis of “economic dimension” of “liberal” to “conservative,” and a Y-axis of “social/identity dimension” of “liberal” to “conservative.”

The upshot: Those who lean “right”-of-center on social/cultural issues comprised a 51.6% majority, but those who lean “right”of-center on economic issues

The Trump effect in Pennsylvania

Ablue wave drowned the Keystone State on Nov. 8, flipping contested state House and Senate districts, delivering every tossup congressional seat and elevating Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro to the governor’s office in one of the largest statewide landslides in the country, complemented by a decisive win for Lt. Gov. John Fetterman in the U.S. Senate race.

A blue wave of this magnitude in a swing state is incredibly rare.

Many factors contributed, but the most significant was the Trump effect, which loomed large in the minds of Pennsylvania voters.

Everything went according to plan for Attorney General Shapiro. Long considered the frontrunner for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, Mr. Shapiro began building the ground game for his campaign shortly after winning election to his second term as attorney general in 2020. When he finally announced his candidacy for governor last fall, statewide leaders across the commonwealth were eager to endorse him, with no other Democrat daring to oppose him in the primary.

On the Republican side, state Sen. Doug Mastriano’s battle for the governor’s mansion was far less smooth. Sen. Mastriano gained statewide recognition for his early and robust embrace of 2020 election denialism and attendance at the Jan. 6 riot, which remained a consistent theme throughout his primary and general election campaign. This helped win him the coveted endorsement of former President Donald Trump.

Sen. Mastriano’s far-right positioning on issues such as abortion, COVID-19 and the 2020 election energized the state’s GOP base, elevating him over more moderate candidates and propelling him to the nomination.

Many Republican insiders worried about Sen. Mastriano’s electability come November, when moderate and independent voters would play the deciding role. Attorney General Shapiro’s campaign recognized this too, spending big on TV ads highlighting Sen. Mastriano’s close relationship with Mr. Trump — ads that helped Sen. Mastriano win his primary.

As the general election campaign took off over the summer, Mr. Shapiro maintained a

steady polling advantage that only widened as Election Day closed in. Mr. Shapiro’s campaign rolled out multiple rounds of endorsements from well-known Republicans in Pennsylvania, while outraising and outspending Mr. Mastriano’s campaign almost 10 to 1. By continuously tying Mr. Mastriano to Mr. Trump, backed with the resources to push this message around the state, Mr. Shapiro ran away with the race before it even began. His decisive edge at the top of the ballot had a profound effect on other races throughout the commonwealth.

In the U.S. Senate race, Lt. Gov. Fetterman bested Dr. Mehmet Oz, also Trump-endorsed, by less than half of the margin of Attorney General Shapiro’s win.

Dr. Oz’s comparatively better performance than Mr. Mastriano owes to several factors, but it’s no coincidence that Dr. Oz distanced himself from Mr. Mastriano, from election denialism and when possible, from Mr. Trump himself.

Many Republican strategists maintain that Dave McCormick — the more moderate candidate, a wealthy businessman and veteran from Pennsylvania who lost to Dr. Oz in the primary by less than 1% — would have beaten Lt. Gov. Fetterman. Mr. McCormick had gained a slight polling lead over Dr. Oz in the primary, until Mr. Trump’s endorsement in the campaign’s final month pulled Dr. Oz over the finish line.

While the Trump effect had a clear impact on the gubernatorial

and Senate campaigns, it also influenced key tossup races around the state.

Republican Jeremy Schaffer, who ran in the newly drawn and vacant 17th Congressional District, lost to Democrat Chris Deluzio by over 6 points in a race widely considered a bellwether for the 2022 midterms. Democratic congressman Matt Cartwright fended off his Trump-endorsed challenger, Jim Bognet, to win the tossup 8th Congressional District. And Democrat Susan Wild, an incumbent congresswoman considered the state’s most vulnerable, defeated her Trumpendorsed challenger, Lisa Scheller.

Not a single statewide or congressional Democrat lost in Pennsylvania on Nov. 8, while the Pennsylvania state House flipped blue, with Democrats picking up a dozen seats, winning GOPcontrolled suburban districts and giving their party its first majority in the House in over a decade.

It’s clear that the Trump effect enlarged the blue wave that flooded the Keystone State in November. National pundits are eager to project this dynamic onto the 2024 elections, but they should be cautious: Mr. Trump has a history of defying political trends and expectations. Time will tell how the Trump effect influences the Republican Party’s fortunes in 2024 — both in Pennsylvania and nationally.

This article was originally published by RealClearPennsylvania and made available via RealClearWire. It was provided to the News-Press by The Center Square, a nonprofit dedicated to journalism.

Zach Kennedy is a project director at Firehouse Strategies. Kennedy is a Pittsburgh native and has worked on high-level judicial, state, and federal campaigns in Pennsylvania.

America’s vital connection with France

President Emmanuel Macron of France and his wife Brigitte have just completed a formal state visit to the United States hosted by President and Mrs. Joe Biden. The polished public events smooth over policy conflicts, which is, of course, their purpose.

Last year, the government of France bitterly denounced Australia’s decision to purchase nuclear submarines from the United States and Britain. This resulted in cancellation of a planned purchase of French conventional subs.

In 2015, France agreed to supply two aircraft carriers to Russia. Paris canceled that deal only after sustained pressure from allies.

In 2019, President Macron rather grandiosely proposed a European alternative to NATO and distance from the United States. This remained only a proposal — and that is key.

France began a singular, independent course after General Charles de Gaulle became president in 1958, during a severe national crisis. In the midst of

growing acrimony in 1966, France demanded that NATO depart from the nation. Alliance headquarters moved to Belgium.

However, in 2009, France returned to full participation in the alliance. This is another key point. Breaking away from NATO was central to President de Gaulle’s strategy. The dedicated leader of the Free French during World War II returned to national leadership in a time of an extremely grave crisis and political chaos. Defeat by Germany, then again in 1954 by communist revolutionaries in Indochina, another enervating war in Algeria and the revolving door character of post-war governments all contributed to the perception that France was a severely troubled member of the Atlantic alliance.

After returning to power, President de Gaulle skillfully employed a three-pronged strategy involving image, institutions and foreign policy. His remarkable career and personality permitted him to appeal simultaneously to French traditions of monarchism, patriotism and populism. He was

aloof and also often imperious, yet skillfully used popular referenda. Enormous prestige facilitated dramatic political moves.

President de Gaulle established the Fifth Republic, including a new constitution granting exceptional executive power to the president. He rebuilt French self-confidence through emphasis on the “force de frappe,” the independent national nuclear force, plus diplomacy. The nuclear deterrent became a potent symbol of national pride and independence.

Except for Britain, a unique special partner, the United States has opposed other nations’ development of nuclear weapons.

The Kennedy administration was aggressive compared to the non-confrontational Eisenhower administration in pressing U.S. policies on Europe.

The resulting clash between President John F. Kennedy and President de Gaulle made for dramatic political theater. Fascinating personalities were involved, but so were profound policy differences, unlike today.

Along with rejoining NATO, the government of France announced financial compensation for people

Second Amendment protects black people

We know about Black Lives Matter. My new video is about a group called Black Guns Matter.

Maj Toure, a Philadelphia high school dropout-turnedactivist, tells me he started it after he got tired of hearing people endless chanting, “Black lives matter” but saying nothing “when it’s time for black people to defend their lives.”

Mr. Toure carries a gun wherever he goes.

“This is my human right,” he says. “If anybody wants to come chase me down about that, let’s go to court.”

He encourages others to arm themselves, especially people who live in high crime neighborhoods.

I point out that means he wants more guns in places where there are already more shootings.

That’s the point, says Mr. Toure. “The only thing that’s going to stop evil are good, solid people strong enough to stop them.”

He sells a T-shirt with the slogan “Make criminals afraid again” printed on the front.

“Criminals should be deathly afraid,” says Mr. Toure. “If you’re robbing people and carjacking, I want you to know that we’re gonna arm our community to deal with you very, very properly.”

More guns in the hands of citizens, he says, deters criminals.

There is evidence for that. Economist John Lott, author of “More Guns, Less Crime,” points out that crime usually drops in states that approve concealed carry laws. The explanation is that criminals in those states fear that their victims could be armed.

I push back at Mr. Toure, pointing out that more guns also may lead to more accidental shootings.”

“That’s under the assumption that those gun owners aren’t getting training,” replies Mr. Toure.

Training is what Mr. Toure does. In 2016, he held his first Black Guns Matter event. He expected 30 people, but 300

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John Stossel

Josh Hammer

Arthur I, Cyr

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In 2019, French President Emmanuel Macron proposed an alternative to NATO and distance from the U.S., and last year President Macron condemned the U.S. decision to submarines to Australia. But columnist Arthur Cyr noted an opportunity to smooth out conflicts over policies came recently when President Macron visited President Joe Biden at the White House.

Please see HAMMER on C4

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Donald Trump

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concerted efforts to deny it. We looked at the evidence provided by others to understand the numbers.

It seems: Female rats are ready to give birth at age 2-3 months. They can have 5 to 6 litters per year, each litter producing 8-12 babies per litter.

Let’s assume that at any one time, we have at least 100 fertile female rats with enough males to mate with, on and around State Street. The maximum rate of new rat production could be 100 x 10 x 5, which equals 5,000 rats per year, from 100 female rats. Remember, not all rats are confined to State Street.

However, if we assume that the actual rate of new rat production would be only half the maximum, we would have a rat birth rate of 2,500 a year. If we assume that the lifespan of a rat is only 18 months, the natural death rate of the original 100 female rats is, let’s say, 75 after one year, and an equal number of males die at the same rate

Per news articles, Lenz has said that they are trapping 40-50 rats a month on and around State Street. So the annual rat death rate from natural causes and trapping would amount to 45 x 12 + 150 = 690

Our question is: If the powers that be say we don’t have a rat problem on and around State Street, where would all the surviving, newborn rats go? 2,500690 = 1,810.

Here is the Public Works’ response:

“This program using traps (one rat trap, one mouse trap, and an extra attractant if both traps are snapped in each station) has been in use since 2010. The City is guided by the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Strategy, which has wisely moved the City Rodent Abatement program away

from poisons and rodenticides placed in the Right of Way to Traps.

“There are definitely bait stations in the zone, but these are placed by the private businesses or owners. The rodents seen on State Street are mostly coming from the private properties,

which are offering the best safety and harborage for the rodents. The type of rodents downtown is mostly the Norwegian Roof Rat, which lives in doors mainly. Over the years, we have eliminated a lot of the potential harborage in the City Right of Way through vegetation maintenance (i.e. cutting back bushes and removing shrubbery up to 1 foot off the ground). This has been guided either by high catch counts or complaints.

“There are rats on State Street. There have been since the inception of the town. It is not possible to completely remove rodents. The program offers solid and continuous rodent population control in the City Right of Way, and our catch counts back this.”

Should part of the rat eradication plan be birth control? Did You Know? looked into this and found it to be a way to substantially cut the rat population before it occurs.

So we believe we should be investing in contraceptive bait boxes. We agree with the city that we don’t want to use poison that can harm wildlife (Integrated Pest Management).

We do request the city to get on this asap as we have seen an increase in our areas. It could totally be due to the lack of maintenance of the previously maintained area.

The city must protect all areas of town, not just State Street.

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

Republican Party is now a working-class party

reading donor class.

comprised a paltry 26.5% minority. (As has been frequently noted, the oft-discussed “economically conservative but socially liberal” voter comprised a minuscule 3.8% of the 2016 electorate.)

There is exceedingly little political appetite for the kind of laissez-faire absolutism, free trade maximalism and fiscal austerity that long dominated the pre-Trump GOP, and which still dominates its American Enterprise Institute-donating, Wall Street Journal editorial page-

In fact, the key above all else to Mr. Trump’s 2016 triumph was his exploitation of the gap between the GOP’s realist, working-class base and its ideological, businesscentric donor class — a gap Mr. Trump was able to exploit due to his personal wealth and the ubiquitous unpaid media he generated.

From an American national interest perspective, the era of globalization has long since reached what economists refer to as the point of decreasing marginal returns. True, consumer prices on Amazon are perhaps a bit lower, in inflation-adjusted

terms. But that is extremely little solace, as globalization has helped offshore entire industries, corrode entire regions, exacerbate epidemics of loneliness and depression and flood the nation’s interior with criminal aliens and lethal fentanyl alike. The voters are correct to intuit this reality — and the Republican Party is now a working-class party, whether or not its own elites accept that fact.

Ronald Reagan’s presidency was a highly successful one, but many of his would-be successors have fundamentally botched his legacy, retconning the Gipper as some sort of obstinate libertarian dogmatist. But President Reagan,

who once slapped import quotas on Japanese automakers to stimulate America’s own auto production, was no such thing. Above all else, the man who defeated the Soviet Union was a winner.

And time and time again, the market-idolatrous, culture warshirking “dead consensus” Right has been shown to be a loser. Therein lies the rub.

To find out more about Josh Hammer and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit www.creators. com.

Copyright 2022 by Creators.com.

All the facts support respect for second amendment STOSSEL

showed up. “It was beautiful,” he says.

His group now teaches classes all around America.

“We’re teaching absolute beginners that want to know how to be safe and responsible firearms owners.”

If you are threatened, he says, you need a gun and need to know how to use it.

In my video, he tells his students, “No one’s coming to save me! I have to save and protect myself and my family.”

Last year, about 90% of gun

stores reported an increase in sales to black people.

“I made it so,” says Mr. Toure. “Gun control is racist.” Gun control was “started to literally stop black people from having the means to defend themselves.”

That is true. Before the Civil War, Tennessee changed its constitution to say that only “free white men” have a right to bear arms. Virginia banned blacks from carrying “any firelock of any kind.”

Later, when some local governments wouldn’t protect blacks from racist whites, blacks often took up arms to protect themselves. Where blacks had access to firearms, there were

fewer lynchings.

Mr. Toure says gun control is still racist.

“Who’s arrested more for firearms possession?.. Black and brown folks. The narrative that anyone with a firearm is a bad guy is a pervasive theme, especially if you are in an urban environment and if you happen to be black.”

In his gun classes, Mr. Toure tells his students, “Follow the rules, and communicate with law enforcement.” Black people must be extra clear that they have a gun to defend themselves.

It’s a double standard, he complains. “White folks don’t gotta articulate their position the same way.”

Next, Mr. Toure plans to expand his classes to teach conflict resolution, and to teach as many people as he can about armed selfdefense.

“All the facts and data are in favor of respect for the Second Amendment,” he says, “especially in the black community.”

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.

All freedoms were stripped from the German populace

any means. Adolf Hitler stripped Germans of all communication and gave the people a radio with one channel, his propaganda channel.

sister word: disinformation.

That one word is the most powerful tool of censorship to ever spread across the American landscape. It means nothing, and it means everything. The organizations who control the media and how things reach the public’s eyes and ears, have the ability to decide on their own, what they deem is misinformation.

Based upon nothing more than their opinions. How much more influential can you get when these self-appointed word police have the capability to dictate when they don’t like something and the muscle just shuts it down?

This approach isn’t new by

When boys became teens, they had to join the Hitler Youth. They no longer belonged to their parents but to the Third Reich.

All freedoms were stripped from the German populace, and it was controlled by censorship and fear.

The left has employed the same tactics and has Americans scared to speak up for fear of losing their jobs, their businesses, their good names and in some instances, even their lives.

The soiled road we’re traveling takes anything you say, doesn’t matter what it is, even if it’s 100% fact, and gets buried by some unnamed, hidden in cubicles, leftists’ trolls who don’t share

federal grants or allowances to any state, county, or city, whose budget includes payments for people here illegally.

your same point of view. They programmed their software to automatically flag the “offensive” language and slam the door.

That is an enormous amount of influence. God-like power. America has allowed companies to become so formidable they can dictate what can reach the public square and control the outcome of what we used to call free elections.

This control, this censorship, is flowing deep in the veins of the American government.

And why are American institutions like Disney, Ford, Hollywood, NBA and so many others all share the same common thread of wanting to change our country? The proof is exploding all around us as we watch the left implode over Mr. Musk exposing Twitter for what it was.

Whatever we provide should be dignified.

Big advertisers are jumping ship from Twitter because they don’t support the First Amendment. They liked the suppression. By turning their backs and running away, it is an admission of their guilt.

There is a great rift among us, and it’s the people in charge at the moment who are clearly creating it. So many great leaders the world over have pointed out the importance of United We Stand. The Chinese people are trying to unite, and they’re being crushed. The Iranians are trying to unite, and they’re being crushed.

Make no mistake, we’re being crushed as well.

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

world or shut it off (as we did from the mid-1920s to 1965). We need time to absorb what we have now.

Let’s prosecute anyone in the country without a valid visa who commits a crime. Any crime. If convicted, do your time, pay your fine, and then out you go, never to return to the United States. That includes all the family members who came here through your auspices.

Reduce by an equal amount

THE HOMELESS SITUATION

First, determine how many military veterans we’re dealing with. Whatever that number is, those folks will get first dibs at any proposal or program meant to clean up the encampments that have besotted our cities and towns. They’re vets, so they’ll understand. They need showers, toilets, kitchens, beds, and a roof over their heads. We can do that.

And, if building small living units is required, whatever we build shouldn’t cost a fortune. Any vet willing and capable will be paid a decent wage to help in the construction of his and other living units.

As for the rest of those in cardboard shacks and canvas tents on the sidewalks of our cities, they’ll be forced to move to designated areas. Those willing to help build living units will be paid to do so. Others with serious mental deficiencies will

be ordered to medical facilities. For those who wonder about the expense, believe me, whatever we do will be cheaper than putting them up in hotels and motels. We’ll continue this in next week’s column. Any of your ideas will be welcomed.

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.

‘We are working 24-7 on that’

able to successfully convey my full message” — when many times the problem was the candidate did convey that message.

4. “I wish they would agree to end partisan politics,” a selfserving statement typically used by the party just after, but never before, they lost their majority.

5. “He is Un-American” or “does not represent American values,” implies that only this Don Quixote Candidate has the list of American values.

6. “I am not perfect,” which is a clever way to have people compare him to a standard that everyone agrees cannot be achieved, rather than comparing his performance against a realistic standard.

7. “I am against photo identification to vote,” but not for security at my rallies.

8. “I am laser focused on that,” typically means the opposite, but if true, it means they are failing to accomplish the primary goal.

9. “We are working 24-7 on that,” without defining who the “we” is or what is the specific progress.

10. “We have the proof but cannot show you as it is under investigation,” is used to create an impression of guilt without any proof.

These candidates use platitudes, which are statements with a moral content that have been used too often to be interesting or thoughtful, to hide their lack of achievements,

or even worse, their failures. Their thought processes could be described by the lyrics from the song “Windmills of Your Mind” from the 1968 movie “The Thomas Crown Affair”: A circle in a spiral, a wheel within a wheel Never ending or beginning, on an ever-spinning reel As the image unwind, like the circles that you find

In the windmills of your mind.

Don Quixote Candidates, like Don Quixote, attract people who, like the duke of Saragossa, recognize and use his “windmills” to their advantage: those he harms, like the guards of the prisoners the Don frees; those who are hurt by believing in him, like Sancho who suffered abuse as the pretend governor of Barataria before having to face the damages his following the Don did to his wife and six children; and those based on his past performances tune him out.

Don Quixote Candidates fade back into oblivion without a great many “Sanchos.” In the next election, will you vote to be one of them?

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

A powerful engine for economic integration

CYR

suffering ill health from France’s nuclear tests in the atmosphere. Previously, there was reluctance even to acknowledge any health risks.

President de Gaulle’s legacy includes today’s powerful political institutions and capacity to support NATO from a position of strength. Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, French aircraft patrolled North American air space. Crack French troops have been successful in Mali and other parts of Africa. President Macron actively supports the defense of Ukraine.

In 1991, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development began. France is a leading founder of this effort to spur investment in Eastern Europe. The bank today stands firmly established as a powerful engine for economic integration.

In contrast to the Cold War era, enormous economic incentives keep investment capital moving across borders — and across the Atlantic. Europe’s and the Atlantic area’s economic and military security organizations are strong. Keep that in mind.

To learn more, read “In Search of France,” edited by Stanley Hoffmann.

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.

State Street has been handled with ‘kid gloves’

LETTER

Continued from Page C2

outcome? No response from the state to the email. When two direct letters were sent certified mail to the Attorney General’s Office and the Governor’s Office, there was zero response — a clear violation of the State of California law. When letters to the media were sent about these violations, no response.

When the city of Santa Barbara violated Coastal Commission / CEQA rules for two EIR’S (Environmental Impact Reports), did the media question CAB as to our reason for these claims? Not once did any electronic, TV, or print “defenders” of public right to know, ask one question or interview. There are a minimum of five past Councilmen who are harshly critical of these actions and lack of honesty in street planning.

The closing of State Street has been handled with “kid gloves” with little to no ongoing criticism of supposed committees or reviews. When asked directly about the initial costs of State Street closing, the answer was: no answer.

When the city of Goleta voted to remove 50% of Old Town Hollister Avenue after committing a massive Brown Act Violation, where was the media outcry? CAB submitted a detailed letter questioning Goleta staff’s presentation and the need to spend over $1 million on Hollister to achieve 25 additional parking spaces.

When CAB presented its own verified morning rush hour bike count showing a paltry 14 bikes during two hours what was the staff response? “We will do our count soon.” It did not happen, and the strong armed arm twisting of the Brown Act violation led to the council vote without proof, to destroy Old Town traffic similar to the destruction of Old Town State Street in Santa Barbara. Have local media done an expose on these actions and the lack of proof? Have local media done an in depth investigation and report?

So CAB asks and continues to ask. Is free speech dead in Santa Barbara County?

From our perspective: Yes.

Scott Wenz President CAB

LUDWIG WEGMANN/COMMONS BUNDESARCHIV/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS French President Charles de Gaulle established the Fifth Republic.

FILE PHOTO