A way to play
Connecting with animals Panel to feature speakers from nonprofits - A3
Our 165th Year
Gaucho baseball players scramble for a place to play during pandemic - A7
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T U E S DAY, AUGU S T 11, 2 0 2 0
World Series champions
Wow in Wichita: Foresters romp to eighth NBC World Series crown By MARK PATTON NEWS-PRESS SENIOR WRITER
WICHITA, Kan. — The Santa Barbara Foresters had more than enough for their record eighth National Baseball Congress World Series championship in just 14 years. The local summer collegiate baseball team completed its romp through Wichita by defeating the Cheney, Kan. Diamond Dawgs 12-3 in Monday’s final of the 86th annual event. The Foresters (30-4) won their four tournament games by a combined score of 33-4. They played errorless defense throughout the event. “I’ve been coaching the Foresters for
a long time (26 years), and this team was as good in all facets of the game as any I’ve ever had,” manager Bill Pintard said. “We had defense, pitching, hitting, hitting with power, and we were relentless on the bases. “I don’t think we’ve ever been this balanced.” Matthew McLain, who received the NBC’s Top MLB Prospect Award before the game, set the tone just minutes later by ripping the first pitch up the middle for a single. Just three pitches later, Jace Jung belted an opposite-field home run over the left-field fence. McLain and Hunter Cullen also homered in the game, giving Santa Barbara 42 for the season
The Santa Barbara Foresters dive into a dogpile after defeating the Cheney, Kan. Diamond Dawgs 12-3 to clinch their eighth National Baseball Congress World Series championship in 14 years in Wichita on Monday.
in just 34 outings. Jung’s homer was his 10th of the summer, tying Christian Encarnacion for the team lead. Starting pitcher Nick Nastrini (60) pitched out of jams in the first two innings, stranding a pair of runners in each frame. He allowed three hits and two walks with four strikeouts in four innings of work after having pitched a one-hitter over six innings in Tuesday’s tournament opener. “He didn’t have his greatest command tonight, coming back on short rest, but he made pitches when he had to,” Pintard said. Four relievers — Nick Proctor, Bryce Please see FORESTERS on A7
Back to school (virtually) Santa Ynez Valley Union High School District starting distance learning Thursday
COURTESY PHOTO BY BRETT SCHAUF
‘This work is tough’ California public health director resigns abruptly By GRAYCE MCCORMICK NEWS-PRESS CORRESPONDENT
RAFAEL MALDONADO / NEWS-PRESS
Santa Ynez Valley Union High School announces the start of its virtual classes.
By JOSH GREGA NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
California schools must begin the 2020-2021 school year with virtual-distance learning per the orders of Gov. Gavin Newsom, and the Santa Ynez Valley Union High School District will do just that on Thursday. Distance learning in the coming quarter will consist of online Zoom classes in a block schedule of 100 minutes each, according to Superintendent Scott Cory. Teachers will engage in live instruction for at least half of those 100 minutes, with the second 50 minutes set aside for either additional live instruction
More inside Allan Hancock College set to begin mostly virtual fall semester next week — A8
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or for students to ask their teachers questions about the lessons. According to an online letter from Mr. Cory to school district parents, the upcoming school year’s first two days of Aug. 13 and 14 will have a different schedule from the remainder of school days beginning on Aug. 17. Whereas the first two days will have all periods 1 to 7, starting next week school days will be divided between odd-schedule days on Tuesdays and Thursdays and even-schedule days on Wednesdays and Fridays. The former will have periods 1, 3, 5, and 7, while the latter will have periods 2, 4, 6, and 7. Mondays will have periods 1 to 6 with no seventh period and school dismissed at 1:10 p.m. to allow for weekly staff development meetings.
In an interview with the News-Press, Mr. Cory remarked that whereas the school district’s sudden shift to distance learning last spring was akin to “building the plane while we’re flying it,” this year it is taking steps to ensure virtual lessons go more smoothly than in the past. These steps include having administrators sit in on lessons to determine what aspects of Zoom classes are going well and which ones need more work. Transferring certain classes like physical education to a digital format requires “outside the box” thinking, Mr. Cory said, and as a result, online P.E. classes focus heavily on subjects that instructors can teach kids without engaging in physical activity. These include how to live a healthy lifestyle and nutrition. Please see virtual on A8
Dr. Sonia Angell, the director and state public health officer at the California Department of Public Health, has not given a reason for her sudden resignation, which came during the COVID-19 pandemic. The state’s top public health official resigned late Sunday night, effective immediately. The top public health official in California did not provide the reason behind her resignation. The resignation follows a technical error with the state’s reporting system, with 295,000 backlogged records that have yet to be added to public data. This caused inaccuracies in the daily number reports for COVID-19 cases. The mistake was announced on Aug. 5, when Dr. Henning Ansorg of the Santa Barbara County Department of Public Health said the positive-case count over the past 10 days was inaccurate and underreported. Santa Barbara County Public Health Department reported three additional deaths of individuals who tested positive for COVID-19. All three individuals were over 70 years of age with underlying health conditions and one individual was associated with a congregate living facility. Two individuals resided in Santa Maria, and one individual resided in the South County Unincorporated Area. The daily count of active COVID-19 cases for Santa
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Dr. Sonia Angell
Barbara County on Monday was 187. Cottage Health is caring for a total of 283 patients across all campuses, and out of these patients, 226 are acute-care patients and 162 acute-care beds are still available. In a press conference on Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom took responsibility for the error, saying a glitch in large scale Information Technology isn’t necessarily “novel” or “new” to anybody. “The key is to be transparent, and the administration has been since we learned of it,” the governor said. “I won’t get into details about personnel issues out of respect … The buck stops with me. I am accountable … We are all accountable for what happens underneath us...We built a new team; we fixed the backlog and we’re moving forward.” When asked why Dr. Angell resigned, the governor declined to go into detail other than that it was “appropriate.” “She wrote a resignation letter, and I accepted her resignation,” he said. “If it’s not obvious … If someone resigns, we accept that resignation and I think it’s appropriate. I try not to have personnel conversations in Please see DIRECTOR on A2
Newspress.com expands to better serve readers By DAVE MASON NEWS-PRESS MANAGING EDITOR
Newspress.com has grown to give you more news. The News-Press website expanded this summer to feature many more articles and photos, as well as breaking news
hours before we go to press. In addition, we’re presenting videos of major events, great moments and interviews — including some related to the mountain lion sighted Monday in Montecito. (See the story on Page A2 and the videos of interviews at Please see website on A2
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