AMY ASMAN

Last month, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency reached another settlement with some former clients of the Casmalia Resources Superfund Site, a now defunct toxic waste dump that collected more than 5.6 billion pounds of waste in the 1970s and ’80s. Since the mid 1990s, the EPA has been seeking monetary settlements to help pay for […]

State legislation that aims to strengthen rape statutes is one step closer to becoming a reality. On May 9, the Assembly unanimously approved AB 765, a bill introduced by Assemblyman Katcho Achadjian (R-San Luis Obispo) and championed by Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce Dudley. If passed, the bill will clarify that an attacker who […]

Thanks to a $240,000 grant from the Stuart Foundation, Grover Heights Elementary School will now be able to integrate the Teacher and Student Advancement Program (TAP) into its curriculum. Grover Heights will be the seventh school in the Lucia Mar Unified School District to introduce TAP in the fall. In February, Lucia Mar became the […]

Courtroom arguments began April 8 in the third hearing to determine whether Lee Leed–the man who in 2008 allegedly shot and killed four people at a salvage yard in Santa Maria–is competent enough to stand trial. Leeds, who suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, has spent the last few years in custody, shuffling back and forth between […]

One on Santa Barbara County’s seemingly never-ending legal battles has finally come to a close—for now, at least. On April 4, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it reached a $1.2 million settlement with 49 small parties for the Casmalia Resources Superfund Site, a now-defunct hazardous waste disposal site in Santa Barbara County. This is […]