Bipartisan support from legislators helped push a new directive forward that changes how courts throughout California decide whether to grant criminal offenders diagnosed with a mental illness a treatment-based alternative to jail time. Recently signed into state law, California Assembly Bill 46 redefines a judge’s discretion when considering a defendant’s application for mental health diversion. […]
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Judge rejects Solvang’s request to dismiss a developer’s lawsuit
Solvang’s legal advisors have until Aug. 3 to respond to a civil lawsuit after a judge rejected the city’s argument to throw out the case. In mid-July, Santa Barbara County Superior Court Judge James F. Rigali overruled Solvang’s petition to dismiss local developer Ed St. George’s suit against the city for issuing a stop work […]
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Lompoc changes how it bills wastewater customers
A new method of calculating wastewater rates caused a slippery debate at the Lompoc City Council meeting on July 21. Residents and businesses will still be paying based on water usage, Management Services Director Bob Cross explained, and customers who see an increase in cost would’ve seen one under the previous calculations, too. “I think […]
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Lompoc prison reports a ‘walkaway’ inmate
Often set to polka or waltz-style melodies, songs labeled as narcocorrido—or drug ballad—are banned from radio use in several states in Mexico due to the subgenre’s reputation for glorifying cartel activity and drug culture. About four years before being incarcerated in Lompoc, convicted drug trafficker Omar Briceno-Quijano was the subject of the 2021 ballad titled […]
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Wrong-way driver awaits sentence for murder
Alerted by more than a dozen 911 calls, California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers were on the lookout for a northbound driver in the southbound lane of Highway 101 around 5:15 a.m., on Sept. 8, 2024. One caller described the driver—later identified as Santa Maria resident Kendra Lynn Cordova—as weaving between oncoming cars at 90 miles […]
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Vandenberg airman dies on base after an equipment accident
An accident at Vandenberg Space Force Base killed a 23-year-old airman on July 16. The heavy equipment that Airman 1st Class Cedric Eneluna was operating rolled down an embankment, Vandenberg reported in a news release on July 17. The Santa Barbara Coroner’s Office hasn’t yet determined Eneluna’s cause of death. There were no other personnel […]
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Closed-session Lompoc employee evaluation spurs public backlash
Discipline. Dismissal. Appointment of an interim city manager. A handful of business items on the table for the Lompoc City Council to discuss in closed session on July 14 were tied to City Manager Dean Albro’s performance evaluation. Although the council ultimately gave Albro “a satisfactory review” and “did not consider or conduct the discipline/dismissal/release […]
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Demolition pending: Pea Soup Andersen’s loses its historic building status as it crumbles
A former Buellton hot spot for fans of split pea soup, bread bowls, and quirky memorabilia began attracting a different kind of crowd once the 100-year-old venue shut off its stoves for good in 2024. Trespassers of the shuttered Pea Soup Andersen’s—with some walls and patio spaces now enveloped in thick, green overgrowth—range from long-term […]
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Lompoc begins environmental review for possible housing project annexation
The Bodger Meadows housing project near Lompoc has bounced between city and county staff for the past two and a half years, but the city’s been trying to obtain the property from the county for decades. After the City Council discussed the project’s latest news, Mayor Jim Mosby joked dryly about the saga. He referenced […]
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County increases parcel taxes for neighborhoods in Orcutt, Vandenberg Village
A flat rate since 2011, the parcel tax for residents of Providence Landing—a neighborhood in the unincorporated Vandenberg Village area—will jump from $672 to $692. These funds go toward upkeep at the Providence Landing Park, an arrangement Santa Barbara County 4th District Supervisor Bob Nelson noted as unlike any other tax collected across the county. […]
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Solvang uses state exemption to buy gasoline-fueled buses
Set to expire at the end of this calendar year, a temporary waiver from the California Air Resources Board (CARB) allowed the city of Solvang to add two new gasoline-fueled buses to its public fleet that travels across the Santa Ynez Valley. Without the waiver, addressing the city’s recent bus shortage would have left leaders […]
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Long legacy: Central Coast tribes push to reclaim their ancestors’ remains and belongings
Editor’s note: This is the second in a two-part series. The first, “Native return,” ran June 25. Whiteboards crowded with titles and case numbers loom behind Jonathan Malindine’s desk at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. The museum’s Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) officer has underlined some in red and circled […]
