• The Santa Barbara County Democratic Party announced it was endorsing Santa Barbara Unified School District Trustee Laura Capps for Santa Barbara County 2nd District Supervisor, according to a March 3 statement from party chair Darcél Elliott. “We are proud to endorse Laura Capps’ campaign for 2nd District county supervisor. During her service on the SBUSD board of trustees, Laura has exhibited strong leadership on issues affecting our county—spearheading the transition to clean energy, ensuring all students have access to basic needs, and prioritizing health and safety throughout the pandemic,” Elliott said in a statement. “We look forward to seeing her bring her skills and Democratic values to the county Board of Supervisors, and help lead the county through what lies ahead.” Capps—a Santa Barbara County native—began her public service career in Washington, D.C., working for President Bill Clinton, Sen. Ted Kennedy, and Sen. John Kerry. She also worked with nonprofit organizations Ocean Conservancy and The Climate Reality Project. In 2016, Capps was elected to the Santa Barbara Unified School District board of trustees. The primary election is in June 2022. All voters will be mailed vote-by-mail ballots in early May.
• U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) and a bipartisan U.S. House of Representatives majority passed the Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics (PACT) Act—which will treat toxic exposure as a cost of war, giving exposed veterans access to earned benefits and health care through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), according to Carbajal’s office. “When our service members embark on their missions to protect the United States and its interests around the globe, we make a promise that we would take care of them when they come home. But that promise has not been kept for some veterans who were exposed to toxic chemicals and substances in the course of their duties,” Carbajal said in a statement. The Honoring our PACT Act “will open up health care to more than 3.5 million veterans exposed to toxic substances during their military service and finally concede exposure to burn pits and airborne hazards.” The bill will create presumptions for 23 respiratory illnesses and cancers, shifting the burden of proof off of veterans. According to Carbajal’s office, if a veteran served in a particular theater at a particular time, they will be presumed to be exposed to toxic substances and therefore potentially eligible for health care and benefits. “We owe it to toxic-exposed veterans to provide the care and benefits they’ve earned,” Carbajal said.
• Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a new framework to provide individuals with mental health and substance use disorders the care and services they need to get healthy, according to a March 3 statement. The Community Assistance Recovery and Empowerment (CARE) Court proposal—which must be approved by the Legislature—would require all 58 counties to provide comprehensive treatment to the most severely impaired and untreated Californians and hold patients accountable to their plan. “CARE Court is about meeting people where they are and acting with compassion to support the thousands of Californians living on our streets with severe mental health and substance use disorders,” Newsom said in a statement. “We are taking action to break the pattern that leaves people without hope and cycling repeatedly through homelessness and incarceration. This is a new approach to stabilize people with the hardest-to-treat behavioral health conditions.” CARE Court does not wait until someone is hospitalized or arrested before providing treatment, but it will allow family members, first responders, intervention teams, and mental health service providers to refer those suffering from mental illness to community-based services. It also offers individualized intervention services and plans—all while remaining community-based—with 12- to 24-month plans taking a client-centered approach, according to the governor’s office.
This article appears in Mar 10-17, 2022.
