Amid $20M loss, Pacific Capital in talks to sell branches
Pacific Capital Bancorp, the struggling parent of Santa Barbara Bank & Trust, cut its losses to $20 million in the fourth quarter of 2009 and held its capital ratios steady though below where regulators want them to be. The bank said it has started talks over the potential sale of branches and that it will Read More →
Zoned out on the mountain
The owners of a lonesome rural café have turned to Ventura County Superior Court for help after discovering the county rezoned their property to open space — 21 years before they were told about it. Tom and Janet Wolf, owners of the Pine Mountain Inn near the summit of Highway 33, allege in their Read More →
Region
Just as the Santa Barbara County began bracing for dour outlooks and dwindling numbers at area banks, several regional financial institutions surprised shareholders with unexpected reports. Others had the deflated numbers that had been projected. Harrington West Financial Group and Montecito Bank & Trust showed significant growth at the close of 2009. “Banks with good Read More →
Institute heralds $50M gift
In another sign of the changing ways that medical research gets funded, the partner institute in the University of California, Santa Barbara’s Center for Nanomedicine received a $50 million gift from a philanthropist Jan. 26. South Dakota billionaire Denny Sanford gave $50 million to the La Jolla-based Burnham Institute, the partner organization in the UCSB-Burnham Read More →
Schwarzenegger has exit lesson for Obama
We are inclined to think about our leaders in historic terms. George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and the Roosevelts are viewed as figures who tamed their legislatures and achieved great things. But as Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger heads into the sunset, we are confronted with a new paradigm — a larger-than-life figure who is unable to overcome Read More →
Time for some new players
In baseball and in business, there are starting pitchers and there are relievers. We’ve all seen the superstar performer who is great in a crisis and then sticks around for a year or so. But his or her heart really isn’t in it for the grinding away that it takes to succeed for the long Read More →
Searching for survivors
The massive earthquake that rumbled through Haiti on Jan. 12 left the capital city of Port-au-Prince buried underneath piles and piles of debris, twisted metal, fallen trees and shattered concrete — and underneath that, countless human survivors clinging desperately to the last remnants of life. Often, the first sign of hope survivors hear in the Read More →
