A long-running line
Few businesses are more intertwined with the history of their communities than San Luis Obispo insurance agency Morris & Garritano. Founded in 1885 on Higuera Street, the agency has changed names over the decades but has been in business in San Luis Obispo for 125 years. With about 75 employees today, the company has a Read More →
Foundations combine administrative forces
Two of the largest foundations in the tri-counties are joining philanthropic forces. Effective April 1, the Santa Barbara Foundation, the second largest foundation in the region with more than $200 million in assets at the beginning of March, and the Hutton Foundation, the 10th largest foundation with $80 million, will combine some of their grant-processing Read More →
Testing the breaking point
A young company spun out of technology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, has developed a machine that could for the first time measure the strength of bones in living patients. Founded in 2007, Active Life’s device creates a micro-crack about 100th of a millimeter wide in patients’ bones. Now in early trials in Read More →
Three steps to state solvency
Orange County Register small-business columnist Jan Norman has put California’s budget woes into some facts and figures anybody can understand. Quoting from U.S. Census Bureau figures, she says the state’s individual income tax collections fell 20.4 percent or more than $10 billion from 2008 to 2009 and corporate income tax collections fell about $2 billion Read More →
Drug lord crackdown may be Oxnard
Ventura County District Attorney Greg Totten made a splash in the newspapers on March 30 when he announced plans to extradite a jailed Mexican drug lord known as “Don Pepe” for trial on charges related to drug trafficking. If the extradition proceeds as planned, Jose Antonio Medina, 36, will face numerous charges in a Ventura Read More →
UPDATE: Chumash buy Fess Parker land in $40M deal
The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians has bought a 1,390-acre ranch from Fess Parker Entreprises, the company of the late Fess Parker. The deal’s recorded value was $40 million. Charles Bargiel, an attorney for Fess Parker Enterprises, said negotiations for the property commonly known “Camp Four” went on for several months. “Mr. Parker himself Read More →
Hwy 101 improvement project kicks off
A $50 million project to replace an important link on the Highway 101 trade corridor is underway. Reps. Lois Capps, D-Santa Barbara, and Elton Gallegly, R-Simi Valley, were on hand for the groundbreaking for an eight-lane interchange at the 101 and Rice Avenue. When completed in 2012, the interchange will complete a series of improvements Read More →
