Real estate firms deliver relief, one square foot at a time
Two Santa Barbara-based real estate firms are doing their part to help Direct Relief International’s Haitian relief efforts. After a magnitude-7 earthquake struck the small island nation on Jan. 12, Goleta-based nonprofit DRI started receiving an enormous amount of aid – pharmaceuticals and other medical supplies – but had nowhere to put it. “We already Read More →
Giving small banks a path to profitability
In the film “Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World,” Jack Aubrey, played by Russell Crowe, cleverly jokes about “choosing the lesser to two weevils.” When it comes to banking the choice is not quite so clever, but just as clear. Banks, especially those deemed “too big to fail” must go back into 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 →
