Our View: Santa Barbara DA takes a stand on gun violence
Without leaving her elected post, Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce Dudley has taken on a national role in the fight against the scourge of mass shootings. She will join Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark as volunteer co-chair of Prosecutors Against Gun Violence, an organization whose members represent more than 60 million people in 24 Read More →
Opinion: ExxonMobil’s oil trucking plan in Santa Barbara County is dirty and dangerous
By Linda Krop On Sept. 29, the Santa Barbara County Planning Commission will consider ExxonMobil’s proposal to restart its three platforms offshore from Gaviota and truck its oil along highways 101 (to Santa Maria) and 166 (to Pentland, in Kern County). Last year, the county planning staff recommended against allowing tanker trucks on the windy Read More →
Our View: Universities keep our region on top in innovation
If you want to know why the innovation culture is so important to the regional economy, look no further than the 2021 ranking of our top universities. In the latest U.S. News & World Report rankings, released Sept. 12, UC Santa Barbara cracked the top five among national public universities. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Read More →
Opinion: Five ways your business can win the war for talent
By Greg Bland With the U.S. economy continuing to grow, businesses are beginning to scale their operations back to pre-pandemic levels. Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties all added jobs from June to July. As the Pacific Coast Business Times recently reported, Ventura County led the way with 2,500 new jobs in the Read More →
Opinion: ‘Use it or lose it’ policy wastes our natural resources
By James Salzman The Bureau of Land Management auction in February 2016 for oil and gas drilling rights near Arches National Park was unremarkable. The high bidder, Tempest Exploration Co. LLC, paid $2,500 for the 1,120-acre lease by credit card and began paying annual rental fees. What soon did prove remarkable, though, was the revelation Read More →
Opinion: Oxnard was central to Chicano movement
By Frank P. Barajas This column is an excerpt from the book “Mexican Americans with Moxie: A Transgenerational History of El Movimiento Chicano in Ventura County, California, 1945-1975,” by Frank P. Barajas. From the United Farm Workers Boycott Office in Delano, California, Jessica Govea, 24, examined a clipping of a full-page advertisement in the Ventura Read More →