Gene Lucas, longtime executive vice chancellor of US Santa Barbara and a fixture on campus for more than three decades, will retire at the end of the year, the university said Dec. 10.
UC Santa Barbara said Dec. 5 that the U.S. Army has renewed its contract with the university’s Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies, providing an additional $48 million over three years to support biology-related research.
The new funds extend a decade of unclassified research in areas such as biotechnology tools, futuristic materials, energy generation and storage, systems and synthetic biology and neuroscience.
With potentially expensive lawsuits looming in the background, two of the groups jockeying to shape the future of a water district in Paso Robles wine country have put aside their differences in hopes of avoiding years in court and millions of dollars in legal fees.
Santa Maria Energy is going public and raising at least $40 million in new capital — and possibly much more – which could put the firm’s total funds raised at an estimated $90 million.
Santa Maria Energy’s contentious project to drill 136 new oil wells in North Santa Barbara County received approval from the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors last month. The Supervisors imposed strict limits on the project’s carbon emissions, essentially implementing a 10,000-ton-per-year cap and requiring the company to buy carbon credits if it goes over that limit.
Retail chain HomeGoods has signed a 10-year lease valued at $3.4 million at the Irish Hills Plaza in San Luis Obispo. It will replace OfficeMax in the 20,059-square-foot space.
The Marshalls-occupied building at 900 State St. in downtown Santa Barbara has been sold for $14.3 million in an all-cash off-market deal, marking a 43 percent premium over the last time the property changed hands.
The future of health care in South Santa Barbara County became considerably clearer in recent days, with the biggest merger in decades headed off for regulatory review and hiccups in the delivery of care through the state insurance exchange and to the poor largely resolved.
