Newsmakers with JR
Op-Ed: Pigs Fly -- SBUSD Leaders Finally Pivot from "Balanced Literacy" to "Science of Reading"
By Cheri Rae and Monie de Wit On March 9, Santa Barbara Unified School District officials made a quiet, but extremely consequential...
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Newsmakers with JR
- 6 days ago
Das's Folly: Why SB Supes' Sweetheart Deal for Pot Growers is Failing -- and Stinks to High Heaven
Tax collections from pot, hailed as financial salvation by politicians who recklessly transformed Santa Barbara into the undisputed...
Newsmakers with JR
- Mar 16
County Pot Revenue Plunges Amid State Weed Glut; Capps' Tough Cannabis Questions Touch a Nerve
By Melinda Burns The ongoing downturn in tax revenues from the cannabis industry in Santa Barbara stands out as the dark spot in an...
Newsmakers with JR
- Mar 11
Cross-County Housing Disputes; Gay, Trans Conflicts; Hidden Cameras, Falling Trees & Sex Therapy
Demands by state government that local jurisdictions build huge amounts of new housing have triggered debate and dispute over a host of...
Newsmakers with JR
- Mar 4
New Law Eyes Supes Sleaze; Housing Conflicts Ripple ; Covid Done? Schiff for Senate? Shootout Update
It's a full-house, all-star edition of Newsmakers TV, as six - 6, count 'em, 6 - of Santa Barbara's top journalists chew over, assay and...
Newsmakers with JR
- Feb 27
TVSB Welcomes Colleagues from Across the Nation - and Cops Six Industry Awards While Doing It
By Hap Freund Despite cold and inhospitable weather, 168 cable access directors, producers, board members and TV equipment vendors...
Newsmakers with JR
- Feb 25
Ask the Mayor: Randy Talks Crime, Gangs, State St., Housing - and Re-elect
In a special "Ask the Mayor" edition of Newsmakers TV, Randy Rowse on Friday said there is no "trend" of gang violence in Santa Barbara...
Newsmakers with JR
- Feb 21
Op-Ed: Why Sheila is Right and Das is Wrong about Housing in Santa Barbara
(Editor's note: In recent, dueling columns published in this space, former Mayor and current Planning Commissioner Sheila Lodge and...
Newsmakers with JR
- Feb 18
Drag Queen Triggers GOP; DLG Redo May Finish by Next Century; Housing Follies; Grace Joins the Gang
The nation's ludicrous Culture Wars descended upon Santa Barbara last weekend, as the evangelical wing of the local Republican Party...
Newsmakers with JR
- Feb 16
Listen Up: Educational, Historic & Essential, KCSB-FM Counts on Fund Drive to Sustain Its Mission
Since 1961, KCSB-FM (broadcasting on 91.9 FM in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties) has offered the opportunity to develop broadcast...
Newsmakers with JR
- Feb 14
New SBPD Chief's Assessment: Crime Rate Down, No Gang Problem, City a "Safe Place to Live...Visit"
Kelly Gordon's grandfather was a police officer in Tonawanda, N.Y., and her godfather was a state patrolman. At 5, she was gifted a...
Newsmakers with JR
- Feb 11
Noozhawk Publisher Explains Fervent Broadsides Aimed at Police Brass, City Hall Over Tourist Murder
Noozhawk Publisher Bill Macfadyen on Friday discussed the journalistic and civic rationale fueling his recent series of impassioned...
Newsmakers with JR
- Feb 10
Das Replies to Sheila: We Need "Affordable," High-Density Housing in Car-Free Neighborhoods. Fast.
(Editor's note: Earlier this week, Newsmakers published an open letter from former Mayor SheiIa Lodge to Supervisor Das Williams,...
Newsmakers with JR
- Feb 9
Commissioners Bash SB County on Pot but Let Carp Weed Emporium Proceed; Meagan Says 'No'
California Coastal Commissioners on Wednesday slammed San Barbara County's ruinous cannabis ordinance and its implementation -- but...
Newsmakers with JR
- Feb 8
Weed Wars: Meagan Takes Center Stage in Latest Cannabis Colonization Battle in Carp
The eyes of Santa Barbara’s Political Junkie Community will be on Meagan Harmon today, amid yet another forlorn appeal of the county’s...
Newsmakers with JR
- Feb 7
"The Right to Read": At SBIFF, a Powerful New Doc on What We Can Do about the Scandal of IIliteracy
By Cheri Rae and Monie de Wit At our Resource Center, where we provide free literacy information, support, and resources for parents,...
Newsmakers with JR
- Feb 5
Op-Ed: In Open Letter, Sheila Lodge Schools Das on Planning, Rents and Building Costs for Housing
(Editor's note: Inflaming the conflict over construction of new housing, Supervisor Das Williams on Dec. 15 biliously attacked Santa...
Newsmakers with JR
- Feb 4
More Anti-Semitic Filth Hits SB; Latest on Housing Conflicts; 5150 Pilot for Cops; ADUs, SBPD, UCSB
Swastika graffiti at Dos Pueblos High. Holocaust denial leaflets strewn around IV. Slogans denying Israel's right to exist defacing a...
Newsmakers with JR
- Feb 2
Op-Ed: The Demise of Retail in SB Is about the Loss of Community as Well as Commerce
By Celeste Barber On January 20, I was struck by a remark from Nick Welsh, during Newsmakers TV's journalist panel discussion, about the...
Newsmakers with JR
- Jan 28
SBUSD Reprise: How District Supe Hilda Maldonado Has Started to Turn Administration Around
Last spring, the end of the 2021-2022 school year found Santa Barbara Unified School District Superintendent Hilda Maldonado embattled on...
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