There's a growing phenomenon at Santa Barbara City Hall, wherein highly-influential executives suddenly disappear without a trace. For years, highly-influential, highly-paid suits hold forth, issue decrees and quell the local populace, and then one day...they're gone.
Such was the case with the authoritative, long-serving city budget director Bob Samario, followed by magisterial City Attorney Ariel Calonne, not to mention the abrupt resignation of City Administrator Paul Casey, who at least offered an enigmatic, if circular, brief explanation: "Sometimes it's just time."
Now come the peculiar cases of city Library Director Jessica Cadiente and her top deputy, Molly Wetta, who simply stopped showing up for work last month, without a word of explanation from their betters at City Hall except that they'd been "placed on leave."
On this week's edition of Newsmakers TV, Josh Molina reprises his recent reporting in digging into the Case of the Missing Bibliophiles, which now appears to be related to the loud caviling and chronic kvetching they'd understandably set forth about the endlessly delayed, hideously expensive and enormously loud Library Plaza project.
Callie Fausey returns to discuss her latest scoop, the revelation that the U.S. Department of Education has opened an investigation of UCSB, following several shameful on-campus episodes in of anti-Semitic targeting of the Associated Students president, daughter of Russian-Jewish immigrants, who had the temerity to speak out on behalf of Israel amid the vehement conflicts surrounding the war in Gaza, triggered by Oct., 7 Hamas terrorist attack.
The journo duo and the genial host also examine the cart-before-the-horse decision by the Parks and Recreation Commission to authorize the removal of 49 trees from De La Guerra Plaza for the plaza renovation project -- before the plaza renovation project has been approved; the latest from the grinding labor negotiations at the Santa Barbara Unified School District; grim findings from a study of how the pandemic affected the mental health of teens; and Das's revenge in the battle over parking near the Hot Springs Trail.
Plus: Callie's pelagic field trip to witness the start of the revitalization of the kelp forest.
All this and more, right here, right now on Newsmakers TV.
JR
Check out our latest edition via YouTube below or by clicking through this link. The podcast version is here. TVSB, Channel 17, airs the show every weeknight at 8 p.m. and at 9 a.m. on weekends. KCSB, 91.9 FM, broadcasts the program at 5:30 p.m. on Monday.
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