In this week's episode, the Newsmakers TV gang sorts through and scrutinizes the policy and political fallout from this month's monster storms, and welcomes a new contributor to our all-star panel of top local journalists.
Callie Fausey, recently hired as a staff reporter at the Independent, breaks down the impact of the Pineapple Express deluge on Santa Barbara's water supply, recounting the astonishing and sudden elevation of the water level of Cachuma Lake, now approaching 100 percent. A graduate of Santa Barbara High, Callie returned home after earning a degree at the University of San Francisco (talk about "Once a Don, always a Don), where she served as the top editor of "The Foghorn," the highly-regarded student newspaper at the college.
Indy colleague Nick Welsh breaks down President Biden's visit to the Central Coast this week, when POTUS issued a Major Disaster Declaration for Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo and Monterey Counties, making homeowners and others who suffered damage inflicted by the storms eligible for relief funds, including personal direct grants up to $42,000.
Josh Molina meanwhile checks in with his latest scoop on the simmering controversy over building rental housing at La Cumbre Plaza, as a second developer emerges with plans for hundreds of new units at the opposite -- Sears -- end of the mall from where an earlier, equally large project is being planned for the current location of Macy's. This while Mayor Randy Rowse is still pushing for a comprehensive, Specific Plan for the entire site, and City Attorney Sarah Knect asserts that proposed building heights exceeding 60 feet in the proposals violate the City Charter, setting up potential litigation against the state and its build-baby-build legislation imposing new housing mandates on local governments.
Plus: a preview of this weekend's Women's March, the first since an ideologically divided U.S. Supreme Court tossed out the 50-year old Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision; changes in store for the city's weekend Arts and Crafts Fair on the waterfront; a long-awaited report from UCSB eggheads on possible strategies for climate change; and a fond farewell to legendary singer-songwriter David Crosby, who long made his home in Santa Ynez.
All this and more, right here, right now on Newsmakers TV. Check out the show via YouTube below or by clicking through this link. The podcast version is here. Check broadcast schedules for TVSB and KCSB-FM for air times of the program.
JR
Image: Callie Fausey (screen grab).
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