Every editor endowed with the authority to decide what goes on the cover of their publication knows the Front Page Golden Rule: You never go wrong with a dog story.
So it was that Gwyn Lurie, editor-in-chief of the Montecito Journal pulled out all the stops when she heard village denizens buzzing about the hush-hush, sudden and tragic death of Otis, a treasured 3-year old French Bulldog who expired during a brief window of time while at the pet groomers. Word is even the Duchess of Sussex was calling around on this one.
Gwyn returns to Newsmakers TV this week to talk about the sad tale, and her best efforts to tease out details of a hyper-local story that generated intense interest among her readers, and that still has many questions left to be answered.
Jade Martinez-Pogue checks in from her new perch at KEYT, where's she now on the Santa Barbara beat as an assignment editor, to decipher the latest, muddled Covid advice and directives handed down by state and local public health officials.
Josh Molina, the Joe Rogan of Santa Barbara, has all the latest from City Hall, where new Mayor Randy Rowse brought great clarity to framing a robust and thoughtful debate about city policy over the intractable affordable housing issue (despite being on the losing end of a 6-to-1 vote in his bid to shorten the length of speeches delivered by citizens during the Public Comment portion of the council agenda. Anna Marie Gott in the house!).
And indefatigable Angry Poodle Nick Welsh joins the gang to update the effort to establish a civilian review process for the SBPD, an ongoing process beset by several critical conflicts, and also details the Outrage of the Week, a below-the-radar attempt by Beanie Baby billionaire Ty Warner to claim a huge reduction in property taxes for his Four Season Biltmore resort -- at the same time he's stiffed some 400 employees by shutting the place down.
More: how Laura Capps is clearing the field in the race for the Second District Board of Supervisors seat - and what it means for the SB Unified School District board,, plus Big Tobacco's bid to bully the repeal of some of the City of Goleta's tough, anti-smoking restrictions.
It's all here, right now on Newsmakers TV. Check out the new show via YouTube below or by clicking through this link. The podcast version is here.