‘Ninja Scouts’ by Kevin Doyle

Read all of the stories in our “Locals-Only Sneak Peek at SBIFF” cover here. We’re just starting to scratch the surface of the treasure trove of films to look forward to at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. A few things to mark your calendars for (with many more to come):

I was only researching the history of a house on East Haley Street for my Great House Detective column in July 2021. But something unexpected happened, and I ended up wandering all over Santa Barbara. The house on Haley has an old sandstone hitching post on the front parkway. The homeowners are especially proud of their post. I wondered how many hitching posts we still had and where they were.

Santa Barbara Dance Theater marked its 46th anniversary with Intimacy & Autonomy at the Hatlen Theater, January 18-22. Under the direction of new SBDT Artistic Director, Brandon Whited (Associate Professor of Dance/Director of Dance Performance), this show featured two guest choreographers in addition to Whited’s own premiere work. Partial...

After a life filled with love and adventure, Charles Ephraim French passed away on January 26 as he lived, with dignity and grace. Ephraim was born on October 30, 1943 and grew up in Palo Alto. Santa Barbara became the hub of his life when he and his family settled here in the 1970s. Ephraim worked for almost 20 years as a Montessori Center School teacher before moving with his family to Uzbekistan, Benin, and Atlanta. He eventually returned to Santa Barbara, where he lived for the last several years.

Mary Muneio quietly passed away on January 3, 2023, in Santa Barbara. She was pre-deceased by her three older brothers, Louis, Ralph, Don and loving husband, Nelson Muneio. Mary is survived by her four children: Jim, Tom, Betty, Bill and several grandchildren; Mike, Tracy, Tommy, Shea, Tyler ,Chad and Megan, plus many nieces and nephews.

Read all of the stories in our “Locals-Only Sneak Peek at SBIFF” cover here. The story behind this story starts with the painting. Last fall, the superlative and vibe-capturing painter Patricia Chidlaw had her summertime exhibition at Sullivan Goss Gallery, bearing the self-explanatory title The Pool Show. One of the prize canvases in this set of cool pool portraits was a twilight view of the pool at the unique hotel known as the Cliff House Inn, just south of the Rincon.

Written right here in Santa Barbara, The Coral Sea, a music project started by singer-songwriter Rey Villalobos, just released their new album Golden Planet Sky, a mix of indie and folk reminiscent of Beach House and “exactly everything I’ve been doing in the past” says Villalobos. Featuring nine songs produced on Villalobos’s artist-run label, you can really feel each and every song course through you as you listen.

Press releases are posted on Independent.com as a free community service. Climate sensing. Neural circuits. Active matter. Molecular beam epitaxy. Multimedia learning. Five UC Santa Barbara professors in disciplines spanning geology to biology, physics to psychology have been selected as this year’s newest fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

On Wednesday, Santa Barbara Unified School District (SBUSD) staff announced that graffiti of a swastika symbol was recently found on a pole in the Dos Pueblos High School athletic stadium. “While we have not determined the perpetrator, Santa Barbara Unified condemns this hateful act in the strongest possible terms,” the...

I heard some discussion this week from an agent on our team working with a buyer. I wanted to pass this along as I thought it was a great case of where we are now. He mentioned that the parents of the buyers were saying to wait to buy. Which as a parent or family member, being protective of their kids or extended family from an outsider could make sense. But let’s dive deeper into this advice.

SANTA BARBARA – To help increase access to care, Cottage Health is excited to announce that Cottage Virtual Care is now offered in Spanish. Launching today for California residents, Cottage Virtual Care – Spanish is always open, offering 24/7 coverage for virtual care visits. Anyone can visit cottagehealth.org/atencion-virtual...

Steve died of natural causes at his home in Santa Barbara. May he rest in peace. A private service will be held by his family.

Walter Hogan, Jr. beloved husband, father, grandfather, and brother, passed away peacefully on November 13, 2022, at the age of 92, in Solvang California. Walter, known as Walt to his many friends, was born February 15, 1930, in West Hartford, Connecticut to Walter L. Hogan M.D. and Marion Campbell Hogan. He grew up in West Hartford and spent summers fishing for Bass, Pike, and Walleyes at the family’s cottage on Lake Champlain in Burlington, Vermont.

The Channel Islands YMCA expanded its services for “transitional-age” youth (ages 17-24) experiencing homelessness with a first-of-its-kind facility on Santa Barbara’s Eastside. The Haley Street Navigation Center is located in the freshly refurbished former firehouse on the corner of Haley and Quarantina streets — previously the home...

For decades, Santa Barbara held the distinction of being the only county in California in which law enforcement officers were not empowered or authorized to issue 5150 holds on individuals they deemed to pose an imminent risk to either themselves or others. As of February 1, that’s changing. Sort of.

If all goes according to a new $774 million deal struck with a Canadian green energy company, most Santa Barbara County electrical customers could find themselves relying on compressed air to meet their green energy needs from 4 o’clock in the afternoon ’til 9 at night, when solar energy is typically in short supply.

On Monday, UC Santa Barbara students and staff were shocked to discover anti-Semitic messages scrawled on a chalkboard of an Israeli Politics class on campus. One statement specifically read, “From the river to the sea,” referring to a common phrase symbolizing the total elimination of the State of Israel and Palestinian control from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

As is noted in this article, Santa Barbara County has had but 16 beds for the care of 5150 WIC referrals (probably for as long as that statute has been on the books). [WIC stands for Welfare & Institutions Code] But the reason for that absurd limitation should be addressed.

“With the murder of Tyre Nichols, another mother weeps, with the mothers of Emmett Till, Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many others. A family grieves. A community fears. A nation is ashamed.” —Bishop Michael Curry. We are saddened, angry, and need...

Last year’s union-backed strikes across University of California campuses won historic raises for its 48,000 academic workers, but UC campuses are now faced with the challenge of funding the wage increases set within those new labor contracts. Cuts to graduate student admissions are being considered as a potential avenue...