Tag archives: covid
Claudia Hoag McGarry has been involved in writing and literature for decades. Her resume includes more than a dozen screenplays, several novels and, more recently, a handful of theatrical plays as well as 30 years of serving as a Santa Barbara City College English skills teacher. Then COVID-19 arrived, shut down just about everything, and […]
CREST is a Crispr Hope in the Testing Crisis With the United States and the world on the verge of reopening from the global shutdown, there has never been a greater need for effective and reliable COVID-19 testing. While the current methods all have their advantages and drawbacks, they are hampered by shortages, expense, and […]
If you’re finding it difficult to stay calm and not be completely overwhelmed with fear and uncertainty as the COVID-19 pandemic impacts every realm of your life, you are not alone my friends. I’m right there with you and nearly everyone I know is feeling the collective anxiety and mental anguish of this challenging time. […]
The coronavirus and the related deaths of seventy thousand Americans and nearly two hundred thousand more people around the world, would seem to be a shared enemy that could bring people together – even people in a country as divided as ours. Instead, this pandemic has handed us new beliefs over which to divide. Stay […]
The Santa Barbara City College Foundation has sprung into action to support students facing multiple challenges resulting from the current health crisis, including loss of paid work, and homeschooling of children. “When a crisis hits, philanthropy has a unique role to play,” says foundation CEO Geoff Green. “Community-based organizations can immediately move resources to help […]
Lucky’s, the achingly trendy eatery on Coast Village Road, is living up to its name. The Paso Robles winery, PharaohMoans, has donated 100 bottles of their highly acclaimed 2017 Rhone-style wine, with 100 per cent of the proceeds going directly to the restaurant to help support the staffers affected by the coronavirus lockdown. Each bottle […]
Social activist Judi Weisbart, founder and president of Busy Woman Consulting, is now Santa Barbara’s Queen of Masks. The county has hired Judi as Face Covering Community Coordinator, she tells me. “The community desperately needs face coverings on every face,” she says. “There are other funds for healthcare workers PPE, but we must also help […]
Montecito Water District’s Board of Directors held its regular monthly meeting this week as scheduled. The agenda included updates on the status of a Water Supply Agreement with the City of Santa Barbara and the Rate Study. “These projects remain on schedule to be completed and ready for Board consideration in June,” said General Manager […]
Despite the inability to fully open and seat and serve diners, Dario Furlati, owner of the Ca’ Dario restaurants, has softly opened his newest location on Coast Village Road, offering dinner for takeout. “It’s been a long time coming, and I’m happy I can finally open the doors,” he told us earlier this week, behind […]
“We’re itching to get open and…” said Kyle Irwin, “Welcome everybody back!” business partner Susie Bechtel chimed in, finishing her business partner’s sentence. The duo opened their highly anticipated Field + Fort design shop and café in Summerland just this past November to great acclaim – only to shutter the doors some four months later, […]
Tristan Harrison, founder of the Center for Humane Technology; Nichol Bradford, CEO and founder of the Willow Group and co-founder of Transformative Technology Lab; Liana Sananda Gillooly, development officer, MAPS; and Jamie Wheal, co-author of global bestseller Stealing Fire and co-founder of the Flow Genome Project are among a dozen thought-leaders, researchers, academics and entrepreneurs […]
Barbara Rose Sherman – a Yoga Alliance E-RYT-500 Certified Instructor who is also a UCLA Trained Mindfulness Facilitator (TMF) and UCLA Mindfulness Awareness Practices affiliated instructor as well as a Certified Meditation Teacher (CMT) – invites everyone to join her online to nourish and nurture yourself during the coronavirus crisis. Sherman will lead a restorative […]
Gay and Kathlyn Hendricks’ Ojai-based Foundation for Conscious Living has created a number of new resources for meeting the coronavirus crisis on the home page of the organization’s website, where visitors are able to connect with its Restoring Resourcefulness faculty for coaching and education about how to shift from fear to create wellbeing and creative […]
Can the Mind Be Quiet? That’s the timeless and perhaps uber-timely theme in the novel coronavirus era for Krishnamurti Foundation America’s annual May Gathering, which in our “old normal” times would draw hundreds of higher-consciousness seekers to the KFA’s bucolic grounds in Ojai, reminiscent of the days when the Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti himself would […]
When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Go Shopping – Remotely In these tough times, it’s important to support local businesses while also practicing social distancing. To that end, when the COVID-19 pandemic first hit California and changed life as we know it, the Montecito Journal changed its local events listing page to a Grab […]
Earlier this year, before the COVID-19 emergency, I took a tour of the Montecito Sanitary District’s waste treatment facility, where the town’s collective fecal matter is slowly bio-engineered into top-notch soil fertilizer that ends up on the shelves of our local gardening emporiums (see “Montecito’s Most Unusual Harvest,” Montecito Journal, February 12). Part of my […]
Much has been made lately in news articles about the effort to provide masks and other emergency preparedness gear to first responders in Santa Barbara. But not all such gear is wearable. To wit: One805, a nonprofit organization dedicated to supporting first responders, emergency preparedness and response, has just announced the purchase of 45 electric […]
Ever since March 17, the Santa Barbara Zoo has been off limits to the public. That’s not surprising, given California’s stay-at-home restrictions, but it’s a disaster for the Zoo, its employees, and animals. In fact, the 57-year-old institution is facing the most dire financial crisis in its history. For that reason, on Saturday, April 25, […]
When I first met Montecito Fire Chief Kevin Taylor last year, I remember asking him what the biggest challenge was facing his department. “The weather,” he told me, quickly adding that the sheer unpredictability of Montecito’s weather threats, be they fire or rain, made his job uniquely worrisome. This week, I caught up with Taylor […]
On Wednesday, April 22, hundreds of Montecito Union School students, Montecito residents, and members of the community came outside their homes and businesses to wave to dozens of MUS teachers and administrators, who drove their cars in a “parade” throughout Montecito. “Our teachers and staff miss seeing the students’ faces on a daily basis, and […]
