Here they go again! It never ceases to amaze how far Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E), a “public utility,” will go in harming the public interest. Their latest ploy is an attempt to surreptitiously resurrect the nearly 40-year-old Diablo Canyon nuclear plant, which is scheduled to close by 2025. They want to bring it back […]
I reconnected with showbiz vets James Widdoes and Tim Matheson on the passing of Ivan Reitman, the prolific director and producer and founder of the wildly successful production company The Montecito Picture Company. All four of us (including Reitman) are connected through the National Lampoon, a magazine where I was once editor but which has […]
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It’s interesting that one person getting water from the Montecito Creek Water Company, Mr. Jon Emanuel, and not the company itself, responded to my letter advocating return of the Montecito hot springs by the ruins (Cliff Spring and Barn Springs) to the people. He claims I said things that are “factually incorrect,” yet he characterizes […]
In the political swamp that has ensnared our democratic republic a glimmer of something we haven’t seen for almost six years is on the horizon: the emergence of a fissure in the Republican party, which has lately been in the grips of Mr. Trump’s remarkably single-handed control as it morphed into the Cult of Trump. […]
It was towards the end of Black History Month in 2019. Coffee with a Black Guy (CWABG) was hosting our first community conversation in a yearlong collaboration with the Lois and Walter Capps Project (now the Common Table Foundation). More people were gathered for this event than any of the previously convened conversations since launching […]
We can’t solve important local problems unless we get better at recognizing what we do and don’t know. That includes acknowledging when our conclusions may be unsupported and when we need to look beyond our own experiences to understand the experiences of others. Consider, for example, discussions about dual language immersion (DLI) programs, in which […]
Combating climate change and the effects of air traffic are dichotomous and irreconcilable. In spite of this threat, private/corporate and commercial jets are increasingly congesting our local skies. To make matters worse, Santa Barbara’s City Council approved the airport expansion that is expected to bring a 50% increase in aircraft traffic in 10 years. While […]
A major battle broke out between a bunch of Irish fishermen from County Cork Ireland, and the pride of the Russian navy. You may have missed the news story, so it is worth spending some time looking at what happened, why, and what lessons we can take away from the exchange. The story begins with […]
Last week this column skewered the plaintive cry of the character Gordon Gekko in the film Wall Street when he propounded that “Greed is good.” In doing so we wrapped up the article by quoting one of the most famous and powerful of all capitalists, Chairman and CEO Larry Fink of BlackRock. The firm Fink […]
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His essay last week on the oppressive travesty of the California Utilities’ profit-grab to punish small-scale solar adopters is incisive, intensely angry, and wholly alarming. Not to mention using a great metaphor in “Jabberwocky!” (English majors always appreciate an apt literary reference to make a mockery of something so absurd as this “plan.”) So, thank […]
Many people familiar with economic history are familiar with the huge influence that Milton Friedman commanded in our recent economic past. Friedman, an economist and statistician, had an outsized impact on nations around the world through his work heading up the “Chicago School” (referring to the University of Chicago where he taught and led a […]
Investor-Owned Utilities (“Utilities”) are plotting to kill California’s solar program. Apparently, avarice, and the ability to get away with causing 85 percent of area lost in recent forest fires in California, are not enough, and they are now coming up with ways to dramatically reduce all new solar installations in California. Can you believe that […]
In October of 2021, universities around the United Kingdom started making headlines after the rise of a threatening new epidemic: injectable date-rape drugs. I remember the buzz at my own university as students called for stricter safety measures in bars and clubs. The fear of this new weapon for sexual assault and the lack of […]
The recent targeting of a Colleyville, Texas Jewish community in connection with grievances it had nothing to do with was just the latest in a trend of rising antisemitic violence and conduct in recent years. We have seen some of it here, with 26 credible reports of antisemitic incidents in the Tri-Counties last year (more […]
