Santa Barbara Widow at the Center of Vacation Rental Controversy

Airbnb's taken up her cause.

At KEYT News 3 Santa Barbara:

Isla Vista Rebranding Campaign

School starts next week at UCSB, so local Isla Vista boosters are launching a community rebranding campaign.

I can see why, after leftist Elliot Roger's murder rampage last year.

At the Santa Barbara Independent, "Ad Campaign Seeks to ‘Rebrand’ Isla Vista."

And watch John Palminteri, at KEYT News 3 Santa Barbara, "ISLA VISTA REBRANDING."

Santa Maria Police Chief Ralph Martin Slams Proposition 47 in Wake of Illegal Alien Murder of 64-Year Old Marilyn Pharis (VIDEO)

Here's CNN's coverage from a few days ago, "Police chief blames immigration, crime policies in murder of California woman."

But watch local ABC News 3 Santa Barbara's report, "THE TRAGIC KILLING OF MARILYN PHARIS HAS THE DISTRICT ATTORNEY FOCUSED ON THE FACTS OF THE KILLING AND THE SUSPECTS - THE POLICE CHIEF OF SANTA MARIA SAYS THE LAW CHANGES ARE CONTRIBUTING FACTORS."

I'm going with Chief Martin.

PREVIOUSLY: "Illegal Alien Charged with Murder in Brutal Attack on 64-Year-Old Marilyn Pharis of Santa Maria (VIDEO)."

Coast-to-Coast Protests Against Ghoulish Fetal Parts Harvester Planned Parenthood (VIDEO)

At KEYT News 3 Santa Barbara, "Planned Parenthood Protests Follow Secretly Recorded Videos."

Plus, at Life News, "4th Video Catches Planned Parenthood VP Discussing How to Break the Law to Sell Aborted Babies."

Refugio State Beach Reopens Two Months After Oil Spill (VIDEO)

The oil spill was just about two month ago. See, "Santa Barbara Refugio Oil Spill is Bleak Reminder of 1969 Environmental Disaster."

And now Refugio's back open, via KEYT Santa Barbara:

Santa Barabara County Bans Skateboarding on Steep Downhill Roads

This is wicked!

At KEYT-3 Santa Barbara:



And see the Santa Barbara Independent, "Skateboarding Banned on Old San Marcos, Painted Cave, Gibraltar."

Skateboarding is not a crime!

Santa Barbara Refugio Oil Spill is Bleak Reminder of 1969 Environmental Disaster

I'll never forget, back in 1992, when my wife and I moved to Santa Barbara, after a day at the beach your feet would be covered in black tar. It was never like that in Orange County growing up as a kid, spending summers at the beach. Santa Barbara had the catastrophic oil spill in 1969 and the oil was still stuck deep into the sand. You had to scrape the tar off.

So this week's oil spill at Refugio State Beach is bringing back bitter reminders of the dangers of oil extraction along the coast. As the Los Angeles Times reports, "Santa Barbara oil pipeline leak rekindles memories of 1969 disaster":

It was a scene that generations of people on the Santa Barbara coast have dreaded: Cleanup workers in white protective suits combing tar-splattered beaches, hoping to contain the damage from a crude oil spill.

Nearly 50 years ago, a blowout on an offshore oil platform spewed more than 3 million gallons of oil into the Santa Barbara Channel and devastated the coastline, killing thousands of seabirds and galvanizing the U.S. environmental movement.

The spill that occurred Tuesday when a pipeline ruptured near U.S. 101 was far smaller — up to 105,000 gallons. But the incident gave rise to similar anger and frustration on the part of residents and environmentalists who have long feared a repeat of the 1969 disaster along the same sensitive coastline.

Santa Barbara County Supervisor Salud Carbajal, standing above a pile of blackened, oil-covered rocks at Refugio State Beach, said that the spill "reminds us of the perils this industry has."

On Wednesday, the U.S. Coast Guard deployed half a dozen vessels to skim oil from the water and contain it with booms as crews of cleanup workers removed tar and oil from sand and rocks on the shoreline and shoveled mud into clear plastic bags.

Federal authorities said the 24-inch pipeline leaked for several hours after it ruptured near Refugio State Beach. Crews stopped the leak by 3 p.m., Coast Guard Petty Officer Andrea Anderson said.

The oil flowed down a culvert and into the ocean, and by Wednesday morning had formed two slicks totaling a combined nine miles in length.

Authorities estimated that it could take at least three days to clean up the spill.

The rupture occurred on an 11-mile pipe owned by Houston-based Plains All American Pipeline that carries crude from a storage tank in Las Flores to a facility in Gaviota. The pipeline is part of a larger oil transport network that is centered in Kern County and carries oil to refineries throughout California.

The pipeline was designed to carry about 150,000 barrels of oil per day, according to company officials.

The company said its estimate of 105,000 gallons spilled is a worst-case scenario based on the line's elevation and flow rate, which averages about 50,400 gallons an hour. Of that, about 21,000 gallons reached the ocean, but both figures are under investigation, according to a statement from the company and state and federal officials. Investigators won't find a cause for the rupture until they excavate the line, which was installed in 1987. An employee noticed problems and shut the line down about 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, the statement said.

That pipeline had not ruptured before, the company said. An inspection of the line using an internal tool was completed a few weeks ago but results hadn't come back before Tuesday's incident, the company said.

Michelle Rogow, a site manager with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said the pipeline had been regulated by the State Fire Marshal until two years ago, when jurisdiction was transferred to the Department of Transportation.

Below the spill site, just west of Refugio State Beach, a wide, black path stained the landscape of eucalyptus trees and shrubs. The oil apparently flowed through a storm drain that runs under U.S. 101 and train tracks, and into the ocean.

Officials were investigating reports of dead and live birds covered in oil, but the state Department of Fish and Wildlife did not have an official count of the animals affected. The agency deployed teams on shore — and one in a boat — to look for birds, marine mammals and other wildlife harmed by the spill.

But some of the victims of the spill were becoming apparent...

More.

Lots more at the "oil spill" search link.

Santa Barbara Woman Tests Negative for Ebola

At the Santa Barbara Independent, "Santa Barbara Health Officials Monitoring Possible Ebola Case: A Woman Who Recently Traveled to West Africa."

Isla Vista Victims' Families Sue Sheriff's Dept., Apartments Where Killer Lived

I guess someone's gotta pay, right? I mean, he was literally psycho, but somehow he fell through the cracks. And someone's gotta pay.

Sad. A lawsuit won't bring back loved ones.

At LAT, "Families of Elliot Rodger's slain roommates sue sheriff's, apartment."

Sea Lion Hitches Ride on Family's Kayak at Stearns Wharf, Santa Barbara

What a great story, from KEYT Santa Barabara:

Santa Barbara News-Press Won't Back Down on 'Illegals'

Good.

At LAT, "Amid outcry, News-Press is adamant on provocative term for immigrants":

A few decades ago, it wasn't unusual for American newspapers to refer to people living in the United States without legal permission as "illegal aliens," or even "illegals."

Those terms were criticized as offensive and eventually gave way to "illegal immigrant," a label that itself was jettisoned by most outlets two years ago, when the Associated Press banned the term from its stylebook in favor of language that more precisely describes a person's immigration status.

That approach — adopted by The Times in 2013 — seemed to have taken root and defused the criticism in most places. But the local newspaper's decision to call such immigrants "illegals" has turned idyllic Santa Barbara into an unlikely flashpoint in the nation's immigration battles.

The News-Press ran the headline "Illegals Line Up for Driver's Licenses" on Jan. 3, prompting protests and a message painted in red on the wall of the newspaper's offices. The paper used the term again last Friday in another front page story: "Driving Legal Opens Door to Illegals' Past."

News-Press officials have stuck by their choice of language, saying that describing someone living in the country illegally as an "illegal" is accurate, and compared the vandalism on their offices to the deadly attack on the Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris.

"We will not give in to the thugs who are attempting to use political correctness as a tool of censorship and a weapon to shut down this newspaper," News-Press co-publisher Arthur von Wiesenberger wrote on the website of the Minuteman Project, which opposes illegal immigration.

But community groups have denounced the newspaper, calling for an advertising boycott.

"They have a racist perspective and they don't seem very apologetic about it," said Savanah Maya, a Santa Barbara City College student and member of People Organizing for the Defense and Equal Rights of Santa Barbara Youth.

The dispute erupted anew Monday, when protesters for and against the newspaper staged dueling rallies in a downtown plaza.

Using the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday as a backdrop for their positions framed as human rights and freedom of speech issues, one side argued that the headline was racist and the other argued that it was an accurate description of immigrants applying for driver's licenses without having to prove citizenship. The licenses became available under a state law that took effect Jan. 1.

The two sides had limited interaction during the peaceful rallies, which attracted several hundred people. Police put up a temporary fence to separate the groups.

"I respect their right to free speech," said City Councilwoman Cathy Murillo, who attended the pro-immigrant rally, "but they don't have to be hateful. It's like the 'N-word' for blacks."

The rally in support of the News-Press was staged by We the People Rising, a Claremont-based group that favors tough enforcement of laws against illegal immigration.

"They should be allowed to decide the type of language they want to use," said Robin Hvidston, executive director of We the People Rising. "They have a right to use that word. Where do you stop?"

The News-Press, which began in 1855, has experienced diminished goodwill in the community since 2006, when reporters and editors began departing en masse, citing editorial meddling from billionaire owner and publisher Wendy McCaw.

Don Katich, director of news operations for the News-Press, said Monday that the newspaper has used the word "illegals" for a decade to describe immigrants in the United States without permission, and does not plan on changing its policy despite criticism or financial pressure.

He said that the federal government uses the word online and on official documents, and that a vast majority of people agree that it's an appropriate term.

"It accurately describes the 800-pound gorilla in this whole story," Katich said. "People are in this country illegally.… I think that's why this has tapped a national nerve."...

More.

Video here: "Santa Barbara News-Press Protested by Open Border Extremists."

BONUS: At Michelle Malkin's, "Attack of the Open-Borders Mau-Mau-ers":

News-Press publisher Wendy McCaw told me this week that the free speech-stifling thugs “have threatened to return on January 19 to deliver a petition and stage another protest against us if we do not offer a retraction by 3 p.m. that day.” McCaw vows she will not bend to the ultimatum or any other — and she has a track record to prove her toughness.

McCaw has defied the progressive forces of political correctness for years in previous First Amendment battles over whom she should hire and how she should run her newspaper. Radical elements in her community and industry have long held a grudge against her and her paper for resisting union pressure and refusing to conform to left-wing orthodoxy.
And boy, do these people know how to hold grudges.

In addition to the paint bombs, unhinged mau-mau-ers spray-painted a radical Reconquista slogan on the News-Press building: “The border is illegal, not the people who cross it.”

Yes, they’re still trying to re-fight the Mexican-American War of 1848 and re-litigate the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. No surprise. Santa Barbara has been a longstanding hotbed of tribal grievance politics. In the late 1960s, liberal Latinos at the University of California at Santa Barbara unveiled El Plan de Aztlan, which states:

“We do not recognize capricious frontiers on the bronze continent. Brotherhood unites us, and love for our brothers makes us a people whose time has come and who struggles against the foreigner ‘gabacho’ who exploits our riches and destroys our culture. With our heart in our hands and our hands in the soil, we declare the independence of our mestizo nation. We are a bronze people with a bronze culture.”

The Aztlan plan birthed Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA) — an identity politics indoctrination machine on publicly subsidized college and high school campuses nationwide whose members have rioted in Los Angeles and editorialized that federal immigration “pigs should be killed, every single one” in San Diego.

As I’ve reported previously, the MEChA Constitution calls on members to “promote Chicanismo within the community, politicizing our Raza (race) with an emphasis on indigenous consciousness to continue the struggle for the self-determination of the Chicano people for the purpose of liberating Aztlan.” “Aztlan” is the group’s term for the vast southwestern U.S. expanse, from parts of Washington and Oregon down to California and Arizona and over to Texas, which MEChA claims to be a mythical homeland and seeks to reconquer for Mexico.

MEChA’s symbol is an eagle clutching a dynamite stick and a machete-like weapon in its claws; its motto is “Por La Raza todo. Fuera de La Raza nada.” Translation: For the Race, everything. For those outside the Race, nothing.”

Tell me who the racists are again.

PREVIOUSLY: "Leftist Open-Borders Vigilantes Attack Santa-Barbara News-Press for Accurately Identifying Illegal Aliens."

Leftist Open-Borders Vigilantes Attack Santa-Barbara News-Press for Accurately Identifying Illegal Aliens

Radical open-borders thugs have laid siege to the Santa Barbara News-Press, after the newspaper ran a completely accurate report headlined, "Illegals Line Up for Drivers Licenses."

That's it. But in this age of manufactured "micro-aggression" perpetual outrage, publishing the truth on the front page of the daily news is likely to bring down the the left's fascist thought police, to say nothing of graffiti vandals and violent anarcho-communists. Unfortunately, the French jihadist attack on Charlie Hebdo has given the left a successful template on how to shut down speech and exterminate political enemies.

At NewsBusters, "Santa Barbara Newspaper Building Vandalized for 'Worst Ever' Headline on 'Illegals'."

And see KEYT-TV Santa Barbara, "Protestors Rally Against Santa Barbara News-Press: Paper Defends Use of "Illegals" in Front Page Story on Undocumented Immigrants":

Thursday afternoon, News-Press Director of News Operations Don Katich released this statement:

"It has been the practice for nearly 10 years at the Santa Barbara News-Press to describe people living in this country illegally as “illegals” regardless of their country of origin. This practice is under fire by some immigration groups who believe that this term is demeaning and does not accurately reflect the status of “undocumented immigrants,” one of several terms other media use to describe people in the Unites States illegally.

You have to look no further than the White House website to see the term “illegal” used when describing the 2 million illegal immigrants President Obama has deported since taking office for being in the U.S. illegally.

It is an appropriate term in describing someone as “illegal” if they are in this country illegally.

The colossal mess that describes the U.S. immigration policy is a product of unenforced laws, conflicting legislation, unsecured borders, executive action and political pandering. However the most egregious aspect of the U.S. immigration condition is the appearance of lawlessness that subjects millions of people living in this country illegally as pawns in a never-ending game of political posturing.

The outrage voiced by immigration advocates should be directed at the current immigration system that takes years of bureaucratic red tape to complete. This outrage is shared by those who go through the process legally and stand at the end of the line of those who skirt U.S. law.

Ours is a system of laws, a system so valued that people from around the world – including many from lawless nations – flock here to be a part of it. The United States of America affords those seeking it a lawful immigration process; it also affords the politically persecuted a haven from persecution. With this freedom comes responsibility. As history has shown, some choose to wait out the process, while others choose to come here on their own terms. The latter are illegal in the eyes of this valued system and the Santa Barbara News-Press calls them so.

When breaking the law becomes the norm, America is no better than other lawless nations."

Remember, truth is the new hate speech. And leftists will enforce their ideological prohibitions against truth with violence and destruction.

The Pull of Community at La Conchita

We lived in Santa Barbara in 1995 when La Conchita suffered its first devastating mudslide. Days of torrential rains triggered it. We used to drive by down the 101. It was like a demolition zone. And then 10 years later it happened again, with a terrible loss of life. But people still want to live there, despite the dangers of another slide.

At LAT, "10 years after fatal mudslide, tiny La Conchita accepts the risks":

A child's dollhouse jammed against a chain-link fence marked "No Trespassing" sits in the shadow of a mangled brick home covered in clotted dirt.

Two faded white crosses lie toppled on a mound of soil taller than a man; nearby, upended planters where someone's flowers once grew sprout weeds. A hand-painted sign dangling in the ocean breeze reads, "Do Stuff That Makes Buddha Happy."

The events of Jan. 10, 2005, when 400,000 tons of mud slid down the bluff behind La Conchita, killing seven adults and three children, are frozen in the eerie tableau — a reminder of the hidden dangers lurking beneath the surface. The tragedy came 10 years after the hill collapsed in 1995 when nine homes were lost.

Yet the possibility of the slope crashing again toward the Pacific Ocean has done little to dissuade people from putting down roots in the eclectic Ventura County beach community near the Santa Barbara County line. As the 10-year anniversary of the deadly slide approaches, the 500-foot cliff remains unfortified, and at least four ramshackle houses sit seemingly undisturbed since the last rescue crews left town.

Faded memories, relatively inexpensive real estate and a wide beach not far from the famous Rincon surf point tend to dull the perception of risk. It helps that the ranch at the top of the hill stopped irrigation leaks that residents contended caused the slope to erode.

But the town of 300 residents wedged between the hill and U.S. Highway 101 has another, less tangible draw to survivors and newcomers — community.

"Culturally, it's so similar to Mexico with how important family is," said Kelly Hill, who grew up in La Conchita and moved back last year with her husband and 9-year-old son. "It's like a little fishing village in Mexico. It's the American Mexican fishing village."...

It really is. There used to be a big tropical banana grove on the north side of the town. The place is a trip. So sorry for the tragedy.

Continue reading.

PHOTO CREDIT: Wikimedia Commons.

One Killed, Two injured After Being Struck Amtrak Train at Gaviota State Beach

Just not smart.

Lots of trains rip through Santa Barbara County. And they were on the trestle with no escape.

At LAT, "Couples taking sunset picture hit by train; one dead, two injured."

What Did Happen Exactly to James Hong, David Wang, and George Chen?

I'm really disliking this 20/20 Barbara Walters interview with Peter Rodger, Elliot Rodger's dad.

I might blog it tomorrow. I think Mr. Rodger is lying about how "surprised" he was at his son's rampage. He even sees his son as the "victim," not the perpetrator. (Or he thought his son was the "victim" when he first got news from Isla Vista.)

Meanwhile, here's the front-page report out a week or so ago at the Los Angeles Times "UCSB friends were victims of circumstance."

Also, "Elliot Rodger may have used knife, hammer, machete in killings, attorney says."

Exene Cervenka Issues Apology for Santa Barbara 'Hoax' Remarks — #UCSB

At KROQ:

thanks people for your support. i learned my lesson. no more opinions & i am shutting the fuck up, media wins. hatred is scary.

— Exene Cervenka (@exenecervenka) May 30, 2014

Days after making comments on her Twitter account referring to last weekend’s Santa Barbara shootings as a “hoax,” Exene Cervenka took to another social media channel to air her apology.

In a post on her band X‘s Facebook, the singer apologized for using the word “hoax” to describe the Elliot Rodger shootings, which left seven dead and 13 others injured.

“I want to apologize for using the word ‘hoax’ in a comment I made on social media,” she wrote. “I realize people have died in these violent events and we have all experienced that in our own lives. No one wants anyone else to ever have to go through that.” However, she didn’t exactly back down from one source in particular: the media as a whole.

“The point I am always trying to make is that we need to start thinking critically, looking past the headlines at all available information and make an informed opinion,” Cervenka continued.

“My issue is with the media’s coverage of events that will shape our public policy and laws for generations to come. We all need to be involved in that debate but we cannot contribute unless we have accurate truthful and complete information about what happened at any of these events.”

Also at the O.C. Register, "L.A. punk legends X to revisit their past."

Sierra Swartz, 18-Year-Old Santa Barbara City College Student, Survived Elliot Rodger Murder Rampage

The story's at KEYT, "18-Year-Old City College Student Encountered Elliot Rodger Friday."

Elliot Rodger Smiled Before Shooting, Says #UCSB Survivor Bianca de Kock

Lucky to be alive.

At ABC News, "EXCLUSIVE: Santa Barbara Killer Smiled Before Shooting, Survivor Says."

The YouTube clip is here, "Santa Barbara Survivor: 'He Smiles at Me and Just Starts Shooting'."

More at ABC, "Elliot Rodger's Ex-Roommate Reveals What It Was Like to Live With the Troubled Man."

Sheriff's Deputies Knew of Rodger's 'Disturbing' Videos But Did Not Watch Them

As I said over the weekend, we'd know more as the details trickled out. And here we go with more on the botched Sheriff's Department "welfare check" of Elliot Rodger.

At LAT, "Deputies didn't view Elliot Rodger's videos in welfare check."

Exploiting Mass Murder — #Progs #UCSB #IslaVistaShooting

An outstanding Talking Points Memo from yesterday:



Also, at Blazing Cat Fur, "Rutgers Professor: Killing Spree Result of White Privilege."