Daniel Blackburn
Daniel Blackburn is editor of KCCN.tv
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Exclusive: Kelly Gearhart pleads guilty
By KAREN VELIE and DANIEL BLACKBURN Developer Kelly Gearhart pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud and one count of money laundering in a Los Angeles federal court Wednesday morning. His plea came in a case in which he was accused of stealing more than $100 million from investors in real estate development projects. […]... (Continue Reading)
Water district booster buying land for Harvard U.
By DANIEL BLACKBURN An outspoken proponent of a plan for an acreage-dominated Paso Robles water district has quietly been directing investments in large San Luis Obispo County parcels of plantable land, paying top dollar and using funds provided by Harvard University’s $33 billion endowment. Matt Turrentine, who with James Ontiveros formed Grapevine Capital Partners in […]... (Continue Reading)
Settlement stunner ends ticket quota trial
By DANIEL BLACKBURN A settlement reached during the noon hour Thursday abruptly ended a civil trial pitting a former Paso Robles police officer against his one-time employer for allegedly ordering unlawful traffic ticket quotas as part of a relentless quest for more city revenues. Terms of the settlement, called “confidential” by San Luis Obispo County […]... (Continue Reading)
Jury picked for ticket quota trial
By DANIEL BLACKBURN A jury of nine women and three men will determine if Paso Robles city and police officials established an illegal traffic ticket quota in 2010, and then retaliated against one officer who objected to the alleged policy. The panel was sworn in Wednesday afternoon after two days of culling through a large […]... (Continue Reading)
Mecham says Paso Robles water district dead
By DANIEL BLACKBURN A controversial water district proposal sponsored by a group of vintners and ranchers and intended to manage the Paso Robles aquifer probably will not pass constitutional muster, and its primary backer said he is “disheartened.” “It looks like it’s dead,” said First District Supervisor Frank Mecham about the district plan upon his […]... (Continue Reading)
CAB throws water on district formation plans
By DANIEL BLACKBURN A group representing hundreds of rural landowners in Creston won’t support a proposed North County water district as presently envisioned by its advocates. Sheila Lyons, chair of the Creston Advisory Body (CAB), sent a letter to Assemblyman Katcho Achadjian (R-San Luis Obispo) Monday suggesting that members of the CAB and others in […]... (Continue Reading)
Lady Gaga’s Hearst pool filling not OK with state
By DANIEL BLACKBURN Lady Gaga’s much publicized video-taping gig at Hearst Castle Feb. 11 had everything a fan of the singer could imagine — music, dancing, plastic swans, fake flowers, and a giant seashell — everything, it seems except proper authorization to fill the castle’s famous pool. The event necessitated filling of the 345,000-gallon pool […]... (Continue Reading)
Nuanced definitions muddy water debate
By DANIEL BLACKBURN and KAREN VELIE San Luis Obispo County supervisors are preparing the framework for facilitating a North County-based water district even while advocates scramble to describe what such a district would, or could, do. A widening rift over water rights to the Paso Robles basin, pitting agricultural and rural neighbors against one another, […]... (Continue Reading)
Paso water group wields major-league muscle
Eyes on your water: Second in a series of reports on the North County’s festering water politics. A list of the top 30 land owners over the Paso Robles aquifer is available below this story. By DANIEL BLACKBURN Some of California’s biggest players in water politics have become influential figures in the leadership of a […]... (Continue Reading)
Is water banking in SLO County’s future?
Eyes on your water: First in a series of reports on the North County’s festering water politics. By DANIEL BLACKBURN Little San Luis Obispo County is poised to become a major player in the West’s high-stakes water future, even while local land-owning water users fret about declining supplies stressed by an increasingly voracious agricultural thirst. […]... (Continue Reading)
