Billionaire banker Gerald Ford has agreed to buy a 91 percent interest in Pacific Capital Bancorp, the parent company of First Bank of San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara Bank and Trust, for $500 million. [Rueters] The company plans to... (Continue reading)
Political observers are debating the impact of the tragic explosion involving the BP oil rig off the coast of Louisiana, and how it might affect the current debate over offshore drilling in Santa Barbara. [Calbuzz] The ever-growing spill in the... (Continue reading)
Poor UC Santa Barbara. They don’t seem to get much respect. The campus boasts 1-2-3-4-5 Nobel Prize winners on its faculty, but the school just can’t seem to shake that party down image. Once again, UCSB has the dubious distinction... (Continue reading)
Exxon Mobil’s Santa Barbara facility set a new record for slant drilling from an oil platform off the coast of Santa Barbara, bringing to the forefront tensions between those in favor of local oil exploration and those opposed to off... (Continue reading)
In an effort to reduce former prisoners from re-offending, Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown’s plan to build two parole day reporting centers won board of supervisor support on Tuesday. [Noozhawk] With a reporting center in Santa Maria and one... (Continue reading)
Three major Santa Barbara environmental groups allegedly agreed to support a controversial offshore oil drilling project in 2008, in exchange for $100,000 and other benefits. [Associated Press] The confidential agreement involved Plains Exploration & Production and local environmental groups, including... (Continue reading)