Santa Barbara News Network

SLO mayoral candidates talk jobs

mcole — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 07:00:03 +0000

SAN LUIS OBISPO – 12:00 am – Three of the four candidates for San Luis Obispo mayor faced off in a forum hosted by the Chamber of Commerce Wednesday.

Paul Brown, Andrew Farrell, Donald Hedrick and Jan Marx are running in the race; the election will be held in November.

We asked them all one question: How will they try to bring more so-called “head-of-household” jobs that can provide for a family to San Luis Obispo?

Read it at MSNBC

Video reveals rough ride on cruise ship

mcole — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 04:28:39 +0000

2nd degree murder charge in CHP crash

SBNN — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 04:20:07 +0000

SAN LUIS OBISPO – 9:19 pm The 22-year-old Atascadero woman accused of causing the car crash that killed a CHP officer near Paso Robles in June has been charged with second degree murder.

The Tribune reports prosecutors were in court Tuesday, September 7 armed with tests that could stiffen Kaylee Ann Weisenberg’s penalty.

Authorities say Weisenberg was driving with a “high level of methamphetamine” when her vehicle allegedly struck and killed Officer Brett Oswald’s patrol car on South River Road near Spanish Camp Road.

Weisenberg earlier pleaded not guilty to felony vehicular manslaughter.

More cops being hired in CA, but not here: SBPD, City ring in on new census figures

SBNN — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 04:05:07 +0000

SANTA BARBARA – 9:04 pm – Santa Barbara is bucking a statewide trend when it comes to hiring police officers, according to new census figures.

The number of officers has continued to rise in California, while Santa Barbara’s have gone down.

There were 69,429 police officers employed during 2009, according to data compiled by the Sacramento Bee; that’s an 11% increase compared to 2007.

(Image: Sacramento Bee)

The Santa Barbara Police department’s figures for that same period were not available by the deadline to file this news report.

But the Police Officers Association has been saying for months the force has lost 14 officers in 8 years.

The POA said the department is short 10 officers and 10 pulled paperwork for early retirement after contract talks with the city reached an impasse the end of August.

Cold case detective Jaycee Hunter told THESBNN.COM, “If other agencies were adding police officers, and we were cutting police officers, then we can see how out of the norm SBPD is with other departments in the state.

Santa Barbara City Manager Jim Armstrong isn’t buying the new figures.

“It’s difficult to believe the number of police officers is on the rise when the information we’ve received from many cities reflects budget reductions to police departments.”

Carol Leveroni of the California Peace Officers’ Association agrees.

“There’s nobody on my board who hasn’t been affected by laying off officers. I don’t know where those figures are coming from.”

The figures had a few folks scratching their head at the Commission on Peace Officers Standards and Training in Sacramento.

POST sets selection and training standards for California law enforcement; it also has a database on hiring, firing, death and everything else, that dates back to 1960.

Dick Reed, Assistant Executive Director in charge of Administration told THESBNN.COM he was surprised by the census numbers because his agency is the one charged by the legislature with tracking them and the numbers don’t square.

POST says there were 84,433 police officers statewide in 2007.

That number increased only slightly in 2009 to 85,595, which is nowhere near the 11% jump reported in the census figures.

There is another big discrepancy.

POST has 16,166 more police officers employed in the state in 2009 than the government.

And one more point that caused a bit of consternation.

The double-digit increase was used to make the case that local governments are sparing police departments from budget cuts; a premise that flies in the face of the cold hard reality.

“We’re seeing more and more cities having trouble meeting payroll. The (police officers) jobs are going away,” Reed said.

That’s one trend Santa Barbara police officers say they are trying to buck.

Ronald Reagan biopic planned

SBNN — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 15:02:16 +0000

LOS ANGELES – 8:01 am – The story of Ronald Reagan’s life — from boyhood to Hollywood actor to leader of the free world — is about to spill out on the big screen in a way quite different from the miniseries that caused such a stir seven years ago.

The feature film, titled “Reagan” and sporting a $30 million production budget, is set for release late next year and will be based on two best-selling biographies of the 40th U.S. president by Paul Kengor: “The Crusader” and “God and Ronald Reagan.”

(Ronald Reagan/PHOTO-Hollywood Reporter)

Mark Joseph, who optioned the books four years ago, is co-producing with Ralph Winter and Jonas McCord wrote the script.

Read it at Hollywood Reporter

Companies spend indirectly on politics

SBNN — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 14:44:07 +0000

WASHINGTON, D.C. – 7:43 am – Some of the nation’s largest publicly traded companies said they will not channel corporate funds directly into political advertising that targets candidates, even though it is legal for them to do so.

But most of the companies surveyed by the non-partisan Center for Political Accountability said they have no plans to impose conditions on political spending by their trade associations, which are non-profits that can collect and spend unlimited amounts on campaign ads without publicly revealing their donors.

(Target recently issued a public apology after it donated $150,000 to a pro-business group that supported Tom Emmer, a GOP candidate for Minnesota governor and a vocal opponent of same-sex marriage/PHOTO-Craig Lassig)

One of the biggest is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has promised to spend a record $75 million in this year’s elections.

Read it at USA Today

Atascadero’s $130M school repairs package tied to voters, state

SBNN — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 14:33:34 +0000

ATASCADERO – 7:29 am – The Atascadero school board on Tuesday unanimously approved a nearly $130 million package of campus renovations and repairs that includes moving or renovating the junior high school and arts academy and constructing a new high school performing arts center.

Atascadero Unified School District taxpayers would pay for most of that if voters in November approve Measure I, a bond and property tax increase.

The state would finance a portion, too.

In addition to renovating Atascadero Junior High School and the Atascadero Fine Arts Academy, or relocating those to a new site outside downtown, and building the performing arts center at Atascadero High School, the updated Facilities Master Plan includes numerous repairs and renovations at Del Rio Continuation High School and seven elementary schools.

Read it at The Tribune

Detroit’s mayor to address city on fires

SBNN — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 14:20:34 +0000

DETROIT – 7:19 am – Detroit Mayor Dave Bing’s office said he and other city officials will hold a news conference this afternoon to address the dozens of fires that swept across the city overnight, devastating several neighborhoods.

Bing, Deputy Mayor Saul Green and Fire Commissioner James Mack will speak with the media at 2 p.m. at City Hall, Bing spokesman Dan Lijana said in a news release.

As many as 85 fires erupted Tuesday night across the city, fanned by high winds, but blocks of homes near Gratiot south of 7 Mile were hit particularly hard.

(At least twenty homes (most of a city block) were fully-engulfed in flames today on Robinwood, east of Van Dyke on Detroit's east side on Tuesday, September 7, 2010. (Marcin Szczepanski)

About nine houses on one block of Robinwood were destroyed apparently after a downed power line set a garage on fire, and winds blew hot ash and flames onto nearby homes.

Read it at the Freep

FBI: No explosives found after jet bomb threat

SBNN — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 14:14:35 +0000

LOS ANGELES – 7:13 am - Investigators found no explosives aboard a Los Angeles-bound Thai Airways flight in which a bomb threat was found scrawled on a bathroom mirror, the FBI said Wednesday.

FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said investigators conducted a thorough search of the plane Tuesday night and found no evidence to suggest a credible threat to the aircraft existed.

(Passengers leave a Thai Airlines jet following an emergency landing Tuesday night at Los Angeles International Airport/AFP - Getty Images/KTLA-TV)

All passengers were immediately removed from the plane, interviewed and released, Eimiller said. There were no arrests.

Read it at MSNBC

BP report blames several companies in spill

SBNN — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 13:59:53 +0000

WASHINGTON, D.C. – 6:55 am – The oil giant BP said Wednesday in its internal report that a series of failures involving a number of companies ultimately led to the huge oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

“No single factor caused the Macondo well tragedy,” BP said in a statement about the report. “Rather, a sequence of failures involving a number of different parties led to the explosion and fire which killed 11 people and caused widespread pollution in the Gulf of Mexico earlier this year.”

(The Deepwater Horizon oil platform burning following the massive explosion in the Gulf of Mexico in April/AP)

Conducted by the company’s safety chief, Mark Bly, and a team of about 50 mostly BP employees, the inquiry was initiated almost immediately after the April 20 explosion that killed 11 and spilled almost five million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

Read it at New York Times