July 30, 2010

Following a judge’s ruling Thursday in Santa Barbara, Patrick Boston an accused pimp can stand trial as charged. Boston allegedly forced an 18 year-old woman from Nebraska to work for him as a prostitute and is now facing 8 years in prison from charges of human trafficking, pandering and pimping. Boston, the victim and another woman, traveled to Santa Barbara and lived in a hotel back in June while advertising services on Craigslist. The victim was able to remove the restriction on Boston’s cell phone and call her mother on their last night in Santa Barbara. Authorities were able to use GPS coordinates from the phone and picked up the group near Morro Bay. Boston also faces legal troubles in Kentucky.

A Lompoc couple arrested for a doorway shooting in Santa Barbara earlier this year will face charges of attempted murder.  Jack and Rebecca Mills were in Superior Court this week to hear the new complaint against them.  The two allegedly drove to a home on Gillespie Street back in March where Jack Mills struck the woman who answered the door, and then shot the woman’s nephew.  He survived.  Rebecca Mills allegedly drove the car that fled the scene. The pair was arrested a few weeks later in Nevada and returned to Santa Barbara last month. Jack Mills is being held without bail; his wife is held on $1-million dollars bail.  They are expected back in court in August.

Following a report from yesterday that nearly $120-million in marijuana plants had been destroyed by law enforcement agencies in the county this week, comes word that Sheriff’s Deputies found another 17-thousand plants yesterday alone.  The street value of this latest haul is estimated at $3.4 million.  This pot farm was in very steep terrain behind East Camino Cielo.  Although there were signs that people were living at the remote site, no one was arrested. This brings the number of plants confiscated so far this week in the county to 70,000. 

The City of Santa Barbara began enforcing the new pot shop ordinance yesterday (Thursday) that puts a cap on the number of marijuana dispensaries within city limits. There are six designated areas where three dispensaries can be legally set up, but only one shop currently meets all the requirements:  Pacific Coast Caregivers in the 300 block of North Milpas Street.  The city says that future owners will be chosen based on the order in which their applications were received.

In Ventura County, Sheriff’s Deputies now say that a man jumped off a cliff Tuesday night when his car was caught up in a raid on a pot farm near the Squaw Flats area north of Fillmore.  The man—who got away and is still at large--abandoned his rental car which was later found to contain nearly 80 pounds of marijuana. Deputies believe the man was running food to the pot farm growers and got the marijuana in exchange for his work.  Two of the five people at the farm were arrested; one was a 16-year-old boy from Mexico.

Developer Matt Osgood—who wants to build luxury homes in the Naples area—has filed suit against the bank that helped him buy the Gaviota land several years ago.  The Santa Barbara Independent says that Osgood filed his suit on Tuesday, alleging that Firstbank of St. Louis has been shopping the property without telling potential buyers that he is still attached to the deal. 
FirstBank foreclosed on the property earlier this year when Osgood failed to make a number of mortgage payments.  However, he managed to retain first-refusal buyer rights and managing interests in the property.  Osgood alleges that FirstBank has told potential buyers outright that no such arrangement exists.

The 18th Annual Ventura County Stand Down gets underway today (Friday) and runs through Sunday (Aug 1) at the National Guard Armory in Ventura.  It’s designed to help veterans—especially those who are homeless—from Santa Barbara, Ventura, San Luis Obispo and LA Counties to get off the streets and have access to medical care and other social services.  They’ll even have the chance to clear up any outstanding warrants and to have pending legal cases heard by a volunteer judge.  The founder, Claire Hope says the three day event, which is free to the veterans, is conducted each year to help the men and women “combat life on the streets.”

July 29, 2010

Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department and other local law enforcement agencies have seized about $120 million worth of marijuana in the past week throughout the county. According to Law enforcement officials the marijuana gardens were in deep remote, hard to find canyons which, is ideal for their rich natural resources, such as spring water, needed to grow the plants. All the gardens were located in national forests except one on a private ranch. The gardens were discovered through tips and from aerial surveillance. The “marijuana eradication operation” will conclude Friday.

Delta Air Lines announced yesterday that effective Sept. 12, the Santa Barbara-Salt Lake City route will be eliminated from Santa Barbara Airport. Delta officials acknowledged that the flight had a fair amount of passengers, but it wasn’t enough to be successful from a business stand point. On a positive note, a Santa Barbara Airport official pointed out that the loss of Delta service will be a boon for Frontier Airlines, which provides daily service to Denver and East Coast bound routes.  

Bob Samario was confirmed as Santa Barbara’s Finance Director at the regular meeting of the City Council on Tuesday.  He’s been at the job on an interim basis since August of last year when he took over for the retired Bob Pierson. Samario served as the city’s Assistant Finance Director for over 14 years.  That position will not be filled, saving the city $200,000 per year.

At its regular meeting this week, the Santa Barbara City Council put off until September discussing a voter survey regarding a possible single-use bag tax. The council also gave the go ahead for Mayor Helene Schneider to send a letter to state legislators, supporting a state Assembly bill that would prohibit supermarkets from providing single-use (plastic) bags to customers. 

The FBI says that a Goleta man has been indicted in an alleged murder-for-hire scheme involving his former business partner and several others. Agents told the Associated Press that 50-year-old Eugene Temkin was indicted Tuesday in Los Angeles following his arrest on July 14th. Temkin is accused of trying to hire someone to murder his former business partner, as well as both the man’s wife and another business partner over a business deal gone sour. It’s not clear how long Temkin may have lived in the Goleta area. He faces up to 50 years in prison if convicted.

The woman killed in a freakish car accident last Saturday on Sycamore Canyon Road has been identified as Santa Barbara resident 41-year-old Isabel Renosa.  The man charged with her death is 53-year-old Dennis Gibbons, also from Santa Barbara. Police say the two had known each other and were dating.  They had gone up the canyon and spent some time parked by the side of the road. Shortly after 4pm, Gibbons started driving down the road with Renosa sprawled across the hood.   About a half mile after that, Renosa fell from the car, landing on the ground.  Gibbons stopped to help her, but apparently she was already dead.  Gibbons then called 9-1-1.  Investigators believe Gibbons was simply traveling too fast for Renosa to stay on the hood, but have not completed their investigation.  An autopsy is being conducted.
Gibbons was arrested for felony vehicular manslaughter, DUI and drug possession.  His bail was set at $100,000.

July 28, 2010

A bomb scare may have been a decoy for a bank robbery Tuesday afternoon in Montecito.  Vons grocery store at Coast Village Rd. received a call from a man reporting the explosive was going to go off.  The manager called authorities and evacuated the store.  The store was searched but nothing was found. Everything was back to normal a few hours later. Meanwhile,  during the “bomb scare”, a white male riding a purple BMX style bike, wearing a grey jacket, sunglasses, gloves and a backpack entered the Santa Barbara Bank and Trust on East Valley Rd. and fled with cash, heading toward San Ysidro Rd. A witness saw a red puff coming from the backpack indicating a dye pack going off.  Anyone with any information should call authorities.

The parent company of Santa Barbara Bank and Trust said this week that it had a $61-million second quarter loss but expects to complete a $500-million acquisition by Ford Financial Fund.  That deal with the Texas-based company is expected to close on August 31st and has been helped greatly by the U.S. Treasury agreeing to wipe out just over $180-million in debt in exchange for equity.  Pacific Bank Corp had been under scrutiny by the Feds to get its financial house in order or face possible liquidation.

Clean up of the oil spill that happened at a Greka Oil facility has been completed. The spill happened Monday night at Greka’s Bell Injection Facility on Palmer Road in Santa Maria. Officials with Santa Barbara County Fire estimated the spill at 4 barrels or 168 gallons of crude oil. According to plant personnel, the cause of the spill was due to an injection pump failure. The spill was inside secondary containment. No other hazards were noted or reported, and there was no threat to the environment.

Work is starting this week on the massive repaving project of the 101 from Milpas Street to just south of Patterson Avenue.  Crews will work mainly in the overnight hours and there will be periodic lane and ramp closures.  The top layer of pavement will be removed and replaced with a tougher material designed to improve the ride, provide better visibility in rainy conditions, and reduce back splash and tire spray.  The project will take at least five months.

Progress continues on the freeway widening project from Milpas to Hot Springs Road.  The traffic lights at the Cabrillo Boulevard and 101 off-ramps in Montecito became fully operational yesterday (Tuesday).  There is still a fair amount of work remaining to complete the additional portion of the bridge over Milpas.  Crews will finish the daytime pile driving for the Sycamore Creek Bridge later this week. And retaining walls are going up for the new Cacique Street undercrossing.  Caltrans says the project is on schedule to finish in 2012.

The public is invited to an auto theft prevention and awareness presentation tomorrow (Thursday) from 10:00 to 3:00, in the lower parking lot of the Macy’s Store in La Cumbre Plaza.  The event will be hosted by the Santa Barbara Police Department, the CHP, and the Automobile Club.  At the event, you can have your car’s Vehicle ID Number etched on your windows for free.  The window etching is faint, and will not interfere with visibility. Having the number etched on each window thwarts professional auto thieves from switching the VIN with another vehicle.  The etching takes about 10-15 minutes.  Again it’s tomorrow from 10 to 3.

** By the way, the top five vehicles reported stolen to the Santa Barbara Police Department are: 1) Honda Accord; 2) Toyota Camry; 3) Honda Civic; 4) Ford Explorer; and 5) Nissan Sentra.

July 27, 2010

There’s some new information on the vehicle accident that happened over the weekend on Sycamore Canyon Road in Santa Barbara. When officers arrived at the accident Saturday they found a 41 year old woman, lying in the road with a serious head injury.  Witnesses say she was seated on the road before she fell backward, stopped breathing, and died at the scene. The driver, Dennis Gibbons, told officers the victim had been riding on the hood of his car when she fell off and hit her head. At first it was unclear exactly how the accident unfolded because Gibbons gave conflicting accounts of the incident. Authorities determined later that the two had consumed alcohol and drugs, including crack cocaine prior to the crash.  Gibbons was booked for Felony DUI, Gross Vehicular Manslaughter While Intoxicated, and other charges on 100,000 dollars bail.

State Lieutenant Governor Abel Maldonado has cleared up a tax lien against his family farm business in Santa Maria. The former Central Coast State Senator paid up following a LA Times story saying he owed the IRS over 110,000 dollars for allegedly allowing family members to use company vehicles for both business and personal needs. The IRS says that’s a taxable perk. Maldonado is appealing the lien.  

Professor Peter Rupert will be the new director of the highly regarded, UCSB Economic Forecast Project. The Project, for more than two decades, has provided economic data, analysis and forecasts to the South Coast community.  Rupert worked for the Federal Reserve Bank in Cleveland for 13 yrs. and specializes in: macroeconomics, monetary economics and family economics.  Rupert hopes to bring big names from the worlds of economic policy to our area and strive to make the Project, “more than just economic forecasting.”  Rupert’s views on the current economic recovery situation, is that the housing and job market will continue to hurt for another year and a half.

The 900 block of State St. and Carrillo in Santa Barbara, will return to its roots as being a home for financial institutions.  US Bank has planned to move in at the end of the year.  Hayes commercial Group says the deal is the latest in a series of retail sales on the block since 2008.  US Bank has a service area in the Ralph’s market in the Magnolia shopping center, but the downtown location will be the only full branch in the area offering the full complement of financial services.

A man from Santa Ynez has been convicted of several federal fraud charges. Steven Todorovic promised bartending and "mystery shopper" jobs to people around the country under false pretenses. The 40-year-old was found guilty of three counts of mail fraud and seven counts of wire fraud; which carry a maximum penalty of 200 years in federal prison. Todorovic set up several companies in Santa Barbara to market and sell his bogus training programs. During the trial, evidence presented showed that Todorovic defrauded more than 80,000 people across the country. He earned more than $6-million-dollars from the scheme.

After nearly 6 months, a 27-year old man is charged with the murder of a man from Guadalupe whose body was found in Nipomo back in February. Alejandro Carrillo has been arrested and is facing a charge of murder with a gang enhancement. Carrillo is accused of killing Pedro Gonzalez, whose body was found in a broccoli field. A 39-year-old woman is also in custody and charged with accessory to murder. Both are currently held at the Santa Barbara County Jail.

July 26, 2010

Santa Barbara County Deputies have taken part in a sting that’s ended with the arrest of about 50 people connected with street gangs on the Central Coast. Since November of last year, the DEA, Santa Barbara Sheriff’s Department and Santa Maria Police Department have been conducting a joint investigation targeting drug trafficking activities. Authorities seized several pounds of meth, cocaine, marijuana, and other drugs, as well as guns, pipe bombs, and almost a million dollars. Officials say more people in Santa Barbara County are using meth these days. This case is being prosecuted by Santa Barbara Deputy District Attorney Meghan Ross.

You can hop on a bus for free thru Tuesday. The fate of the Valley Express Commuter Bus service is uncertain these days. The Daily Sound says the Santa Barbara Metropolitan Transit District is offering free rides to try to re-new interest in it. The Valley Express Bus Service was launched in 2005 and really took off. Hundreds of people were riding from Santa Ynez, Solvang, and Buellton to their jobs in Goleta and Santa Barbara. But ridership has dropped down to an average of 15 riders per trip.

Well paper or plastic, it may soon be neither, and on Tuesday, Santa Barbara City leaders decide how they feel about it. The State law makers next month are considering a ban on all plastic bags and a 10 cent fee for paper bags. The Santa Barbara city Council this week decides whether to come out in favor of the proposed law or oppose it. In addition, the Council will decide whether to make the volunteer “Where’s Your Bag” program official. More than 47 million plastic bags are annually distributed to customers in Santa Barbara stores. 

We have an update on some of the road work that’s been ongoing in Santa Barbara. To begin, daytime pile driving for the Sycamore Creek Bridge will be finished during this week. Meanwhile, the north and southbound 101 will have alternating nighttime lane closures between Milpas St. and Los Patos Way to move pile driving equipment between tomorrow (Tuesday July 27th) and Thursday from 9pm-6am. Also, Milpas Street under the 101 and the 101 off-ramp to south Milpas St. will be closed at night as needed for bridge work. Drivers can use the new Hwy 101 hook off-ramp and the Mason, Quarantina, and Cacique Streets detour. For more traffic updates on projects throughout Santa Barbara County, motorists can call Caltrans at 805-568-0858.

The local 4-H program may soon get some badly needed money. Tomorrow, Santa Barbara County Supervisors will debate a plan to give the UC Co-operative Extension an extra 70,000 dollars. The Lompoc Record says the money is needed to save the County’s 4-H program and to prop up other services that the University Extension provides. The extra funds are needed because of massive cuts by the State. The County has 24 4-H units that serve over 2500 kids a year.

Members of the Solvang City Council will decide today whether to submit a proposal to be a host city for next year's Amgen cycling race. The quaint Danish town did not host the tour this past year, but back in 2009 the race drew about 15 thousand visitors to the Santa Ynez Valley. KEYT says if they do choose to apply, it would coincide with the celebration of the city's 100th birthday. Proposals to be a host city for the Amgen tour are due by August 13th.