House Without Windows

I'm gonna move into a house without windows, so I won't see you walking by

so I will assume Don Katich, the Managing editor of the News-Press has resigned and Scott Steepleton, chief ass kisser of Wendy, might be the new director/editor of news which will spell the end of the News-Press as if it ain't dead already...

it's true..Don's gone!!

where's Gerry Fall??

but what does an editor do? he edits..."The managing editor is the one who directly oversees day-to-day operations of the newsroom. More than anyone else, perhaps, the managing editor is the one responsible for getting the paper out every day and for ensuring that it's the best that it can be and quality meets that paper's standards of journalism." 

hahaha

under Don's watch, two embarrassing moments define his career with Wendy...the gay slur and the "illegals" headline back in 2015...(and the Thomas Fire/flood coverage was horrible)

an editor worth his salt would not have allowed either to happen, but good old Don did...the recent gay slur of reporter Paul Gonzalez

https://santabarbaranewspressblogcom.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2018-01-13T06:49:00-08:00&max-results=7

and the "illegals" headline in 2015 that set off a big demonstration in De La Guerra Plaza and eventually got Cathy Murillo elected! 

the 'illegals' headline was purely racist because the front page picture showed some people who were Latino perhaps, and the News-Press assumed they were criminals!!

that is racism..it's not about free speech..it's about the responsibility of the free press to report news, not opinions and bias and we know Wendy and Nipper have failed on all accounts

you gotta be crazy to work for Wendy McCuckoo esp if you're a guy...you'd have to have lost all self-respect, dignity, self-worth and  basically all your marbles....

maybe Don's still got a few aggies left

Break Down

go ahead and give it to me

BREAKING NEWS
could be fake, could be real

Don Katich, one of Wendy's flying monkeys, has resigned from the News-Press...Director of News Operations or editor as some suggest, Don could never write an Editorial for the News-Press because the other flying monkey Andy Caldwell is Wendy's permanent Guest Opinion writer!! hahaha

Ernie and Don

well we'll see what plays out over time and maybe find out what happened to the mysterious mustachioed manipulator of news in favor of right wing propaganda...

we'll see, won't we?

Wipe Out

bom bom bom bomba bom bom bom

driving around after the  fire and rain storms is a mindblower..I'm almost afraid to see the Olive Mill and Parra Grande neighborhoods..old Montecito wiped out by the slides...

but Carpinteria has enough damage to keep me occupied...nobody got killed here so the damage is mostly tons of mud and giant downed trees at the creeks

before wipe out

I went to the Carp State beach at the end of Linden when the trains were running...train depot was bustling! 

after wipe out

there were a few campers scattered about but some areas were just covered in mud...the creek was pretty much swept clean of reeds and the banks were widened..only mud and wood and debris now....

and oh yeah all those native plants that replaced the ice plant on the banks were wiped out away..well most most anyway....
so will there be more tax dollars wasted to plant natives or will these conservationists just let Mother Nature grow what She wants, where She wants..

and leave us to tend Her garden

Unforgiven

who's the fellow that owns this shithole?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NG8mvqtWEAw

during the Highway 101 shutdown after the floods, I couldn't get the News-Press and to tell you the truth, I didn't miss it...so upon resuming, I find the same old nonsense...'blame the gov't' is the default mode for the rightwingers...

Andy Caldwell still writes his guest opinion for Wendy who won't commit to hiring him for some reason..but we know he is the voice of the News-Press because Katich is mute most of the time...

but Andy praised Das Williams' appearance on Ellen while mocking the other libs for crying about the Plains All American Pipeline spill...I guess Andy wants wants to minimize the oil spill because he  represents oil interests at this non-profit COLAB

total nonsense..when disasters happen, you deal with them, you don't pick and choose for political purposes...

I mean to suggest that the oil spill had no impact on the local econony is silly......just ask the fishing folks, the boating tours, the beach economies from here to Manhattan Beach

it's childish to even try to compare the disasters

never send a baby for the beer

Love and Mercy

that's what you need tonight

it'll be a cold, then warm day in January before I get into Santa Barbara again, so Monday I went into Santa Barbara after Highway 101 opened on Sunday..a day ahead of schedule...

talked to a  CALTRANS guy on Santa Claus Lane..they have a compound there....jokingly, I told him to wash his truck..he laughed and told me how many hours and days he's worked and was worried that the public wouldn't appreciate the effort....I said don't worry, they love you

I traveled thru Montecito where mud 8 ft high was deposited on 101 under the Olive Mill bridge after the storms..CALTRANS did an incredible job...101 is clean...

north Jamison

over on the frontage road, North Jameson, you can see big boulders and abandoned cars..so there's still loads of work to be done by the creeks but the progress is amazing

Shark's beach

the gorgeous Olive Mill neighborhood which hadn't changed much since we lived here (close by on Pepper Hill) in the 1960s, was a scene of death and destruction...bodies strewn about buried in mud, houses damaged or lost.....kids, young beautiful women, professional men and women, retired folks...twenty-one dead and two still missing....it's something I can't even imagine yet

Olive Mill overpass

once in the 1980s I was riding my bike in the foothills by Hot Springs and East Valley on a warm summer's day  and there was a triathlon going on..they  were in the bike-race phase and all of a sudden hundreds of bikers came rushing by me..I had a black Bianchi road bike that I loved and on a whim just joined the race...from Hot Springs thru Olive Mill to Coast Village Road....a downhill run

I never had the bike going that fast and it was exhilarating....that was a good day

Love and Mercy to Montecito

Pinball Wizard

that deaf dumb and blind kid, sure plays a mean pinball

when I'm watching the news conferences and updates, I seem to have developed a crush on the chick who does sign language for the deaf...

she's got all these gestures and makes all these weird faces...

she's fascinating...and sexy

Moody River

(Moody river, moody river)
Moody river more deadly than the vainest knife
Moody river your muddy water took my baby's life

now I've watched over the years as non-profits attempted to "restore" Carpinteria creeks to a native state..none of the creeks really needed this but they got the money and restored the creeks anyway..then the Thomas Fire came along and burned down the watershed and after that the 200-year storm and 2 hr heavy rain event caused mudslides that wiped out the creeks

The Upper Carpinteria Creek fish passage restoration project along Carpinteria Creek, removed the last major barrier in the Carpinteria Creek Watershed. The project replaced an undersized bridge with a wider and taller bridge. It will also removed 100 feet of concreted stream channel and banks. The stream channel was regraded and the creek banks were restored with native riparian vegetation. Steelhead trout now have access to high quality upstream habitat.
The Community Environmental Council would undertake the work plan for each project in
cooperation with the landowner. CEC is a nonprofit organization established under section
501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, and has operated successful environmental programs in
Santa Barbara County for more than 30 years. Its watershed restoration program manages a
number of stream restoration planning and implementation projects, including several funded by
Conservancy grants: the South Coast Urban Streams Program (00-078), the Mission
Creek/Museum Area Restoration Project (02-083), the Cate School Restoration Planning Project
(02-088), and the Gobernador Creek Fish Passage Design Project (04-078).
PROJECT FINANCING:
 Coastal Conservancy $510,000
 NRCS 250,000
Landowner contributions 120,000
In-lieu mitigation funds1 100,000
Total Project Cost $980,000 

Carp Creek scoured by storm

so all that native restoration was for naught....

as I told them many times, Nature decides what survives, not some sweaty-palmed little conservation biologists

Bad Moon Rising

don't go out tonight, it's bound to take your life

it seems that the CEO of Direct Relief International is living high on the hog in Montecito while provding medicine and supplies to Trump's shithole countries:
Direct Relief International, which provides medicine and supplies to poor people and those hurt by disasters, increased the base salary of Thomas Tighe, its chief executive, by 40 percent over two years.

Mr. Tighe made $341,347 in 2011, up from $247,600 in 2009.
wow what a HuGE salary for a non-profit..

but the guy was complaining on the news about his Montecito house and neighborhood being hit by a mudslide...he thinks a warning from the county could have prevented some deaths...he was under a voluntary evacuation

now look..the Thomas Fire stripped the hills and mountains of vegetation above Montecito...we were warned for days about a heavy rain event that could cause deadly mudslides...the responsibility to evacuate lies with the home owners or residents, not with the officials...

if you take the risk to stay in such a disaster, the buck stops with you

or dies with you

Landslide

I took my love, I took it down
Climbed a mountain and I turned around

And I saw my reflection in the snow covered hills

Till the landslide brought me down

Stairway To Heaven

and she's buying a Stairway to Heaven

now I was intrigued by  the story of three local (SB to Solvang) people busted for stealing surfboards...when I looked at the mugshots I saw two morons and a pretty girl...her name is Carly Jo Orrison and she's got a facebook page, she's very cute and lots of friends..and yet she's hanging out with these two idiots! 

look Carly Jo..you got your whole life ahead of you..not too late to take a few classes, get a job and change the road you're on...
you have no future hanging out with guys that have no recordable IQs....drugs, stealing things from other people..not cool Carly...not cool at all

instead of hanging with dudes that steal surfboards, you could learn how to surf..

there's a great big beautiful ocean out there just waiting for you!!

Deep State

I just noticed that one of the plovers had leg bands! ankle bracelets of sorts

"each plover receives an individually numbered metal USGS band on one of their upper legs, a light blue flag on the opposite upper leg, and a unique combination of 4 color bands on their lower legs."  then what, stick an American flag up its ass??

goddammit! 

I wish these environmentals would leave the plovers ALONE!!!

She Said

even though you know what you know...


hey Wendy praised the union guys and gals for their firefighting efforts!! I guess it's not politically advantageous to bash them and their benefits/salaries nowadays with Trump blubbering his love for the cops and first responders....no doubt they'll be busy in 2018 keeping drunks AND potheads off the road... or cleaning up after they crash

the first New Year's full Super Moon was so beautiful  I couldn't capture it on the camera..the Wolf Moon it's called..and the tides were supposed to be high so I went to see..and yeah the tides are high but the waves are small..

I was hanging out with the birds...speaking of chickens, Noozhawk has eliminated reader comments...the comments add some spice to the story but free speech is tuff for some folks

so I see an orange-breasted flycatcher not to be confused with a yellow- bellied  sap sucker on a broken-off branch by the water...he was swooping out to catch flies then back on his perch...some sandpipers wandering around...

then these little plovers came out of nowhere..

me and these plovers, we're tight...