Santa Barbara city officials were awaiting word at presstime on whether 11,252 petition signatures will qualify a downtown building height-limit charter amendment for the November 2009 ballot. The signatures were delivered to the city clerk Aug. 15, signed by people who want to limit new buildings in downtown Santa Barbara to no more than 40 [...]
Traffic initiatives are like bad pennies. They just keep coming back. In Oxnard, by the narrowest of margins, Measure V has won certification for the November ballot. So, less than a year after defeating an earlier version of this job-killing measure, the Oxnard Chamber and other organizations have to do it all over again. Measure [...]
California Lutheran University is ranked 16th on the 2009 U.S. News & World Report list of top schools in the West offering quality bachelor’s and master’s degrees. CLU has placed among the top 20 Western Regional Universities for 14 years. Last year, it was ranked 20th. Meanwhile, the University of California, Santa Barbara, was ranked [...]
Santa Barbara County officials have notified Greka Oil & Gas Inc. that a stop- work order will be conditionally rescinded for the company’s UCAL facility, 6527 Dominion Road, near Santa Maria. One other Greka production operation remains under a stop work order by the County Fire Department and Petroleum Unit: the Bradley 3 Island [...]
Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. and UnionBanCal Corp. agreed on a tender offer at a raised price of $73.50 a share in a deal worth $3.5 billion, the Japanese bank said Aug. 18. Union Bank has 10 branches in the Tri-Counties. Japan’s biggest bank has been trying to take over the 35 percent of California [...]
Described as a “small, Midwestern town on the California coast,” by its economic development director, Kate Griffith, the city of Lompoc has been undergoing efforts to build on its signature Californian characteristics and strengthen its economic vitality, all while maintaining its quaint, small-town appeal. As California has long been a leader in sustainability and [...]
Philanthropy is changing. With entrepreneurs like Eli Broad, Ted Turner and Venoco’s Tim Marquez calling the shots, nonprofits are becoming more nimble and results oriented But there is a catch – in the new environment for philanthropy, star power matters, and there’s a tendency for issues of the day like global warming to grab big [...]
The right speaker can transform an event, and two tri-county groups are working to harness the power of oratory to help nonprofit groups. Santa Barbara-based Catalyst offers a lecture series on financial literacy and entrepreneurship, targeting young professionals as its audience. Catalyst sells tickets to the events, and 100 percent of the ticket sales go [...]
After a career as a top executive at firms such as IBM and Cylink, Fernand Sarrat left the corporate world and decided in mid-2007 to start the Collaborative Communities Foundation to help young people stay out of trouble in Santa Barbara. “I’m from El Salvador and look what the gangs there have done,” Sarrat said [...]
While public health officials say they are happy about a state crackdown on trans fats, a new law may mean some bread products will get a recipe overhaul. In the Tri-Counties, doughnuts are bearing the brunt of the burden, as the new measure requires that all oil, shortening or margarine containing these partially hydrogenated vegetable [...]
It’s all smiles and sauvignon in Happy Canyon’s vineyards
Towbes Group grabs Goleta with Groupon-like deals at retailers
Social-media IPOs could launch Golden State sustainability fund
Ventura County brokers hold out ’til 2013 for real recovery
Name changes and new faces at SLO and Oxnard law firms
From apartments to industrial spaces, deals close in the region