Their philosophy is best summed up in the words of Wallace Stevens’ 1928 poem, “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.” I. Among twenty snowy mountains The only moving thing Was the eye of a blackbird “In these [thirteen] short, haiku-like stanzas, he creates depth and space with an economy of means,” said [...]
The recession can claim another small business victim with the closure of Santa Barbara Scrapbooks. But its owner is not looking back to pick up the pieces. Instead she’s closing this chapter of her life and moving on to the next. Barbara Bartolomè started her scrapbook store six years ago on a whim. Her experience [...]
Go to the Plug Nickel Restaurant for lunch during the work-week, and you’ll likely see a lot of suits and ties. The charming Westlake Village restaurant, known for its atmospheric dining, has sat tucked away in the city’s industrial park for 33 years. And now, the family-run business, which takes pride in offering its patrons [...]
Would the last person in Dos Vientos please turn out the lights? That’s what some residents of the toney subdivision in Thousand Oaks were wondering not so very long ago as the Conejo Valley underwent a series of economic tremors. First, struggling mortgage giant Countrywide Financial Corp. was sold at near fire-sale prices to Bank [...]
A U.S. Trustee has moved one step closer to recovering some of the $2.8 million that creditors to bankrupt developer R.W. Hertel & Sons say they are owed. In a document filed in bankruptcy court Aug. 31, Trustee Sandra McBeth said she’d located assets of R.W. Hertel & Sons and planned to divvy them up [...]
A wrongful death lawsuit unfolding in a Santa Barbara courtroom is shedding light on the final days in the life of the late Michael Klein, the fast-rising Santa Barbara hedge fund manager who died along with his daughter and a pilot in an airplane crash in Panama on Dec. 23, 2007. Kim Klein, Michael Klein’s [...]
Tri-county consumers are cutting back on extravagant toys as their investments diminish and jobs grow less secure. But while big motorcycles may be experiencing a slump in sales, those looking to lower their expenses are seeking out small scooters as a pragmatic way of around-town transportation. “We’re seeing a lot of inconsistency,” said Carlin Dunne, [...]
Amid some of the largest shake-ups to hit the tri-county banking world, one area bank has emerged seemingly unscathed. Paso Robles-based Heritage Oaks Bancorp, holding company of Heritage Oaks Bank, which also includes Business First Bank, has seen its stock price surge by almost 40 percent year-to-date — a sharp contrast to the performance of [...]
Oxnard is the biggest city in the biggest county in the tri-county region. It has a pro-business attitude, plenty of land and utility resources, a large and eager workforce and a desire to lead the state’s economic recovery. But that apparently means nothing in Sacramento, where the California Enterprise Zone Program recently turned down Oxnard’s [...]
In the first bank failure in the Tri-Counties in almost 20 years, Ventura-based Affinity Bank was seized by federal regulators Aug. 28. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. took Affinity into receivership and said San Diego-based Pacific Western Bank will assume Affinity’s ten branches and $922 million in deposits. Pacific Western also agreed to buy essentially [...]
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