SurePath takes big step – New name for consumer credit nonprofit
Camarillo-based nonprofit Consumer Credit Counseling Service helped 12,000 households in its six-county region navigate their debt and foreclosure problems last year. But success also has brought with it a nagging problem — an influx of organizations with similar sounding names competing for its customers. Consumer Credit Counseling is hoping to sidestep future problems by rebranding Read More →
Cloudy but clear – Software firm Eucalyptus raises $5.5 million
He just sealed a $5.5 million round of venture capital, but last fall, Rich Wolski wasn’t even sure he wanted to start a business. Wolski is a computer scientist who helped create cloud computing software called Eucalyptus. Widely popularized by Amazon, cloud computing means linking many computers over the Internet to handle tough tasks cheaply. Read More →
Oxnard staff pays big price in meltdown
Haas Automation’s 400 laid-off workers are a testament to a financial laboratory experiment gone terribly wrong. Until last fall, the Oxnard-based machine tool company was coping with the recession, pursuing a strategy of diversifying its customer base and building relationships with foreign companies who were opening up plants in the U.S. But as Emily Rancer Read More →
Apple Store opening could prop up Santa Barbara
Finally. The highly anticipated Apple Store on Santa Barbara’s State Street will be unveiled at 10 a.m. on May 9, the company announced. [Editor’s Note: After press time, Apple changed its plans. Read the related story here.] [Editor’s Note: After press time, Apple changed its plans. Read the related story here.] Apple has remained mum Read More →
Employers should weigh options before resorting to staff layoffs
An economic downturn means people lose jobs. And those jobs don’t magically disappear: Businesses have to decide whom to cut and whom to keep, and they expose themselves to lawsuits in the process. Downsizing requires discrimination of some sort, but to avoid legal liability, businesses have to make sure their process stays within the law, Read More →
Give us a ballot that will really save the budget
The May 19 election offers California voters a couple of bad options in a terrible time. On one hand, we can follow the lead of several chambers of commerce and other organizations and vote for ballot measures 1A to 1F. That may or may not mean the end of the state’s budget crisis and buy Read More →
Fire proves peaker
In a decision that has not received wide publicity, the California Coastal Commission has approved Southern California Edison’s proposed Oxnard peaker plant. The wisdom of this decision, made in mid-April, was borne out on May 5 when the Jesusita Fire above Santa Barbara threatened to cut power across a wide swath of South Santa Barbara Read More →
