Charter: You are the weakest link
Once again, Charter Communications has demonstrated that it remains the weakest of links in a chain of balkanized cable operations in our region. The St. Louis-based company, controlled by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, is headed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy after skipping a debt payment amid a $1.5 billion loss for the fourth quarter. Charter, which Read More →
Calif. hammered by economy
The worst of the national economic decline is likely to occur this quarter and job losses are expected to continue through next year, said Bill Watkins, executive director of the University of California, Santa Barbara Economic Forecast Project, in a bleak outlook he delivered March 18. He said California will be affected more seriously by Read More →
Cuesta College sued
Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo is being sued by Straub Constuction for $3.2 million for allegedly breaching its contract with the company. Straub Construction, which worked on the school’s library expansion, alleges that during the $13.2 million construction project, Cuesta failed to cooperate or provide correct and buildable plans and failed to pay Read More →
Coker shut for a month
ConocoPhillips, the second-largest U.S. refiner, shut a coker March 17 at its Santa Maria plant in Arroyo Grande for about a month of scheduled repairs, a United Steelworkers representative said. The coker will be shut until about April 20, Steve Sullivan, an international representative for the USW, said in an interview with Bloomberg News. Sullivan Read More →
Pacific Capital to cut 300 jobs
Pacific Capital Bancorp – parent of Santa Barbara Bank & Trust and the largest banking company based in the Tri-Counties – said March 18 that it plans to slash 300 workers, about 22 percent of its full-time workforce. The reduction will begin immediately, with 80 jobs gone in the first quarter and the rest of Read More →
