PG&E asks for 20 more years at Diablo Canyon
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. said Nov. 24 that it will seek federal approval to keep its Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant running until 2045. The plant’s two reactors produce enough electricity to power about 3 million California homes each year, the company said in a release. The reactors’ current federal operating licenses are set Read More →
Mixed signals from the top ruin strong economic foundations
As an awful year for business heads for the history books, we’re going to sound a couple of warning notes about 2010. What troubles us more than anything else are what economists like to call “externalities” — events clearly beyond control of those of us who operate in the Tri-Counties. Here’s a look at two Read More →
Conjeo Valley
She’s been at the job for less than a year, but former Domino’s pizza queen Jill Lederer’s kingdom may already be expanding. Lederer is the president of the Thousand Oaks-Westlake Village Regional Chamber of Commerce, an organization that may just add Agoura Hills to its title if city officials decide to swap chambers next month. Read More →
Forecast: hope for SB tourism
Santa Barbara County’s tourism industry has reached bottom, and the slow crawl out will mean reaching out to markets both close to home and across the Pacific. That’s the message industry experts delivered to hoteliers and restaurateurs at a tourism and travel outlook forecast for the county on Nov. 17. Particular bright spots are continued Read More →
These towns are not afraid of big chances
Throw deep. That’s not always the best economic development strategy. But in the case of North Santa Barbara County, there are two large-scale projects in the very earliest of stages that could become the job-generating engines for the next economic cycle in the Tri-Counties. Before you put down your newspaper and wonder out loud what Read More →
Landscaper wins in suit against producer
When a powerful Hollywood producer tried to stiff Santa Barbara small-business owner Arturo Gonzalez on half a million dollars of work, the landscaper stood up to the producer in court. And he won. Gonzalez’s landscaping firm, Progressive Environmental Industries, sued two entities controlled by Jon Peters, Barbara Streisand’s ex-husband, producer of “Rain Man” and Read More →