Novel plan may speed green building
ColumnsA new way of financing energy efficiency upgrades in buildings is gathering steam across Santa Barbara County and headed for a vote by supervisors on April 13. Called emPowerSBC, the program allows property owners to borrow money from a funding pool set up by the county, install upgrades such as solar and pay off the Read More →
Wal-Mart revises plans
UncategorizedWal-Mart has submitted a scaled-down revision for its plans to build a supercenter store in Atascadero, the Tribune reported. The retail giant now proposes a 123,112-square-foot retail and grocery building, including a pharmacy, although it will no longer be a drive-through, and a 6,448-square-foot outdoor garden center, the newspaper reported. A tire and lube express Read More →
Foundations combine administrative forces
UncategorizedTwo of the largest foundations in the tri-counties are joining philanthropic forces. Effective April 1, the Santa Barbara Foundation, the second largest foundation in the region with more than $200 million in assets at the beginning of March, and the Hutton Foundation, the 10th largest foundation with $80 million, will combine some of their grant-processing Read More →
Testing the breaking point
TechnologyA young company spun out of technology from the University of California, Santa Barbara, has developed a machine that could for the first time measure the strength of bones in living patients. Founded in 2007, Active Life’s device creates a micro-crack about 100th of a millimeter wide in patients’ bones. Now in early trials in Read More →
Three steps to state solvency
OpinionOrange County Register small-business columnist Jan Norman has put California’s budget woes into some facts and figures anybody can understand. Quoting from U.S. Census Bureau figures, she says the state’s individual income tax collections fell 20.4 percent or more than $10 billion from 2008 to 2009 and corporate income tax collections fell about $2 billion Read More →
Drug lord crackdown may be Oxnard
OpinionVentura County District Attorney Greg Totten made a splash in the newspapers on March 30 when he announced plans to extradite a jailed Mexican drug lord known as “Don Pepe” for trial on charges related to drug trafficking. If the extradition proceeds as planned, Jose Antonio Medina, 36, will face numerous charges in a Ventura Read More →
