PCBC's top legal exec to retire
Fred Clough, executive vice president and general counsel at Pacific Capital Bancorp, the struggling parent of Santa Barbara Bank & Trust, will leave the company at the end of the month. Clough’s retirement will become effective a few weeks after the departure of Chief Financial Officer Stephen Masterson, who announced in December that he will Read More →
Heritage Oaks signs accord with Fed
Federal banking regulators have halted dividends at Paso Robles-based Heritage Oaks Bank and given the company two months to submit a plan to keep up its capital levels. The order was expected. In November, Heritage Oaks filed documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission to raise capital and warned it might be subject to orders Read More →
Chu pushes for nuclear power, carbon caps
Speaking in Goleta, U.S. Secretary of Energy Steven Chu on March 5 defended the Obama administration’s decision to oppose a long-term nuclear waste storage site in Nevada and urged lawmakers to avoid protectionism in funding renewable energy. A day after the Obama administration roiled the nuclear power industry by seeking to terminate a plan to Read More →
State Street gets new lease on retail life
After sitting vacant for months, the former Anchor Blue space at 820 State St. in downtown Santa Barbara has been leased to apparel retailer G by Guess. The 5,832-square-foot space became available after Anchor Blue filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in mid-2009 and closed many of its stores. The apparel retailer’s State Street lease, first Read More →
Clean-tech doesn
While this could be the year clean-tech goes mainstream the way the Internet did in the mid-1990s, young companies can’t base their business models on government-issued carbon credits. That was the majority view of a panel of heavyweight venture capital investors who spoke at the Wall Street Journal’s ECO:nomics conference on capitalism and climate at Read More →
Affinity refinances $144M in debt
Ventura-based Affinity Group, which faces nearly $700 million in debt payments in coming years, closed a deal for a new $144 million loan on March 3 to refinance debt due at the end of this month. Affinity Group is the owner of the nation’s largest network of recreational vehicle and outdoor networks, magazines and clubs, Read More →
Watkins: GDP growth will return, but unemployment to remain high
California Lutheran University economist Bill Watkins has raised his forecast for the U.S. economy for 2010, but his outlook for California remains bleak. Speaking at a City National Bank forecast breakfast March 3, Watkins said that he has raised his GDP forecast to 2.5 percent growth for 2010, up sharply from less than 2 percent Read More →
