Forecasters:
The San Luis Obispo County economy won’t get much worse this year and will likely start improving next year. But the scope of that recovery will depend on decisions coming down from Washington, D.C., and Sacramento. That was the message delivered Nov. 6 to nearly 500 attendees at a 2010 economic outlook conference in San Read More →
Former DA lands at Ventura law office
Michael Bradbury, the former longtime Ventura County District Attorney who made headlines busting the Hells Angels, has joined Ventura-based law office Anderson Kill Wood & Bender, the firm said in a release Nov. 4. Anderson Kill Wood & Bender specializes in representing companies against their insurers to recover money when insurers deny claims. But the Read More →
Pacific Capital loses $40.7M in third quarter
Santa Barbara-based Pacific Capital Bancorp turned in a $40.7 million loss in the third quarter driven by another round of setting aside cash to deal with soured real estate loans. At 87 cents per share, the loss was slightly larger than the 80-cent loss expected by three analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial Network. The results Read More →
Nasdaq may boot area bank
The parent of Solvang-based Los Padres Bank, the third-largest banking firm in the Tri-Counties with 13 branches, faces potential removal from the Nasdaq exchange if the firm doesn’t boost its stock price. Harrington West Financial Group, a $1.1 billion-asset firm and the holding company for Los Padres, said in a release Nov. 2 that Nasdaq Read More →
States sue Amgen, alleging drug kickback scheme
Thousand Oaks-based Amgen faces a lawsuit from New York, California and 13 other states alleging that the company took illegal kickbacks for Aranesp, one of the biotech firm’s top-selling kidney drugs. The case, filed Oct. 29 in federal court and being led by New York, accuses Amgen, a purchasing group and a wholesale provider of Read More →
Dole shares fall after IPO
Produce giant Dole Food Co.’s initial public offering has borne less fruit than the company hoped. The Westlake Village firm’s shares fell Oct. 23 after hitting the market at a lower-than-expected price, a possible sign that investors feel billionaire majority owner David Murdock overreached in tapping the public markets to pay off some of his Read More →
Navy Secretary unveils plans for Green Fleet
[Editor’s note: Correction appended below.] Calling for a “Green Fleet,” U.S. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus outlined an ambitious goal to use non-fossil fuels to produce half of the energy for the U.S. Navy’s sea and shore vehicles at an Oct. 22 event in Santa Barbara. In a speech hosted by the Santa Barbara Read More →