Groundwater rules and mandatory sick leave in spotlight
While the water law will introduce formal management to many basins in the region for the first time, it doesn’t fundamentally change the idea of proprietary groundwater rights. In employment law, starting next summer, California businesses of all sizes will have to give all employees — part-time, full-time or even temporary, exempt or non-exempt — at least three days a year of paid sick time.
Governor signs gun bills introduced after Isla Vista mass shooting
Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday signed into law a swath of new gun-control bills introduced in the wake of a mass shooting near UC Santa Barbara.
Transphorm powers up portfolio with GaN patents
Goleta-based Transphorm, an energy-efficiency company spun out of UC Santa Barbara, said it has been granted two patents that it believes could cover as much as 60 percent of its target market in power-conversion electronics.
Slater makes waves with California water law at Cadiz
William Mulholland was the grand architect of the plan to quench the Southland’s thirst with Colorado River water from the Arizona-California border. Without him, modern Los Angeles wouldn’t exist. If Santa Barbara attorney Scott Slater carries out his long-term vision, he might go down as the second most famous man in the history of Southern California water.
Measure P puts future of oil drilling at stake
Measure P would ban the use of techniques such as hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking, and acid stimulation, which aren’t currently in use in the county. But it would also ban practices such as cyclic steaming, which is in use at about one-third of Santa Barbara County’s nearly 1,200 wells.
Crunchies tightens its belt in Ch. 11
Since filing for bankruptcy protection on Aug. 15, Crunchies has laid off eight people — about a third of its full-time staff — at its Westlake Village headquarters, has reduced expenses by about $2 million and has put marketing initiatives and new product development on hold for the rest of the year.
