s swatting skeeters
To date there’s no evidence that the two mosquito species that carry the Zika virus have been found in Santa Barbara County, but Mosquito and Vector Management chief David Chang said it’s only a matter of time before they arrive. Chang said the closest either of the two Aedes species — aegypti and albopictus— have been found is Los Angeles and Kern counties. “We expect them to get here,” he said. “It’s serious.” Two years ago, Chang’s department put out traps that came up negative. In about two Aedes aegypti female mosquito weeks, he said, his agency will set out double the number. The Aedes mosquitos are small, dark, and marked by white stripes. They’re more aggressive than indigenous mosquitoes and bite all day long, not just at dawn and dusk. A.aegypti in particular, Chang said, targets humans as its prime source of food. As a peri-domestic species, the bug thrives in densely packed populations and in hotter, wetter tropical climates. This poses new challenges given that the Mosquito and Vector Management District traditionally targets pests found on the outskirts of human populations. “We’re going to have to be getting into neighborhoods,” Chang explained, “and in the cities.” Chang said his agency traps most mosquitoes using dry-ice baits, which give off carbon dioxide that mimics human breath. These two, he said, are more drawn to bait that mimics human scent. Eradication procedures for the two new species will be identical to that of other mosquitoes. Residents will be asked to drain fountains and bird baths. The district will pass out, as it always does, mosquito fish. Health officials say that no cases of the Zika virus — which can cause serious birth defects — have — Nick Welsh been detected in Santa Barbara County.
Several of the fabled More Mesa beach caves collapsed this weekend, ending neighborhood concern over the late-night bonfire spots. Upon discovering the cave-ins on 2/6, firefighters used sound devices and probing cameras to search the area but found no one trapped or injured beneath the rocks. But, they said, the bluffs remain very dangerous. In 2014, an 18-year-old UCSB student suffered head and chest injuries when a cave partially collapsed above his group of friends. In 1989, 17-year-old Hugo Cruz of Goleta was killed in a sudden collapse. Tobacco prevention efforts are weak in Santa Barbara County, according to the American Lung Association’s (ALA) annual report. Santa Barbara and Buellton were given overall tobacco control grades of “D,” while Guadalupe, Lompoc, Santa Maria, and Solvang each received an “F.” Goleta earned a “C,” Carpinteria and unincorporated county areas a “B.” The rankings are based on the ALA’s evaluation of municipal laws.
COuNty Unseasonable warm weather blanketed Southern California this week, producing a record high in Santa Barbara. At Santa Barbara Airport on Sunday and Monday, the highs got within a few degrees of the 1956 record of 84. Then Tuesday, the afternoon high at the same location hit 85 degrees, two degrees hotter than the record set in 2006. Unofficially, temperatures peaked in the upper 80s downtown. On the wet side, since the start of the 2016 water year — which runs September 1, 2015, to August 31, 2016 — downtown has received a trace over seven inches of rain, about 70 percent of normal. In response to accusations that representatives of Plains All American Pipeline — the
giant oil company responsible for the Refugio Oil Spill — overstepped their bounds during the cleanup, the Santa Barbara Grand Jury found they were in compliance with federal, state, and local laws. In its four-page report, the Grand Jury dismissed allegations Plains unduly “took over” the county’s Emergency Operations Center.“The Jury learned that in this case, the County EOC was acting as a ‘landlord’ to the Unified Command that was formed in response to the oil spill,” the report stated. Meanwhile, the department’s director, Ryan Rockabrand, is leaving the county this month.
EDuCAt CA ION CAt A refinancing of $36.2 million in bond monies from Measure V will save $8.7 million for taxpayers in the Santa Barbara Community College District, which stretches from Gaviota to Carpinteria. The $77.2 million bond was approved by voters in 2008. The last of several Measure V construction-improvement projects — new West Campus classrooms and offices to replace aging modular structures — is underway. European immigration policy came to life on 2/3 at Anacapa School when Hans Jörg Neumann, consul general in Los Angeles of the Federal Republic of Germany, joined middle and high school students to discuss the refugee crisis in Europe and the Middle East. Last year, 1.1 million refugees flooded Neumann’s country of 81 million; 480,000 applied for political asylum, a protection under the German constitution. He spoke to the roomful of note-taking students about the government’s difficult task of deciding which migrants should be granted asylum and fielded questions about the New Year’s Eve attacks, allegedly by groups of young male refugees, in the City of Cologne. n
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TALKING POINTS: Congressional candidates Matt Kokkonen (R) and Helene Schneider (D) debate at Cal Poly.
a they’re off and First Congressional Debate a Lively One
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by K e l s e y B r u g g e r n the highly anticipated first debate in the Central Coast’s wide-open congressional race, moderator Randol White with KCBX aptly summed up the evening in his closing remarks: “It’s a crowded table.” Vying to replace Congressmember Lois Capps, who has held the seat for nearly two decades, nine candidates separated themselves mostly along party lines while injecting healthy doses of their personalities to a packed auditorium on Thursday at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. The four front-runners — Democrats Salud Carbajal and Helene Schneider and Republicans Katcho Achadjian and Justin Fareed—rarely deviated from their respective blue-red talking points. The district, comprising San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and a sliver of Ventura counties, is one of the most competitive in the state—with just 3.4 percent more registered Democrats than Republicans. The event initially ran like a forum, with participants allowed 90 seconds to answer four questions drafted by Cal Poly’s political science department. The other five candidates — Steve Isakson, Jeff Oshins, Bill Ostrander, John Uebersax, and Matt Kokkonen — proved more willing to interrupt the rigid format. Oshins — frank, funny, and unassuming—snapped at his conservative counterparts at the table: “I want to ask you if you are going to sign [Grover Norquist’s anti-tax pledge].” Achadjian rebutted: “Are we going to stick to the questions we have, or are we going to get [off topic]?” White, who seesawed between reeling the candidates in and letting them run wild, agreed to stick to the prescribed questions. In that vein, Carbajal and Schneider — Santa Barbara county supervisor and city mayor, respectively — sounded remarkably similar on nearly every issue: college loans, minimum wage, the Affordable Care Act, Big independent.com
Pharma, climate change, etc. When asked about the federal government’s role to improve higher education, both proposed the same list of solutions (albeit in a different order): reduce student debt, increase federal loans and grants, and support President Barack Obama’s plan for free two-year community college. Schneider added combating sexual assault. She mentioned the state’s new “Yes Means Yes” law, authored by State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson, who is her key local endorsement. Schneider said her experiences working in human resources at Planned Parenthood and as mayor would be useful on the federal level. Early on, Schneider sought to distinguish herself as the only woman at the table. “I am not a yes man,” she said. Her royal blue jacket stood out next to the line of men in gray and black suits. Carbajal, who leads the pack in terms of fundraising and Democratic endorsements, told the crowd his father was a farmworker in Oxnard. He was the first in his family to go to a four-year university and is now a father of two. “I know what it’s like to cobble up resources,” he said. “The two most pressing challenges [in higher education] are accessibility and affordability.” Ostrander — the self-proclaimed campaign-finance crusader — asked the audience, “How many people think there is too much money in politics?” Lots of hands went up. He pulled out his iPhone, took a photo of the crowd, and promised to give the picture to whoever wins the election. He deemed reforming political fundraising as the easy fix to end gridlock in Washington: “Most of us are wired to be in the center,” he said.“Take the money out of it, and you will not have the polarity.” Ostrander made a point to stand up from the table when he spoke: “I feel more comfortable,” he said. Achadjian, who represents San Luis Obispo in the State Assembly, meanwhile, appeared less than enthused. Putting on reading glasses, he simcont’d page 13
fEbruary 11, 2016
THE INDEPENDENT
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