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Illegal immigrants arrive in D.C.
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Greg Abbott sends a bus, carrying those who chose to make the trip, to the nation’s capital - A4
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T H U R S DAY, A P R I L 14 , 2 0 2 2
Direct Relief helps effort in Ukraine Goleta-based nonprofit assists with transporting volunteer firefighters
PHOTO COURTESY CHARITY FUND MODERN VILLAGE AND TOWN
Charity Fund Modern Village and Town, a Ukrainian NGO, receives a shipment containing levothyroxine for distribution to people affected by the war. So far, Goleta-based Direct Relief has donated more than 200 tons of medicine and medical supplies to the Ukrainian effort.
from California. Direct Relief’s role in the effort was to provide Goleta-based Direct Relief a $50,000 grant to help fly and Project Joint Guardian, a the firefighters to Ukraine, San Diego-based international said Tony Morain, the network of volunteer nonprofit’s vice president of firefighters, communications. have partnered The effort MORE ABOUT UKRAINE has together relied on to provide donations. U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal said Russia technical gear “Being a has put sanctions on him - A2 and search and nonprofit, rescue training everything has to firefighters been donated. Personnel are and search and rescue teams donating time and efforts,” in Ukraine. Isaac Siegel, organizer of The supplies have been Project Joint Guardian, told donated by fire stations across the U.S. with much of it coming Please see RELIEF on A4 By KATHERINE ZEHNDER NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
DAVE MASON/NEWS-PRESS
The Majestic Princess visits Santa Barbara Wednesday.
Cruise ship visits Santa Barbara Tourists find sunny, comfortable weather in America Riviera By DAVE MASON NEWS-PRESS MANAGING EDITOR
A sailboat cruised by a much larger cruise ship anchored Wednesday a short distance from the Santa Barbara Harbor, and there was little doubt that the giant vessel lived up to its name. The Majestic Princess was in town. Passersby looked with interest at the cruise ship from the harbor area. And tourists from the ship, including those from other countries, visited the harbor area, Stearns Wharf and lower
State Street, bringing a festive atmosphere to Santa Barbara as they checked out restaurants and stores. Some took photos of each other on the pedestrian promenade on State Street, with Santa Barbara in all its glory behind them. For the first time since the pandemic started in 2020, cruise ships began visiting Santa Barbara on March 16 when Majestic Princess made its first visit of this year. The ship returned March 30, and Wednesday’s stop marked its third visit. Other ships that have visited so far have included the Koningsdam
and the Discovery Princess. The next cruise ship in Santa Barbara will be the Ruby Princess, in its first visit this year, on Monday. By May 20, a total of 17 visits by cruise ships will have taken place, according to the city of Santa Barbara. As usual, cruise ships visit this area in the off season, bringing many visitors from around the world to State Street in support of Santa Barbara’s tourism industry. The tourists on Wednesday came a week after the heat wave and found comfortable, moderate temperatures.
The high at the Santa Barbara Airport was a moderate 71, and the National Weather Service said highs would remain in the low 70s today through Saturday in the American Riviera. Elsewhere in Santa Barbara County, highs were moderate. The weather service is predicting conditions to remain that way through Saturday, varying from the mid-60s in Santa Maria to the low 70s in Santa Ynez. The weather service also said it will be sunny today and Friday, but clouds will roll in Saturday. email: dmason@newspress.com
Santa Barbara County awarded $19M for Goleta Homekey project By KAITLYN SCHALLHORN NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
KENNETH SONG/NEWS-PRESS
Plans call for renovating the Super 8 motel at 6021 Hollister Ave. in Goleta into a facility to house homeless people.
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California awarded nearly $19 million to Santa Barbara County to redevelop a Goleta motel to assist people experiencing homelessness. The Homekey project will convert a Super 8 motel at 6021 Hollister Ave. into about 60 housing units (which include a living space and kitchen area) for individuals experiencing homelessness or who are at risk of becoming unhoused. The facility will provide wrap-around supportive services including health care and mental health services. The project is expected to cost about $20 million, and Goleta has
agreed to put up about $600,000. “The most important thing is it’s designed to create the stability that is lacking when folks are on the street and unhoused,” Jaime Valdez, Goleta’s neighborhood services director, previously told the News-Press about the project. The Goleta motel was part of a $70 million slate of Homekey projects receiving funding announced by the Governor’s Office Wednesday. Other projects awarded funds are located in Los Angeles, Humboldt and Alameda counties. “Homekey is proof that we can solve homelessness,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement. Please see HOMEKEY on B4
Santa Barbara Unified identifies 12 racial incidents in less than a month By KAITLYN SCHALLHORN NEWS-PRESS STAFF WRITER
The Santa Barbara Unified School District identified 12 racial incidents that occurred in the span of less than a month, with most of the incidents in elementary schools, according to a report given to the Board of Education this week. Dr. Hilda Maldonado, the school district superintendent, presented an update on how the district is identifying and responding to racial incidents during Tuesday’s board meeting. She said there have been 12 racial incidents across nine schools identified between March 16 to April 7. Eleven of those instances occurred in elementary schools, according to Dr. Maldonado. Incidents included the use of the n-word, certain interactions between students and writing on a staff member’s car. Dr. Maldonado presented a definition to be used by the district in identifying these incidents: “A race-related incident is defined as any incident in which a person or group is targeted for their race or perceived race. The targeting can be emotional, physical, and/or verbal; virtual and/or in-person; direct and/or in-
KENNETH SONG/NEWS-PRESS
Dr. Hilda Maldonado
direct, regardless of intent.” “We know there is a lot of work to do, and this is helping us get granular at where exactly in our system we need to make some of these changes,” Dr. Maldonado said. Additionally, Dr. Maldonado said anti-bias training for all staff, to be completed by June 30, is in progress and an anti-blackness working group is scheduled for April 20. (Anti-blackness is Please see INCIDENTS on A4
INSIDE
L O T T E RY RESULTS
Classified................. B4 Life...................... B1-2 Obituaries............... A4
Wednesday’s SUPER LOTTO: 0N/A Meganumber: N/A
Wednesday’s DAILY 4:9-1-7-6
Tuesday’s MEGA MILLIONS: 2-8-14-20-31 Meganumber: 17
Wednesday’s FANTASY 5: 4-12-17-18-22
Wednesday’s DAILY DERBY: 12-06-02 Time: 1:43.60
Wednesday’s POWERBALL: N/A Meganumber: N/A
Sudoku................... B1 Sports . .................... A3 Weather................. A4
Wednesday’s DAILY 3: 7-0-7 / Wednesday’s Midday 6-0-7