May is National Nurses Month and Noozhawk is proud to again publish our annual Salute to Nurses section recognizing one of the most challenging, vital and rewarding careers you can have.
Thanks to our sponsors — VNA Health, Cottage Health, Allan Hancock College, CSU Channel Islands, Sansum Clinic, SBCC Foundation and Westmont College — we are able to highlight the important roles that nurses fulfill in our health-care system, as well as a few of the men and women who fill those clogs and running shoes.
Words can not begin to describe how grateful we are for the courage and sacrifices of nurses, especially on the chaotic frontlines of the COVID-19 crisis, but we’ll start with two: Thank you.
Click here for Noozhawk’s 2021 Salute to Nurses section.
I also want to call your attention to a new feature by a familiar name: Santa Barbara Talks with Josh Molina.
You’ve been reading Josh’s reporting for years — his stories regularly appear in these Best of Bill columns although, oddly, not this week — and his coverage of local government, planning and development, and K-12 education is second to none.
But what you may not know is that Josh is also one of the most insightful and personable interviewers around. He truly enjoys talking with people, and last year he began a weekly podcast series with local newsmakers.
Each Monday, we’ll be posting excerpted versions of his hour-long interviews along with the link to his full podcast. For his Noozhawk debut, he Zoomed in on Graham Farrar, a leading cannabis champion and potrepreneur.
Click on the link and let me know what you think.
Noozhawk’s newsroom is powered by readers just like you who believe in the value of quality journalism.
Over the last year — a year that brought so many challenges to so many — access to accurate and trustworthy local news and information could not have been more critical. It remains so today, and Noozhawk is committed to bringing you the thorough local coverage you rely on.
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Noozhawk had an audience of 105,150 readers this past week, according to our Google Analytics. What follows is my own take on the Top 5 most-read stories of the previous seven days.
And by “my own take,” I mean this is my opinion column. It is not a news story.
1. Santa Barbara Man Killed in Head-On Crash on Highway 101 Near Gaviota
A head-on collision on Highway 101 left an 80-year-old Santa Barbara man dead at the scene of the crash on the southern side of the Nojoqui Summit on May 3.
As our Jade Martinez-Pogue first reported, the California Highway Patrol said 34-year-old Juliel Montes of Salinas was driving a GMC pickup truck south over the summit when, for unknown reasons, he crossed onto the northbound side and slammed into an oncoming Jeep pickup truck.
CHP Officer Keith Rogers said the Jeep driver — identified as Michael Channing Peake — suffered major injuries and died in the 7:30 a.m. wreck. Montes was not injured.
Although a concrete barrier runs along much of the highway median up and down the Nojoqui Grade north of Highway 1, the summit itself is mostly unprotected due to crossings from a couple of ranch roads and the intersection of Old Coast Highway.
Rogers said alcohol and drugs do not appear to be factors in the collision, but the CHP is investigating the circumstances and cause of the crash.
Funeral services are pending for Peake, who was the son of the late Channing Peake, a well-known Santa Barbara muralist, and his first wife, Katherine Schott “Katy” Peake, the daughter of a prominent Santa Barbara family and whose grandmother, Alice Schott, was one of the community’s leading philanthropists and arts patrons.
The elder Peake often used his son as a model in his work, including for a depiction of Don Quixote in a large mural he painted for the Santa Barbara Central Library. Other Peake murals were painted for El Paseo Restaurant and the Santa Barbara Airport terminal.
2. 3 Suspects Sought After Armed Robbery on Santa Barbara’s Lower Eastside
A wholesale jeweler was robbed at gunpoint in a brazen daylight holdup in a busy Santa Barbara parking lot on May 4.
As our Tom Bolton was first to report, the robbery was called in just before 4 p.m. from outside Trader Joe’s, at 222 N. Milpas St. near East Montecito Street on the Lower Eastside.
Santa Barbara police Lt. Shawn Hill said the victim, who was not a local, was robbed of a large volume of jewelry by three suspects.
“The suspects appeared to be targeting the victim, and have knowledge of the jewelry in the victim’s possession,” he said.
The victim suffered minor injuries in the incident, but his car’s passenger side front window was shattered into thousands of pieces.
The suspects, who fled in a black Lexus, were dressed all in black and wore face masks. Police didn’t say whether the masks were of the ubiquitous COVID-19 variety or the more traditional criminal ski mask style.
3. Woman Killed in Highway Crash in Summerland Was Goleta Resident
A Goleta woman was killed April 30 when her car crashed into a tree along Highway 101 near Summerland. There were no other injuries in the single-vehicle wreck.
As our Janene Scully first reported, the northbound vehicle veered off the freeway around 6:30 p.m. near the Santa Barbara Polo & Racquet Club east of the North Padaro Lane exit.
The woman was trapped in the wreckage and was pronounced dead of her injuries by Carpinteria-Summerland firefighters.
On May 4, Santa Barbara County sheriff’s spokeswoman Raquel Zick identified the victim as 58-year-old Diane Hunter, a retired records clerk supervisor at the Sheriff’s Department.
Funeral services are pending.
The California Highway Patrol is investigating the cause of the crash.
4. Santa Barbara Oncologist Accused of Conspiracy to Commit Health Care Fraud Agrees to Plea Deal
A federal fraud investigation involving COVID-19 antibody tests has ensnared a Santa Barbara oncologist, who entered a guilty plea in the case making its way through the court system in the Bay Area.
Dr. Julie Taguchi, a longtime Sansum Clinic physician, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit health-care fraud. According to court documents obtained by Noozhawk, she entered the plea on Jan. 24 in U.S. District Court in San José.
As our Jade Martinez-Pogue first reported, the documents state that Taguchi knowingly and willfully executed a scheme to defraud a health-care benefit program over a nearly two-year period ending about April 2020.
As part of her plea deal, Taguchi is expected to testify against Mark Schena, a Sunnyvale biotech executive at the center of the investigation.
According to the court documents, Schena, president of Arrayit Corp., allegedly paid kickbacks and bribes to doctors and others to run expensive allergy screening tests on all patients, regardless of medical necessity, in combination with coronavirus testing. Prosecutors say the scheme pulled in more than $69 million in fraudulent Medicare claims.
Schena, who has not entered a plea in the case, is due in court May 24.
Taguchi, the laboratory director of Arrayit, admitted that she and another physician allowed the company to use their medical licenses to submit Medi-Cal reimbursements for patients they had never seen.
Just before entering her plea, Taguchi resigned from Sansum’s Ridley-Tree Cancer Center. She told Jade that neither Sansum nor the cancer center was involved in the fraud case.
Taguchi’s sentencing hearing will follow Schena’s trial, which is scheduled to begin late this year.
5. Santa Barbara Clinic Reportedly Charging Patients for COVID-19 Vaccine That Should Be Free
In an April 29 Noozhawk exclusive, our Giana Magnoli broke the story of at least one local COVID-19 vaccine distributor charging patients for the shots.
The vaccines — brought to market by Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson in record time last year — are supposed to be free for everyone, as per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and contracts with third-party administrators.
Evidently, The MedCenter missed the memo. Or at least the fine print.
As Giana discovered, the company had been advertising a $45 administrative fee for uninsured patients booking a coronavirus vaccination appointment at its 2954 State St. location.
Dr. William Meller, medical director of The MedCenter, told Giana that uninsured patients were not charged for the shots. He says The MedCenter website stating otherwise was a “mistake.”
“The only patients who are charged any fee are patients who have insurance but whose insurance is not one with whom we are contracted,” he said. “In that case, we charge only the administration fee, and then we bill the insurance.”
If The MedCenter receives an insurance reimbursement, the patient is refunded the $45.
Santa Barbara County Public Health Department spokeswoman Jackie Ruiz was not impressed.
“No locations should be charging any fees for any reason per the CDC and TPA contracts,” she told Giana.
The TPA in question is Blue Shield of California, which is managing the state’s vaccination distribution program. In turn, the county and other individual vaccine providers signed their own contracts with Blue Shield to participate.
“Our immunization team will be reaching out to MedCenter,” Ruiz said.
According to Meller, The MedCenter has administered about 2,000 COVID-19 doses in walk-up appointments. He said the clinic may soon bow out of the shot show anyway since demand has dropped with increased vaccine availability.
If you were charged for getting a COVID-19 vaccine, or if you received a bill from your insurance company, Giana wants to hear from you. Click here to email her.
• • •
Last Year on Noozhawk
What was our most-read story this time last year? Bicyclist Critically Injured in Collision on Highway 154 Near Santa Barbara.
• • •
Bill Macfadyen’s Story of the Week
Just as I thought, SCIENCE is now downstream from POLITICS: Why the Worst of the COVID-19 Pandemic May be Over Sooner Than You Think.
• • •
Best of Bill’s Instagram
Apparently, a crew of litterbugs was hired as the contractor on the Hot Springs Road #watermainreplacementproject in Montecito. My Instagram feed helped clean it up this past week.
• • •
Watch It
Albert Pujols is one of baseball’s all-time greats. You know who else is in his class? St. Louis Cardinals fans.
(Bally Sports Midwest video)
• • •
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— Bill Macfadyen is Noozhawk’s founder and publisher. Contact him at wmacfadyen@noozhawk.com, follow him on Instagram: @bill.macfadyen, or click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.
