Gotta be honest: After this last month, I was getting accustomed to losing. So I hope the Los Angeles Dodgers have broken through the fog that has enveloped them since mid-May … for real.
Even the best team in baseball, and the defending world champions, can be expected to go through a dark spell, but seldom does the hex affect every roster position but the starting pitchers.
I say it all the time but Noozhawk, which is the best team in local news, rarely goes through dark spells. This week was another example of our professional journalists’ exceptionalism as they covered a run of important stories, and a few downright unusual ones.
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This past week, Noozhawk had an audience of 110,835 readers, according to our Google Analytics. What follows is my own recap of the Top 5 most-read stories over that period.
Please understand that this is my opinion column. It is not a news story and I am not a reporter.
1. Students Rescued from Sea Near Isla Vista Aboard Homemade Boat
“A sailor’s liberty is but for a day; yet while it lasts it is perfect.”
― Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before the Mast
Had a couple of landsmen beginning a sailor’s life bothered to read Richard Henry Dana’s classic memoir, Two Years Before the Mast, they might have thought twice about embarking in a jury-rigged vessel of questionable seaworthiness on a nighttime voyage from Isla Vista, round Campus Point, to the western coast of Santa Barbara.
They didn’t, though, and our ill-fated mariners sailed into this week’s Best of Bill column instead. Fortunately, they lived to tell their tale, which almost certainly will be embellished with time.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
As our Janene Scully first reported May 8, the two men — described as “nonengineering students in their 20s” — built themselves a boat out of nearly two dozen plastic buckets from Home Depot, two plastic kiddie pools, a piece of particle board and duct tape.
According to Santa Barbara County Fire Department spokesman Mike Eliason, they pushed off from the beach below Del Playa Drive near Camino Del Sur. He said they had a single paddle for propulsion but no wet suits in case they got into trouble in the 55-degree water.
They got into trouble.
“The tide kept pushing them further and further from shore, approximately 300 yards before County Fire was summoned,” Eliason said, explaining that one of Isla Vista’s night owls noticed the drifters and called 9-1-1 around 2 a.m.
A county fire water rescue team was dispatched from Isla Vista and two personal watercraft put in near UC Santa Barbara’s Campus Point to the east.
The motley crew, whose names were not disclosed, was rescued about 30 minutes later and safely brought back to shore, Eliason said.
Believe it or not, alcohol was not a factor, he added.
A couple of hours afterward, around 4 a.m., a man in his 60s was rescued from underneath the Goleta Beach Pier, where he apparently had gotten himself wedged between two pilings.
Eliason told Janene that the man had been calling for help for several hours before someone aboard a boat carrying workers from an offshore oil platform heard him as they neared the pier.
After being dislodged by firefighters, Eliason said, the victim was transported by an American Medical Response ambulance to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital for treatment of hypothermia.
Neither his identity nor his medical condition was released.
(Noozhawk contributed video)
2. Crews Battle Large Residential Structure Fire on Riviera in Santa Barbara
A Santa Barbara house designed by famed midcentury architect Richard Neutra, considered the father of California Modernism, was destroyed in a spectacular fire the morning of May 8.
Flames from the blaze, which broke out just before 10 a.m. at 1322 Dover Hill Road, below Franceschi Park on the Riviera, could be seen throughout downtown Santa Barbara while smoke was visible even from the morning’s commencement ceremonies at Westmont College in Montecito.
As our Janene Scully was first to report, crews from the Santa Barbara and Montecito fire departments arrived to find the two-story house already engulfed by the fast-moving flames.
Firefighters made an aggressive attack on the structure while successfully keeping the fire from spreading to nearby houses and — thanks to solid defensible spacing with landscaping — to surrounding vegetation.
There were no injuries, and the one resident at home at the time escaped safely.
Amber Anderson, an SBFD fire specialist and public information officer, told our Brooke Holland that the damage was estimated at more than $1.85 million.
The fire resulted in “total destruction of the single-family residence,” she said.
According to Anderson, investigators determined the fire was accidental, most likely caused by an electrical malfunction.
Friends of mine say the house — built in 1956 and also known as the “Slavin (Frederic) House” — was filled with priceless works of art.
3. San Luis Obispo Officer Killed, Another Wounded While Serving Search Warrant
A San Luis Obispo police detective was shot and killed and a fellow detective was wounded by a burglary suspect who authorities say was lying in wait as they served a search warrant May 10.
As our Tom Bolton first reported, police were attempting to serve a warrant around 5 p.m. at a Camellia Court apartment complex off Margarita Avenue, two blocks east of South Higuera Street south of downtown.
Not many details were released that night, but a neighbor, Monica Rochte, told the San Luis Obispo Tribune that she heard loud banging on a door, as well as police yelling.
“We’re going to come in,” she said she heard the officers yell. “We know you’re in there.”
Soon afterward, Rochte said, one shouted, “He has a gun!” before a volley of gunfire erupted.
In a follow-up story the next day, The Tribune’s Nick Wilson reported that acting police Chief Brian Amoroso identified the dead officer as Detective Luca Benedetti, a 37-year-old married father of two young daughters who had joined SLOPD in 2012 after four years with the Atascadero Police Department.
“I had the distinct pleasure of working with Luca over the past nine years,” Amaroso said. “I considered him a personal friend, a dedicated officer, a talented detective, a proud member of the San Luis Obispo regional SWAT team, and most important, a loving husband and father.”
The wounded officer, 31-year-old Detective Steve Orozco, was expected to make a full recovery, he said.
Amaroso said six officers were at the second-story apartment to serve a search warrant for stolen property believed to have been pilfered from commercial businesses over the last week.
The officers performed a standard “knock and notice” procedure, identifying themselves as law enforcement officials, he said.
When they received no response, Amoroso said, one officer forced open the front door. He said the suspect, 37-year-old Edward Zamora Giron, “was lying in wait” and opened fire from inside.
Officers returned fire and retreated, but he said Benedetti and Orozco were shot during the exchange of gunfire with Giron.
Amaroso said Giron was later found dead with a self-inflicted, fatal gunshot wound to the head. He also had other injuries consistent with being hit by gunfire from police.
A native of San Francisco, Benedetti studied engineering at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo but started his police career after graduating from the Allan Hancock College Law Enforcement Academy at its then-Santa Maria campus.
A GoFundMe account established for Benedetti’s widow, Grace, and their daughters had raised nearly $426,000 as of May 14. Click here to make an online donation.
A public funeral service is scheduled for 10 a.m. May 20 at the Cal Poly Performing Arts Center, followed by a first responder procession to a private graveside service. Eventbright registration is required for attendance at the funeral.
Benedetti and Orozco will be honored with several vehicle cruises May 14, culminating in a candlelight prayer vigil at 7:30 p.m. in Mission Plaza, at 989 Chorro St. in downtown San Luis Obispo. Click here for more information on starting points and routes for the caravans.
4. BizHawk: Wingman Rodeo Lands in Goleta; NoTown Tavern Opens at Former Monty’s Site
Wingman Rodeo made its debut a little over a year ago on Santa Barbara’s Lower Eastside but it’s already opened a second chicken wings restaurant in Old Town Goleta.
As our Josh Molina reported May 6, Wingman Rodeo has taken over the space at 5892 Hollister Ave., the former home of the now-closed Gimeal Café and, before it moved a few miles west to Camino Real Marketplace, the Natural Café.
Dudley Michael and Colton Krueger co-own the restaurant, and Michael says he’s long wanted a Goleta beachhead to go with the original Wingman at 730 N. Milpas St.
“I think Old Town Goleta is on the edge of really starting to do some new stuff,” he told Josh. “We’re excited to be over here.”
My son, Will, is a Wingman wingman and I’m glad he introduced me. The menu includes classic or boneless wings ranging from mild Cali BBQ and Pineapple Bourbon flavors to hot Atomic Buffalo and Strawberry Árbol. It also has a #bestofbillrecommendation Pulled Pork Sandwich with homemade slaw.
In addition … sorry, I’ve just made myself hungry and am taking an early lunch. #BRB
5. Vandenberg Air Force Base Unit Closely Tracking Out-of-Control Debris from Chinese Rocket
Personnel at Vandenberg Air Force Base — which will be rechristened Vandenberg Space Force Base on May 14 — spent the last week or so tracking out-of-control debris from a Chinese rocket that was hurtling toward Earth.
The Long March 5B, China’s largest rocket, reportedly launched April 28 on a mission to put into orbit part of the country’s future space station.
After completing that task, however, the rocket was supposed to make “an uncontrolled re-entry,” which means chunks of the 23-ton piece of now-junk could land, well, almost anywhere.
As our Janene Scully first reported, U.S. Space Command officials said the agency was “aware of and tracking the location” of the rocket, but they cautioned that it was hard to predict its exact re-entry point until just a few hours before it was to breach the Earth’s atmosphere.
VAFB’s 18th Space Control Squadron had been providing regular updates on the rocket’s location on the space-track.org website.
Massive population centers like Los Angeles, New York City, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro dodged a nearly 100-foot-long bullet May 9 when the reckless rocket plunged into the Indian Ocean, somewhere between the Maldives and southern India.
Not that China’s Communist government gave a rat’s ass where it ended up. Whether it’s starting the COVID-19 pandemic, suppression of Hong Kong democracy, Uighur genocide, high-tech piracy, intellectual property theft, greenhouse gas emissions, military aggression or a hundred other actions by Beijing’s totalitarian regime, the whole world should by now be crystal-clear about its callousness.
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Last Year on Noozhawk
What was our most-read story this time last year? Major-Injury Crash Shuts Down Part of Cliff Drive on Mesa in Santa Barbara.
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Bill Macfadyen’s Story of the Week
Protecting and serving: Police Deliver Mother’s Day Flowers after Arresting Delivery Driver for DUI.
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Best of Bill’s Instagram
Happy Mother’s Day to the love of my life, in my Instagram feed this past week.
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Watch It
A few weeks ago I had security footage of three mountain lions prowling about a house west of Goleta. Now I’ve got the latest sighting of a bear in Montecito, and this time it did a lot more than patrol. The camera didn’t catch its #NSFW havoc in the backyard chicken coops, however.
(Penny Bianchi / Noozhawk 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.
