Santa Barbara County continues to report good news on the COVID-19 front, and the community is unmistakably growing more confident about normality.
As our Jade Martinez-Pogue reported March 31, more than 15 percent of the county’s 448,000 residents have now been fully vaccinated against the scourge of the last year.
The county still isn’t getting sufficient share of the vaccine, but Sacramento has largely ignored us throughout the twin public health and economic crisis. No reason to expect that to change now.
While the county’s case rate is still above the threshhold to get us out of the second most-restrictive tier in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s oxymoronic “reopening” plan, California’s COVID-19 dashboard shows our overall numbers plummeting.
As of March 30, the dashboard was tracking a seven-day average of 6.5 cases per 100,000 residents, the lowest it’s been in exactly five months.
I mentioned in last week’s Best of Bill column that Noozhawk’s professional journalists have been refocusing on what comes next, and I have a few things to report this week:
» We’re putting together another Noozhawk Talks, this one on coronavirus variants. I should have details next week.
» On April 6, managing editor Giana Magnoli will be introducing a weekly COVID-19 Update email, with summaries of our daily reporting, data visualization of tracking and trends, new news, reader questions, resources, references and business recovery information.
» Last year, I shared that our Brooke Holland was selected for a USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism 2020 Data Fellowship. As part of her project, she’s been cataloguing the scope of COVID-19 outbreaks among residents in skilled nursing facilities in the county. Her full report will be published later this spring, but her March 27 story, “To Reach Santa Barbara County’s Vulnerable, Public Health Targeted COVID-19 Testing, Drop-In Sites,” was a piece of her research.
We’re proud of the work we’ve done to keep Santa Barbara County informed throughout the COVID-19 crisis, but there’s more to do. And we know you also rely on us — 24/7 — for all the other local news we report.
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According to our Google Analytics, Noozhawk had an audience of 124,690 readers this past week. What follows is my recap of the Top 5 most-read stories during that period.
Just so you know, this is an opinion column. It is not a news story.
1. Female Pedestrian Struck and Killed by Amtrak Train Near Santa Barbara
A woman who was struck and killed by a passenger train just west of Santa Barbara last week was identified as 28-year-old Lee Ann MacMillan of Santa Barbara. Tragically, that’s only half the story.
As our Jade Martinez-Pogue first reported, the woman was hit by a northbound Amtrak Coast Starlight about 1:15 p.m. March 26 on the tracks near Hollister Avenue and Modoc Road. She carried no identification and was declared dead at the scene.
The haunting part is that, the next night, Santa Barbara police issued a missing at-risk adult alert for MacMillan, who had left her wallet, ID, car, keys and cell phone at her home before vanishing.
In a March 27 alert sent to local news media and posted on social media, police Lt. Joshua Morton said MacMillan “suffers from depression and has been expressing suicidal ideation for the last month. MacMillan made specific statements recently which indicate she may be intending to harm herself.”
While friends frantically searched for her, the Santa Barbara County Coroner’s Bureau made the grim identification.
“Sadly, it was confirmed … that the decedent (MacMillan) was the previously unidentified woman in the train fatality,” Morton said in a March 29 statement. “We would like to offer our condolences to her family and anyone who knew her or is affected by this tragedy.”
MacMillan, a Canadian citizen from Barrie, Ontario, had been living in Santa Barbara since last fall.
In the years before the COVID-19 pandemic, she had developed a massive audience on social media as she chronicled her global travels — usually in a sprinter van she and her then-boyfriend had converted themselves — for the 496,000 subscribers to the couple’s YouTube channel and the nearly 57,000 followers of her @lifewithlee Instagram account.
The vivacious MacMillan, described in a tribute as “a magnetic force of nature,” freely acknowledged her long-standing battle with depression and mental illness. Friends who updated her Instagram account after her death addressed it directly.
“Lee was an advocate for mental health,” they wrote in a March 29 post. “She was candid and open about her own struggles. She was receiving help: from professionals, from family, from friends. She had support around her. She was not alone, she was not trying to fight this alone.
“And yet she still succumbed to this terrible illness. It is more nuanced than we can, or do, appreciate or understand.”
Funeral arrangements are pending.
Click here for suicide prevention information and resources that are available 24/7.
The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is available around the clock at 800.273.8255, as is the county’s 24/7 Behavioral Wellness Access Line at 888.868.1649.
Rest in peace.
2. Search for Suspects in Shooting on Santa Barbara’s Eastside Runs Late Into the Night
Well, here’s one way to shake up a Monday.
As our Tom Bolton and Brooke Holland first reported, Santa Barbara police and firefighters responded to multiple reports of gunshots and a burning vehicle in the 1400 block of Eucalyptus Hill Road about 5:20 p.m. March 29. They arrived to find a badly injured man inside a bullet-riddled SUV that had crashed into a palm tree and caught fire.
There were no signs of any suspects, but police Lt. Shawn Hill said witnesses described two young males fleeing the Lower Eastside neighborhood on foot.
He said the victim had suffered a “significant injury,” and was rushed by American Medical Response ambulance to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital in critical condition.
The man’s identity was not released, and Hill would only describe him as “an out-of-county resident.”
Firefighters quickly extinguished the blaze, and there were no other injuries at the scene, a block above South Salinas Street.
Hill said police — including K-9 teams, SWAT and SBPD’s armored Bearcat, and Santa Barbara County sheriff’s deputies and a county helicopter — set up a perimeter to try to hem in the suspects. Attention quickly focused on a nearby residence in the 200 block of South Salinas Street, where witnesses had said the pair might be hiding, possibly in a backyard shed.
Evidently, that intel was incorrect.
“The SWAT team conducted a thorough search for public safety and have determined the area to be safe at this time,” Hill announced at 11 p.m. “The previous shelter in place order was lifted for the area …
“This is an ongoing investigation, and the circumstances suggest that it was not a random act of violence,” he added.
Police pointedly would not say whether the shooting was gang related, but the incident occurred just a few blocks from the site of the still-unsolved Jan. 3 murders of two Santa Barbara High School students. When SBPD last spoke publicly about the killings of 17-year-old Angel Castillo and 18-year-old Omar Montiel-Hernandez — almost three months ago — the confrontation was suspected to be gang-related.
3. All Californians Over 16 Eligible for COVID-19 Vaccinations Starting April 15
Yes, this is a repeat of last week’s top story, but it’s truly good news in the ongoing war against the coronavirus. As of April 1, all Californians age 50 and older are eligible for COVID-19 vaccines and, beginning April 15, everyone over 16 is free to get in line.
But …
Santa Barbara County is now part of the statewide Blue Shield of California system, which was sold as the great centralizer of vaccination appointments among all participating hospitals, clinics, pharmacies or other vaccine providers.
Don’t believe the hype. If the punctuation-challenged message, “No appointments are available, we can’t schedule your COVID-19 vaccination yet,” isn’t irritating enough, wait until you discover that you have to navigate to outside links to try to find participating hospitals, clinics, pharmacies or other vaccine providers that are not in the Blue Shield system.
Click here to register on the MyTurn website. And good luck.
4. Skateboarder Critically Injured in Collision with Vehicle in Goleta
A skateboarder was critically injured in a collision with a car the night of March 27 near the Santa Barbara Airport.
As our Tom Bolton first reported, emergency personnel were dispatched around 9:50 p.m. to the 6300 block of Hollister Avenue, just east of Los Carneros Road in Goleta.
Santa Barbara County fire Capt. Daniel Bertucelli told Tom that the skateboarder was found with major injuries and was transported by American Medical Response ambulance to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.
It was not clear if anyone else was hurt but, as you can see from the nearby photo, the sedan’s windshield was smashed through.
The victim’s identity and medical condition were not disclosed.
The Sheriff’s Department is investigating the circumstances of the collision.
5. Santa Maria Man Arrested After Fatal Wrong-Way Crash on Highway 101 in Nipomo
An alleged drunken driver’s wrong-way head-on collision on Highway 101 in Nipomo left one of his victims dead and two others with major injuries late on the night of March 27.
The guy who allegedly caused the wreck — identified by the California Highway Patrol as 24-year-old Ernesto Nava Herrera of Santa Maria — suffered minor injuries but evidently thought he could make a run for it on foot rather than manning up and facing the consequences.
As our Tom Bolton first reported, the crash was reported just after 11 p.m. on the freeway south of Tefft Street.
According to the CHP, Herrera drove his Chevy Tahoe south in the northbound lanes from Tefft Street and quickly slammed into an oncoming Honda CR-V driven by 44-year-old Jose Cruz Jr. of San José.
Cruz’s vehicle flipped over, and the CHP said a male passenger suffered critical injuries when he was ejected from the compact SUV. He was rushed to Marian Regional Medical Center in nearby Santa Maria, but died from the trauma.
Cruz and a female passenger suffered major injuries in the wreck and also were taken to Marian.
The CHP said Herrera, although injured, ran from the scene but was apprehended with the assistance of a CHP helicopter.
After being treated at French Hospital Medical Center in San Luis Obispo, the CHP said, Herrera was arrested and booked into San Luis Obispo County Jail on suspicion of felony gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, driving under the influence causing bodily injury, driving with a blood-alcohol of .10 or greater causing injury, hit-and-run involving injury or death and grand theft.
As of April 1, he remained jailed with bail set at $100,000.
• • •
Last Year on Noozhawk
What was our most-read story this time last year? Former UCSB Basketball Standout Mekia Valentine Dies at 32.
• • •
Bill Macfadyen’s Story of the Week
Don’t read this before breakfast: In the Hand Dryer vs. Paper Towel Debate, Which Is Better for Washing Your Hands?
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Best of Bill’s Instagram
Palm trees, garbage trucks, cow-ear chews and a bong are all in my Instagram feed this past week, in case you had the notion that I couldn’t use those words together in a sentence.
• • •
Watch It
It’s Easter. Thank God.
(Ellie Holcomb 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.
