Well, that weather respite was short-lived. I guess I forgot it’s still winter.

Over the last year, Noozhawk readers have seen additional news articles on our site from CalMatters and KFF Health News.

The content — policy-related state news from CalMatters, a Sacramento-based nonpartisan and nonprofit news organization, and health care policy news from KFF Health News, an editorially independent program of the Kaiser Family Foundation — is available to us through our association with Newspack, a WordPress-based publishing platform for local news sites like ours.

That’s a lot of words, but the point is that our editors curate the articles and post those they believe have Santa Barbara County implications.

Thanks to an innovative new partnership with KQED, San Francisco’s public radio station, we’ve just added a California Collection of in-depth news from KQED and other professional news organizations around the state.

You may have noticed the collection at the bottom of our homepage and Local News section.

The embedding is provided through Distributed Media Lab of Palo Alto, another longtime Noozhawk partner. My friend, Dave Gehring, is DML’s CEO and co-founder as well as a Westmont College alumnus and member of Westmont’s Board of Trustees.

We haven’t started sharing our own content with KQED, but expect that to begin later in March.

While Noozhawk specializes in breaking news, our team is quite capable — when we can make the time — of doing more in-depth reporting of the kind that might also be of interest from Bakersfield to Berkeley to Burlingame.

This past week, in fact, our journalists squeezed in several such stories among their daily output:

• Executive editor Giana Magnoli’s “Massive Sewage Spill Occurred 6 Days Before Goleta Beach Waters Were Closed”
• Staff writer Rebecca Caraway’s “Isla Vista Residents Left Scared and in the Dark About Building Safety After Balcony Collapse”
• Editor in chief Tom Bolton’s “Party Registration, Geography Could Be Decisive in 3rd District Supervisor Race”
• North County editor Janene Scully’s “SpaceX Rocket Shakes, Rattles and Startles in Launch From Vandenberg Space Force Base”
• South County editor Josh Molina’s “Political Notebook: 10 Things to Know Leading into March 5 Election in Santa Barbara County”

I’m really proud of what they were able to accomplish with everything else they had going on during a very busy news week.

Noozhawk had an audience of 158,843 readers for that period, according to our WordPress analytics, and what follows is my recap of the Top Five stories you were reading.

This is my opinion column, by the way, not a news story. I’m Noozhawk’s publisher, not a reporter.

1. 2 Arrested in Hit-Run Crash that Killed Motor Scooter Rider in Santa Barbara

Santa Barbara police have arrested the suspected driver in a Feb. 24 hit-and-run collision that killed a motor scooter rider near downtown.

As our Tom Bolton and Josh Molina reported, 32-year-old Dane Angus was riding his scooter in the 600 block of Santa Barbara Street at around 2 a.m. when he was struck by the driver of a Ford pickup truck, about midway between East Cota and East Ortega streets.

Witnesses reported that the pickup driver tried to flee with the scooter lodged beneath the truck’s front end before abandoning the vehicle and cravenly running away.

Angus was pronounced dead at the scene.

In spite of there being at least one suspect at large, police were typically noncommittal on details.

Sgt. Bryan Kerr told Josh that he could not even confirm that the collision was a hit-and-run, although there was an empty, wrecked truck by the mangled scooter and no driver to be found.

Witnesses also told Josh that a K-9 team was called in to search for the cowardly driver.

Later that day, like 18 hours later, two people turned themselves in at the police station.

Sgt. Ethan Ragsdale told Tom that 34-year-old Salvador Jimenez of Santa Barbara was arrested on charges of felony hit-and-run and driving with a suspended or revoked license, a misdemeanor.

He said 26-year-old Estefani Nava Guerrero, also of Santa Barbara, was arrested on charges of being an accessory to a felony and destruction of evidence.

Jimenez was booked into Santa Barbara County Jail on $500,000 bail, Ragsdale said. He pleaded not guilty at his Feb. 27 arraignment in Superior Court, and remains jailed as of March 1.

Guerrero also was jailed, but she was later released on $20,000 bail. Her arraignment has been scheduled for April 25.

A third individual was questioned about the incident by detectives but was not detained immediately, Ragsdale said.

Angus was the production and design manager at Pure Joy Catering in Santa Barbara, less than two blocks from where he was killed.

He also ran his own company, The Santa Barbara Candle Man, making soy wax candles.

In a statement, Pure Joy Catering business manager Shayna Cogan said his “vibrant spirit touched the lives of so many, and left an indelible mark on all who had the privilege of knowing him.”

“We are so grateful Dane chose to spend so much of his short adult life with us, bringing joy to thousands of people, and creating countless memories for his clients, guests and his coworkers,” she said.

Family and friends are holding a memorial gathering at 5 p.m. March 1 on the sand at East Beach, next to the Cabrillo Pavilion at 118 E. Cabrillo Blvd.

Funeral services are pending.

The police investigation is ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to email traffic investigator Edward Kasper at ekasper@sbpd.com.

2. SpaceX Rocket Shakes, Rattles and Startles in Launch From Vandenberg Space Force Base

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launched the night of Feb. 22 from Vandenberg Space Force Base, but the rocket’s 19th flight startled Santa Barbara County residents with its window-rattling blast and ground-shaking rumbling.

As our Janene Scully reported, the liftoff occurred at 8:11 p.m. from Space Launch Complex-4 on South Base, followed about eight minutes later by a successful return of the first-stage booster to the droneship Of Course I Still Love You waiting out in the Pacific Ocean.

Some locals took to Facebook to inquire about the unexpected disturbance, evidently having missed Noozhawk’s frequent updates on launch timetables and windows.

“Did anyone else feel that shake?” one Facebook user asked.

To be honest, I forgot about this launch myself, even though longtime readers know how excited I get about them. Not sure what I was doing at 8:11 p.m., but I didn’t hear or feel a thing.

Anyhoo. Janene was curious about the public confusion so she made some inquiries.

“It seems like there are multiple factors at play here,” said Rose Schoenfeld, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Oxnard.

She explained that clear skies, light winds and favorable conditions amplified the sound, with wind gusts at a mere 5 mph, unusual for Vandenberg’s typically blustery coastline.

“Typically, lighter winds are going to carry sound further because if the winds are stronger it tends to dissipate the sound,” added Dave Hovde, a meteorologist for KSBY-TV.

3. BizHawk: SloDoCo Extreme Doughnuts From San Luis Obispo Coming to Goleta

Peekle Boon!

Filling a hole from the South Coast’s doughnut demand, San Luis Obispo-based SloDoCo Donuts + Coffee is bringing its suite of sweets to Goleta this summer.

As our Josh Molina reported, the doughnut shop is opening at 290 Storke Road, the former home of Ortho Mattress, across from Camino Real Marketplace.

“We like to bend the rules on doughnuts, see what we can come up with and how extreme we can get,” Laura Krause, SloDoCo’s executive creative baker, told Josh.

“We have over 100 doughnut options to choose from every day, plus a rotation monthly menu.”

I suspect Tavin Dillard would approve of these Donut Goals. I know I do.

SloDoCo was founded in 2010 by Jacob Pickering and his wife, Jessie. Goleta will be their fourth location, joining two shops in San Luis Obispo and another in Atascadero.

“Goleta seemed like the perfect place,” Krause said. “The location and city are beautiful, and we are so excited to finally sink our feet into the growing area.”

Meanwhile, how about a shoutout to my friend, Tony Arroyo? His Los Arroyos Mexican Restaurant & Take Out celebrates its 25th anniversary on March 4.

“What started as a dream has grown into a legacy of delicious food, warm hospitality
and strong community connections,” said Arroyo, the founder, owner and chef.

The first Los Arroyos opened March 4, 1999, in basically a closet at 18 W. Figueroa St. in downtown Santa Barbara. It quickly expanded into the space next door.

Arroyo now boasts locations at 5764 Calle Real in Goleta, 1280 Coast Village Road in Montecito, and two stores in Indianapolis.

I’m proud to say we were among Los Arroyos’ first customers that inaugural weekend and our son, Will, worked there in high school.

We’ve been loyal patrons ever since, and are treated like family by many of the employees. I’m especially talking to you, Stephanie Borrayo.

4. Stratolaunch Aircraft Completes Flight Test Off Vandenberg Space Force Base Coastline

If you happened to spot an enormous, unusual aircraft flying slowly over the Lompoc and Santa Maria valleys on Feb. 24, congratulations. You caught a glimpse of Stratolaunch’s own Roc star.

As our Janene Scully reported, Stratolaunch officials said the aircraft — actually a flying launch platform — completed its second captive-carry flight with a Talon-A hypersonic vehicle that was powered up by live propellant.

The TA-1 is a reusable test vehicle and is part of the United States’ hypersonic technology program.

Janene explains it all way better than I ever could, but its importance has taken on a hypersonic urgency with Russian president-for-life Vladimir Putin’s explicit new nuclear threats against the West and the menace of China ever-looming over the West Coast and beyond.

With a wingspan of 385 feet, the Roc is believed to be the largest operating launch platform in the world.

The 4½-hour weekend excursion took off from Mojave Air & Space Port in the Mojave Desert. It was the first time a TA-1 operated within Vandenberg Space Force Base’s Western Range area.

5. Santa Barbara Talks: Katy Perry’s Mom, Mary Hudson, on GOP Slate to Seize Power in Local Republican Party

I could summarize our Josh Molina’s Santa Barbara Talks interview with Santa Barbara County Republican Party Central Committee candidates Colleen Estrada, Cheryl Trosky and Mary Hudson, mother of Santa Barbara’s own pop superstar, Katy Perry.

Or I could just let Josh do the talking. He’s better at it than I am anyway.

•        •        •

Good Reads

These six stories are really good. Read them before you go:

» Massive Sewage Spill Occurred 6 Days Before Goleta Beach Waters Were Closed — Executive editor Giana Magnoli discovers that a slew of government agencies ended up keeping the public in the dark for six days about the 500,000-gallon Goleta Beach sewage spill. Imagine if, say, a business had done that.

» Party Registration, Geography Could Be Decisive in 3rd District Supervisor Race — Editor in chief Tom Bolton unpacks the pivotal race for Santa Barbara County’s Third Supervisorial District, which has a number of intriguing scenarios — or possibly not.

» Isla Vista Residents Left Scared and in the Dark About Building Safety After Balcony Collapse — The saga of the crumbling Isla Vista bluffs is well known in the community, but staff writer Rebecca Caraway explores the less-visible personal toll that residents are experiencing.

» Goleta, Santa Barbara School Districts Plan Staffing Cuts After End of COVID-Era Funding — In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, Rebecca finds that school districts are discovering a thorny math problem.

» Granada Theatre to Reopen Early March After Broken Sprinkler Flooded Stage — Rebecca raises the curtain on the progress of the sprinkler-soaked Granada Theatre’s repairs and reopening.

» Mark Patton: Treasuring the Value of Little League During a Golden Anniversary in Goleta — Sports columnist Mark Patton hits a grand slam with his latest column, this one on Dos Pueblos Little League’s 50th anniversary.

•        •        •

Last Year on Noozhawk

What was our most-read story this time last year? Snow Lures Visitors Despite Closure of Los Padres National Forest.

•        •        •

Bill Macfadyen’s Story of the Week

Explorers serendipitously get to the bottom of the intrigue around the ill-fated SS Nemesis: Mystery Ship That Vanished with 32 Crew Members Finally Found After 120 Years.

•        •        •

Best of Bill’s Instagram

My Instagram feed gets the picture of one idiotic traffic “improvement” that the City of Santa Barbara really needs to kick to the curb. Oh, and there are acorns galore and #sadiesunday.

•        •        •

Watch It

HT to reader Mark San Juan, who watched last week’s Best of Bill video and was inspired to discover a cube root in thePOVchannel collection — this one all squared up on the rim of Monument Valley.