COVID-19’s disproportionate and deadly impacts on senior citizens and skilled nursing facilities have been well-documented over the last 15 months. In line with the national trends, Santa Barbara County has had to confront many of the same disturbing circumstances.
Over the last year, Noozhawk staff writer Brooke Holland found herself encountering more and more of the people and families at the center of those heartbreaking stories.
Inspired, she applied for and earned a USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism 2020 Data Fellowship to catalog the scope of COVID-19 outbreaks among county residents in such care homes.
She and managing editor Giana Magnoli have been putting the finishing touches on her project, and I’m excited to announce that we’ll begin publishing her series early next week.
It is this kind of professional enterprise journalism that you expect from Noozhawk, but it’s the type of special project that is made possible by our Hawks Club members. Thanks to your generous financial commitment to us, we were able to give Brooke the time and resources she needed to pursue this opportunity.
We’d like to do more of these investigations, but we need your help. May we count on you to join our Hawks Club today?
Your contribution, at any amount, is welcome. Thank you for your support.
According to our Google Analytics, Noozhawk had an audience of 115,417 readers this past week. What follows is my take on your Top 5 most-read stories of the period.
This is an opinion column, my opinion. Don’t worry, though. You won’t melt if you come across any below.
1. DA Files Arson Charges Against Santa Barbara Man Accused of Starting Loma Fire
The May 20 Loma Fire is out, but the seven-acre, barren and blackened hillside it left behind is almost as jarringly visible from around Santa Barbara as the field of flames many saw the night it ignited.
As it turns out, authorities believe the fire on TV Hill was intentionally set and that they caught the alleged firebug.
Our Giana Magnoli reported that 23-year-old Victor Angel Hernandez of Santa Barbara was charged May 25 with three felonies: two counts of arson of an inhabited structure or property, one on Loma Alta Drive and the other on Via Del Cielo, and an attempt to burn for allegedly setting a fire near McKinley School, at 350 Loma Alta Drive.
The Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office also charged him with being under the influence of a controlled substance and possession of methamphetamine, both misdemeanors, as well as a special allegation for causing multiple structures to burn.
Hernandez pleaded not guilty during his county Superior Court appearance, and is due to return for a preliminary hearing on June 2.
Santa Barbara police arrested Hernandez the night of the fire when they found him “hiding in the brush” near Loma Alta and West Ortega Street.
The fire, which erupted at the base of the hill just before 9 o’clock on that extremely windy Thursday night, quickly raced up the steep hillside. The KEYT News studio, nearby residences and neighborhoods on both the Westside and the Mesa were evacuated.
Fortunately, there were no injuries, and Santa Barbara firefighters and mutual aid crews from throughout the Central Coast were able to keep the flames away from all but two houses.
For the record, all of our Loma Fire reporting was in the list of Top 15 most-read stories this past week, with three stories in the Top 5.
2. Barricaded Man Arrested After Standoff at Santa Barbara Apartment Complex
A Santa Barbara man was taken into custody around midday May 26 after an hours-long standoff with police at his apartment near Santa Barbara City College.
As our Tom Bolton and Giana Magnoli reported, officers were first called just after midnight to check out reports of a man disturbing the peace and breaking things in his apartment in the 100 block of Oceano Avenue. The complex is near the end of the street off Cliff Drive, along the western edge of SBCC’s West Campus.
The man refused to open his door and was making no sense in his statements, but Sgt. Ethan Ragsdale said the officers left after determining he had committed no crime and no one was willing to press charges.
Because the man appeared to be under the influence of a controlled substance, mental health workers declined to get involved, he added.
Ragsdale said police were back two hours later after additional 9-1-1 calls were made and, this time, a neighbor signed a citizen’s arrest complaint.
Things went downhill from there, and Ragsdale said the suspect threw a large pane of broken glass at the officers.
“The officers had to quickly move out of the way to avoid being struck by the sharp shard,” he said, with props for the alliteration.
Backup, including SWAT and SBPD’s armored Bearcat, were summoned as the man barricaded himself in the apartment, where he continued to break things and throw various projectiles out the windows at officers.
Neighbors — among them a Noozhawk employee — were ordered to shelter in place.
This went on for several more hours before police finally ended it with tear gas. The suspect promptly surrendered and was arrested without further incident.
Ragsdale identified the man as 26-year-old Stephen Prophet and said he was taken to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital for a medical evaluation before being transferred to Santa Barbara County Jail for a mental health assessment.
He said he was booked on suspicion of felony assault with a deadly weapon against a peace officer, as well as disturbing the peace and resisting/obstructing an officer, both misdemeanors.
Bail was set at $50,000.
Ragsdale said there were no injuries in the incident, including to a dog that was inside the apartment the entire time.
You may have noticed that we published an accompanying photo of Prophet with his face amateurishly blurred out, as we did a few days before giving the same treatment to Loma Fire arson suspect Victor Hernandez.
That was not a Noozhawk decision; both pictures were provided to all news media by the Santa Barbara Police Department, which evidently has decided that will be its official policy going forward when it comes to suspects — along with the withholding of booking photos.
Whether that law enforcement practice continues, or even complies with state public records law, is something Noozhawk is exploring as I type. We’ll have more to say about that change of procedure at a time of our choosing, and will outline clearly how Noozhawk intends to respond.
For now I will just say that Noozhawk’s professional journalists — including our own photographers — do not take lightly our ethics and responsibilities, our commitment to the First Amendment and the public’s right to know. You have my word that will not change.
3. Hal Conklin, Former Santa Barbara Councilman, Mayor, Arts and Environmental Activist, Dies at 75
Hal Conklin was a civic leader in the very best sense of each of those words, and it was my privilege to be able to call him my friend.
He died May 21 after a relatively short battle with brain cancer at just 75 years old.
Our Josh Molina wrote a tremendous obituary outlining Conklin’s many accomplishments as a Santa Barbara city councilman and, briefly, mayor, as well as his visionary leadership on arts, culture and the environment.
He was a key catalyst behind Paseo Nuevo and the downtown arts and cultural district, and over the last few years he had again emerged as a champion of downtown revitalization, cheerfully convening regular meetings to consider new approaches to the chronic challenges.
What made Conklin so effective was his innate graciousness, his ability to put people at ease and his listening skills. If more of us possessed more of that, politicians included, our society would be better off and our politics would be more productive.
I go back decades with Conklin and his close friend, Denny Wayman, the now-retired pastor of Free Methodist Church of Santa Barbara.
They first began writing their spirituality-based movie review column, Cinema in Focus, when I worked at the local daily newspaper in an earlier life. I brought the column with me to the short-lived South Coast Beacon and then to Noozhawk, where it has been our longest-standing feature.
Wayman may have been the seminarian, but Conklin was no slouch in the theology and philosophy departments. Of all his many interests, it actually was his faith and family that tied it all together.
“As a Christian, he accepted his responsibility to be a servant of God in the world and in the church,” Wayman told Josh, adding that Conklin’s community devotion and activism were “expressions of his commitment to serve God by serving others.”
Rest in peace, Hal, and thank you for making our community better.
Conklin was to be buried at the Santa Barbara Mission, and a memorial service will be held at Free Methodist Church on the Mesa, likely in June.
4. Earthquake Measuring 3.4 Rattles Santa Barbara County South Coast
If, like me, you did not feel the earthquake that shook up Santa Barbara County’s South Coast the afternoon of May 26, you’re not alone. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the quake only registered at a magnitude-3.4.
As our Tom Bolton was first to report, the USGS said the 2:12 p.m. quake was centered about six miles southeast of Santa Barbara, in the Santa Barbara Channel at a depth of about six miles.
There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
5. Firefighters Battling Vegetation Fire Near Gibraltar Reservoir in Santa Barbara Backcountry
A small wildfire near Gibraltar Reservoir kicked up a lot of smoke the afternoon of May 21, but the blaze was corralled after burning about a dozen acres.
As our Tom Bolton first reported, Santa Barbara County Fire Department and U.S. Forest Service crews, along with air support, were dispatched to the rugged backcountry site around 5 p.m.
The fire was burning in chaparral and grass near Gibraltar Dam at the west end of the lake straddling the Santa Ynez River, but firefighters were able to gain the upper hand once the winds died down and overnight fog rolled in.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
With the South Coast already on edge from the Loma Fire the night before, quite a few Noozhawk readers contacted us about the smoke looming over the Santa Ynez Mountains. Keep up the diligence as it looks as if we’re in for a long summer.
• • •
Last Year on Noozhawk
What was our most-read story this time last year? Santa Barbara Woman Facing DUI, Auto Theft Charges Stemming from High-Speed Mesa Crash.
• • •
Bill Macfadyen’s Story of the Week
For Memorial Day, a reminder from the late President Ronald Reagan that we are Americans.
(Freedom Isn’t Free video)
• • •
Best of Bill’s Instagram
Old guys rule, but all hail Mark Patton. He was a good sport in my Instagram feed this past week.
• • •
Watch It
Thank you to the Pantone 294 super fans, including Noozhawk alumnus Collin Nathanson, for giving the cheating Houston Asterisks the jeers they deserve — in their home stadium. My favorite part begins 51 seconds in.
(Dodger Yard 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.
