Before the defending NBA champion Cleveland Cavaliers and the former defending champion Golden State Warriors open their third-straight championship series, Noozhawk will have launched the first voting round of our Noozhawk Asks “public-powered journalism” project.
In fact, look for it May 29 — after what only seems like an interminable playoff grind.
You’ll be able to vote on four of the submissions that merit more in-depth reporting. After you choose the winning entry, we’ll assign a reporter to get the story. Should be a slam dunk.
In the meantime, we’ve begun answering the easy layups among your questions, and will start posting those over the weekend.
While we’re all waiting for tip-off, there were 114,649 people who read Noozhawk this past week, according to our Google Analytics.
For first-time readers, this is my weekly opinion column about the Top 5 most-read stories of the last seven days, told in my own words. Mostly.
1. 2 Hospitalized After Altercation Leads to Stabbing in Downtown Santa Barbara
A midday fight in the center of downtown Santa Barbara turned into a stabbing that resulted in two men — the stabbee and the alleged stabber — both being hospitalized for their wounds May 23.
According to Santa Barbara police, the two men got into a verbal altercation outside the AT&T store in Paseo Nuevo about 12:30 p.m.
Things quickly got physical and one of the men pulled out a knife and stabbed the other, Sgt. Joshua Morton said.
Having apparently settled the argument, the combatants each went their separate ways.
Beeee-cause … that’s just normal now?
Morton said one of the gentlemen repaired to the comfy confines of Plaza de Vera Cruz Park in the 100 block of East Cota and East Haley streets. Locals call it Needle Park. For good reason.
The other guy brought blood not only to the steps of City Hall, but inside it, to a restroom, where he reportedly was found trying to tend to his wounds. It is not known whether any elected officials were around to notice.
Both men were taken to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.
KEYT News reported that the suspect, identified as Juan Jesus Ortiz, was booked into Santa Barbara County Jail on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon. Police believe the incident may have been drug related, KEYT said.
Morton said officers recovered the weapon they believe was used in the stabbing.
2. BizHawk: Los Agaves Restaurateur Carlos Luna Debuts Santo Mezcal in Downtown Santa Barbara
It seems like just yesterday that Carlos Luna had opened his first family Mexican restaurant on Santa Barbara’s Lower Eastside. Los Agaves was an almost instant hit, and Luna has been expanding at an impressive clip.
His newest endeavor, Santo Mezcal, is a significant departure from the successful Los Agaves formula, but it also stakes a claim to an underserved niche and in one of the hottest neighborhoods in town.
Santo Mezcal opened May 12 at 119 State St., in the Hotel Indigo building between the new MOXI, The Wolf Museum of Exploration + Innovation, and the new Hotel Californian on the site of the old Hotel Californian. The bustling Funk Zone is a half-block away.
The high-end, full-service Mexican restaurant places an emphasis on fresh seafood and other delectables created by executive chef Ricardo Garcia. It also features a full bar, heavy on mezcal, tequila and the inevitable margaritas.
Luna is confident Santo Mezcal can succeed in a space that has seemed cursed for other restaurants, with three of them coming and going in the last four years.
“They were really good but it was really hard before, as there was nothing on Lower State,” he told our Sam Goldman. “Everything’s already here. It’s really great.”
3. What Happened to Pearl Pinson Remains a Haunting Mystery One Year Later
Vallejo teenager Pearl Pinson was last seen on her way to school at about 7 a.m. May 25, 2016. Instead of getting on her bus, the 15-year-old girl was being dragged away — bleeding and screaming — by a gunman.
An Amber Alert was issued, and the next day a California Highway Patrol officer spotted the alleged abductor’s gold Saturn traveling south on Highway 101 north of Los Alamos about 3 p.m.
A chase ensued, and the driver — later identified as the kidnapping suspect, Fernando Castro — got off the freeway in Buellton and ended up in Solvang, where Santa Barbara County sheriff’s deputies cornered him near Rancho Santa Ynez Mobile Estates in the 100 block of Val Verde.
Castro exchanged gunfire with deputies, abandoned his car after crashing into a barricade, broke into a mobile home, stole a pickup truck, and shot it out with deputies again as he drove toward Fjord Drive.
He never made it, and was pronounced dead at the scene from multiple gunshot wounds.
Dying with him, however, were virtually all clues to Pinson’s whereabouts.
Solano County sheriff’s detectives have pieced together some of Castro’s movements in his last day and a half, including a curious visit to Jenner, a rural coastal village near the mouth of the Russian River in Sonoma County, and a pit stop in Bodega Bay.
Tiny drops of Pinson’s blood were later found in the trunk of his car.
According to Solano County sheriff’s Detective Sean Mattson, investigators have turned up no prior contact between Pinson and Castro, and there is no evidence that she knew him.
One year later, the trail has gone cold, although the case remains open and under investigation, and Pinson’s family is keeping their hope alive.
“It’s hard for our family because we don’t have the answers that we need,” Pinson’s 18-year-old sister, Rose, told our Janene Scully.
The family continues to hold prayer vigils and distribute fliers seeking information. They believe Pinson might have been sold into a sex-trafficking ring.
The Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office analysis of the Castro shooting has not yet been completed.
“We have so many mixed emotions about this because, one, he had answers and the police knew that,” Rose Pinson said of Castro.
“Two, unfortunately he did get what he deserved. But at the same time, it should not have been right away because of my sister and her whereabouts.”
4. Fight Near San Marcos High School Sends 1 Student to Hospital
A royal rumble among a large group of San Marcos High School students broke out across the street from campus May 24. By the time the dust cleared, one student had been hospitalized with major injuries after being knocked unconscious, and two other students were facing charges of felony battery.
According to Santa Barbara County sheriff’s spokeswoman Kelly Hoover, deputies were called out to break up a midday fight in an apartment complex in the 4800 block of San Gordiano Avenue, across Turnpike Road from the school.
She said a handful of students was involved in the courtyard melee while a number of others watched.
The victim was taken by American Medical Response ambulance to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital.
Hoover said deputies identified and apprehended two suspects with the help of the San Marcos High resource deputy and other campus security personnel. They were to be charged with felony battery, she said.
The entire crowd was made up of SMHS students, all of them minors — which is why no identities were disclosed.
“We do believe it’s an isolated incident that involves individuals who knew each other and had an ongoing dispute,” Hoover said.
5. Huge Crowd Turns Out as Michael Towbes Remembered at Celebration of Life
The void left by the death of Michael Towbes — banker, builder, booster and benefactor — was partially filled for a few hours May 23 when the Santa Barbara community turned out en masse, at three different venues, for a celebration of his life.
Towbes died April 13 of pancreatic cancer. He was 87.
The Granada Theatre, whose renovation Towbes considered one of his proudest accomplishments, was filled to capacity for the two-hour tribute, which highlighted several of the many facets of the persona that helped make him a local legend.
The event, which was videotaped and simulcast at the Arlington Theatre and Campbell Hall at UC Santa Barbara, was emceed by Ron Werft, president and CEO of Cottage Health, on whose board Towbes had served, led and advised over the decades.
Janet Garufis, chairwoman and CEO of Montecito Bank & Trust, and Craig Zimmerman, president of The Towbes Group, shared heartfelt personal stories about their former boss, who was just as much a mentor and friend.
Jerry Rubinstein, a longtime tennis partner; nonprofit leaders Sheridah Porter Gérard and Sara Miller McCune; journalist and frequent traveling companion Jeff Greenfield; and stalwart friend Pete Jordano filled in many details. The latter, CEO of Jordano’s Inc., even wove in a friendly videotaped ribbing Towbes had made for their friend, Palmer Jackson, a few years before.
A surprise appearance was made by Gov. Jerry Brown, who had frequently hit up Towbes for campaign cash.
It was nice that Brown stopped by to pay his respects, although I found most interesting his candor in talking about his and the Legislature’s brazen “appropriation” of local redevelopment funds that has halted vital municipal community projects throughout California. Was Towbes a fan of that scam of robbing Peter to pay Paul? I think I recall the answer.
Before the crowd was invited to adjourn to the nearby Santa Barbara County Courthouse Sunken Garden for a reception of carrot cake cupcakes and sparkling wine, family members delivered the last words.
Towbes’ grandson, Zachary Lewis Towbes, performed on the piano; nephew Rob Skinner, granddaughter Allison Lewis Towbes and daughter Lianne Towbes provided more insight; his widow, Anne Smith Towbes, paid her own gracious and grateful homage before singing a moving tribute; and daughter Carrie Towbes led the audience in a rousing rendition of one of her dad’s favorite dance tunes, “Y.M.C.A.”
It was a fitting send-off to an irreplaceable presence in Santa Barbara. I was privileged to attend.
• • •
Last Year on Noozhawk
What was our most-read story this time last year? UCSB Student Dies After Being Found Hanging in Goleta.
• • •
Bill Macfadyen’s Story of the Week
Dogs Can Talk to Humans, Study Suggests. This comes as no surprise to Alaskan malamute owners, amirite? Riley the Wonder Malamute speaks in complete sentences. Especially when she’s hangry.
• • •
Watch It
Because Tom Haverford … I mean, Aziz Ansari, always knows just what to say.
(Hulu video)
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— Bill Macfadyen is Noozhawk’s founder and publisher. Contact him at wmacfadyen@noozhawk.com, follow him on Twitter: @noozhawk, or click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.