The Oct. 4 lightning storm, as seen from Goleta Beach County Park. This photo and the others in this gallery were submitted by readers after Noozhawk’s story was published that night. 
A rainbow appears after one of the Oct. 4 showers that swept through Santa Barbara. 
An Oct. 4 lightning strike split this tree right down the middle in Santa Barbara’s San Roque neighborhood.
It is with great sadness that I announce the death of my friend, Rochelle Rose, a linchpin in Santa Barbara’s nonprofit community and a longtime Noozhawk iSociety columnist and contributing writer.
Rochelle had suffered a significant health issue several months ago, and she died Oct. 5 during her arduous and courageous convalescence. She was 72.
While a student at UC Santa Barbara in the early 1970s, Rochelle developed a passion for the nonprofit work that would fuel a fascinating and diverse career in philanthropy.
Over the decades, she worked for an array of Santa Barbara’s most prominent — and sometimes more obscure — nonprofit organizations in just about every sector imaginable, almost always in development and fundraising.
She was really good at it, too, even being recognized in 2007 as the Association of Fundraising Professionals Santa Barbara/Ventura Counties Chapter’s Fundraiser of the Year.
Rochelle was also a very good writer and, in the fall of 2008, a year after Noozhawk’s launch, she and Melissa Walker made their debut as our iSociety team. The section was an immediate hit with our readers and advertisers, and the dynamic duo was everywhere.
A few years ago, Melissa left us to pursue her master’s degree in Counseling for Higher Education at California Lutheran University, and Rochelle enthusiastically added more events to her coverage calendar.
In her spare time, she also pitched and wrote general interest features for us, and she was a hawk-eyed copy editor. It was not unusual for me to wake up to an email or text from her pointing out a typo or a bad link in a Noozhawk story or even a news release.
It wasn’t all roses, though. The two of us often joked about her challenges with technology, and I’m pretty sure she never did figure out how to access her Noozhawk email.
Rochelle and I had been friends since the 1990s and, as dedicated as she was to her work and to Noozhawk, nothing compared to the love she had for her children, Marie and Travis. Both her face and her voice lit up when she talked about them, and she was justifiably proud of the adults they were becoming.
A memorial service is planned for 1 p.m. Nov. 6 at First Presbyterian Church of Santa Barbara, 21 E. Constance Ave., where Rochelle was an ordained elder.
Contributions in her name may be made to First Presbyterian Church or to the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History and Sea Center.
Rest in peace, Rochelle. Thank you for everything.
Noozhawk had an audience of 102,398 readers this past week, according to our Google Analytics. What follows is my take on the Top 5 stories you were reading.
As you should know by now, this is an opinion column and not a news story.
1. Lightning, Thunder Rattle Santa Barbara County’s South Coast, Mountains
Lightning and thunder are rarely seen or heard in Santa Barbara County, so the tropical weather system that rolled through the evening and night of Oct. 4 got everyone’s attention.
As our Giana Magnoli explained, an upper-level low-pressure system off Baja California pushed unstable moist air into the Santa Barbara Channel, creating a spectacular lightning and thunder show that lasted for hours.
“Anytime Santa Barbara gets thunder and lighting, it’s pretty unusual,” Joe Sirard, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard, told Giana.
“If you’ve lived there any amount of time, you’d know it’s pretty unusual.”
While rumbling thunder reached house-rattling levels at times, lightning bolts repeatedly flashed across the sky, piercing the darkness with their jagged Etch A Sketch patterns.
Noozhawk readers from throughout the South Coast shared their lightning photos with us, and they really captured the magnificence of the exhibition. Thank you to all who contributed to Giana’s story, as well as those who submitted photos the next day. I’ve included the latter in the photo gallery at the top of this Best of Bill column.
The lightning wasn’t just out in the channel. Emergency crews responded to several tree fires caused by lightning strikes, which also briefly knocked out power in a couple of neighborhoods.
But wait, there’s more. The Oct. 4 storm dropped almost a half-inch of rain in some areas, and three nights later, it rained again! It may not have been much but when we’re stuck in a drought, we’ll take everything we can get.
2. Santa Barbara Man Killed in Single-Vehicle Crash on Highway 101 on Gaviota Coast
A Santa Barbara man was killed Oct. 4 when his Jeep ran off Highway 101 on the Gaviota coast and slammed into an embankment.
As our Tom Bolton first reported, the single-vehicle crash of a 2016 Jeep Wrangler occurred about 12:20 p.m. on the northbound side of the highway near the entrance to Arroyo Hondo Preserve, about 18 miles west of Goleta.
The driver — later identified by the Santa Barbara County sheriff’s Coroner’s Bureau as 51-year-old Shawn Lyle Osborn — was pronounced dead at the scene.
County fire Capt. Daniel Bertucelli said the extent of the wreckage required heavy extrication to remove the driver.
The California Highway Patrol is investigating the circumstances and cause of the crash. Anyone with information is asked to call Officer Shannan Sims at 805.967.1234.
Osborn’s funeral services are pending.
3. San Marcos High School Teacher, Coach Arrested on Suspicion of Sending Explicit Photos to Boy
A teacher and coach at San Marcos High School has been arrested for allegedly sending obscene photos and text messages to a minor.
No charges have been filed in the case against 45-year-old Jarrod M. Bradley of Goleta, but the Santa Barbara Unified School District employee has been placed on a compulsory leave of absence.
As our Janene Scully first reported, Santa Barbara police Lt. Shawn Hill said a boy told officers that he had received “sexting” messages and, later, explicit photographs from an individual with whom he had been communicating on a location-based social networking app.
Hill said the boy recognized the suspect as Bradley, a San Marcos High physics and marketing teacher and boys tennis coach.
SBPD and Santa Barbara County sheriff’s detectives arrested Bradley on Oct. 1 at the campus at 4750 Hollister Ave.
Bradley was booked into County Jail on suspicion of distributing harmful material to a minor and communicating with a minor with criminal intent. He has since been released from custody.
Our Jade Martinez-Pogue reported Oct. 6 that the county District Attorney’s Office has not filed any criminal charges in the case, which SBPD Sgt. Ethan Ragsdale said remains under investigation.
Ragsdale said that anyone with information about the case can contact Sgt. Brian Larson at blarson@sbpd.com or 805.897.2347.
4. BizHawk: Kyle’s Protein Grill Is Back in Business; Spirit Halloween Opens Shop in Goleta
Kyle’s Protein Grill, a sister restaurant of the popular Kyle’s Kitchen in Goleta’s Hollister Village Plaza, has reopened after a coronavirus-forced hiatus.
As our Josh Molina reported previously, Kyle’s Protein Grill opened in February 2020 at 7000 Hollister Ave. only to close one month later as the pandemic and the government-ordered lockdowns took hold.
Now it’s trying again.
Myles Gift, vice president of Kyle’s Kitchen, told Josh that the grill menu has been refocused on, well, protein. There are now more steak and chicken options — along with vegan, plant-based meatballs — and fewer salads and sandwiches. There’s also a range of yummy sauces from which to choose.
“It’s a healthy option that we are trying to provide for folks,” Gift said. “It’s just a healthy meal at a reasonable price.”
As much as I like steak, I think it’s the fried chicken marinated in buttermilk and spices that’s calling my name.
Kyle’s Protein Grill is open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and from 5 to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday, and is closed on Sunday. It shares its Hollister Village Plaza space with Kyle’s Kitchen.
5. Man, Dog Rescued from Cliff in Santa Barbara’s Douglas Family Preserve
A dog went over the side of a cliff at the Douglas Family Preserve in Santa Barbara the evening of Oct. 2, and was followed by its owner, who attempted to save it.
They both found themselves stuck about 75 feet down the bluff above Arroyo Burro Beach.
As our Janene Scully was first to report, Santa Barbara fire Battalion Chief Jim McCoy told her that firefighters were dispatched to the 2700 block of Mesa School Lane not long afterward. With daylight fading quickly, they eventually figured out where the pair had disappeared.
“Once we found where he had gone over … we were able to put together a rope system, send a couple firefighters down, secured the dog, got the dog up and secured the patient on the rope system, and we brought him up safely,” McCoy said.
Neither the man, whose identity was not disclosed, nor his dog, a Siberian husky mix, was injured in the incident, which was over by 8 p.m.
This is not the first time an unleashed dog has fallen off the steep cliffs at the 70-acre open space, nor will it be the last. Don’t let the next one be yours.
• • •
Last Year on Noozhawk
What was our most-read story this time last year? Arrest Made in Fatal Stabbing on Santa Barbara’s Eastside.
• • •
Americans Held Hostage: Day 38
It’s now been 38 days since the United States stranded Americans in Afghanistan, including more than three dozen California schoolchildren.
Although the U.S. government has lost interest, there are a number of private organizations working to rescue the thousands of Americans, green-card holders and Afghans with Special Immigrant Visas who were left behind.
If you want to help, one of them is Project Dynamo, a civilian-run, donor-funded nonprofit organization that has played a leading role in the Digital Dunkirk that sprang into action during the United States’ abrupt and chaotic pullout. Another is Samaritan’s Purse, a nondenominational evangelical Christian organization run by Franklin Graham, the son of the late Rev. Billy Graham.
You know who else is working to liberate Americans? Nate McGill, principal of Sacramento’s Ethel I. Baker Elementary School, which has a number of students stuck in Taliban territory, the Sacramento Bee reported.
I’ll bet McGill never imagined he’d be running an overseas hostage-rescue operation from 7,300 miles away, which begs the question: Don’t we have a federal government for that?
• • •
Bill Macfadyen’s Story of the Week
Power to the people: How Detroit Residents Are Building Their Own Internet.
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Best of Bill’s Instagram
A whole lot of fireworks were in my Instagram feed this past week — the pyrotechnic kind and the high-voltage lightning variety.
• • •
Watch It
Deep thoughts.
(MetaBallStudios 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.
