••• “Santa Barbara County hospitals are preparing to implement ‘crisis care’ as Covid-19 hospitalizations smash records on a daily basis. Crisis care means that people with urgent health care needs outside of Covid-19 may not receive the appropriate care that they could normally expect. […] With a record 172 Covid-19 patients hospitalized as of Tuesday, 75% of hospital beds throughout the county were in use.” —Noozhawk
••• “The Santa Barbara Sustainability Committee—composed of Mayor Cathy Murillo, Mayor Pro Tempore Kristen Sneddon and City Council member Meagan Harmon—are recommending the city make all new residential construction electric,” which would mean no natural gas. —Santa Barbara News-Press
••• “Santa Barbara School Board Says Teachers Will Be Given a Voice on Grade-Change Policy […] District officials propose eliminating Ds and Fs for secondary students to address student inequities that have increased during the Covid-19 pandemic.” —Noozhawk
••• The Montecito Journal has a thorough article about the resident who discovered an electric current running through his house and got caught between Southern California Edison, the Montecito Water District, and Cox Communications.
••• Cannabis chain One Plant is hoping to open in Goleta, near the Target store, by early next month. —Independent
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I vote no on the natural gas ban. A gas fireplace is one of the few joys left in this life of lockdown. Burning wood is far worse than burning natural gas, and it’s pretty ridiculous to insist on a world where we all either can’t have fireplaces or must sit by pathetic little ethanol burners for some comfort. We have more important things to worry about with regards to environmental issues, like habitat and species collapse from dangerous and persistent manmade chemicals. Electricity is far more expensive than gas and until these politicians get wise to the benefits of nuclear power (which I can almost assure you they do not support, most likely advocating for the closure of Diablo Canyon which supplies California with 9% of its energy on a few acres of land and runs 24/7), I cannot tolerate the idea that we should all switch to electricity for our heating, water heating, cooking, etc. Especially in an era where our criminal and incompetent utility monopoly threatens us with regular power shutdowns due to fire risk – aka, their failure to adequately upgrade their 100 year old equipment. We’ll just go without hot water or the ability to cook for days while we sit, shivering and filthy in the dark and think about what good little environmentalists we are? Awful. And for the record, Harmon is my councilwoman.