••• “The total number of Covid-19 cases jumped to 284 on Monday, up from 152 the last day of March. As disturbing as that increase seems, the number of patients actually hospitalized has flattened out and actually dropped a little in the past week, as have the number of patients consigned to intensive care units. At the start of last week, those numbers hovered consistently at 37 and 17, respectively. Then they peaked at 40 and 18 late in the week. They now sit at 40 and 15.” —Independent
••• “After months of wrangling, eight MarBorg porta-potties have been installed throughout downtown Santa Barbara to provide service to the homeless. Heightened concerns about homeless hygiene have led to 24-hour washing stations being installed as well.” —Independent
••• “Isla Vistans Want a Library—They’re Getting a Bunch […] Goleta Library to Start Tiny Libraries, Pop-Up Libraries, and a Library Room.” —Independent
••• “The San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport (SBP) announced that Alaska Airlines is offering two flights per day from San Luis Obispo to its hub in Seattle—and also to Santa Barbara (SBA). Beginning this week, Alaska Airlines will combine its SBP and SBA passengers onto one plane as a ‘tag flight,’ stopping in SBP to drop off passengers before continuing on to SBA. The unusual twist allows Alaska Airlines to serve both regions in an efficient manner.” —KEYT
••• Edhat‘s tree of the month is the lemon-scented gum: “Perhaps the first thing you notice about a Lemon-Scented Gum tree is its unique bark—pinkish-white and perfectly smooth. […] Other striking features are its long trunk and, topping that, the up-reaching open branch structure with graceful pendulous branchlets, all of which make a beautiful silhouette against the sky. It’s hard to miss a mature tree, since it can easily reach over 100 feet in height with a crown spread of over 90 feet in width.”
••• “What started as a simple request for a few bottles of wine culminated in a five-truck, 500-plus-case caravan delivering Santa Barbara County wines to hospital workers from Goleta to Mission Viejo. More than 50 wineries donated to the cause on Thursday at Cecco Ristorante in Solvang, with the first deliveries happening at Cottage Hospitals in Goleta and Santa Barbara on Friday morning. (Cottage spokesperson Maria Zate clarified that the wines donated to the Cottage health system would go to future fundraising efforts, not workers.)” Even though that wasn’t the intent of the gift? Hmm. “More than 400 cases are going straight to the various Los Angeles locations of UCLA Health, with additional stops in Camarillo, Anaheim, Irvine, and Mission Viejo.” —Independent (photo courtesy Santa Barbara County Vintners Association)
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