Posted on December 2 at 4:13 p.m.

I am lucky enough to have met Officer Hove personally. This award is an honor more than well deserved. Watching Officer Hove work with such dignity and respect while assisting our community is a real treat. It reminds me that Santa Barbara is in great hands and we pick our officers with our safety in mind. Kudos to the SBPD!

On Local Heroes 2011

Posted on December 10 at 3:01 p.m.

How about creating/enforcing loitering and panhandling laws?

picture this if you will...yesterday, three friends and myself had plans to go to lunch. We were choosing from, Left at Albuquerque, Chipotle, Chino's Roclk N Tacos and Chilangos. Now here comes the issue, every which one of those restaurants we went to (to dine outside) had pan handlers begging for money while smoking. We ended up inside on a beautiful day at Chipotle.

Why can't the county do more than just "consider" this issue since it's much larger than second hand smoke causing cancer?

What about the homeless issue? It seems they all have time to smoke and money for cigarettes.

Shouldn't Santa Barbara land and shop owners be up in arms about the cities proposed addition of homeless shelters? It's not fun, nor is it safe to enjoy downtown like it used to be.

At least if we take smoking away, we will be heading in the right direction.

Now if we could just create something for the legislature to enforce loitering and pan handling laws downtown.

How about work projects for repeat offenders??? That might just be the ticket which will deter them from coming to Santa Barbara for hand outs.

To quote two pan handlers just in passing yesterday, "Got any extra cardboard?"

On County Considers Cigarette Ban