IT’S the LAW

Sheriff Jim Anderson visited Mount Carmel School in Montecito to
kick off his department’s new student-oriented Life Skills Training
program. In the same vein as the nationwide DARE (Drug Abuse
Resistance Education) program – which the Sheriff’s Department was
forced to toss overboard three years ago due to a budget
crunch – Life Skills Training will be taught by two deputies in
schools throughout the district this year.

Authorities believe the recent rash of smash-and-grab car
burglaries will plague South Coast parking lots no longer, as two
suspects were apprehended in Goleta. A pair of bright yellow swim
fins and numerous credit cards, cell phones, and CDs were recovered
when Chris De St. John, 23, and Marisa Filipovic, 26, were arrested
last Saturday. Authorities have linked the couple to more than two
dozen burglaries in parking lots in Goleta, Santa Barbara, and
Montecito.

The local ABC network affiliate is being investigated by the
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for running a
corporate-funded video without identifying it as such. The video,
which KEYT Channel 3 aired in January, featured a guest commentator
discussing products from a consumer electronics expo. Unbeknownst
to viewers, the video was created by the products’
manufacturers.

Beginning in early January, American citizens will need a
passport to enter or reenter the U.S. from Mexico, Canada, Bermuda,
the Caribbean, and Panama. The initiative – part of the U.S.
Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act – is meant to
fortify border security. The first phase of the initiative,
effective January 8 of next year, requires passports for air and
sea travel. The second phase, effective January 1, 2008, will
extend to land border crossings.

Claiming that Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Phil Angelides
plans to reconsider the decades-old Proposition 13 – which limits
property taxes and requires a two-thirds legislative majority for
all state tax increases – supporters of Governor Schwarzenegger
gathered in Goleta to protest the idea and paint a “real world”
picture of what a revised Prop 13 could mean for Santa Barbarans.
Led by Mike Stoker – vice president of Santa Barbara’s Taxpayers
Association and a former county supervisor – the predominantly
Republican group suggested that a Prop 13 revamp could mean higher
property taxes, forcing undesired home sales and stifling small,
residential businesses.