Real Legal Eagles
Rough Times: A mother and her two small
children were living in a place with no heat, broken windows, and a
mouse infestation. The Legal Aid Foundation stepped in and got her a refund of
the $4,000 she’d paid in rent, so she could afford to move to a
safe, habitable house.
Legal Aid also helped a mother of three in obtaining a
restraining order against her husband, who, despite temporary
orders, stalked her and tried to break into the foundation’s
office. He also beat her, leaving bruises all over her body. With
the foundation’s assistance, the family is now safe and he’s
serving jail time through next spring.
The foundation also stepped in to stop the financial and
emotional abuse of a 40-year-old developmentally disabled woman by
her caregiver and won a judgment for the return of the $3,500 the
caregiver had wrongfully taken. The foundation also obtained a
domestic violence restraining order for a pregnant 17-year-old girl
against her former boyfriend. His probation terms banned him from
any contact with her but provided for no enforcement mechanisms for
her.
When an elderly mobile home owner was having problems with the
park management, which wanted to evict her, the foundation helped
her resolve the situation. These are just a few of hundreds of
similar cases.
A tax-deductible pledge of $500 will help the nonprofit Legal
Aid Foundation serve two needy persons, according to Ellen
Goodstein, executive director. You can send a check to the
foundation at 301 E. Canon Perdido St., Santa Barbara, 93101.
News-Press Protest: Journalists
demanding that News-Press owner Wendy
McCaw “build back the wall between opinion and news” and
negotiate a union contract will lead a march from De la Guerra
Plaza on Wednesday. The 12:45 p.m. march will go from the
News-Press building, up De la Guerra Street to State, to
Ortega Street, then on Anacapa Street back to De la Guerra Street
to the Plaza. There speakers will be updating the public on issues,
the journalists said. News-Press journalists were honored
last week by The Independent as Local Heroes and received a standing
ovation.
Italian Access: Every Tuesday during December,
10 percent of what you spend on lunch or dinner at Aldo’s Italian
Restaurant, 1031 State St., goes to support Santa
Barbara Channels, which brings public access channels 17 and
21.
Coming Up Roses: Good luck to Marshall Rose,
who was hailed just last week as Protector of State Street” but now
is leaving the Downtown Organization (DO) to open a
microbrewery pub at the Camino Real Marketplace. Rose, as the DO
honcho for a decade, made the downtown hum, while pretty much
avoiding the nasty major controversies that many cities suffer. So
who’ll be the next State Street protector?
Cop Wins: Now that the final votes have been
counted, Santa Barbara police officer Roger Aceves
has narrowly won the third spot on the Goleta City
Council. But with three new faces on the five-person
council, which way Goleta? Continued slow growth and careful
planning or speed-o development, as many fear?
Cox Robocall: “I received this morning a
robocall on the home hard line, a recorded pitch to buy some kind
of premium pay sports channels on Cox,” reports David Pritchett. “One would think
they would not annoy their customers with that, considering the
ever-escalating prices they charge under their monopoly power.” I
got one of those calls too, David. Cox is
it, unless you want to go the satellite
route. Remember, it was the City Council that okayed the
monopoly.
Kona’s Here: Blue Booth,
co-owner of friendly Vices & Spices, on the
Northside, is back from Hawaii with his Kona coffee beans grown on
his own land on the Big Island. Since coffee-drinking in schmooze
shops seems to have far surpassed bar-hopping, I invite other
coffee emporiums to send in their news.
Ellen on CVR: Ellen DeGeneres,
new owner of a $16.5 mil casa in Montecito, has been spotted on
Coast Village Road and reportedly told Jay Leno
that she’s sold her Santa Ynez Valley ranch.
No $$ Left Behind: Or no Bush left behind.
Seems as though a company headed by President Bush’s
brother Neil and partly owned by his parents are cashing
in on President Bush’s No Child Left Behind Act,
aimed at economically disadvantaged students. Educators are
reported to be divided over whether the Ignite!
products being sold are worth their cost or even qualified under
the No Child law.
Gates and the Biltmore: Even if Bill
Gates, a Saudi crown prince, the CEO of the Four Seasons
chain, and others buy the Four Seasons company for
$3.7 billion, Santa Barbara’s Four Seasons Biltmore ownership
probably won’t be affected. That’s because Ty
Warner owns it. Four Seasons has the contract to manage
it, however.
The Messiah: When you’re sitting in the
First Presbyterian Church, absorbed by soaring
voices of the Santa Barbara Choral Society, you don’t expect to spot
a politician among the singers of Handel’s Messiah. But
there was 3rd District Supervisor Brooks Firestone among
the bass voices (and wife Kate among the altos).
(Barney Brantingham can be reached at 965-5205 or
barney@independent.com. He writes an online column
on Tuesdays, a print column in Thursday’s Independent, and
a Friday online column called Barney’s Weekend Picks.)
