Tragic Notes

Shortly before 7 a.m. on February 7, a 45-year-old local woman
was struck and killed by a freight train headed
south across State Street. According to witnesses, Judy Williamson
attempted to rush across the tracks in front of the massive Union
Pacific train, despite the blasting lights and sounding bells of
the crossing signal. Williamson – who is believed by authorities to
have been homeless – is the first train-track fatality of the year
in Santa Barbara.

Westmont College alumnus David Batstone, author of Not for Sale:
Return of the Global Slave Trade and How We Can Fight It, spoke at
his alma mater on February 7 as part of a daylong seminar on human
trafficking. Batstone – who appears in USA Today as “America’s
ethics guru” and is senior editor of the business magazine
Motto – claimed that 200,000 people live enslaved in the
United States, having been smuggled across borders and
then sold into prostitution and forced labor. Batstone said he was
unaware of any slave-labor arrangements in Santa Barbara.