Hospitals are supposed to be healing spaces, not community purveyors of frightening substances like neurotoxins and dioxins. But, considering the volumes of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) plastic devices used in medical settings-plastics that leech chemicals called phthalates-and the mercury-containing equipment used and infectious waste incinerated daily, that’s pretty much what they have been.
For many moons, the City of Santa Barbara appeared to rest on its environmental laurels-conspicuously coasting on a history of considerable accomplishment. But in the past two years, that’s all changed. From top to bottom, people at City Hall appear to have gotten green religion, and to the extent they’re singing from the same page, it had better be on recycled paper.
A dozen people diagnosed with “severe and persistent” mental illnesses face eviction from Casa del Mural, which is located on the county health services campus on Calle Real, to help solve the Santa Barbara County Alcohol, Drug & Mental Health Services’ (ADMHS) multimillion-dollar budget shortfall.
In his remarkable book, For God and Country: Faith and Patriotism Under Fire, Captain James Yee, late of the U.S. military, describes his brief experience as a Muslim chaplain at Guant¡namo Bay prison camp:
You might expect that the strongest works by any given artist would land within the central tendencies of that artist’s style, but the show of paintings and sculpture by the late Edgar Ewing, now on display at Sullivan Goss through June 3, seems to defy that theory.
Representatives of Union Pacific Railroad were decidedly blunt during last week’s meeting with the City of Santa Barbara’s subcommittee on commuter rail feasibility, explaining that investing in such a line would cause their more lucrative freight business to suffer.
Sun Nutritionthe Santa Barbara-based company that makes the antioxidant-rich FRS health drinkannounced on 4/17 that seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong had joined its board of directors.
It was almost 15 years ago that Ray Higgins discovered that his son Michael had been sexually molested by Father Robert Van Handel, a Franciscan monk and former teacher and choirmaster at St. Anthony’s Seminary. Since then, Van Handel was sentenced to eight years behind bars for sexual abuse and was removed from the priesthood.
Four years, six lead planners, and seven Board of Architectural Review meetings later, County Supervisors approved a residential development on about six acres of land formerly zoned for agriculture.
Even before the word was on everybody’s lips that buildings generate 48 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, the Santa Barbara Contractors Association (SBCA) was all over it, thanks to years of prodding by some of its more visionary members. The SBCA initiated the Built Green program so that builders can earn points for environmental friendliness.
