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Cover Story By Sam Kornell | Thu Jun 15, 2006 | 12:00pm

Convenient Lies

Who would’ve thought that the stars of last weekend’s big movies would’ve been an animated car and Al Gore? You can just see Jay Leno salivating at the comparison. But we live in funny times.
Gore’s movie, of course, is An Inconvenient Truth – essentially a PowerPoint presentation illustrating how climate change is pushing us toward world destruction. Using a series of clever diagrams and alarming photographs of receding glaciers, dry lakebeds, and flooded cities, Gore – belying his reputation for stiffness – personably sums up current science on global warming (see accompanying box). On the strength of rave reviews the documentary has done well in its first week nationwide at 122 theaters; tomorrow it is scheduled for even wider release.

Cover Story By Isabelle T. Walker | Thu Jun 08, 2006 | 12:00pm

No More Pain

On a bright November morning last fall, Iri and Philip Lever set out on their morning ritual, a walk through the quiet, oak-lined streets around their Montecito home. The Levers, an active couple in their eighties, moved to Santa Barbara around 1970, when Philip retired as an economist at IBM.
On this day, the tall Englishman with a robust beard felt unusually tired and sat on the edge of a stone bridge on Ramona Lane. Then, without a sound, he pitched backwards into a dry creek bed below.

Cover Story By Indy Staff | Thu Jun 01, 2006 | 12:00pm

Endorsements

This Tuesday, June 6, voters go to the polls to voice their preferences on a plethora of state- and county-wide races and measures. The Independent does not provide an endorsement on all potential ballot choices in a primary election. What follows are endorsements on what we deem the most critical votes-most importantly the County Split (Measure H) and 2nd District Supervisor. Don’t forget to vote on June 6.

Cover Story By D.J. Palladino | Thu May 25, 2006 | 12:00pm

The Indys

In many ways last Monday night it seemed like the teenaged Indys ceremony had come home. Maybe it was the fact that the first award of the evening went to Michael Smith, who, in tandem with The Independent’s founding executive editor, Audrey Berman, invented the Independent Theater Awards-affectionately known as the Indys-14 years ago.

Cover Story By Nick Welsh | Thu May 11, 2006 | 12:00pm

UCSB’s Most Dangerous Professor

Dick Flacks is situated comfortably in his living room, the legendary ground zero of Santa Barbara’s progressive politics. Dressed in a loose, beach-bum T-shirt with broad horizontal stripes, blue jeans, and fleece-lined slippers, Flacks leans back into his couch. It’s a ridiculously beautiful Sunday afternoon, and Flacks is preparing for his retirement party, an exaltation of his career as activist and academic-a two-day event billed as Flacks Fest. But at the moment, Flacks seems a little miffed. Somehow, he was not included in the recently published book listing the 101 “most dangerous” college professors in the United States, written by David Horowitz, the one-time left-wing radical turned right-wing firebrand. “I was upset,” Flacks says, an ironic twinkle escaping the prism of his Coke-bottle glasses. “I wasn’t in there. I don’t know why not.”

Cover Story By Sam Kornell | Thu May 04, 2006 | 12:00pm

In Search of a Homeland

They are a Middle Eastern people, 30 million strong, who share a common language and culture. They have been without a State for thousands of years, and have been at various times conquered, ruled, and persecuted by their more powerful neighbors.

Arts & Entertainment By Indy Staff | Thu Apr 27, 2006 | 12:00pm

Good Night & Good Luck

Welcome to The Independent‘s 2006 tribute to S.B. nightlife and the annual Spring Fashion issue. We figured a marriage of these parties was anything but a stretch, if not long overdue. Inside, Shannon Kelley Gould takes an up-close-and-personal look at the deejays of Santa Barbara; Sarah Hammill searches for love on State Street and a sober first kiss; and Ethan Stewart tries to find an answer to the question, “Do you dance?” The faces and figures pictured throughout will no doubt look familiar as local photography wizard Kenji snapped some of S.B.’s more recognizable deejays, bartenders, and dancers doing their thing for our fashion spread. So relax and enjoy-after all, there is no dress code or velvet rope for this party.

Cover Story By Ethan Stewart | Thu Apr 20, 2006 | 12:00pm

Naples

To visit Naples in springtime is to bear witness to the sublime. The Gaviota coastal mesa is a sea of swaying mustard grasses that give way to the shimmer of the Pacific and the majesty of the Channel Islands beyond. A rolling patchwork of green foothills and centuries-old agricultural land climbs inland toward the Santa Ynez Mountains in a procession of oak trees, willows, sycamores, sage scrub, and wildflowers.

Cover Story By Indy Staff | Thu Apr 13, 2006 | 12:00pm

Life in the Time of Torture

This week Jews and Christians celebrate two of their most sacred holidays-Passover, remembering
the liberation of Israelites from bondage, and Easter, commemorating Christ’s resurrection from death. In such a season of release and renewal, it seems appropriate for all Americans to contemplate the moral question of torture.

Cover Story By Indy Staff | Thu Apr 06, 2006 | 12:00pm

Summer Camp Guide 2006

Almost nothing lights up kids’ faces quite as much as summer. And what better way for them to enjoy the long sunny days than at one of the plethora of camps Santa Barbara offers. There are more choices for your youngster than ever before: from overnight camps to day camps, science to nature, sports to arts, and just about everything in between. Ready for some wheel fun? Read on.

Cover Story

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