Watch: 500 Episodes Later, Our TV Gang is Still Yakking about that Damn Oil Pipeline
As Trump keeps hurling gas on the fire, the Three Amigos mark Newsmakers TV's 501st show by discussing SB's connections to the appalling incidents in L.A. Plus: oil, housing, unsolved death at UCSB
Newsmakers TV premiered in the summer of 2015, the first (and still only) local news program dedicated to highlighting, amplifying and analyzing the journalistic grunt work of Santa Barbara’s small cadre of working reporters.
Then called “City Desk,” early episodes of the program often focused on the biggest local news story of that year — the disastrous Refugio Oil Spill that began on May 19.
Who knew our all-star panel of top local journalists would still be discussing it a decade later?
This week, we appropriately mark Episode 501 of the program by featuring the two most steadfast members of our rotating cast of local newshounds, as Nick Welsh and Josh Molina once again join the genial host - and once again find themselves unpacking Santa Barbara pipeline policy and politics.
The context for the conversation is the breakthrough achievement of state Senator Monique Limón, who just won election to the powerful and influential Capitol post of California Senate President pro tem - and who meanwhile has emerged as the chief foe of Sable Offshore, the shady Texas oil outfit that keeps defying state government agencies in its rogue campaign to re-start the pipeline that ruptured 10 years ago.
Convergent with Monique’s ascension, SB city council member Meagan Harmon also stars on this week’s gabfest agenda, owing to her surprise selection as the new chair of the California Coastal Commission (in a seven degrees of Kevin Bacon twist, one of the key agencies Sable keeps flouting) — as well as the success of her long-running effort to shift city budget reserves into a special housing construction fund. This new chapter in SB’s sprawling housing saga leads us to the related story of how county government’s robust campaign to build more units for the homeless has failed to put a dent in the local rolls of unhoused people. Hmm.
Plus: some emotional chinwagging and personal reflections on the scandalous events in Los Angeles that have followed Donald Trump’s military invasion of California.
All this and more, right here, right now, on Newsmakers TV.
Check out Episode 501 via YouTube below, or by clicking through this link. Our podcast is on Apple, Spotify and other platforms, or on Soundcloud right here. TVSB, Channel 17, airs the show every weeknight at 8 p.m. and at 9 a.m. on weekends. KCSB, 91.9 FM, broadcasts the program at 5:30 p.m. on Monday.