Watch (or Listen): Fear and Anger Over Deportation Raids Boil Over at SB City Hall; State St. Tradeoff Plan Looms; Latest on STRs
On a new episode of Newsmakers TV, our All-Star Panel of Leading Local Journalists braves the perils of Friday the 13th to break down the top news stories of the week in Santa Barbara.
As every school child knows, some 20 million Americans suffer a crippling fear of Friday the 13th, a psychological disorder identified as paraskavedekatriaphobia.
Perhaps it’s generational trauma tracing to the Norse god Loki’s regicide as redress for not being invited to a Valhall dinner for 12, or historic grief at French King Philip IV’s attack on the Knights Templar on the ominous date in 1307, or Christian narratives about the betrayal of 13th guest Judas following the Last Supper: regardless, it’s a plain fact that the absence of paraskavedekatriaphobiacs from Friday the 13th workplaces costs the U.S. economy an estimated $800 million annually.
So we laud Josh Molina and Ryan P. Cruz for braving all dangers, superstitious, imagined, or otherwise, to join the genial host to break down the week’s top news stories in Santa Barbara on a new episode of Newsmakers TV.
Topic A is Tuesday’s clash of emotions at City Hall, where immigrant rights advocates demanded that Police Chief Kelly Gordon do something — what, exactly, remained unspecified - to obstruct or halt the actions of masked and heavily armed federal ICE agents during their all-to-frequent incursions into Santa Barbara neighborhoods, on rogue missions to disrupt the peace and harass people with brown skin.
Amid exchanges of angry public testimony and legalistic bureaucratic responses over the matter, Mayor Randy Rowse and rookie council member Wendy Santamaria memorably volleyed nasty words and harsh recriminations regarding their perspectives on how SBPD officers are conducting themselves in an impossible situation. The public dust-up is a political case study of how Trump’s authoritarian onslaught against liberal cities sunders the ranks of the most well-intentioned and like-minded leaders, in infuriating circumstances in which the full power of the U.S. government is outrageously brought to bear against vulnerable local jurisdictions.
The intrepid trio also discusses the latest developments in the never-ending saga of the (all rise) Future of State Street, and offers some hot takes on the city’s rear guard war against homeowners who use their properties for short-term and vacation rentals.
Plus: Ryan issues a bold and unexpected friendly invitation to Josh, amid what in the Before Times would be considered a good old-fashioned newspaper war.
All this and more, right here right now, on Newsmakers TV.
Check out Episode 551 via YouTube below or by clicking through this link. Our podcast is available on Apple, Spotify, or on Soundcloud here. TVSB, Channel 17, airs the show every weeknight at 5 p.m. and at 9 a.m. on weekends. KCSB, 91.9 FM, broadcasts the program at 5:30 p.m. on weekends.