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1 month ago | 
ibanet.org | Isabelle Walker
Rohingya children eat from jars with the USAID logo on them, at a refugee camp in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, 11 February 2025. REUTERS/Ro Yassin Abdumonab. Significant cuts to US foreign aid will have far-reaching repercussions. Global Insight assesses the consequences and the future of the aid sector. The decision of President Donald Trump’s administration to suspend funding to the US Agency for International Development (USAID) was met with global condemnation.
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1 month ago | 
independent.com | Isabelle Walker
In 1836, British naturalist Thomas Nuttall hiked down from Monterey into Santa Barbara County, picking up botanical samples and birds as he went. One was a tricolored blackbird (Agelaius tricolor), which he shot and brought back to Boston to show his friend John J. Audubon. It was the first tricolor blackbird known to science, and Audubon named it Icterus tricolor — incorrectly placing it in the genus of orioles.
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Mar 12, 2025 | 
independent.com | Isabelle Walker
The Santa Barbara City Council is having a tree moment. On Tuesday, for the second time this year, councilmembers found themselves juggling community attachment to a set of mature street trees with the realities of crumbling sidewalks and pedestrian safety.
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Feb 3, 2025 | 
ibanet.org | Isabelle Walker
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has confirmed that 2024 was the deadliest year on record for humanitarian personnel. The Aid Worker Security Database recorded the deaths of 344 aid workers, surpassing the 2023 total of 280. ‘It is unspeakably tragic when colleagues lose their lives trying to do their jobs’, says Linda Isabel Ngesa, a legal adviser with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in London.
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Jan 30, 2025 | 
independent.com | Isabelle Walker
Santa Barbara Public Works Gets Green Light to Remove 13 Trees from Milpas Street Parks and Rec Commission Gives Unanimous Approval on Condition That at Least 30 New Trees Will Be Planted By Isabelle Walker Thu Jan 30, 2025 | 1:34pm Add to Favorites The 13 trees are being removed from North Milpas Street for safety, accessibility, and sightline issues. | Credit: City of Santa Barbara Public Works Santa Barbara’s Parks and Recreation Commission gave a unanimous go ahead Wednesday, January 29,...
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Jan 27, 2025 | 
independent.com | Isabelle Walker
The fate of 13 trees on North Milpas Street, including eight Indian laurel fig trees that rise 60 feet above the sidewalks, providing shade and a slice of nature, will be decided on Wednesday, January 29, when the City of Santa Barbara’s Parks and Recreation Commission considers a request to remove them. If approved, the request from transportation planners would be an initial step in a long-awaited safety upgrade of 11 North Milpas intersections between Quinientos and Canon Perdido Streets.
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Jan 16, 2025 | 
independent.com | Isabelle Walker
The end result means that, from here forward, the empty tree beds that edge the sidewalks on East Anapamu between Garden and Milpas will be re-planted with Italian stone pine saplings — much to the joy of historic preservationists and community members. In the two-and-a-half-hour hearing, City Council members effectively reversed a Parks and Recreation Commission ruling of last October that redesignated the street’s tree to native coast live oak.
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Oct 31, 2024 | 
independent.com | Isabelle Walker |Margaux Lovely |Harrison Tasoff |Lou Segal
On Tuesday morning, the bluff-hugging coastal trails at the Douglas Family Preserve (DFP) were bustling with wildlife and dog walkers. It may have disturbed the park’s peaceful ambience, but the chipping was part of long-awaited park improvements that started this month. Near the Mesa park’s entrance on Medcliff Road, the results are immediately noticeable. A once-dense swath of prickly, dry brush is now bare.
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Oct 18, 2024 | 
independent.com | Tyler Hayden |Ryan Cruz |Rebecca Horrigan |Isabelle Walker
Credit: Courtesy Cielo is a nine-year-old male Alaskan Husky available for adoption at the Lompoc Animal Center. Weighing approximately 52 lbs., Cielo is a social butterfly who gets along great with dogs of all sizes. The staff describes Cielo as friendly, well-mannered, and easy to handle. He is a dream on a leash, relaxed, and has ahappy disposition.
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Oct 17, 2024 | 
independent.com | Nick Welsh |Isabelle Walker |Ryan Cruz |Tyler Hayden
THE QUICK AND THE PLAID: There was an orgy of kissing and making up taking place inside San Diego’s Catamaran Hotel and Spa — famous for its quasi–Polynesian fire swallowers — late last Thursday afternoon. Among the participants were a spectrum of Space Force commanders fresh off the boat from what used to be called Vandenberg Air Force Base. They were chaperoned by an assistant secretary of the Air Force, flown in all the way from headquarters for his consummate skills at making nice.
