Nick Welsh

Executive Editor at Santa Barbara Independent

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Articles

Carbajal Denounces Trump’s Decision to Bomb Iran

5 days ago | independent.com | Nick Welsh

Carbajal Denounces Trump’s Decision to Bomb Iran Santa Barbara Congressmember Says ‘President Trump Must Be Held Accountable’ Add to Favorites Salud Carbajal | Credit: Courtesy Santa Barbara’s Congressional representative Salud Carbajal denounced President Donald Trump’s decision to launch multiple bombing runs targeting three of the four underground sites in Iran where United States, Israeli, and international intelligence agencies contend the Iranian government is producing weapons-grade...
Santa Barbara’s Black History in Brief

1 week ago | independent.com | Nick Welsh

Few times in American history have the whipsaws of change induced such violent whiplash — politically and culturally — as the five-year span between the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, and now. What passes for political debate has careened from “defund the police” to today’s bare-fanged clash of cultures in which diversity, equity, and inclusion have become four-letter words to be fled from by the educational exemplars running, among many others, the UC system.
Rubbing Our Nose in the Carpet

2 weeks ago | independent.com | Nick Welsh

SHOCKED & AWFUL: Somehow, I still find myself getting shocked. You’d think maybe by now, I might have gotten the picture. Yet my brain refuses to accept what my eyes see. Yet, still I persist in being shocked. My clothes have grown stained by the flotsam and jetsam jettisoned by all my wordless sputtering.
Santa Barbara Law Enforcement: Two Ways to Handle a Riot

2 weeks ago | independent.com | Nick Welsh

BLOWING UP: Watching Donald Trump’s invasion of Los Angeles unfold, I am reminded of an early-morning raid Ventura law enforcement agencies launched on my next-door neighbor many years ago. My neighbor was a big biker guy, and it turns out that he was a suspected meth dealer. There was an overwhelming show of force in the predawn hours. From my neighbor’s perspective, a whole bunch of strange people invaded his house, and they had guns. So, too, it turns out, did he.
Monique Limón Becomes First Latina President of California Senate

2 weeks ago | independent.com | Nick Welsh

Monique Limón Becomes First Latina President of California Senate A Progressive Environmentalist in One of the Most Powerful Positions in Sacramento Add to Favorites State Senator Monique Limón | Credit: Courtesy State Senator Monique Limón, the child of Mexican immigrants and a former Santa Barbara Unified School Board member, won a key vote this past Monday (June 9) that makes her the first Latina to serve as Senate president pro tem. Her victory came the same time that President Donald...
Homeless Watch: Santa Barbara County Proposes Changing Definition of Success

2 weeks ago | independent.com | Nick Welsh

When you can’t beat a problem no matter how hard you try, how much you spend, and how much you actually accomplish, maybe the best response is to change how you define success. That’s the message the Santa Barbara County supervisors received loud and clear from the county’s Community Services Department Tuesday on how it attacks the issue of homelessness.
Has Search to Replace Henry Yang Failed?

2 weeks ago | independent.com | Nick Welsh

To date, no name has even been submitted to the Board of Regents for their review. Ten had been submitted to UC President Michael Drake earlier in the year, and he reportedly vetted five of them.
Music Academy Coming to Santa Barbara’s State Street

3 weeks ago | independent.com | Nick Welsh

Cheryl Goldberg remembers the lightbulb moment. Her husband, Michael Goldberg, had recently died, and she was talking to Shauna Quill, then the brand-new CEO of the Music Academy of the West, about funding some guitar classes in Michael’s honor. That was last year. Back in the ’60s, when Michael Goldberg was still living in Chicago, he loved hitting the coffee-house music scene, taking in as many of the folk singers and guitar players as he could.
Santa Barbara Judge Puts Sable on Ice Until July 18

3 weeks ago | independent.com | Nick Welsh

Judge Donna Geck issued an emergency temporary restraining order barring the Office of the State Fire Marshal from taking any of the steps necessary to process Sable Offshore’s application to restart the company’s hotly contested 125 miles of pipeline until July 18. During that time, no Fire Marshal inspectors can inspect the many pipeline repairs — about 120 — made by Sable work crews to determine if it passes regulatory muster, or any other work foundational to Sable’s restart request.
Who Put the Vices in the Spices?

3 weeks ago | independent.com | Nick Welsh

As it hits the 50-year mark this Saturday, Vices & Spices can claim clear and undisputed bragging rights to being the oldest coffee shop in Santa Barbara. In all likelihood, it’s also the first — at least the first to install one of those shiny, Italian, industrial-strength espresso machines that have since become so ubiquitous.