Santa Barbara Independent

2 days ago | independent.com | Tyler Hayden

The Last Grooming Tool You’ll Ever Need The StripHair Gentle Groomer, Developed in Santa Ynez and Adopted Worldwide, Is Manufactured in American and Made to Last The StripHair Gentle Groomer, Developed in Santa Ynez and Adopted Worldwide, Is Manufactured in American and Made to Last By Tyler Hayden | June 5, 2025 Sarah Owen, inventor of the StripHair Gentle Groomer | Credit: Courtesy Ten years ago, at her Santa Ynez ranch, Sarah Owen was caring for a horse with a medical condition that...

2 days ago | independent.com | Tyler Hayden

Meet the 2025 Fido Photo Contest Winners! In Our Opinion, All of the Participants Are Top Dogs Meet the 2025 Fido Photo Contest Winners!In Our Opinion, All of the Participants Are Top DogsBy Tyler Hayden | June 5, 2025We promised you a winner, but doggone it, with so many entries (331!) and the votes so close, we’re going to make that plural.

3 days ago | independent.com | Jerry Roberts

Barney Brantingham, a great journalist who embodied Santa Barbara the way Mike Royko did Chicago, Jimmy Breslin New York and Herb Caen San Francisco, died last week, his family announced Monday. He was 93. Like those big-city newspaper brethren of his era, Barney captured the human stories, sentiments and spirit of his town, pounding out a real-time history of Santa Barbara on deadline, day-after-day, year-after-year, in his must-read “On the Beat” column.

3 days ago | independent.com | Melinda Burns

In a significant course correction this week, the county Board of Supervisors cut $1.4 million from its cannabis budget, taking the knife to administration, auditing, planning review and especially law enforcement. Voting 4-0 on Tuesday, with Supervisor Bob Nelson of Orcutt absent, the supervisors settled on $5.3 million for cannabis-related spending in 2025-26, or 20 percent less than what they had previously budgeted. They raised the growers’ licensing fees, too, to make ends meet.

3 days 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.