••• “Ventura County’s Naval Base at Point Mugu has been chosen by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as a possible quarantine location for the novel-coronavirus (COVID-19).” From the HHS statement: “Point Mugu may receive American travelers coming through Los Angeles International Airport who, in an abundance of caution, would be quarantined to be monitored for symptoms of COVID-19 based solely on their travel history. Any travelers housed at the Base would be monitored for signs of infection and transferred to appropriate medical facilities if symptoms developed.” (Photo courtesy Naval Base Ventura County.)—Edhat
••• Another entertaining debate recap by Newsmakers with Jerry Roberts: “For 75 minutes last week, six contenders in the wide-open 37th Assembly District race staged a substantive debate in Santa Barbara that highlighted key differences between and among them on housing, climate, taxes and other policy issues. Then a hockey game broke out.”
••• Also entertaining: Newsmakers‘s parsing of the Independent’s endorsement of Das Williams.
••• New donations for Das Williams’s reelection committee: “The contributions include $15,000 from the county firefighter political action committee and $2,000 from developer Ed St. George, plus another $5,000 in recent donations backing Williams in his race against school board president Laura Capps.” As Newsmakers pointed out in a previous post, the board of supervisors votes on the firefighters’ labor contract.
••• “Mark Melchiori, who once upon a time ran one of Santa Barbara’s premier construction companies, was perp-walked out of Judge Jim Herman’s courtroom Thursday with his hands cuffed behind his back, after being sentenced to nine years and four months for bilking Hollywood producer and director Robert Zemeckis out of $500,000 in 2012, as well as host of other fraudulent activities.” —Independent
••• Edhat ran a press release from representative Salud Carbajal: “Rep. Salud Carbajal introduced the California’s Land Preservation and Protection Act to place a moratorium on fracking and new oil and gas drilling on federal lands on California’s central and southern coasts. This is direct pushback on the Trump administration’s decision allowing the Bureau of Land Management to pursue oil and gas leasing on over 1.2 million acres of California land, including San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. Rep. Julia Brownley is an original co-sponsor of this bill.” All of which is great, but the odds of this becoming law are… nil?
••• Noozhawk, meanwhile, profiled Andy Caldwell, a Republican running against Carbajal. Why now? “I have never been directly involved in politics, and I have never had the ambition to do so, but America has shifted so far to the left.” [Head explodes.] He supports Trump, natch.
Comment: