Santa Barbara County

Government workers in Santa Barbara County can take full advantage of their last-minute holiday shopping this year, thanks to two extra paid days off that the Board of Supervisors quietly slipped into their stockings. Without comment, supervisors earlier this month gave county government's 4,300 employees Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve off. Since both fall on a Monday preceding a Tuesday holiday, the action created consecutive four-day holiday weekends.

When Rick Caruso bought Montecito's Miramar Hotel in 2007, it was a long-vacant, fenced-off, dilapidated eyesore. Five years later, the fences are still up, the windows boarded, the paint peeling. In a community of sky-high hedges and imposing gates, it's still an eyesore. "I'm embarrassed we haven't been able to get it built," Caruso told Santa Barbara County supervisors at a meeting last week, "but it hasn't been for lack of trying. " Caruso, a celebrity developer who is considering a run for mayor of Los Angeles, was asking for a $15-million tax break that he said can speed transformation of the beachfront property into a new five-star hotel.

There was much heavy sighing and some collective head-scratching when the Bixby Ranch, a majestic coastal property belonging to the family that once owned all of what is now Long Beach and parts of Irvine and Palos Verdes, was sold in January for close to $140 million, a record for noncommercial real estate in California. The 25,000-acre Santa Barbara landholding had been slumbering for nearly a century as a respected cattle operation, a rustic getaway for the Bixby heirs and their friends, a surfing spot of mystical isolation, a site of concern to archeologists and environmentalists, and a muse for artists and other casual visitors.

The mother of a Santa Barbara County teenager says he was wronged twice — once by the 450-pound Boy Scout leader who sexually abused him in 2007, and then by a local Scouts executive who she says told her not to call police. "He said that wasn't necessary, because the Scouts do their own internal investigation," said the woman, whose name The Times is withholding to protect her son's identity. "I thought that was really weird.... I thought it was really important to call the sheriff right away.

It may be picturesque, but this upscale village of red-tile roofs and stunning seascapes is sending a huge number of lost souls to the county morgue. Bodies show up on the beach, in parks, along railroad tracks and in the heart of the business district, steps from four-star restaurants and boutique hotels. Sometimes it's murder. Usually it's a case of used-up bodies giving out under the swaying palms. "We just had another one," Santa Barbara County social worker Ken Williams told me Thursday morning.

At the Tarzana restaurant where he worked as a waiter, Bernardo Alvarez was well-liked and reliable. When he didn't show up last month after not missing a single day in 10 years, his boss at the Greystoke Grill grew concerned and filed a missing-persons report. Authorities on Wednesday identified Alvarez as the man whose body was found burning next to the 101 Freeway in Santa Barbara County about 4 a.m. on July 15. At a news conference, officials from the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department and the Los Angeles Police Department appealed to the public for clues into Alvarez's grisly death.

Authorities in Santa Barbara County aim to deflate Floatopia, a mega-party set for Saturday that has exploded over the last few years with the aid of social media websites. Officials told county supervisors Tuesday that they plan to close access points to popular beaches in Isla Vista, near UC Santa Barbara, this weekend. Last year, as many as 12,000 revelers converged on the narrow strip of sand in a day of what county parks Director Dan Hernandez called "unmitigated chaos." Deputies handed out 78 citations for alcohol-related crimes and made 13 arrests, Sheriff Bill Brown said.

Santa Barbara County is celebrating 100 years of filmmaking. Beginning in 1910, movies were shot at Flying A Studio, which occupied two full blocks along Mission Street in downtown Santa Barbara. Most of the buildings are gone, but a piece of the former studio, at the corner of Mission and State Street, is now home to Garrett's Old Fashion Restaurant, (805) 567-0400. Photos from Flying A's heyday are on display. The local visitors bureau offers a variety of information, including the Santa Barbara County Film Tour booklet, which is chock-full of movie lore and locations; 1601 Anacapa St., (805)

Santa Barbara County is in good financial shape, thanks to more income from property taxes than expected, according to a budget update from the county administrator's office. The report, which was to be presented to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, estimates that the county will end the fiscal year with $3 million more than expected in the general fund.

San Francisco investment broker Claxton Long did not die from blows received in a barroom beating, Santa Barbara County authorities said. Long, 47, may have died of a pre-existing medical condition, coroner's officials said after an autopsy. "We cannot find anything traumatic which would have caused the death, such as fractures or contusions," Sheriff's Detective Fred Ray said.

When Karin Hauenstein led her three horses down Vine Street, the girls in short skirts stilled their stiletto-heeled sashays, the incense hawkers stopped calling out to passersby, and Trader Joe's shoppers gaped through the glass at the convoy clip-clopping up the far right lane. Whether anyone registered more than surprise is hard to say. But on that recent afternoon, Hauenstein was making a statement. The 39-year-old horse trainer has come south from Santa Barbara County to protest the commercial slaughter of horses.

In the next 30 years, high-value vineyards in California could shrink by 50% because of global warming, according to a Stanford University study released last week. Scientists applied scenarios from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in a computer model and found that Napa and Santa Barbara counties could experience 10 more very hot days — 95 degrees or higher — during the growing season. As a result, the amount of grape-growing land is projected to decline over the next three decades, the authors wrote.

They have a car, but no home. On a recent night they slept inside their vehicle after a dinner of Cup Noodles that they microwaved at a local 7-Eleven. "I try not to serve instant noodles if possible," said Jillian Smith, the mother of two girls and one boy. "But sometimes that's all I can afford, and it keeps us warm when the night is cold. " This family of four has undergone some drastic changes within the last five years. Smith and her three children — Xavier, 13, Cheyenne, 12, and Victoria, 8 — fled their hometown in Florida for California because of domestic abuse.

CKE Restaurants Inc., the parent company of fast-food chain Carl's Jr., is in "very early" talks about moving its headquarters from Carpinteria in Santa Barbara County to Texas, company spokeswoman Beth Mansfield said. CKE President Andy Puzder has been on a media blitz this week through the Lone Star State, where he has been promoting the chain in connection with the Super Bowl on Sunday. In an interview with the Dallas Morning News, Puzder said he would meet with Texas Gov. Rick Perry to discuss a move.

As public school students in Los Angeles adjust to a shorter academic year, Catholic school pupils face a different sort of transition. Beginning this fall, most elementary schools in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles will add 20 days to their schedules, making their school year one of the longest in the United States. In announcing the expansion to a 200-day calendar, Cardinal Roger Mahony insisted Thursday that the archdiocese was not trying to gain a competitive advantage over the Los Angeles Unified School District, which has cut its school year to 175 days this year.

Intense news coverage in Ventura County of the shooting death of gay teenager Lawrence "Larry" King prompted a judge Monday to order that the jurors be drawn from neighboring Santa Barbara County. Superior Court Judge Charles Campbell agreed with the defense's contention that Ventura County residents have been so saturated with press coverage of the sensational classroom slaying that 16-year-old defendant Brandon McInerney's right to a fair trial was threatened. But while jurors will be selected from southern Santa Barbara County, the trial will stay in Ventura County Superior Court, Campbell said at a Monday hearing.

Government-backed loans to small businesses were way up in the Los Angeles area over much of the last year, according to the Small Business Administration. During the nine-month period that ended June 30, lenders made 1,725 loans to small businesses in Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, about 50% more than in the same period a year earlier. The dollar volume of those loans nearly doubled compared with the year-earlier period, to $850.8 million. The top SBA lender in the region during that period was Wells Fargo Bank, followed by Center Bank, JPMorgan Chase Bank, Superior Financial Group and CDC Small Business Finance Corp.

At the Tarzana restaurant where he worked as a waiter, Bernardo Alvarez was well-liked and reliable. When he didn't show up last month after not missing a single day in 10 years, his boss at the Greystoke Grill grew concerned and filed a missing-persons report. Authorities on Wednesday identified Alvarez as the man whose body was found burning next to the 101 Freeway in Santa Barbara County about 4 a.m. on July 15. At a news conference, officials from the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department and the Los Angeles Police Department appealed to the public for clues into Alvarez's grisly death.