The U.S. military's indifference to the environmental impacts of rockets that blast off from Vandenberg Space Force Base keeps increasing, in direct proportion to the growing number of launches by Elon Musk's SpaceX company.
On this week's edition of Newsmakers TV, Nick Welsh reprises his reporting on the Coastal Commission's effort to obtain some accountability for -- or at least some measure of -- the unknown damage being inflicted on the coastline, ocean and atmosphere, in the name of making the filthy-rich rocketeer filthier.
It's a rare bit of skeptical journalism amid an endless stream of gee-whiz, celebratory coverage of SpaceX, an enterprise piece matched on the new show by Josh Molina's latest scoop from City Hall, which spotlights an out-of-the-blue, proposed new consulting contract between Santa Barbara city government and the Chamber of Commerce.
The pre-Fiesta tres amigos episode also features a breakdown of that big meltdown at the State Street Advisory Committee, amid growing questions and concerns about what, exactly, has been accomplished in the last three years of deliberations and dithering by that august body.
The fellas also update all three City Council races on the November ballot, check in on that bizarre meeting between city officials and downtown property owners and business operators, and attempt to untangle the confounding and overlapping jurisdictional and legal complexities fettering future offshore drilling in the county.
Plus: fond memories of Kamala Harris's 2015 visit to Santa Barbara to gaze at the site of the Refugio oil spill for the benefit of cameras making campaign ads for her.
All this and more, right here, right now on Newsmakers TV.
JR
Check out the new edition on YouTube below or by clicking through this link. The podcast version if here. TVSB, Channel 17, airs the show at 8 p.m. M-F., and at 9 a.m. on weekends. KCSB, 91.9 FM, broadcasts the program at 5:30 p.m. on Monday.
Images: Elon Musk smokes weed on the Joe Rogan podcast (Wired); Future presidential candidate Kamala Harris with the genial host in Santa Barbara June 4, 2015.
Horse is out of the barn department: It didn't take long after Vice President Harris emerged as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee for Team Maga to recycle on social media the oft-repeated history about her affair 300 years ago with former San Francisco Mayor and ex-Assembly Speaker Willie L. Brown, with the not-at-all-subtle implication that she slept her way to the top.
When Brown was asked about it four years ago, after Joe Biden picked Harris as his veep, he famously described it as "a perfect relationship -- she loved me and I loved me."
The matter surfaced again this week, when Brown was asked, during a Q&A with renowned political reporter Carla Marinucci at the San Francisco Standard, to comment on how the city's tarnished national reputation might impact Harris's candidacy.
"I just hope they don't find out she dumped me," His Williness said, quickly adding, "That showed good judgment."
Image: Willie Brown interviewed this week at the San Francisco Standard (screen grab).
CARTOON OF THE WEEK
Cartoon by Adam Douglas Thompson for The New Yorker.
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