Author: KEYT

Andrew Gillies

SANTA BARBARA CO, Calif. (KEYT) – The call-out initially included crews from nearly a dozen local fire departments when a structure fire broke out just before 3:30 Thursday afternoon in the Painted Cave area off Highway 154.

According to PulsePoint, a 911-connected app, the flames sparked at a property on the 4800 block of Glenn Rd., an area with a devastating fire history in the hills above Santa Barbara.

A majority of the fire crews were called off before arriving, however, nearly a handful of crews from Santa Barbara County quickly responded, given the tinder dry and extremely warm conditions in the area for days on end.

Santa Barbara County Fire PIO Karen Cruz Orduna posted on X that the structure fire involved a vacant single-family residence and an outbuilding. The flames also charred roughly 40′ by 40′ of nearby vegetation.

Crews quickly stopped the fire from spreading further.

No one was hurt; fire investigators are working to determine the cause.

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Mike Klan

WICHITA, Kansas. (KEYT) – Noah Waldeck pitched seven innings of 3-hit scoreless ball to lead the Santa Barbara Foresters into the semifinals at the 92nd National Baseball Congress World Series.

The Foresters eliminated the Austin Gold Sox 7-0 in the quarterfinals for their third shutout win in four games in this tournament.

The 10-time World Series champion Foresters have outscored their opponents 35-2 so far.

Brady Janusek (Baylor University) led a balanced offensive attack with two runs batted in as he tripled in Sawyer Farr in the fifth inning to make it 4-0 and knocked in another run on a groundout in the seventh inning to increase the lead to 6-0.

The Foresters took a 1-0 lead in the second inning on a soft RBI single to right by Donovan LaSalle to score Caleb Hoover.

The Gold Sox walked in a run in the third inning and a wild pitch in the top of the fifth let the Foresters third run in.

Cole Chamberlain blasted an RBI double in the sixth inning to make it 5-0.

A passed ball in the top of the eighth produced the Foresters seventh and final run of the game.

The star of the game was Waldeck who struck out six batters in his dominant start.

The Foresters will play in Friday’s semifinal against Junction City Brigade of Kansas. The time of the game has not been set yet.

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Alissa Orozco

SANTA PAULA, Calif. (KEYT) – A former resident of the Santa Paula area was arrested Wednesday morning following his return to Ventura County after he made criminal threats to carry out a shooting directed at the Santa Paula Police Station and kill officers.

In a press release, the Santa Paula Police Department says they were made aware of a person in the state of Idaho making threats to conduct a shooting at the police station and specifically kill police officers. The department detailed that the 70-year-old is from the Santa Paula and planned to return to the Ventura County area soon.

While in Idaho, the man mentioned that he planned to use protective ballistic equipment as part of his plan to conduct a shooting.

Through collaboration with multiple agencies, the man was tracked down and arrested in the city of Ventura on July 29th. Search warrants were issued in Ventura and Santa Paula areas, and a handgun, ammunition, a ballistic helmet, and diagrams to manufacture assault weapons were among items seized as evidence.

The department says the man also has a pending criminal case from 2025 a variety of illegal firearms charges. The Ventura Police Department located over 130 firearms in that case.

The man’s bail has been set at $1,020,000.

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Andrew Gillies

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) – The risk of getting scammed is higher than ever, with fraudsters constantly coming up with new tactics to trick, scare, or intimate you out of your money.

In this week’s segment of On Your Side, we highlight gift card scams – victims will receive text message from someone they believe they know, stating that person needs them to purchase a gift card. Legitimate ticket vendors and financial institutions will never ask customers to purchase gift cards to receive a refund or resolve an account issue.

Authorities remind the public to never provide gift card numbers, and pins over the phone, this is how the scammers obtain the gift card information.

Your News Channel will have more on how to protect yourself tonight at 6:00pm.

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John Palminteri

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) – The Channel Island Marine & Wildlife Institute (CIMWI) made a heroic rescue of a subadult sea lion with a monofilament line imbedded in its neck off of a buoy in the Santa Barbara Harbor Wednesday.

The Lil’ Toot boat, which tours by there daily, was actively involved in calming the sea lion down because the mammal is familiar with that vessel and crew Captain Milo Wolf.

This effort began two months ago at the docks in the harbor.

At that time the sea lion was in the middle multiple adult sea lions, including large bulls and could not be reached.

After a few weeks, the group disbanded and the entangled sea lion relocated to the buoy.

Ken Hughes is a CIMWI Volunteer on the team and said, “the animal was so used to us trying to approach it  that it would run , but it was used to Milo every day so he was able to allow us to get closer.”

CIMWI was able to successfully use a pole syringe to administer sedation.

This partially put the sea lion to sleep.

Dr. Sam Dover is the CIMWI Chief Veterinarian who helped to lift the 200 pound mammal into an inflatable. He said the sea lion was “mildly sedated.  He was was sleeping on the surface. The Toot, he sees it every day so that made it simple and we were about to get medication into him.”

The fishing line was digging into the sea lion’s neck and getting covered up with muscle because the mammal was feeding. Others have been found with deeper impacts and health failure. “We get them all the time on the beach in various stages. This one was very serious,” said Dover.

Then volunteers transferred it to the dock where it was put in a crate.

It is now at the CIMWI center at Gaviota for rehabilitation.

Wolf came in on his day off more than once to help out with the early morning rescue attempts.

“I was so happy I almost cried. We have been trying to catch him for two months. I am really, really glad! I could hardly sleep last night worrying about this operation,” said Wolf.

The sea lion could be in good health again and released within a month.

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Milo Wolf

Lil’ Toot Captain

“… we were able to get close enough to him to get the sedative in him so we could make this capture”

Milo Wolf

Lil’ Toot Captain

“…I was so happy I almost cried.  We have been trying to catch him for two months.”

Milo Wolf

Lil’ Toot Captain

“…I am really, really glad!  I could hardly sleep last night worrying about this operation.”

Dr. Sam Dover

Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute Chief Veterinarian Dr. Sam Dover said, Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute Chief Veterinarian 

He  is mildly sedated.  He was was sleeping on the surface

“… but the Toot he sees every day so that made it simple.   and we were about to get medication into him to slow him down.”

“…We get them all the time on the beach in various stages.   This one was very serious.”

Dr. Sam Dover

Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute Chief Veterinarian 

He  is mildly sedated.  He was was sleeping on the surface

“… but the Toot he sees every day so that made it simple.   and we were about to get medication into him to slow him down.”

“He  is mildly sedated.  In about an hour in…. he was basically sleeping on the surface.”

Dr. Sam Dover

Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute Chief Veterinarian 

“….  we will evaluate him and give him a good physical and so some blood work and see how bad that infection is.  ”     

“… once you get the nets on him it is just a matter of muscling him on board.    “

Dr. Sam Dover

Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute Chief Veterinarian 

Even in this condition, the sea lion has been feeding, which has 

“… he has been eating the whole time. “

(More details, photos and video will be added here later today.)

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Alissa Orozco

VENTURA COUNTY, Calif. (KEYT) – A Santa Paula man was sentenced to served 22 years in state prison for molestation charges of two underage victims. On June 22, 2026, Leonel Galindo Galindo pleaded guilty to eight counts of lewd acts upon a child and admitted the aggravating factor that he took advantage of a position of trust and confidence.

The Ventura County District Attorney’s Office says between 2018 and 2020, Galindo molested two victims under the age of 14 on multiple occasions within their own home. The DA says Galindo was known to the victims and used his position of trust to take advantage of them.

“The defendant relied on silence and fear to shield him from accountability,” said Senior DeputyDistrict Attorney Emily Reber. “But the courage of the survivors proved stronger than both. Thissentence reflects their strength and the justice they fought so hard to obtain.”

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Patricia Martellotti

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) – A new study from UC Santa Barbara suggests that people’s perceptions about who works in a job may influence how much they believe that job should pay.

Researchers presented participants with descriptions of the same occupation but varied information about the workforce. When participants believed a larger share of women worked in the role, they consistently assigned it a lower salary.

The findings suggest that gender stereotypes may shape how work is valued, even when the job itself does not change.

Researchers report the study offers insight into one factor that may contribute to the persistent gender pay gap.

They hope the research encourages employers to use clear, consistent compensation practices that focus on the responsibilities and qualifications required for a position rather than assumptions about who typically performs the work.

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Jarrod Zinn

LOMPOC, Calif. (KEYT) – The show will go on at the 100-year-old Lompoc Theatre thanks to a philanthropic gift of $6 million.

This is the largest singular, private donation the theater has ever received.

Santa Barbara’s very own Cheryl Goldberg, a technology executive and arts philanthropist continues to carry out her late husband’s legacy, and this is her latest benefaction.

After a recent personal tour of the Lompoc Theatre, which first opened in 1927 and has rested dormant for over 20 years, Goldberg is helping the theatre move closer to curtains up.

“Her first time in Lompoc was coming to tour this theater,” says Mark Herrier, Lompoc Theatre Project’s executive director. “And she was so compelled that she said she had to be a part of it.”

Her philanthropic donation in the amount of $6 million kicks the theater’s restoration project into high gear.

“I can’t tell you what it means to all of us to have that kind of attention and resources made available,” says Joan Hartmann, District 3 Supervisor for the County of Santa Barbara.

In 2027 the theater’s centennial season will begin in what they call the black box configuration.

“We will be opening the theater to performances on that very stage in the spring of 2027, when we complete our phase two,” says Herrier.

This black box or “cabaret” design will be an 80 seat venue enclosed within the stage, that can facilitate anything from music bands to stand up comics, or even seminars or classes, while the restoration continues on the auditorium.

“We have assembled a team that is as good as any in the country and might say any in the world,” Herrier says.

Then in 2028, the goal is to complete the entire 450-seat auditorium where large-scale productions can perform with state-of-the-art equipment.

“For Lompoc, it’s our most diverse community in the county, and so it provides a place to showcase these different cultures and feel connected to each other,” says Hartmann.

Directors of the theater and community leaders are bursting with excitement and gratitude to Cheryl Goldberg.

“There is nothing that transforms a central downtown core in the country more than restoring its original hometown historic theater,” says Herrier.

Project leaders say $5 million of the donation will go to construction, and the remaining one million will establish a performing arts fund, which will secure programming at the theater for about eight years.

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Alissa Orozco

GOLETA, Calif. (KEYT) – In what feels like a strange sense of deja vu, another vehicle crashed into a business here in Santa Barbara county, with luckily no injuries reported.

Just around 7:00am Thursday morning, a Toyota Corolla crashed through the front windows of Pet House, a local pet store located inside the Calle Real Marketplace in Goleta. This comes just days after another vehicle crashed into a toy store in Montecito.

The store was not open at the time, and Santa Barbara County Fire Department confirmed there were no injuries to report.

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Tracy Lehr

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) Santa Barbara City College’s Raíces program is scheduled to close on Friday, July 31.

SBCC President and Superintendent Dr. Erika Endrijonas said the Federal Hispanic Serving Institutions Title V grant money is done.

There is no longer funding through the grant for staffing or the program.

For the past 3 years the center, located on the second floor of the West Campus Center has offered on and off campus resources, and advising hours.

It also hosted special events throughout the year.

All the students impacted have been contacted and most are being serviced by other programs on campus.

SBCC said this is a temporary pause, not a permanent closure as the search for new funding continues.

For more information visit https://www.sbcc.edu

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