The 805

Local federal workers are picking up free food as the government shutdown continues. More than 1000 PG&E workers in San Luis Obispo fear for their jobs as the utility declares bankruptcy. Santa Barbara is beginning to automatically enroll residents into the county’s emergency alert system. And an art show explores the laborious, sometimes hopeless task of striving for justice.

One year ago, torrential rain pelted the hillside community of Montecito, which was scorched a month earlier by the Thomas Fire. It unleashed a flow of mud and boulders the size of cars and killed 23 people. We check in with the community one year later and talk about what’s being done to prevent another debris flow.

A proposal to build tiny homes for the homeless in downtown Santa Barbara comes to a bitter end. A local production of Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’ has an unusual twist -- a woman playing the role of Scrooge. And an energy company scraps its plan to build a new power plant on Oxnard’s coast.

A year ago, the Thomas Fire swallowed large swaths of Ventura County and lept into Santa Barbara’s front country, setting the stage for the late-night debris flow that took 23 lives. As we observe those anniversaries, we’re checking back with those we spoke with in the immediate aftermath.

A local environmentalist says we should spend more time and money preparing for natural disasters than responding to them. A Ventura resident who lost his home in the Thomas Fire says rebuilding is taking longer than he’d hoped. Local animal shelters are becoming critical evacuation centers. And California counties must now hold public meetings on their relationship with federal immigration agents.

A year after the Thomas Fire began, a new book out of Ojai tells stories of the community’s destruction and regrowth. Cuddle groups are popping up all over the place, including Santa Barbara. And, according to a newly released report, sea level rise could cover nearly two-thirds of Santa Barbara city beaches by 2100.

The city of Santa Barbara says it needs a new police station, but building one means displacing either farmers or lawn bowlers. The Woolsey has not only destroyed hundreds of homes and forced thousands of people to evacuate, but it’s displaced a diverse mix of wildlife. And a new contemporary art exhibition takes a deep dive into the most famous art heists in history.

On the heels of a deadly mass shooting at the Borderline Bar and Grill in Thousand Oaks, two blazes in the area are forcing more than 100,000 residents in Ventura and L.A. Counties to evacuate their homes.

At the peak of his career as a palliative care doctor in Santa Barbara, Michael Kearney found himself burned out and in a state of personal suffering. Even though he had become an expert in treating the pain of others, he couldn’t treat his own. That changed when he had a revelatory experience that provided him with a path forward. Meanwhile, the November election is just days away, a look at what could happen to the Central Coast if California voters pass Proposition 10.

California and the Trump Administration finally found something to agree upon: offshore wind farms, which could be coming to the Central Coast. In the wealthy enclave of Montecito, an expensive race is shaping up for the local water district. Also, we’ll explain two local measures in Santa Barbara County that appear almost identical and run through the pros and cons of the state gas tax repeal.