Author Pico Iyer returns to Santa Barbara to preview his upcoming speaker series. Columnist Starshine Roshell brings us inside the surprisingly large world of local trivia nights. And more controversy at the Santa Barbara Unified School District, as a group of anonymous parents threatens to sue school leaders over an implicit bias training program it claims discriminates against white people.

California becomes the first state to impose gender quotas on corporate boards, but will the new law make it through legal review? It’s a close race for the 25th Congressional seat in Ventura County, as Democrats try to flip the district from red to blue. A wine from the Central Coast plays a lead role in “Somm 3,” and artists debut performances inspired by the Thomas Fire and subsequent mudslides.

The race for two open seats on the Santa Barbara Unified School Board is heating up. Engineers say an aging levee in Ventura could put thousands of homes at risk. A new documentary connects the dots between the 2015 Volkswagen scandal and the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill. Lois Capps opens up about her time in Congress and how she relied on her faith to get her through two family tragedies.

Cases of Valley Fever are spiking along the Central Coast. If Governor Jerry Brown wants to decrease the state’s carbon footprint, why is he approving new onshore oil drilling? A journalist tours a ranch in the Santa Ynez Valley owned by McDonald’s tycoon Ray Kroc. And starting next year, female surfers will earn the same amount of prize money as male surfers.

A third of the storefronts along downtown State Street in Santa Barbara sit vacant, and the city is trying to change that. Park officials in the Santa Monica Mountains say four new mountain lion kittens are a product of inbreeding. Latinos in Santa Barbara are speaking out about evictions, rent increases, and lackluster landlords. And a new storytelling workshop open to the community begins next week.

Police officials in Lompoc are kicking homeless people out of an encampment along the Santa Ynez river. A local entrepreneur says his product reduces the risk of shark attacks. The United Farm Workers labor organization has a new female president. And legal warfare is about to break out in Santa Barbara over three recreational marijuana dispensaries that got the green light earlier this summer.

California may become the first state to require large companies to have women on their boards. An economics professor from UCSB says we should prepare for a future with no physical cash. A new cookbook tells the story of one successful Funk Zone restaurant. And we tour Mar y Cel, also known as the Tea Gardens, to learn about the history and future of this mysterious property in Montecito.

Officials with the Los Padres National Forest want to create fire breaks to protect communities from wildfires, but environmentalists worry about the harmful effects of commercial logging. Writer T.C. Boyle’s latest piece of fiction in the New Yorker tackles survivors guilt after the mudslide in Montecito. And residents in Santa Barbara are invited to tour the city’s new desalination plant for the first time.

This Saturday, LA Philharmonic conductor Gustavo Dudamel will lead students from the Music Academy of the West and the LA Master Chorale in Mahler’s Symphony Number 2, the “Resurrection," at the Santa Barbara Bowl. As wildfires continue to rage throughout the state, Southern California’s biggest utility company is taking steps to make sure it doesn’t start a future fire. And, a look at whether fuel breaks work to stop blazes, plus other top local stories of the week, including a cascarone controversy during Fiesta.

The City of Ventura is struggling to come to terms with story of a man who was murdered by a homeless person in a popular local restaurant. We’ll get reaction. Then, to San Luis Obispo where a mentally ill inmate died behind bars. One journalist says this story is representative of a national crisis.