SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) - With a stronghold on Mexico and the Southwest, U.S. agave growers are coming to the Santa Barbara County coast.

They have a symposium that could increase the use of land here for agave plants by the thousands.

Already, there's agricultural land changes taking place on properties in Santa Barbara and Montecito.

Carpinteria is expected to be part of this trend too as it looks at alternatives from the traditional crops there including avocados or the most recent phase with cannabis.

Agave growers are meeting at the Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort.

All day seminars will include information about the plants growth in popularity, distilling, marketing and land uses.

Some of the growers toured local properties Sunday prior to the sessions and enjoyed tequila tastings.

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

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Por Gonzalo Zegarra, CNN en Español

El Comando Sur de Estados Unidos confirmó este lunes la gira que realizará el portaviones USS Nimitz en América Latina, donde anclará en puertos de cuatro países en los próximos meses y tendrá actividades con las fuerzas de 10 naciones de la región.

La nave, que llevará varios aviones y helicópteros y estará acompañada del destructor USS Gridley, visitará Brasil, Chile, Panamá y Jamaica, según el comunicado de la Cuarta Flota, que no detalló fechas ni especificó el orden, aunque apunta que las embarcaciones circunnavegarán el continente.

Además, la gira tiene planes de encuentros con Argentina, Brasil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Perú, México, El Salvador, Guatemala y Uruguay, añadió el texto.

El Servicio Aeronaval de Panamá había informado el domingo que el portaviones y el destructor estarán en aguas panameñas desde el 29 de marzo hasta el 2 de abril. La Autoridad del Canal de Panamá respondió a CNN que las naves no pasarían por la vía interoceánica.

“El despliegue Southern Seas 2026 ofrece una oportunidad única para mejorar la interoperabilidad y aumentar la competencia con las fuerzas de nuestras naciones socias en todo el dominio marítimo”, dijo el contralmirante Carlos Sardiello, comandante del Comando Sur de la Cuarta Flota de EE.UU., citado el comunicado. “Despliegues como este demuestran nuestro compromiso inquebrantable para garantizar un hemisferio occidental seguro y estable. Esta misión es un ejemplo brillante de nuestra dedicación a fortalecer las alianzas marítimas, generar confianza y trabajar juntos para contrarrestar las amenazas comunes”, agregó.

El Comando Sur aseguró que la gira “fomentará la buena voluntad, fortalecerá las alianzas marítimas, contrarrestará las amenazas y fortalecerá nuestro equipo”.

El comunicado también destacó las capacidades de los portaviones como el USS Nimitz, que mide unos 333 metros de largo, con capacidad para 90 aeronaves: “Son la cúspide de la proyección móvil del poder aéreo naval y la presencia operativa avanzada. Ningún otro sistema de armas posee la capacidad de respuesta, la resistencia, la potencia multidimensional, el conocimiento inherente del espacio de batalla ni las capacidades de mando y control de un grupo de ataque de portaaviones y su ala aérea embarcada”.

A su vez, el destructor USS Gridley proporciona defensa avanzada y apoyo operativo, equipado con sistemas de radar y misiles de alta tecnología para enfrentar amenazas. Ambas embarcaciones cuentan en conjunto con capacidad de transportar a unos 6.000 tripulantes.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.

Con información de Elizabeth González y Rocío Muñoz-Ledo, de CNN.

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By Michael Williams, CNN

(CNN) — Tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars were spent on expenses for hair and makeup artists and a horse for the advertisement showcasing outgoing Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in front of Mount Rushmore, according to invoices seen by CNN.

Invoices to the Strategy Group, a DHS subcontractor that produced the advertisement, show taxpayers footed a $20,000 bill to a South Dakota-based barrel racer, along with nearly $4,000 for hair and makeup services. The invoices were sent by the subcontractor in response to a request from Sens. Peter Welch and Richard Blumenthal and shared with CNN on Monday.

Upon becoming DHS secretary last year, Noem pledged to root out wasteful spending from her agency. The secretary instituted strict cost-control efforts and tightened her grip on the purse strings of the country’s federal disaster management agency.

But at the same time, DHS spent exorbitant amounts of money on advertising campaigns that featured Noem prominently, part of a broader advertising effort by the department that cost more than $200 million. That spending was the basis of several questions she received from lawmakers during a pair of congressional hearings earlier this month.

Under questioning from Republican Sen. John Kennedy, Noem said President Donald Trump approved the spending. Trump denied doing so, and shortly after Noem made that claim, the president announced she would leave DHS by the end of this month. Trump selected Markwayne Mullin to replace Noem, and the Oklahoma senator is headed toward an expected Senate confirmation vote as soon as Monday evening.

CNN has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment.

Invoices shared with CNN showed that the Strategy Group — whose CEO is the husband of Noem’s former top spokesperson — accrued more than $100,000 in labor costs, along with a $60,000 “signing bonus” to produce the ad. About $50,000 was spent on videography, photography and production vendors.

“This looks like waste, fraud, and abuse to me,” Welch said in a statement. “While leading the Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem and her senior team allowed tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars to be spent on wasteful production costs, a shady signing bonus, and a very expensive horse — and that’s just what we know so far.”

CNN has reached out to the Strategy Group for comment. The company has previously pushed back on the efforts of Welch and Blumenthal and accused them of mischaracterizing the spending on the ad.

The 60-second ad, which was filmed in October, shows Noem riding a chestnut-colored horse while wearing a cowboy hat and chaps in front of Mount Rushmore. “Why do I love these wide-open spaces? They remind me of why our forefathers came here. Not just for i

By Gonzalo Zegarra, CNN

(CNN) — A Colombian military transport plane carrying troops has crashed on takeoff in the south of the country, Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez said on Monday.

“Military units are already at the scene. However, the number of victims and the causes of the accident have not yet been precisely determined,” the minister said on X.

The accident involved a C-130 Hercules aircraft and occurred in Puerto Leguízamo, a town in Putumayo department, bordering Peru.

Sánchez has sent condolences to the families of those affected.

The cause of the crash is not yet known.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

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