SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. - Saturday will be cooler with increasing clouds.

Onshore flow will be strengthening from the southeast over the weekend.

This will shuttle in some moisture and humidity into our area more noticeably by Sunday.

Clouds will last through Monday.

We will start clearing on Tuesday.

Temps heat up again by Wednesday during the extreme heat watch.

Cooler temps will follow late next week though brief monsoonal impacts and slight California rain chances will stick around.

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CARPINTERIA, Calif. – State and local leaders gathered in Carpinteria Thursday to celebrate the restoration of $15 million in California's 2026–27 budget for the Children's Holistic Immigration Representation Project, or CHIRP, a program that provides free legal representation and case management for unaccompanied immigrant children.

Assemblymember Gregg Hart announced the funding alongside the Santa Barbara Immigrant Legal Defense Center (SBILDC), whose leaders advocated to restore the program after it was left out of Governor Gavin Newsom's initial budget proposal.

"At a basic level, the CHIRP program brings hope," Hart said.

CHIRP, which is administered by the California Department of Social Services, pairs unaccompanied immigrant children with attorneys and trauma-informed case managers as they navigate immigration proceedings.

"We're talking about one of the most vulnerable migrant populations, which are unaccompanied immigrant children," said Julissa Peña, executive director of the Santa Barbara Immigrant Legal Defense Center. "Children as young as 2 or 3 years old."

According to SBILDC, the organization reached out to Hart after learning the program's funding was not included in the Governor's proposed budget. Hart authored a budget request to restore the funding, and lawmakers ultimately included $15 million for CHIRP in the final state budget.

Peña said losing the program would have left many children without legal representation.

"They would have been forced to defend themselves in immigration court from removal," Peña said. "If they don't show up with an attorney, they have very little chance of being able to stay here in this country with a family member that is able to keep them safe."

Since its launch in 2022, CHIRP has provided services to more than 1,100 unaccompanied immigrant children across California.

Locally, SBILDC says it has used CHIRP funding to support nearly 100 children and youth in Santa Barbara, Ventura and San Luis Obispo counties.

Peña said each child in the program is paired with both an attorney and a case manager who remain with them throughout their case.

"They're going to have two very familiar faces that they're going to be able to trust with their story," Peña said. "We're going to use that story and the facts of that story to defend them from removal."

Advocates say legal representation can be critical as children seek immigration relief or work to remain with family members in the United States.

Crystal Canela, a supervising immigration attorney with SBILDC, said the work is emotionally challenging but deeply meaningful.

"At the end of the day, we're doing everything possible to help them stay here legally," Canela said. "Realistically, that may not be the outcome for all of the children we're representing."

She said simply having someone to stand beside children during court hearings and immigration appointments can make a significant difference.

"Knowing that I'm at least there to give them a voice," Canela said. "When they have to show up for an ICE appointment, I'm there to talk on their behalf and make them feel a little bit more comfortable in a situation that is really scary, even for an adult."

Advocates say they will continue working with state lawmakers to secure long-term funding so the program can continue serving vulnerable children across California.

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SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) - The first of seven Friday nights of outside movies begins this evening at the Santa Barbara County Courthouse Sunken Gardens.

It is a summer cinema series through UC Santa Barbara Arts & Lectures. This year's theme is 'Mixtapes and Misfits.'

It will take place July 10th through the end of August except for the week of Fiesta (August 7th).

The screenings begin at 8:30 p.m. with some hours of DJ entertainment prior to the start of the films.

The event is free.

Those attending who want the best viewing areas, come down before noon with their blankets and chairs, but the rules require the movie fans to wait at their spot and not open their blankets until exactly noon.

Mike Rojas with UCSB Arts & Lectures said, "at noon you are welcomed to place your stuff and leave it, before that anything left unattended we put it in what we lovingly call the 'pile of shame.' That's when they gather up items that are either out too early or not allowed and leave them in a designated area."

Chris Buck is a movie fan who was front and center, arriving in the 9 a.m. hour. "I just came early an hour early and brought my coffee with me and my chair." He opened his blanket in the center spot right at noon.

Michelle Sotello knows there is a high back chair limit so viewing is not blocked. She has one and sets it against the stone wall to be able to use it and not have it rejected. She also arrived early. "There is a strategy depending on how in to it you want to get but yeah I got here at 9:30, but one year I got here at 8:30 and realized nobody was here!"

To spend her time, "sometimes I would work from home here if I bring an umbrella and my laptop and I am allowed to work remotely so that works."

Joining her is Amber Rhodes who likes to get the spot set early and then leave, so they can return later with a dinner plan. "Sometimes I like to bring snacks from home, sometimes I'm like 'let's go over here buy some food' and like bring some food for us to all have. "

Some restaurants in the area are offering movie night food deals.

Being up close isn't exactly right for some people. A whole group that comes to the second level closer to Anapamu street, sets up where they can see the screen perfectly and with a second set of speakers they can hear some clear audio.

Katie Zimmerman said, from her upper spot, "I actually have chosen this area before, this upper area I think it is pretty epic this spot."

For more information go to UCSB Arts & Lectures Summer Cinema

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By Ella Nilsen, Kit Maher, CNN

(CNN) — The Trump administration reversed decades of longstanding environmental law protecting endangered species on Friday, opening up sensitive habitats of those protected species to drilling, mining, farming and real estate development.

The change, finalized by the Interior and Commerce Departments, redefines what constitutes “harm” to endangered species and habitats under the 1973 Endangered Species Act. The longstanding law had long prohibited “habitat modification or degradation” because it could harm or kill endangered animals by impacting their ability to breed and find food or shelter. That definition of harm was upheld by the US Supreme Court in a 1995 ruling.

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The Trump administration called the previous definition of harm “outdated” in a statement released Friday, arguing its move “returns the interpretation of the ESA back to its actual text and original intent, which will end years of federal overreach.”

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement that the law’s approach had “turned routine activity into a regulatory trap, drove up costs that impacted people’s lives, and expanded federal authority beyond what Congress intended.”

“For years, federal agencies abused the ESA to obstruct lawful land use and burden American families and businesses,” Burgum added, calling the administration’s action a “common sense” move that “follows the statute Congress actually passed.”

Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick added in a statement that the new rule would benefit fishermen who suffered from “overly broad and burdensome regulations.”

An Interior Department official said the rule will be published in the Federal Register early next week.

Environmental groups decried the move and said they planned to challenge the change in court imminently.

“For the first time ever, a presidential administration now claims that species protected by the Endangered Species Act shouldn’t be safe from habitat modification that destroys where they live, raise their young, or search for food,” Earthjustice attorney Kristen Boyles said in a statement. “There is no support for the Trump Administration’s rule — no scientific support, no legal support, no public support.”

Interior and Commerce insisted narrower “core protections” for endangered species would still be enacted, adding their definition of the bedrock environmental law would prevent “actions that directly injure or kill listed wildlife.”

However, environmental groups will challenge that narrower definition, pointing to the 1995 Supreme Court case, which upheld the broader definition of harm, including habitat destruction. But if legal challenges to the Trump administration’s reversal make it up to the Supreme Court again, environmentalists will be facing a far more conservative court.

“Habitat loss is the number one cause of extinction,” Gib Brogan, senior campaign director at Oceana, said in a statement. “When you remove habitat protections, you remove one of the law’s most important safeguards.”

The Trump administration has attempted to claw back the Endangered Species Act throughout President Donald Trump’s first and seco