SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) Members of the Santa Barbara / Puerto Vallarta Sister Cities Committee are being helped by firefighter in Mexico.

Committee member and former Santa Barbara City Council Member Gil Garcia said the Rotary Club and the International Firefighter Training Association works with their sister city programs.

When they heard about six committee members stranded they reached out to help.

Garcia said the Fire Chief in Tuxpan, Jalisco arranged for an ambulance from Tonya to give the 6 of them a ride to the city of San Gabriel and from their they took a van to a hotel in Guadalajara near the airport .

They had rebooked a flight for Friday, but they are now trying to get an earlier flight on Wednesday or Thursday.

Their weekend flight was canceled when violence broke out following the death of a drug lord that sparked violence in many states in Mexico.

The post Sister Cities Committee Members helped by firefighters in Mexico appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) Members of the Santa Barbara / Puerto Vallarta Sister Cities Committee are being helped by firefighter in Mexico.

Committee member and former Santa Barbara City Council Member Gil Garcia said the Rotary Club and the International Firefighter Training Association works with their sister city programs.

When they heard about six committee members stranded they reached out to help.

Garcia said the Fire Chief in Tuxpan, Jalisco arranged for an ambulance from Tonya to give the 6 of them a ride to the city of San Gabriel and from their they took a van to a hotel in Guadalajara near the airport .

They had rebooked a flight for Friday, but they are now trying to get an earlier flight on Wednesday or Thursday.

Their weekend flight was canceled when violence broke out following the death of a drug lord that sparked violence in many states in Mexico.

The post Sister Cities Committee Members helped by firefighters in Mexico appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

By Aaron Blake, CNN

(CNN) — President Donald Trump is delivering the first State of the Union address of his second term Tuesday night at the US Capitol.

The speech comes shortly after the Supreme Court struck down his signature global tariffs, as he considers a second round of potential military strikes on Iran and as his political fortunes appear to be about as low as they’ve ever been in either of his two terms.

Here are some early takeaways from his speech.

Trump goads Democrats on immigration

Trump has struggled to halt his declining political fortunes in recent months. But as he tried to frame up the 2026 election on Tuesday night, he turned to an old faithful: immigration.

After gesturing at “angel moms” whose children were victimized by undocumented immigrants, Trump said voting for Democrats would be voting to reopen America’s borders.

“We can never forget that many in this room not only allowed the border invasion to happen before I got involved, but indeed they would do it all over again if they ever had the chance,” he said.

Trump then did something he loves to do with these speeches: challenge Democrats to decide whether to applaud.

He urged members to stand up and show support if they agreed with the statement that “the first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens.”

Democrats remained seated.

Republicans, meanwhile, sought to emphasize the moment, standing and applauding for a long time to show the contrast.

Eventually, Trump spoke again and told Democrats, “You should be ashamed of yourself not standing up.” Democratic Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota yelled at Trump, despite Democratic leaders having previously warned their members against outbursts.

Trump often turns to immigration in election years. The issue isn’t as strong for him as it once was, and in fact he’s quite a bit underwater on it thanks to what Americans overwhelmingly views as overzealous actions by federal officials in Minneapolis and elsewhere.

But polls also show Americans still tend to favor the Republican Party over the Democratic Party on the issue of immigration.

A couple key points on tariffs

Trump didn’t offer a repeat of Friday’s angry broadside against the US Supreme Court for striking down his global tariffs. He instead focused on claiming he still has great leverage with other tariff authorities (which is highly debatable).

He did, however, make some news on the tariff front.

For one, he volunteered that Congress shouldn’t bother codifying his tariffs into law.

“Congressional action will not be necessary,” Trump said.

It’s clear tariffs make even many Republicans uncomfortable, and it appears

By CNN staff

(CNN) — President Donald Trump made false claims in his State of the Union address on Tuesday.

Here is a fact check of some of Trump’s remarks so far:

Fact check: Trump falsely claims US has secured ‘$18 trillion’ in investments

Trump repeated his regular false claim that he has secured $18 trillion in investments in the US since returning to office, saying, “In 12 months, I secured commitments for more than $18 trillion pouring in from all over the globe.”

The $18 trillion figure is fiction. As of the night of Trump’s address, the White House’s own website said the figure for “major investment announcements” during this Trump term was “$9.7 trillion,” and even that is a major exaggeration; a detailed CNN review in October found the White House was counting trillions of dollars in vague investment pledges, pledges that were about “bilateral trade” or “economic exchange” rather than investment in the US and vague statements that didn’t even rise to the level of pledges.

From CNN’s Daniel Dale

Fact check: Trump’s misleading claims on gasoline prices

Trump claimed gas prices are “now below $2.30 a gallon in most states, and in some places, $1.99 a gallon.” But no state had an average gas price on Tuesday below $2.37 per gallon, according to AAA; only two states had an average below $2.50 per gallon. And while there are some individual gas stations selling gas for below $2 per gallon, they are scarce; Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for the firm GasBuddy, said during the speech that the firm found just four stations across the country below $2 (aside from special discounts) out of the roughly 150,000 stations the firm tracks, so about 0.00003% of the total.

Trump could fairly say gas prices have fallen during this presidency. They have declined from a national average of $3.12 per gallon on his inauguration day in January 2025, according to AAA, to a national average of $2.95 per gallon on Tuesday.

In addition, Trump claimed, “And when I visited the great state of Iowa just a few weeks ago, I even saw $1.85 a gallon for gasoline.” We don’t know what Trump saw, but the average price for a gallon of regular gas in Iowa on the day of the January 27 speech was $2.57, according to data published that day by AAA – and Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy, told CNN at the time that GasBuddy found just four stations in the state selling for $1.97 per gallon (aside from special discounts) out of 2,036 total stations the firm tracks, so 0.19% of the total.

Trump was fact-checked on this subject by an attendee at the Iowa speech he was referring to. When he spoke of gas in Iowa being $1.95 or $1.85 per gallon, someone in the

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) A proposed ordinance that would adjust the tax rates on cannabis businesses in the city of Santa Barbara is under consideration.

The topic was on the agenda at a special Finance Committee meeting on Tuesday.

"The city council directed staff to look at potentially raising the cannabis rate from what it is right now at 6 percent as a way of generating more revenue to pay for essential services that the city provides to this community," said Finance Director Kevin DiMartini.

The topic comes at a time when recreational cannabis shops are offering deep discounts.

Some members of the committee don't want medicinal cannabis sales to be impacted if a hike is approved.

Cannabis taxes are in the 29 percent range when you include state and other taxes.

Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed a bill that rolled back a statewide cannabis tax hike to help the legal market grow. 

The move kept the state rate at 15 percent.

"The Industry itself is not doing very strong, we can see it from our own cannabis tax revenue," said DiMartini, "It peaked at about $1.9 million, about 5 years ago ,and ever since then for us it has been declining." 

Even so, the city is considering a 2 percent increase.

"Staff recommended raising the rate from 6 to 8 percent," said DiMartini.

He said voters approved a tax rate that gives the city the authority to raise is as high as 20 percent.

But that is not likely to happen.

"We evaluated a number of economic factors, we think there is a high risk of cannabis businesses going out of business and we obviously don't want that to occur."

Cannabis Industry workers at three shops declines to comment.

Numerous customers declined to comment on camera as well, but many said they believe tax hikes drive people to the black market.

The cannabis tax adjustment is going to go before the full Santa Barbara City Council in March.

For more information visit https://santabarbaraca.gov

Your News Channel will have more on the issue tonight on the news.

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