The post Goleta to Consider Ordinance to Protect Senior Mobile Home Park appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

CNN

From CNN’s Kara Fox and Tierney Sneed, CNN

Warning: This post contains language readers may find disturbing.

The Justice Department now says a handwritten letter it released Tuesday that was signed by “J. Epstein” and addressed to convicted sex offender Larry Nassar is “fake,” asserting that the handwriting did not appear to match that of Jeffrey Epstein.

The department had said earlier Tuesday that it was assessing the validity of the letter – which appeared to make crude references to President Donald Trump – because other details called into question whether it had actually been written and sent by Epstein.

“This fake letter serves as a reminder that just because a document is released by the Department of Justice does not make the allegations or claims within the document factual,” the Justice Department said in a post on X hours after the letter was released among a tranche of other Epstein-related records.

The letter does not explicitly name Trump, but instead refers to “our president.” The message appears to have been sent in August 2019, the same month Epstein died by suicide. Trump was president at the time.

The statement debunking the letter from the Justice Department noted that it was postmarked not in New York, where was Epstein was imprisoned, but in Virginia, and the return address was for a jail different than the one holding Epstein. The envelope was processed three days after Epstein’s suicide.

Authorities have not accused Trump of any wrongdoing or charged him with any crimes in connection with Epstein.

“Dear L.N.,” the letters reads, “As you know by now, I have taken the ‘short route’ home. Good luck! We shared one thing … our love and caring for young ladies and the hope they’d reach their full potential. Our President also shares our love of young, nubile girls.” The letter makes another lewd reference to Trump’s treatment of women.

“Life is unfair,” the letter reads.

In a separate statement the department released earlier Tuesday, not aimed at any specific record in the most recent release, the Department said that some of the documents released “contain untrue and sensationalist claims” against the president.

“To be clear: the claims are unfounded and false, and if they had a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already.”

CNN has reached out to the White House for comment on the letter.

While the letter is addressed to an “L.N.,” a photo of the envelope – postmarked on August 13, 2019 and addressed to the former Olympic doctor and sex offender – was released by the DOJ. The envelope says it was sent from the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City to Nassar, who was listed as an inmate at a federal prison in Arizona.

The letter was postmarked three days after Epstein died. Prison staff are authorized to read and inspect outgoing mail, which can cause delays.

Based on prison documents released from a Freedom of Information Act request, CNN Read more

Por Anabella González, Fernando Ramos y Pau Mosquera, CNN en Español

Sol dejó Venezuela hace más de 11 años. Regresar a su casa para Navidad este año era un plan que había coordinado minuciosamente. Un objetivo que llevaba meses de organización, pero, sobre todo, de mucha ilusión. Un deseo que ahora deberá postergar, con incertidumbre y sin fecha prevista, debido a la suspensión de numerosos vuelos a Venezuela en medio de las tensiones crecientes con Estados Unidos.

A fines de noviembre, la Administración Federal de Aviación de EE.UU. (FAA) instó a las aerolíneas comerciales a “extremar precauciones” al sobrevolar Venezuela y el sur del Caribe. Días después, una frase del presidente de Estados Unidos, Donald Trump, desató las consecuencias que hoy enfrentan muchos venezolanos como Sol, que planeaban pasar las fiestas de fin de año en familia: “Consideren el espacio aéreo sobre y alrededor de Venezuela cerrado en su totalidad”.

Desde entonces, varias aerolíneas han cancelado sus vuelos a Venezuela hasta fines de diciembre y han dado a sus pasajeros la posibilidad de cambiar sus pasajes por nuevas rutas o recibir el reembolso de su dinero. Y si bien algunos optaron por otras vías de transporte, para muchos hacer ese trayecto en avión hasta Caracas era la única alternativa.

Sol, que vive en la ciudad de Buenos Aires y prefiere no dar su apellido por temor a represalias, tenía pasajes para viajar el 16 de diciembre junto a su esposo y sus dos hijas menores. El 12, apenas cuatro días antes, llegó la confirmación que temían: la agencia de viajes por la que gestionaron sus boletos les comunicó que Boliviana de Aviación había cancelado sus vuelos.

“Lo más difícil fue para la mayor, porque tenía mucha ilusión y estaba contando los días”, dice sobre la conversación que tuvo con su hija de 7 años, nacida en Argentina, que esperaba reencontrarse con su abuela.

En Caracas, cuenta Sol, esa reunión era muy esperada. Su mamá había armado el árbol de Navidad pensando en recibir a sus nietas, después de años sin armarlo por una pérdida familiar, dice.

Un hombre venezolano que prefirió no dar su nombre por temor a represalias contó a CNN que tenía pasajes para viajar con la aerolínea Gol, haciendo conexión en Sao Paulo. Este ingeniero electrónico vive en Campana, provincia de Buenos Aires, y este era un fin de año especial: era la primera vez que regresaba a su país desde que emigró en 2019.

“Era un plan familiar: los que estamos afuera íbamos a viajar, juntarnos en Caracas con quienes están allá y hacer un reencuentro familiar. En junio compré mi boleto”, cuenta a CNN.

Gol fue una de las primeras aerolíneas internacionales en suspender sus vuelos, y luego el Instituto Nacional de Aeronáutica Civil (INAC) de Venezuela le revocó la concesión de vuelos, junto con otras cinco aerolíneas que se habían sumado a las medidas de la FAA.

No es la primera vez que la actualidad política de Venezuela irrumpe en los planes de Sol, quien trabaja como empleada administrativa en una empresa de la capital argentina. A fines de 2024, también pensó en viajar con su familia, pero decidieron posponerlo debido a la inestabilidad política y a las protestas durante los meses posteriores a la elección presidencial.

Tampoco es la primera oportunidad en la que los vuelos en Venezuela se ven afectados por la coyuntura política. Desde 2014 se ha reducido la conexión aérea con el país, que antes de la tensión con EE.UU. tenía 105 vuelos semanales a 16 destinos, operados por 12 aerolíneas internacionales,

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. - The atmospheric river will hit our region Tuesday night through Christmas Eve morning with a second pulse on Christmas Day.

Rainfall forecast: 2-7 inches near coast, 4-14 inches inland possible by Friday.

Rain rates: near or over 1 inch per hour, stronger rates expected on the south coast.

Thunderstorms, damaging winds, flooding, mudslides, downed trees, power outages and weak tornadoes are possible during this storm especially on Christmas Day when the air is colder and more unstable. Flood Watches, High Wind Warnings and High Surf Advisories are in effect.

Snow levels: drop to 5500 ft on Christmas Day.

Winds: 60-80mph gusts possible from the southeast.

Light showers may linger into Friday and Saturday, we will be mostly dry by Sunday.

The post California winter storm hits Tuesday night through Christmas: up to 7 inches possible near coast appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

Celia Ong // Shutterstock

Scammers love to prey on hope, and with a 4.3 percent unemployment rate in the U.S. as of August 2025, they’ve got a lot of hopeful job seekers to pounce on. No matter the economic environment, though, job offer scams are a perennial favorite of sketchy grifters — the latest model just so happens to come in the form of a fake job text message, and it can seem rather convincing, too.

Got a text out of the blue about a potential job at your dream company? If it’s an opportunity that sounds too good to be true, that’s because it probably is. Spokeo explains how to know for sure.

Key Takeaways:

• Text-based job offer scams are on the rise.
• The latest job offer scams pose as recruiters or dream companies offering cushy jobs.
• They’re actually phishing scams out to get your valuable private information.

Job Text Scams: How They Work

The latest string of job offer scams has gotten so prevalent that the Federal Trade Commission issued a warning to help keep job hunters from getting their hearts broken and their bank accounts drained. The most recent popular iteration of the scam is a fake job text message from a phony “recruiter” or a dream job-worthy company. Here’s how it works:

1. Victims get an unsolicited text, seemingly out of the blue.
2. Said text claims to be from a job recruiting service, such as Indeed or ZipRecruiter, or from a popular company with dream job vibes (think Netflix or Apple) and often describes a cushy-sounding gig with a nice pay rate.
3. The job description will be vague and suspiciously easy to fulfill. Slate describes a common example seeking “remote product testers” who only need to work for an hour or two a day to earn up to $400 daily by “reviewing new products or services online.” NPR, meanwhile, came across one that offered pay just for listening to songs on Spotify. Both are bogus.
4. Once you apply, the scammers will let you know you’ve been “hired” (spoiler: everyone gets the “hired”), at which point they will ask for all sorts of sensitive private information (bank info, social security number, etc.).
5. Alternatively, the link is just a phishing link, aimed at gathering your private information or installing malware onto your device.

What Do They Want?

Crooks aren’t sending out fake job text messages for fun. By and large, job offer scams are designed to obtain your valuable private information as a form of phishing. If you get lured in and respond to a job text scam, the scam