SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - For several years, Santa Barbara County has conducted both sheltered and unsheltered Point-in-Time homeless counts annually. This year, however, the county is scaling back and counting only people staying in shelters.

County officials say the decision comes after years of data collection and a need to redirect limited resources.

Since 2019, News Channel has followed volunteers and county workers as they fanned out before dawn to count people living unsheltered across the county. But after years of conducting the count, officials say they now have a strong data foundation and are shifting their focus.

“One of the issues with the Point-in-Time count is it’s an unfunded mandate,” said Jett Black-Maertz, Santa Barbara County’s Homelessness Assistance Program Manager. “So it costs us about $100,000 a year. This year, we’re doing a deep study into vehicular homelessness, and we’re hoping to move forward with studies into homelessness prevention as well.”

While Santa Barbara County has conducted the unsheltered count annually, the federal government only requires it every other year. Officials say that flexibility allows them to focus on emerging trends. Particularly the rise in people living in vehicles.

County leaders say better understanding vehicular homelessness could lead to more effective prevention strategies.

“We know that homelessness is a really traumatic event,” Black-Maertz said. “And if we can shorten the amount of time that people are experiencing homelessness, we can help them reenter society and be more successful in the future.”

Instead of an unsheltered count this year, the county will release a homelessness report based on data from the Homeless Management Information System, which is collected continuously throughout the year.

Black-Maertz says the broader question goes beyond counting people.

“While we’re still seeing people living on the street, are we really living up to our societal requirements?” she said. “Are we actually taking care of our citizens if people cannot access housing?”

The sheltered homeless count is still scheduled to take place next Tuesday and will continue on an annual basis.

The next unsheltered Point-in-Time count in Santa Barbara County is scheduled for 2027.

The post Santa Barbara County Shifts Focus From Counting to Deep Research for homelessness in the county appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

Por Uriel Blanco, CNN en Español

El presidente de Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, dijo este miércoles que su país impondrá una “tasa de seguridad” del 30 % a las importaciones que vienen de Colombia a partir del 1 de febrero.

Noboa aseguró que las fuerzas armadas de Ecuador “siguen enfrentando a grupos criminales atados al narcotráfico en la frontera sin cooperación alguna” por parte de Colombia.

“Ante la falta de reciprocidad y acciones firmes” en materia de seguridad y “un déficit comercial que supera los US$ 1.000 millones anuales” con Colombia, añadió el mandatario ecuatoriano, esa tasa de seguridad se aplicará el próximo domingo.

“Esta medida se mantendrá hasta que exista un compromiso real para enfrentar juntos el narcotráfico y la minería ilegal en la frontera, con la misma seriedad y decisión que hoy el Ecuador asume”, escribió Noboa en un mensaje en X.

CNN consultó al Gobierno de Ecuador para conocer más detalles de la medida y está en espera de respuesta. CNN también consultó al Gobierno de Colombia para saber si tiene algún posicionamiento sobre la tasa de seguridad anunciada por Noboa y espera respuesta.

Poco después del anuncio de la tasa de seguridad, el Ministerio de Defensa de Colombia informó este miércoles de una “acción conjunta” entre las fuerzas de seguridad de ambos países, lo que parecía contradecir la falta de “compromiso real” que declaró Noboa.

“La cooperación entre Colombia y Ecuador permite resultados concretos contra el narcotráfico transnacional. En una acción conjunta entre la Armada de Colombia y el Ejército de Ecuador, se logró la incautación de 2,24 toneladas de marihuana en la zona fronteriza, afectando de manera directa las economías criminales que operan en la región amazónica”, indicó el Ministerio de Defensa colombiano en X.

“Colombia reafirma su compromiso con la cooperación bilateral en materia de seguridad, el intercambio de información y la acción coordinada en zonas de frontera, como herramientas fundamentales para enfrentar el narcotráfico transnacional, proteger a las comunidades y preservar la estabilidad y la seguridad regional”, añadió.

Previo a esta incautación, el pasado 6 de enero el Ejército de Ecuador decomisó más de 2 toneladas de “sustancias catalogadas sujetas a fiscalización” en la provincia ecuatoriana de Sucumbíos, que limita con los departamentos colombianos de Nariño y Putumayo.

La tasa de 30% a las importaciones desde Colombia llega después de que el Ministerio del Interior de Ecuador informara que en 2025 se registró un aumento de 30 % en los homicidios en el país respecto al año anterior.

Asimismo, la tasa de seguridad se da un día después de que Noboa afirmara en la reunión anual del Foro Económico Mundial en Davos que Ecuador está librando una “guerra total contra el mal y el narcoterrorismo”.

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

Con información de las agencias Reuters y EFE.

The post Ecuador anuncia una “tasa de seguridad” del 30 % a importaciones de Colombia por falta de cooperación contra el narco appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

By Eric Levenson, Matthew J. Friedman, Shimon Prokupecz, Rachel Clarke, CNN

(CNN) — A Texas jury began deliberations Wednesday in the trial of Adrian Gonzales, the former Uvalde police officer accused of failing to confront the school shooter at Robb Elementary School in May 2022.

The deliberations come three weeks into Gonzales’ trial on 29 counts of child endangerment or abandonment related to his actions during the mass shooting. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.

In closing arguments Wednesday morning, special prosecutor Bill Turner told jurors they can send a clear message with their verdict.

“If it’s appropriate to stand outside, hearing 100 shots, while children are being slaughtered, that is your decision to tell the state of Texas,” he said. “And by the same token, if that is not appropriate, that is not how we expect officers that are charged with the duty of protecting children to act, that will also go out from this courtroom.”

In response, defense attorney Jason Goss said a guilty verdict would send a different message to law enforcement: If you take some action in response to a shooting, you could similarly be sitting in court as a defendant.

“What you’re telling police officers is don’t react, don’t respond,” he told the jury. “We cannot have law enforcement feel that way. That if they’re not perfect, if they don’t make a perfect decision, then that’s where they go.”

Prosecutors called 35 witnesses, including teachers, parents, law enforcement officers and medical experts, as they sought to prove Gonzales – the first officer to respond to the shooting – learned about the gunman’s movement and heard gunshots but did not attempt to stop the attack.

The defense called just two witnesses over two hours Tuesday. They focused their energies instead on cross-examining the prosecution’s witnesses, probing for inconsistencies, raising questions about what Gonzales knew and when he knew it and challenging the actions and inactions of other officers on scene.

Gonzales did not testify in his own defense.

The trial is the first criminal case stemming from the May 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, in which an 18-year-old gunman fatally shot 19 children and two teachers and wounded another 10 children. Hundreds of police rushed to the school to respond, but it took 77 minutes for them to confront and kill the shooter – a lengthy time period that has led to years of investigations and finger-pointing about the delay.

In 2024, Gonzales and former Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo were indicted on criminal charges related to the delayed response. Arredondo has pleaded not guilty, and a trial date has not been set.

The criminal case against Gonzales raises difficult legal questions about the responsibilities of police officers and who can be held accountable for a mass shooting. If convicted, he could face six months to two years in jail for each count.

This is only the second case ever brought against a school police officer accused of failing to

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