By John Blake, CNN

(CNN) — Philip Yancey has sold millions of books and become a sought-after speaker because he tackles tough questions of faith that many Christians prefer to avoid.

But after confessing this week to an eight-year extramarital affair, the evangelical author faces a difficult question that even he may not be able to answer:

Will evangelicals extend the same grace to him that he so often wrote about in his books?

The initial answer to that question is a no, according to some evangelical pastors and commentators who reacted with shock and sadness to Yancey’s confession. They doubt whether many Christians will rally around the man who encouraged so many others struggling with their own failures of faith.

“Christians have become the best at eating their own,” Pastor Jackson Lahmeyer, lead pastor of the Sheridan Church in Oklahoma, told CNN.

“Those who have been forgiven so much should be willing to forgive others,” said Lahmeyer, who disclosed his personal struggles with pride and anger in a recent book, “Divided.” But, he added, “There is a self-righteousness that comes upon many Christians. They’ll look at the speck in their brother’s eye while totally ignoring the plank in their (own) eyes.”

Yancey’s ‘great shame’

Years before social media, Yancey went viral for his columns in Christianity Today, the evangelical magazine, and with his books, such as 2002’s best-selling “What’s So Amazing About Grace?”

A slender, bespectacled man with a sandy-brown afro, Yancey embodied the thoughtful, erudite evangelical. He could quote Dostoevsky as well as Deuteronomy. He sprinkled his books with candid admissions about his personal struggles, such as growing up as a “born and bred racist” in the segregated South before evolving into a man who championed racial justice.

In his writings, Yancey often returned to the theme of grace.

“Grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us more… And grace means there is nothing we can do to make God love us less,” he once wrote.

Yancey is 76 and has been married to his wife, Janet, for 55 years. He had hinted at marital struggles in past interviews.

But his public persona took a hit Tuesday when he issued a statement published in Christianity Today. In the statement, he confessed to an affair and said he would retire from writing, public speaking and social media.

“To my great shame, I confess that for eight years I willfully engaged in a sinful affair with a married woman,” Yancey said. “My conduct defied everything that I believe about marriage. It was also totally inconsistent with my faith and my writings and caused deep pain for her husband and both of our families.”

Yancey said he has committed himself to professional counseling and an “accountability program.” He said he realizes that his moral and spiritual failu

SANTA BARBARA, CALIF. (KEYT) - Volunteers in Santa Barbara are needed to help local families with their taxes this filing season.

The VITA program offers free tax help for qualifying local families. 

Trained volunteers assist up to two thousand households every year. 

The program runs from February through April 2026.
“Some of these tax refunds are the difference between being able to cover basic needs or not … to say for college … to say for retirement … really essential refunds for people … so we’re really hope that we can get enough volunteers this year … to be able to serve more families," said manager Marina Hudgena of United Way.

Volunteers are being recruited now, and sign-ups are open online.

The post Volunteers Needed for Free Tax Help Program in Santa Barbara appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY, Calif. (KEYT) – Ricki Newton of Oxnard was sentenced to two years in state prison after she crashed into an uninvolved vehicle during an alleged race on Highway 101 in August of 2023, resulting in the death of a 77-year-old Santa Paula man.

Newton, 24, previously pled guilty to a felony count of gross vehicular manslaughter noted the Santa Barbara County District Attorney's Office in a press release Thursday.

According to the Santa Barbara County District Attorney's Office, prosecutors requested Newton be sentenced to state prison while defense counsel asked for felony probation. Ultimately, Superior Court Judge Von Deroian imposed the two year sentence in state prison.

On Aug. 13, 2023, Newton was driving southbound on Highway 101 near Olive Mill Road around 113 miles per hour when she attempted to pass a Mercury Mountaineer and lost control, collided with the SUV, and sent the vehicle over an embankment detailed the Santa Barbara County District Attorney's Office.

Louis Hernandez Jr. of Santa Paula was a passenger in the Mountaineer.

He was ejected during the crash and died at the scene.

His family members attended Newton's sentencing hearing and described Hernandez as a dedicated, hardworking man who made a better life for his family.

"This is a reminder that a brief bad decision involving reckless driving can have tragic and life altering consequences," said District Attorney John Savrnoch. "Thank you to the California Highway Patrol for their thorough investigation and the prosecution team led by Michelle Mossembekker for seeking justice on behalf of Mr. Hernandez in this case."

The post Ricki Newton of Oxnard sentenced to two years after crashing and killing a Santa Paula man appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

The post Oxnard Woman Sentenced to Prison Two Years After Fatal Highway 101 Crash in Montecito appeared first on The Santa Barbara Independent.

By Andrew Freedman, CNN

(CNN) — There were 23 separate billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in the United States last year, adding up to a total of $115 billion in damages, according to a new report from the climate research nonprofit Climate Central.

The report, and establishment of the Billion-Dollar Disasters Database within Climate Central, is a rare example of the private sector taking on government responsibilities.

The database allows taxpayers, media and researchers to track the cost of natural disasters, largely through property losses — spanning extreme events from hurricanes to hailstorms. It has been especially useful for the insurance and real estate industries and has been a way for the public to track the effects of fossil fuels on extreme weather and climate events.

The Trump administration halted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s tracking of that data set in May. Then Climate Central hired Adam Smith, who had produced the disaster reports for NOAA, after he left government service amid cuts made across the oceans and atmosphere agency. Smith brought the database and its methodology with him to Climate Central.

The Climate Central database uses effectively the same methodology as NOAA’s did, in order to be a direct continuation of the government’s previous work.

Last year ranks third, behind 2023 and 2024, on the list for the greatest number of billion-dollar disasters, and well above average for the cost to the country based on data going back to 1980, Climate Central found.

Specifically looking at “severe weather events” such as tornadoes and hailstorms, 2025 reached a record high, with 21 such occurrences. Another unique aspect of 2025 was a billion-dollar drought that affected the West, driven largely by heat rather than just a lack of precipitation.

According to Climate Central, the time between individual billion-dollar disasters over the course of a year is shrinking, having fallen from 82 days during the 1980s to 16 days during the past 10 years. The average time between billion-dollar disasters during 2025 was just 10 days.

By far the costliest disaster of 2025 was the Los Angeles wildfires last January, which killed more than two dozen people and destroyed more than 16,000 homes and businesses. It amounted to $61.2 billion in damages, making the event the country’s costliest wildfires on record.

The second-most costly event of 2025 was a March tornado outbreak in the Central states that killed 43 people and caused $11 billion in damages.

Remarkably, the year saw total weather and climate disaster losses climb above $100 billion despite the lack of a landfalling hurricane.

The overall increase in billion-dollar disasters over time and in their cost is partly due to human-caused climate change, which is making certain types of extreme weather events more frequent and severe, as well as population growth and suburban sprawl.

In short, there are more homes and businesses that can be affected by severe weather now than there were in 1980, when NOAA began tracking such statistics.

Climate Central intends to expand its billion-dollar database in the coming years, picking up where NOAA left off and potentially widening the data to incorporate smaller dollar scales, among other advances.

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