County 4-23

Search and rescue efforts were called off on 4/16 for a nine-year-old boy missing off the coast of northern Santa Barbara County. Hit by a wave on 4/15 near Point Sal, Kailanii Brannum was pulled out to sea and not seen again despite search efforts by the U.S. Coast Guard, Santa Barbara County Fire, Guadalupe Fire, and Vandenberg Air Force Base. Brannum attended Harloe Elementary School in Arroyo Grande.

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The Board of Supervisors approved a summer youth jobs program-paid for by the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act-that will employ 40 youths in summer jobs in different county departments. For two-and-a-half months the youths will work in the county 25 hours a week for $8 an hour, and, in the process, will get a glimpse at life as a public servant.

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More than 80 percent of the wards at Los Prietos Boys Camp have a history of drug or alcohol abuse, according to a recent Santa Barbara Grand Jury report. Additionally, 35 of 75 currently at the camp are on medication. With these numbers and more in mind, the Grand Jury recommends substance abuse programs every day at the camp for troubled boys, as well as increased staff at the facility.

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The Santa Barbara Council of the U.S. Navy League commissioned the U.S.S. Stockdale, at a series of ceremonies last week in Ventura. Considered the Navy’s latest and greatest ship, the destroyer is named after James Stockdale, a highly decorated Vietnam War prisoner and onetime vice presidential candidate. The council had a campaign earlier this year to raise $1 million to support those who will serve on the ship in the coming decades.