Legal legend reports that state law about annexations was fixed following the extreme annexation example when Santa Barbara city limits were extended along a narrow swath offshore—then turned north to take in what is now the airport.
The “ribbon of shame” referred to in the December 23 story “Ribbon of Shame in Redistricting Crosshairs” was set up as the Congressional District by the State Legislature in 2001, but equally shameful is the hydra blob of shame as the contiguous Congressional District 22, with its creative Bakersfieldectomy as a surgical excision to exclude greater Bakersfield.