The Gifford Fire surged in size between Sunday and Monday. As of Monday night, the fire was mapped at more than 72,000 acres with 3% containment, according to the Los Padres National Forest incident web site.

Animal evacuation sites are open across Santa Barbara County as the Gifford Fire continues to burn.

Evacuation orders and warnings remain in parts of SLO and Santa Barbara counties. Residents are urged to monitor for changing conditions. Hwy 166 is closed between Hwy 101 and New Cuyama.

Federal officials are celebrating the restart of an oil platform off California’s Central Coast. But, local advocates are pushing back saying that hasn’t quite happened yet.

The Santa Barbara City Council voted to give $500,000 to local immigrant organizations in response to recent ICE enforcement activities.Local advocates packed a Special Council Meeting urging lawmakers to support families impacted by raids and educate the immigrant communities on their rights.

Plans are moving forward to redevelop part of Santa Barbara’s waterfront with the goal of honoring the area’s indigenous roots. The city approved more than $240,000 in grant funding this week to support the project.

Authorities have upgraded the alert level for California and the Central Coast from a tsunami watch to a tsunami advisory following the magnitude 8.7 earthquake that struck off Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula on Tuesday, July 29.

A new executive order from President Donald Trump aims at changing how the federal government plans to address homelessness, addiction and mental illness. The order says “endemic vagrancy” and hundreds of thousands of people living on U.S. streets are a threat to public safety.

The City of Carpinteria voted this week to create an ad-hoc committee to advise on the city's response to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity.Vice Mayor Monica Solorzano and Council Member Julia Mayer will lead the ad hoc committee.

Rep. Jimmy Panetta toured the privately run Adelanto facility days after ICE blocked other members of Congress from making surprise inspection visits.