ISLA VISTA
Three males were stabbed near the intersection of Camino Corto and Estero Rd. around 9 p.m. Wednesday night, according to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office. A suspect has not been located yet. Police first responded to a report of a fight between several males in the area. A press release from Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Kelly Hoover states that first responders found a 14-year-old from Goleta and an 18-year-old from Santa Barbara with multiple stab wounds at the scene. A third victim, a 17-year-old from Goleta, was driven to a local hospital by friends. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Sheriff’s Office at (805) 681-4150.
COUNTY
The Jenny Schatzle Program hosted a day of community workout classes on Saturday to raise money for the Santa Barbara Bucket Brigade. In total, the workout program raised over $3,500 through a series of four classes held for any donation amount to the nonprofit. This nonprofit organizes volunteer efforts to clean up after the January Montecito mudslides. Organization volunteers dig out homes buried beneath layers of mud that promote the growth of fungi which can be hazardous to the affected objects and the owners handling them. In addition, they uncover trees which, if left unburied, would suffocate or rot from the deep mud and fungal invasion.
Nearly 4,000 people gathered at Vandenberg Air Force Base at 4:05 a.m. Saturday morning for the launch of Atlas V rocket. As NASA’s newest Mars landing mission, this event marks the first interplanetary mission launched from the West Coast. Approximately 90 minutes after blastoff, InSight spacecraft separated from its launch vehicle to begin its nearly two year long mission. On Mars, the lander will delve beneath the planet surface to study the seismology, heat flow, and precision tracking of the planet to do an in depth study of Mars’ crust, mantle, and core.
Also aboard the spacecraft is Mars Cube One, known as MarCO, a pair of twin CubeSats that quickly transmits rocket information after it lands on Mars. This is the first time the CubeSats will fly into deep space. Though MarCO is not needed for InSight’s mission success, it uses the space ride to demonstrate capacity for future communication and navigation experiments.
STATE
In response to worker calls for commencement speakers throughout the UC to withdraw from ceremonies, U.S. Senator Kamala Harris announced that she would not give a speech at UC Berkeley’s commencement this coming weekend. “She wishes the graduates and their families a joyous commencement weekend and success for the future,” her office said in a statement on Monday. “They are bright young leaders, and our country is counting on them.” Berkeley Chancellor Carol T. Christ will give a speech instead.