The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted yesterday to place a measure on county ballots this November which would raise county sales taxes by a half-cent.

The levy on sales would go towards construction of a new 304-bed county jail to take pressure off of existing county facilities. According to a board resolution, the tax would raise roughly $30 million which will also provide funding for firefighters and law enforcement.

Third District Supervisor Doreen Farr said the board unanimously approved the tax after hearing testimonies from the sheriff and other members of local government.

“We realized that operation and maintenance costs for individual prisoners per year costs an approximate $17,000,” Farr said. “This [tax proposal] was our way of giving the voters a way to determine what they want their money going towards.”

In addition to voting on the tax proposal, the board had been scheduled to discuss plans to purchase land at 761 Camino Pescadero in Isla Vista in order to develop county housing. The proposal was pulled from the agenda because of time constraints.

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In the race to fill three open seats on the Goleta City Council, only two candidates have announced their intention to run, leaving an unprecedented potential for a vacancy.

Monday marked the first day for would-be councilmembers to register for the general election in November, but as of Tuesday, only incumbent councilmen Roger Aceves and Michael Bennett have begun campaigning. The third spot, left open after Goleta Mayor Eric Onnen decided not to run, is completely uncontested.

While the opening date to register as a candidate has already passed without a third contender, incumbent Councilmember Michael Bennett said there is still plenty of time for a candidate to run and win. In past years, candidates for city council were required to file applications by August 4, but because one of the seats has been vacated by an incumbent, the city has extended the filing date by one week, allowing hopefuls to announce campaigns any time before August 11.

“It is not unrealistic that someone could already have their campaign ready,” Bennett said. “I fully expect that there will be a candidate running for the position when the time comes.”

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Bus transit authorities are concerned that the number of UC Santa Barbara students riding their routes may soon reach critical mass, should the university enroll any more students.

Santa Barbara County’s bus system provided 7.9 million rides in the county last year, with UCSB students accounting for 10.6 percent of those rides. In recent years MTD has increased its presence around UCSB by reducing time between buses, also known as headway, and adding an Isla Vista shuttle. However, UCSB expects to add 5,000 students to its campus by 2025, which some MTD officials say may strain the system capacity. At times, Santa Barbara County Metropolitan Transit District buses have even been known to fill up completely with UCSB students, requiring transit authorities to schedule more vehicles during times of heavy student traffic.

County MTD General Manager Sherrie Fisher said that if an increase in students resulted in an increase in riders, the system would not be able to handle the influx.

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When the April 20 explosion on BP’s Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico led to one of the largest oil spills in history, UCSB scientists sprang into action — quantifying and studying the spill to improve clean-up efforts and hopefully prevent such spills in the future.

Why UCSB?

Santa Barbara has had an infamous history with offshore oil spills. In 1969, a blow-out on an offshore oil rig near the Santa Barbara coast resulted in approximately 200,000 barrels of crude oil seeping into the waters and coastline, damaging beaches and killing wildlife. The spill became the catalyst for many offshore drilling laws as well as the establishment of Earth Day and UCSB’s Environmental Studies Dept.

According to Ira Leifer, a researcher at UCSB’s Marine Science Institute and a member of the government-appointed Flow Rate Technical Group, UCSB is also an ideal university for oil spill research because of prolific natural oil seepage unique to the local coastline.

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UCSB’s Gold Surf Team nabbed its 12th national title during last month’s annual National Scholastic Surfing Association collegiate championship.

The team garnered a total of 100 points to defeat Cal State San Marcos, Point Loma and 14 other teams. The four-day competition consisted of a women’s, longboarder’s and men’s division, with the former two divisions both yielding wins for the UCSB surfing team.

Fourth-year global studies major, winner of the women’s division and next season’s team captain Lipoa Kahaleuahi said ideal weather conditions placed her in the right mindset to claim the title.

“The moment that I stepped off of the sand and into the water I knew I was in a different world, but it was a world that I was raised in and that I belonged to,” Kahaleuahi said. “The waves were good and the weather was beautiful, so it was anybody’s win.”

Additionally, Cole Robbins, a second-year real estate major at Santa Barbara City College, won the longboarding championship while fellow teammates Kevin Osborne and Rachel Harris placed second in the longboarding and women’s divisions, respectively.

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Construction crews have ripped up El Colegio Road on the northern edge of Isla Vista in an effort to reconstruct the roadway between Stadium Road and Camino Corto by next year.

The development is part of Santa Barbara County’s El Colegio Road Improvement Project, which aims to reconstruct the road’s cross slope and widen the street into a four-lane thoroughfare by February 2011. The Santa Barbara Public Works Dept. says motorists can expect traffic delays of up to 20 minutes around the construction site and cautions vehicles and pedestrians to be alert of reduced speed zones and traffic controls throughout the area.

County redevelopment specialist Heather Allen said the project was started to alleviate traffic directed to and from the student housing UCSB installed parallel to El Colegio in 2008.

“From my knowledge, it was based on an agreement to mitigate the San Clemente Graduate Building constructed by UCSB,” Allen said. “It is a continuation of the phase one construction. My impression is they are going to make the road wider.”

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Former Gaucho Tony Lochhead made UCSB history this past month as the first alumnus to compete in the FIFA World Cup.

Lochhead, who graduated from the university in 2005, played for his native country, New Zealand. As a testament of his talent, Lochhead played the entire 90 minutes of the team’s first match against Slovakia and went on to start in the team’s following games.

As a defender for UCSB, Lochhead led the team to the 2004 National Collegiate Athletic Association in Carson, Calif. The Gauchos will host this year’s NCAA Men’s College Cup Final Four in December.

According to the Men’s Head Soccer Coach Tim Vom Steeg, Lochhead’s talent and drive for soccer is simply unmatched.

“Tony started in his first game as a freshman and played every minute of every game for four years,” Vom Steeg said. “He goes down as one of our top-10 players over the last 10 years. In 2004, his career culminated when he scored a goal in the semifinals against Duke. He is definitely of the best players we’ve had at UCSB.”

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Summer, time for cookouts, pool parties and wasting hours away in air conditioned movie houses. Working folk, rising and sleeping with the sun, often lose the opportunity to view these mass produced tent-pole action extravaganzas that the Hollywood mega corporations shove down our collective throat each year. Here’s what one construction worker thinks about the biggest releases of the summer.

“Toy Story 3” It’s a kids’ movie, so that’s not cool right? Wrong. This is Pixar, the most consistent power hitter in all of Hollywood. And classic characters from our generations childhood in 3D? Sign me up. Expect to see posters up in the dorms come fall.

“Twilight Saga: Eclipse” Last year my girlfriend said she bought us tickets to go see Twilight so I told her that I would rather run my hand through a thickness planer, so walking away would be an easy choice. This summer the saga of how to avoid watching this stupid franchise continues.

“Iron Man II” I was so excited to see this movie because the first one kicked more nuts than Batman with steel-toe boot in a cage fight. Everything from the Ghostface and the stripper in Starks Jet to Jon Faverau’s cameo rocked me harder than an I-beam falling on my head. Then everybody who sees it tells me it was a letdown. What a bummer.

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Disney Pop-Tart™ Miley Cyrus has reached the point in her career when it’s time to release the rebellious coming-of-age record. Britney did it in 2001 with her self-titled album featuring the raunchy “I’m A Slave 4 U.” Christina did it with her magnum opus, Stripped, which was led by the equally racy “Dirrty.”

How do you think Miley plans on displaying her angsty, breaky, heart for the world to see?

1. Political rock number (think American Idiot but with a girl wearing the guyliner this time.)

2. Lo-fi alternative track (think Is This It? but with more of an underage strip club vibe.)

3. European-inspired dance jams (think Crazy Frog, but somehow more annoying.)

If you guessed number 3, then you win a very special prize. Her latest studio effort, appropriately titled Can’t Be Tamed, is so full of insipid love songs that Barry Manilow is trying to figure out a way to finagle some royalties out of the Cyrus family.

The only track that remotely rabble rouses is the angsty “Robot,” in which Cyrus likens herself to a machine crafted by the music industry (surprise!) that is finally breaking free. The immediacy of the production along with Cyrus’ emotive vocals during the chorus gives weight to the dance track’s heavy message, making this song the album’s best.

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I’m not mad at LeBron for ditching his home town. But then again, I didn’t have any vested interest in where he was going. Whether he went to Chicago (my pick, which has been rumored to have been a close second), New York or to Clipper Nation, it didn’t matter to me. Really, the move only affects the people of Cleveland.

Sure, we were all fixated on the free agency for months, with each person offering their own insight into what they thought — or what they absolutely knew — LeBron would do, come July 1. However, the greater U.S. population cared much less as soon as he said “South Beach.” On a side note, does anyone in South Beach actually care about anything but topless sunbathing, partying at the Clevelander (ironic name, isn’t it?) or watching endless re-runs of “The Golden Girls?”

In Lebron’s decision, the thumpin’ and bumpin’ nightclubs and magnetic draw of upbeat Miami beat out the home cooking of the self-proclaimed “Sixth City,” whatever the heck that means. “The Decision” does not sit comfortably with many, but in the end, it was one that LeBron had the right to make.

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