• The new Santa Monica College Malibu Campus and LA County Sheriff’s Substation broke ground.
• Diego Novella, the murderer of Gabriela Kabrins Alban, was sentenced to 20 years in prison by the judge who heard the murder case. A life sentence in South Africa means a maximum of 25 years. Novella is the scion of a Guatemalan family that runs a very large, century-old concrete business had a long history of serious drug abuse. He will serve his sentence in Pollsmoor Prison, a notorious maximum security prison that houses some of South Africa’s worst felons.
• A UCLA Mobile Stroke Unit expanded its services to the Malibu area; if someone suffering a stroke calls 9-1-1, they may be connected to the stroke unit. Stroke is one of those medical incidents which, if treated very quickly, can frequently can avoid long-term complications and limitations of function.
• The U.S. Senate battle over the conformation of Brett Kavanaugh for Supreme Court suddenly had a strange local angle. Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, who testified before the U.S. Senate about an alleged high school sexual assault perpetrated by Kavanaugh, was also an alumna of Pepperdine University, where she received a master’s degree in clinical psychology. Additionally, she taught at Pepperdine from 1995-98, was a dedicated surfer and had a longtime relationship with a fellow Pepperdine classmate, who is now a Malibu Realtor.