READ AND WEEP: As is often the case, one of the best tips I would ever get as a reporter I accidentally stumbled over while lost in the aisles of Trader Joe’s on De la Vina Street.
Somewhere near the onions, I ran into Keld Hove, then a high-profile Santa Barbara police officer. Hove was a Danish-born judo hotshot before becoming a naturalized American citizen and then a cop who spent the better part of 20 years figuring out how to get homeless people off the streets and into programs.
A fireplug of a human being, Hove was always too happy to share his thoughts, of which he had many. On this day, about 10 years ago, he offered a tip, and I only now realize how prescient it was.
