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Damage control: In light of Steve Bridge’s felony charges, Lompoc considers censuring him

Two days before Lompoc City Councilmember Steve Bridge’s arraignment in late 2025, one of his peers on the dais asked him to step down from his role as an elected official. When Bridge—who pled not guilty to forgery, identity theft, and misusing city funds—showed no sign of resigning, Councilmember Jeremy Ball motioned for the council to consider taking disciplinary action in December 2025. But he failed to get a second.  Nine months later, the council changed its tune and…


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Central Coast author Sharon Sheltzer’s Lady of the Waves uses a climate change backdrop

Central Coast author Sharon Sheltzer’s new young adult romance and adventure novel, Lady of the Waves: Love in the Time of Climate Change, opens with a bang. Twelve-year-old protagonist Aallotar, on vacation with her Finnish family in Thailand, heads to the beach with her mother. “We only have another week in paradise,” her mom says. Suddenly, the sea begins to recede as a tsunami forms. What follows is a gripping disaster sequence written with cinematic intensity as the massive…

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