Cover Story
Techno teamwork: Local robotics teams like Orcutt Academy High School’s Spartatroniks build, program, and compete with their custom bots
Orcutt Academy High School’s classroom No. 18 buzzed with the chatter of two groups of teenagers on either side of the room. Some worked silently on compact laptops, while others talked and laughed, or intently discussed various topics. It wasn’t the middle of the school day, but rather 7 p.m. at night. In the center…
Pacific Coast Energy Company appeals denial of cyclic steaming project expansion, bringing issue to Santa Barbara County supervisors
Appealing a denial from the county Planning Commission in July, the Pacific Coast Energy Company (PCEC) has brought its Orcutt Hill oil drilling project proposal back to the table with the Board of Supervisors. Originally, PCEC requested to add 96 new cyclic steaming wells to its project on Orcutt Hill, in addition to the 96…
State aims to restrict pesticide use near schools
Jimenez Elementary School sits nestled among acres of farmland in Santa Maria, separated from neighboring fields by only a stretch of road. For the hundreds of school children in attendance there, not much stands between them and potentially harmful pesticides, drifting from nearby crops. But come September 2017, that might change. The California Department of…
How would you feel if some day a robot replaced your job?
Edson Gonzales detailing, auto mechanic “As long as there are new jobs, I’m cool with it. If there wasn’t, I’d be pretty pissed.” Rosalia Garcia student teacher at Allan Hancock College “I don’t think it’s possible now, maybe in the future, but it doesn’t make me upset.” Julissa Walle student medical assistant at Allan Hancock…
Let’s taco ’bout it: Once a truck, Vaqueras flourishes as a sit-down restaurant
You know the place from its taco truck days, with its constant, frustratingly long lines and famous lime-spritzed Cali fries. It hasn’t even been two months since Vaqueras graduated to a brick-and-mortar establishment, but it seems to have stepped into the swing of things quite nicely—or so was my experience. It was 3 p.m. on…
The Best Lunatic
Like most little boys, when I was a kid I knew that when I grew up I wanted to be either an astronaut or a race car driver. I’m assuming the large helmets for whatever reason had quite an impression on me. I wanted to grow up and be the guy standing around holding a…
The Tri City Sound Chorus welcomes local ladies to join the chorus in rehearsals for an annual Christmas concert
Choir music and the holiday season go together like pine and tinsel, with many classic Christmas carols sounding most idyllic when sung by a four-part choral. But one local chorus doesn’t sing its Christmas carols in quite the traditional way. The Tri City Sound Chorus is the local chapter of the Sweet Adelines International, a…
Santa Maria Valley Genealogical Society hosts presentation
The Santa Maria Valley Genealogical Society will host a presentation on analyzing records for its monthly meeting on Oct. 20. The speaker will be genealogist Mary Alice Dell, who has taught family history research since 1998. To celebrate Family History Month, Dell will be holding four weekly genealogy classes for residents of Merrill Gardens. The…
Lompoc Civic Theatre presents ‘California Suite’
The Lompoc Civic Theatre (LCT) presents Neil Simon’s classic comedy, California Suite, as the final show of its 43rd season. The production shows Oct. 21 through Nov. 6 at the Civic Auditorium, 217 South L St. in Lompoc. The play is actually a collection of four small one-act stories. However, each of the scenes will…
Nipomo High School Drama Department starts season with ‘Radium Girls’
Nipomo High School Drama will open its season with the fast-moving, highly theatrical piece, Radium Girls. The ensemble piece shows at Nipomo High School’s Olympic Hall on Oct. 20, 21, 22, 28, and 29 at 7:30 p.m., and Oct. 29 at 2 p.m. The play is inspired by a true story that traces back to…
Chalk Festival of Scarecrows in Los Alamos
Los Alamos celebrates the seventh annual Santa Ynez Valley Scarecrow Festival with a mini Chalk Festival on Oct. 22 from 10 a.m. until 5 p.m. The theme is Scarecrows and Fall Harvest. The featured artist for the event is Christi Schaeffer of Gypsy Studios, who plans to create a larger chalk painting of the scarecrow…
C. Wood explores cows and kimonos in Los Alamos exhibit
Artists often dedicate much of their education and career to classical modes of expression, discovering their own style along the way. Los Alamos-based painter C. Wood is no different; she has been a longtime plein air and landscape painter with a career background in interior design. But there was always something else calling to Wood…
Find a haunting experience near you on the Central Coast
Adrenaline junkies get their fix in many ways. Some skydive. Others drive way too fast when they think no one is looking. But some wait silently all year until Halloween makes it acceptable to play dress-up and willingly subject themselves to terrorizing ordeals. Local entrepreneurs, nonprofits, sports teams, and even city organizations know this, and…
History on display: Santa Maria Valley Sports History Club to show decades of women’s softball memorabilia
The Santa Maria Valley Historical Museum and the Santa Maria Valley Sports History Club will be hosting an open house featuring Women’s Softball. The Santa Maria Valley Sports History Club holds monthly displays featuring various team sports dating back decades. This month’s display features pictures and memorabilia from three women’s softball teams that date from…
Politics is elementary
I know it’s kind of a weird thing to say, but I like going to my mailbox every day. There’s usually something fun in there—you know, like my latest copy of Rolling Stone, those random $1.63 settlement checks from some company like AT&T, or that strange direct mail catalog that features compression socks and fiber…
Justin Fareed understands women
With so much going on in the presidential election, we often lose track of what is going on in the other elections. Congress is where laws are written that directly affect all of us, including women. We have been told by congressional candidate Salud Carbajal that his opponent Justin Fareed is not an advocate for…
It’s time to stand up and fight
People always say they want change in our government and the way we are represented by those in office. Unfortunately, people often forget that words without action are meaningless. Instead of sitting around waiting for our voices to be heard, it’s time for us to stand up and fight for our futures. As a Democrat,…
Current and past Sheriff’s Command staff support Bruce Porter for 3rd District
The below listed retired Sheriff’s Command staff have joined the Deputy Sheriff’s Association in supporting Bruce Porter for 3rd District supervisor. All of these former senior staff officers know how important a county supervisor is in ensuring the safety of our county’s residents. We all started as deputies and corrections officers and worked our way…
A lot is at stake in the Allan Hancock College board of trustees election
When we go to the polls on Nov. 8, we are going to be doing more than choosing a new president. We will also be choosing who will govern Allan Hancock College. Hancock employs approximately 500 part-time academic employees—instructors, counselors, librarians, and coaches. They make up the single largest employee group on campus. One-half of…
Santa Maria needs Alice Patino
Mayor Alice Patino has spent most of her life dedicated to and actively involved in the betterment of our community as a wife, mother, educator, business owner, and elected official. I’m not aware of anyone, other than myself, with the background, knowledge, involvement, and interest to warrant her return as our mayor for another term!…
He’s such a Boy Scout
How often have you heard this colloquialism as a negative connotation? Knowing that the person in the room as a Boy Scout will not participate and indeed spoil your scam because it’s not honest or ethical. Let me tell you that Bruce Porter is a real Boy Scout in every sense of the word. He…
The motorsports park will provide recreational opportunities to youth
The recent commentary by Justin Ruhge, “Lompoc is at a very dangerous crossroads,” Oct. 6, was almost completely absent of facts. Unfortunately, the Motorsports Park has become a political football to be kicked around. The park project began in 2010 with the formation of the Motorsports Committee as part of the Lompoc Valley Parks Recreation…
St. Mary’s students participate in STEM and bike safety programs
Students at St. Mary’s School had the chance to do some hands-on learning recently. As part of the St. Mary’s School STEM program, eighth graders were set to test the laws of physics on Thursday, Oct. 13, culminating a month-long fluid dynamics unit focusing on displacement. For almost three weeks, students designed and built metal…
District moves forward with futuristic 38-room classroom complex for Righetti High School
The Santa Maria Joint Union High School District board of education is moving forward with the construction of a futuristic 38-room classroom complex for Righetti High School. The board recently voted to select local company Vernon Edwards Constructors Inc. to build the nearly $22 million project. The architectural drawings are under review by the Division…
Family donates 1,000 pumpkins to students at Mary Buren Elementary School
For the third year in a row, the Almaguer family of Guadalupe made sure every student at Mary Buren Elementary had a free pumpkin to take home. On Monday, the family showed up with 1,000 pumpkins to the delight and smiles of the students. The kids wasted no time and rushed to the patch of…
Spotlight on: Santa Maria Olive Company
In 2002, when Lourdes and Michael Clayton bought the 12-acre piece of property located at 2610 E. Clark Road just outside of Santa Maria, all it had was four oak trees. Then in 2009, they planted five fully grown olive trees. Within five years, they had more than 600. Now they have more than 1,600…
Corrections
• In the article published Oct. 13, called “What a school wants,” the Sun inaccurately reported that Santa Maria Joint Union High School’s bond measure H2016 is for $179 million. It is for $114 million. The article also omitted Guadalupe Union School District’s bond measure M2016, which would authorize $5.8 million in bonds to modernize…
Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes to stay open to the public for next 15 years
Attention birdwatchers, history buffs, nature lovers, and scenery junkies—there’s good news from the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes National Wildlife Refuge. Once facing closure to the public for the next decade and a half, the refuge will remain open thanks to a recent U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decision. The announcement was made on Aug. 19 that the…
Sheriff’s Office releases identity of inmate found dead in his cell
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office identified a Santa Maria man as the jail inmate found dead in his cell on Oct. 16. Kelly Hoover, a public information officer for the Sheriff’s Office, said custody deputies found 38-year-old Hector Higareda unresponsive inside of his cell at approximately 4:35 p.m. Deputies and jail medical staff, immediately…
Conservation groups sue federal agencies over fracking in Los Padres
Three environmental conservation groups are bringing a lawsuit against federal agencies including the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) regarding oil drilling in Los Padres National Forest. The groups—comprising Los Padres ForestWatch, the Center for Biological Diversity, and Defenders of Wildlife—filed a notice of…
Settlement reached in wrongful death lawsuit
A settlement was reached in the lawsuit against a trucker and his employer accused of negligence in the death of a pedestrian, according to Paul Kiesel, one of the attorneys representing the children of a Santa Maria woman who was struck and killed by a semi-truck while crossing the street in December 2015. In a…
