Cover Story
Energetic elders: Local seniors stay healthy and fit with low-cost, low-impact activities
Staying active is challenging in many ways, but for senior citizens, getting older compounds the predicament. It takes longer to recover from an illness; soreness and stiffness are a daily companion; and getting injured is a much more serious concern. But for some local seniors, the prospect of staying active isn’t a challenging one at…
Clarifications
• In the Sun’s Jan. 19 cover story, “Illness, incarcerated,” Jan Winter’s last name was misspelled. The story also incorrectly stated who owns the apartments the Mental Wellness Center utilizes for patients. The center owns them. • In the Jan. 19 story, “Court upholds county closure of recreation complex,” the Sun incorrectly stated the year…
Acupuncture for pets: Vet2Pet’s mobile holistic services provide alternative to Western vet medicine
Ruth Corbo stood in her mobile veterinary clinic, surrounded by whiteboard walls scrawled with dry-erase marker notes and sketches. She explained how the notes were arranged: one wall was an ordering section, another was for procedure notes, and others were for miscellaneous messages or drawings from her kids. “Walls make good notepads,” she said. Corbo’s…
What do you do to stay healthy and fit?
Christian Macke pastry chef at Four Seasons “Every time I’m craving sweets, I just chug a bunch of water instead.” Chris Palte works at CACI “I eat organic foods and take long walks around Waller Park.” Eric Zarate works at Farmers Market “I play frisbee golf!” Sonny Martinez student at Allan Hancock College “I like…
Political Watch 1/26/17
• California Sen. Kamala Harris came out against the nomination of Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions for U.S. attorney general on Jan. 14. Speaking before a crowd at an annual breakfast in Los Angeles commemmorating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Harris cited Sessions’ “troubling pattern” of disregard of laws that protect those in the immigrant and…
Storms bring disaster and relief to Santa Barbara County
The Central Coast has caught its fair share of storms these past few weeks, with Santa Maria racking up 6.58 inches of rainfall so far in January, according to the county’s official daily rainfall record. Jan. 19 through 23 accounted for nearly a third of the month’s total rainfall, during which the county suffered storm…
The keys to artistry: Alina Kiryayeva will bring a headful of classical piano music to Lompoc Concert Association show
Music is the language without words, and with it, we tell stories of many meanings. That’s why a crucial aspect of filmmaking is scoring, using the music to help tell the story. But many filmmakers realized that the perfect score for their projects was already written, in the piano works of Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Tchaikovsky,…
40 is the new bride
There’s a famous scene in the Sex and the City movie where Candace Bergen tells Sarah Jessica Parker, “40 is the last age a woman can be photographed in a wedding dress without the unintended Diane Arbus subtext.” Well, I’m about to put that to the test. The comedic message in the line (and I’m…
Local barbershop organizations offer singing Valentines
Tri City Sound Chorus of Sweet Adelines International is taking reservations for its annual Singing Valentines Program. The female chorus members will perform live throughout Santa Maria, Lompoc, and Vandenberg Village, delivering flowers, chocolates, and songs on Feb. 14 from 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Reservations are $25 and all proceeds go toward local music…
Wildling Museum announces theme for photography competition
The Wildling Museum announced “Trees of the Tri-Counties” as the theme for its annual nature photography competition. Entries for both the adult and junior competitions are due May 1. The museum is seeking creative photographers to capture the diverse range of tree species of the Tri-Counties (Ventura, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo) in a fresh,…
Santa Ynez Valley Arts holds call for artisans event
Santa Ynez Valley Arts (SYVA) announced the start of its Second Saturday Artisans series, beginning on March 11 from noon to 5 p.m at Santa Ynez Valley Grange. The series will continue on the second Saturday of each month throughout 2017. Original paintings, jewelry, woodwork, pottery, photography, and more will be on display and for…
Daytripper: To experience the Grand Canyon, you’ve got to get down in it
Each footstep leaves a boot print squished into the rusty-hued mud coalescing in the middle of the wide, well-worn Bright Angel Trail. It slurps at the bottoms of my hiking boots, daring me to look at what I’ve descended into rather than straight at the ground. Space slips straight down into a cavern inches to…
The dark side: Short stories from ‘Twisted Tales’ turn the everyday upside down
Nothing is ever quite what it seems. The nice young couple at the nature retreat. The old man who knows a little too much on the ship. The gruff veteran neighbor down that country road. There’s always more to the story. Valuables go missing. A boy finds himself on a raft from the past. A…
Erik Kinnebrew
Athletic potential can be a tricky thing. On one hand, it can be an alluring temptress filled with promise and hope. On another, it can be unfulfilled aspirations that lead to regret and disappointment. We see this in every professional league in America during the annual drafts, and every year there are players picked based…
Caught in a pickle: The Buellton Rec Center offers an adult Pickleball league through February
As the new year begins, we all look for new fun ways to stay active. One of the sports growing in popularity in the U.S. is pickleball, which combines the recreation of pingpong with the activity of tennis. Many on the Central Coast—including locals at the Buellton Recreation Center—have found the sport a fun, exciting…
Walk your weather blues away: Solvang’s Beer and Wine Walk is fun even in the rain
Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.” The unofficial creed of the U.S. Post Office heralds its unwavering commitment to duty despite punishing elements. I recently proved that the same can now be said of beer and wine enthusiasts like myself,…
First impressions
First impressions are so important. They really set the stage for any relationship, big or small, moving forward. That’s why so many were flabbergasted when President Donald Trump’s press secretary, Sean Spicer, held a press briefing on Saturday, Jan. 21, the day following Trump’s inauguration. The first official press briefing wasn’t scheduled until Monday, mind…
Don’t throw the baby out with the bath water
My wife and I are self-employed. Before the Affordable Care Act (ACA) we could not afford health insurance, and should the ACA be repealed without an affordable and accessible alternative, we and millions of other Americans will be back in the same tragic situation. In a just and well-functioning society, health care is a right,…
Rep. Salud Carbajal, disappointing
In the short time he has been our 24th District representative, Salud Carbajal’s performance is disappointing. He is an Obamanite through and through by not supporting the rejection of the UN resolution on Israel. He wanted to amend the bill to eliminate Obamacare in the recent House budget plans to further support the Obamanite past…
Open letter to Adam Tipton
I am one of those animal lovers and activists that you had the audacity to call a “wacko” (“The pet store project,” Jan. 19). At first I thought that surely it must have been a typographical error, so I made a call to the Sun to verify that this was the word that was used. …
A poem for Inauguration Day
Breathe deep, America, through the self-inflicted pain. Your people made the choice. now live with it. Forget the Russian foreplay, if it happened, if you can, and look at your groom honestly. There is no morning after pill to make him disappear. Must you look at that face, see that smirk, listen to that…
Charlotte’s Web Mobile Children’s Library looks ahead to second year
Lompoc’s own mobile library for kids served more than 7,700 bookmobile visitors in 2016, according to a news release from the city of Lompoc. The bookmobile checked out fewer books than that, with the final count breaching 5,000, but overall the Lompoc Library considered the inaugural year of the Charlotte’s Web Mobile Children’s Library a…
Alice Shaw student run over by car on campus sues district for premises liability
Orcutt Union School District is facing a lawsuit from an Alice Shaw Elementary School student, who was struck by a vehicle driven by a 90-year-old woman on campus in December 2015. The incident took place on Dec. 8, 2015, when Margaret Peden was trying to park in a handicapped spot and hit the gas instead…
Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes Center kicks off educational programs
The Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes Center announced two pilot educational programs for elementary school kids: the Explore the Coast program, and an after-school archaeology program. Explore the Coast, which began on Jan. 18, gathers more than 150 fifth grade students from Mary Buren Elementary to take hour-long classroom lessons focused on ecosystems, the watershed, pollution, and human…
Spotlight on: The High Roller Tiki Lounge
To celebrate the grand opening of the High Roller Tiki Lounge in Solvang, owner Michael Cobb commissioned a special tiki cup to be made. The blue and white vessel is emblazoned with the new name and the image of a mermaid holding up a pair of large dice. Anyone who doesn’t know Cobb’s background might…
Gifting guidelines: Santa Maria establishes accounting procedures for accepting donations
On Jan. 18, the Society of Professional Journalists and more than 60 other journalism groups sent a letter to President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence requesting a meeting to discuss access to government. “We urge you to publicly affirm your commitment to transparency, to issue an executive order prohibiting the restrictive public information…
Reports say county spends federal money wisely, but deficiencies remain
Two reports presented to the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors on Jan. 24 showed the county was properly spending federal grant money, though the reports weren’t without critique. One report, published by the county’s auditor-controller, is an annual assessment required by various state, federal, and local agencies. The other is an independent report of…
Carbajal attends inauguration of President Trump
Before getting down to business in his first press conference with reporters on Jan. 21, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer took a few minutes to discredit the news media for inaccurately reporting the size of President Donald Trump’s inauguration crowd. The Sun contacted an actual witness to the ceremony—California 24th District Congressional Rep.…
Chumash expand reservation, county continues resistance
The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians welcomed a new addition to its reservation on Jan. 20, when the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) placed the 1,400-acre Camp 4 parcel into federal trust. The county plans to resist the decision through federal litigation. The tribe’s years-long federal trust process has spurred public terms negotiations with…
Let the yoga shine in: Ease your mind, body, and soul at Yoga Shine in Nipomo
Jesselle Pena, the owner of Yoga Shine in Nipomo, has never met a person who couldn’t use at least a little bit of yoga in their life. “I really do believe that yoga is for everybody. Whether you’re trying to bulk up or lose weight, or if you’re just trying to find peace of mind,”…
Healing with suction: Cupping therapy is now available in Santa Maria
When Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps first appeared at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, his entire upper torso was covered in dark red circles the size of oranges. Lots wondered why. It turns out that Phelps underwent cupping therapy. Emilio Maysonett, certified cupping therapist at Holistic Health Group in Santa Maria, said cupping…
