Cover Story
Strong grrrls: Crazy cardio and strict diets are out as women embrace a fitness trend that emphasizes strength and health over what the scale says
Strong is the new skinny. It’s a motto that’s heard throughout the fitness community, and it’s changing women’s approach to fitness and providing a boost to women’s confidence and body image. Trends in fitness are nothing new. In earlier times people were told, “Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet,” promoting cigarette smoking, or…
Feeding body and mind: Free Santa Ynez Valley Cottage Hospital classes teach public how to live healthier lifestyles
With every new year comes a flurry of healthy-eating resolutions—but by the end of January, many of them have wilted. Some resolutions fail from too many leftover holiday cookies and too little self-control. For others, the issue is education: How exactly does one change an unhealthy lifestyle into a healthy one? Those dealing with the…
What do you do to stay healthy and fit?
Amanda Bent service manager “I go to my doctor, because I got pregnant, and now they make me.” Kat Favorite assistant manager “I eat here, at Natural Café, because of our fresh and healthy options. I also skate to work.” Rafael Castillo machinist “I ride my bike and I work out.” Andrew Brunet college instructor…
McKenzie Jr. High celebrates opening of Learning Center
Kermit McKenzie Junior High School’s newly renovated Learning Center will take student, parent, and staff engagement and technology to a new level in Guadalupe. The grand opening for the nearly $400,000 learning center took place Jan. 20. The multipurpose facility features an educational environment for students where Google Chromebooks, a variety of books, and audio/visual…
Santa Maria Public Library offers free homework help after school
The Santa Maria Public Library began offering homework help Jan. 20 at the main library in the Homework Center on the first floor, 421 S. McClelland St. The free After School Homework Help program is available for students in grades kindergarten through sixth Monday through Thursday from 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. Volunteer tutors will…
Renowned Santa Maria author addresses Fairlawn Elementary students
On Thursday, Jan. 21, renowned author and former Santa Maria student Francisco Jiménez spoke to about 60 sixth-grade students at Fairlawn School in Santa Maria. Jiménez was invited to the school by his nephew, sixth-grade teacher Robert A. Jiménez. Jiménez spoke about his childhood in Santa Maria and his books, The Circuit and Breaking Through.…
Santa Maria area high school students encouraged to ‘think big’
Santa Maria and Righetti high schools had the opportunity to participate in assemblies featuring “ithinkbig.org.” The presentations held at Santa Maria High Jan. 21 and Righetti on Jan. 22 are creatively designed to encourage students to think “bigger,” and to go “deeper” with their lives. The activities include life-changing illustrations of personal struggles and accomplishments,…
Spotlight on: New Life Kitchen and Bath
El Niño is officially here whether you like it or not, and according to weather scientists, we’re supposed to get lots of rain. This is good, because California needs water, and bad, because it could be potentially devastating. Despite the outcome, it’s good to be prepared, or at least know the options. Enter Chuck Winkle.…
Political Watch 1/28/2016
• Following a year marked by beach closures and health warnings at a Santa Barbara County beach sullied by leaking crude oil, Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) recently introduced a bill to monitor and cap California’s old, abandoned, and leaking oil wells. Senate Bill 900, the Coast Oil Well Cleanup Act, would require that the…
Community Notebook 1/28/16 – 2/4/16
MONDAY, FEB. 1 • The Solvang Planning Commission has its regular meeting at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers, 1644 Oak Street, Solvang. TUESDAY, FEB. 2 • The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors has its regular meeting at 9 a.m. in the Board of Supervisors Hearing Room, 105 E. Anapamu St., Santa Barbara. •…
Too much CrossFit? What can happen if you overdo it?
There’s exercise and then there’s CrossFit. Both get you in shape, but the latter is more akin to high-intensity training like you experience if you’re training to be an Olympic athlete. There’s no denying the enthusiasm for the intense level of fitness offered by CrossFit. It’s a strength-and-conditioning exercise system that consists of a medley…
Chill out: US Cryotherapy brings cold immersion technology to Santa Maria
Cold immersion is not a new idea. The Coney Island Polar Bear Club is an organization famous for taking chilling dips every year since 1903, and ice baths are a long-utilized method for athletic training in a variety of disciplines. What’s new to the cold immersion fitness scene though, is cryotherapy, which comes to Santa…
Homeless in the storm: El Nino weather spurs Santa Barbara County into action
In the wake of El Niño’s harsh weather conditions, Santa Barbara County will lend an extra hand to the homeless by providing daytime shelters during periods of heavy rainfall. The County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted Jan. 19 to revise the Community Service Department budget, allocating $128,000 to daytime drying shelters and expanded nighttime warming…
Barely above water: A third of households in Santa Barbara County struggle to meet basic needs
At Allan Hancock College on a Friday afternoon, a 24-year-old woman named Elizabeth Pampa finished cleaning and arranging tables and chairs into a neat pattern. She and her coworker were preparing the conference room for its next meeting. Between this job and another one at a church in Orcutt, Pampa earns about $800 per month…
Santa Barbara County bans medical marijuana cultivation with some exceptions
There’s good news and bad news regarding the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisor’s ban on medical marijuana cultivation on Jan. 19. Bad news first. The new ordinance, which passed unanimously, bans any new cultivation of medical marijuana on unincorporated county land. However, according to Supervising Planner for Long Range Planning Allen Bell, existing cultivators…
‘Ask a Muslim’ anything at Islamic Center of Lompoc’s forum
The Islamic Center of Lompoc (ICL) will host an “Ask a Muslim” event next month, making an effort to maintain ICL’s relationship with the community in a time of turbulence for American Muslims. The past year has seen a string of high-profile Islamic extremist attacks across the globe, occurring as far-off as Somalia and as…
Three homicides in Santa Maria in less than 7 hours
“I thought this side of the town was the safest,” 52-year-old Annette Blanco said. Blanco was inside of her relative’s home during the evening of Jan. 25 when she thought she heard fireworks, but was too afraid to look outside. They were actually gunshots. Responding to a report of gunshots at 9:45 p.m., police officers…
ExxonMobil requesting approval to truck crude through county
ExxonMobil (Exxon) is seeking an emergency permit to truck 425,000 barrels of oil from its Las Flores Canyon facility to refineries in Santa Maria and Kern County, pending Santa Barbara County approval. Exxon applied for the permit on Jan. 4, requesting to send up to 30 trucks per day on Highway 101 to remove oil…
Sharpest tool in the shed
Last weekend I found myself hanging out with my old man. We knocked back a beer or six and began to reminisce about the good old days working on cars and hanging out in the garage. Our visit down memory lane was going swell until he asked me the stupidest question I have ever heard,…
The Peculiar Pretzelmen kick off Mardi Gras with concert at Standing Sun Winery
The music of New Orleans has always been a boiling cauldron of everything—mixing elements like a batch of good gumbo. The raw ingredients tossed into the pot include American roots music and the classical tradition, which together gave birth to ragtime, Dixieland, jazz, Creole, blues-rock, and much more. For the leader of the band Peculiar…
Central Coast Chordsmen awards ‘Barbershopper of the Year’
The Central Coast Chordsmen’s President Larry Long said that this year’s “Barbershopper of the Year” award belongs to Robert Maurer for “his extraordinary contribution to the preservation of barbershop singing,” in a statement from the club. Maurer spearheads the Youth in Harmony organization, which is part of the Chordsmen’s membership to the national Barbershop Harmony…
PCPA uses crowdfunding to finish recruitment video
PCPA The Pacific Conservatory Theatre currently has a video in production, a recruitment video for the conservatory’s technical theater training program. But the nonprofit theater arts conservatory needs help completing the project, and is hoping to raise $3,000 through the crowdfunding sight rockethub.org. A YouTube.com video titled “Rocket Hub Crowdfunding,” which was posted from PCPA’s…
Great American Melodrama stirs up laughs with ‘The 39 Steps’
The new year is still fresh, and after quite a short holiday break, the Great American Melodrama is back at it again, this time with a small-cast comedy of espionage and intrigue, The 39 Steps. The story has quite a history, though not always as a comedic melodrama. The story comes from a novel by…
Boys & Girls Club expands arts programs and joins national competition
The Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Maria Valley has quite a lot going on between its two club sites and eight After School Education and Safety (ASES) program sites in the valley, all of which focus on the club’s five core areas: character and leadership development, health and lifestyle skills, education and career development,…
Danita Estorga
Coming from a sports-oriented family, Danita Estorga, 16, began playing basketball in the second grade. It didn’t take long before she knew it was a game for which she was well suited. “When I started getting taller I thought basketball would be my sport. I love the game,” she said. The Righetti High School junior…
The Benchwarmer: Workout weirdoes
As I drag myself out of bed again at 4:15 a.m. for my morning workout, I remind myself that 2016 is the year I’m going to reach my fitness goals—pending the fact that I win the constant battle between my love of beer and Mexican food. With the New Year still fresh in people’s minds,…
Lunching in Lompoc: The city launches its inaugural Winter Restaurant Week
Lompoc has been gaining notoriety for its wine, but city representatives want to highlight their food scene as well. From a lunchtime nosh to a date night dinner, there are plenty of ways to taste Lompoc during its inaugural Restaurant Week. Chelsea Cochran, executive assistant at the Lompoc Chamber of Commerce, said that 17 restaurants…
Cry for youth
Tears and memories are all that’s left after someone close to you dies. And it’s always too soon. But dying at the hands of a knife or a gun just feels like such a waste. On Jan. 25, Santa Maria’s homicide toll for 2016 hit five victims, almost doubling total homicides for 2014, when there…
Stop building the bullet train to nowhere
According to an article I read this morning, Gov. Jerry Brown wants our state lawmakers to “bite the bullet and enact new fees and taxes” to pay for repairs to California’s crumbling highways. Really? I don’t think there is anyone in the United States who doesn’t know that we pay more gas taxes than most…
Balancing act
Like most Californians I cherish our long, beautiful coastline. Whether we’re riding waves or roads, walking beaches or bluffs, or watching the sun set into the sea from inland or right on the continent’s edge, the coastal realm connects us to each other and to the place we call home. It belongs to us all.…
