Cover Story
55 Fiction 2022
Find your joy, laughter, tears, and sorrow in this year’s winning short stories Every year brings a new batch of teeny, tiny stories complete with plots, details, characters, and surprise twists. Murder, love, the life of pets, commentary on current events, and cake all get encapsulated in 55 words or less. Some of our authors…
No one’s surprised by Santa Barbara County’s death rate disparity between north and south counties
Deaths are higher in North Santa Barbara County than South County. Anyone surprised? Nope. No one is surprised. And no one is surprised by the reasons county “experts” gave for that disparity either: poverty, health care access, and an unequal distribution of resources between the two geographical areas of the county. It’s been an ongoing…
Juice It Up! chain opens first Central Coast location in Santa Maria
With 80 locations in California alone, Juice It Up! surprisingly doesn’t have a presence in San Luis Obispo, Monterey, or Ventura counties. Before the end of June, Santa Barbara County was on this list as well. That changed with the grand opening of the brand’s first Central Coast location in Santa Maria. The new store…
PCPA holds summer production of ‘Into the Woods’ at the Solvang Festival Theater
The Pacific Conservatory Theatre (PCPA) presents its summer production of Into the Woods, which will debut on Thursday, Aug. 11, and run through Sunday, Sept. 4, at the Solvang Festival Theater. The show previously ran at the Marian Theatre in Santa Maria in April and May. The plot of this popular musical—with songs by legendary…
Local muralist teams up with Lompoc Valley Chamber of Commerce for an ongoing fundraiser
The Lompoc Valley Chamber of Commerce’s Economic Development Committee (EDC) is holding a fundraiser to restore the Santa Rita Hills wine sign, in partnership with local muralist Ann Thompson. Proceeds raised will support a redesign of the sign, located near the southbound entrance of the city of Lompoc. The new art design will celebrate Lompoc’s…
54th annual Rainbow of Gems Show and Sale hosts demos and displays from more than 60 rock, fossil, and jewelry vendors
The oldest fossil in retired paleontologist Wayne Mills’ collection is 500 million years old. But age doesn’t always determine the value of an unearthed stone, the Central Coast local explained. “Different rocks have different meanings to different people,” said Mills, a longtime member of the Orcutt Mineral Society. “One of my friends in Paso gets…
A national nonprofit that builds beds for children expands to northern Santa Barbara County
Colleen Grant was driving through Lompoc one day when she heard a voice say on the radio, “No child deserves to sleep on the floor.” Although she doesn’t remember the ad’s original intent, she said the message resonated with her. “I taught preschool for 30 years and worked firsthand with a lot of families in…
Death report highlights long-standing geographic inequities in Santa Barbara County
The Santa Barbara County Public Health Department found that South County had a 25 percent lower death rate than central or North County, according to the recently released 2018 to 2020 Leading Causes of Death Report. The difference presents a need to improve health equity, county Senior Epidemiologist Joy Kane told the Sun. “There are…
Lompoc officials approve streetscape improvement plan
New shared-use paths, curb extensions, and refuge islands are among the recommended projects included in Lompoc’s newly approved streetscape improvement plan. During a joint meeting between the Lompoc City Council and the Lompoc Planning Commission, Planning Manager Brian Halvorson described the plan as strictly conceptual, but necessary to secure funding for future projects, which range…
Daniel Nielson named as interim county public health director
Santa Barbara County Public Health Director Van Do-Reynoso will be moving on to a new role at CenCal Health after serving the county for five years. She was honored at the July 12 Board of Supervisors meeting for her work to ensure public health and safety during the pandemic as well as other disasters. “I’m…
Political Watch: July 28, 2022
• U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) hosted a roundtable with Central Coast chambers of commerce and business owners to discuss the impact of inflation on local communities and highlight his recently announced Inflation Action Plan and Inflation Resources Guide, according to a July 21 statement from the congressman’s office. The action plan was developed…
An unjust, unsound waste of money
Our county wants to improve the Oceano County Airport by adding a lounge bar, more parking, and a bigger campground for its users. The Oceano Beach Community Association (OBCA) opposes this project. SLO County, and Oceano in particular, does not need this airport. We already have an airport 20 miles to the north, San Luis…
Avoid the ‘unavoidable’
Regarding your July 14 article titled “The price of housing”: We hope that the developers of the so-called Dana “Reserve” (the question remains as to what they are in fact “reserving” or “preserving”) will return to their prior top development priorities of “open space uses within the oak woodlands.” “Do a smaller project and leave…
Enforcing new employment laws will have expensive impacts on local pocketbooks
It seems that when our elected representatives in Sacramento dream up new laws designed to “help the people,” they wind up hurting the people they want to help more than helping them. Lately there has been considerable conversation concerning “supply chain issues.” The main issue is how to get shipping containers from ports or manufacturing/processing…
