Santa Maria Fire Battalion Chief Evan Scott got his third physical exam in his 20-year career as a Santa Maria firefighter after he helped establish the department’s health and wellness program. “It was a big deal. It was the goal I was shooting for before I retired,” Scott told the Sun. “I banged that drum…
A round of applause and shouts burst out in the Santa Maria Country Club as preliminary election results loaded on a big screen, showing Santa Barbara County 4th District Supervisor Bob Nelson ahead of challenger and Los Alamos resident Krishna Flores. “I’m floored to be honest,” Nelson told the Sun on March 5. “There’s been…
Three of Solvang’s five planning commissioners volunteered to recuse themselves from a recent rezoning decision due to conflicts of interest, but an artificial intelligence app spared one of them from the chopping block. Rather than draw straws or names from a hat, as Planning Commissioner Aaron Petersen suggested, Solvang’s staff used ChatGPT to randomly select…
A recent Solvang Planning Commission meeting gave us proof that artificial intelligence will take over human jobs. Instead of drawing names out of hat, the city relied on ChatGPT to tell it the commissioner who would remain on the dais to decide on whether to recommend rezoning city land for housing purposes. Three commissioners lived…
Normally the once proud and gracefully flowing Santa Ynez River is reduced to a dry sand bed with its banks occupied by numerous homeless camps, but occasionally during heavy rains it flows almost as it did when steelhead were abundant, long before Bradley Dam was built and Lake Cachuma was formed. For the last two…
About every four minutes of every day, at nearly all controlled traffic signals in Santa Maria, two and sometimes four vehicles traveling toward each other nervously swerve to avoid a collision. This game of automobile chicken plays out in all controlled traffic signal left turn lanes. This is neither safe nor sane. You and your…
Don’t fear the reboot Call (805) 686-1082 or visit calnatureartmuseum.org for more info on the California Nature Art Museum (Cal-NAM), located at 1511 Mission Drive, unit B, Solvang. The word “wildling” can apply to a variety of wild plants or undomesticated animals. But its use in pop culture is often streamlined, as it almost always…
Art Spot on Wheels is holding its next Painting in the Vineyard event at Vega Vineyard and Farm in Buellton on Sunday, March 17, from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Attendees of the workshop will spend the afternoon painting a landscape on canvas while enjoying some wine. Admission to the event is $89. Vega Vineyard…
The Depot Mall and Bar in Los Alamos will host the Los Alamos Theatre Group’s upcoming production, Cottonwood, an original play about small-town life. Performances of the show start March 15 and run through April 7. Admission is $20. Cottonwood follows the lives of multiple residents of a quaint town that’s been eyed by a…
Artisans in a local collective created and donated the unique bowls featured in the second annual Santa Ynez Valley Empty Bowls fundraiser, scheduled to take place March 9 at Bethania Lutheran Church in Solvang on Saturday, with seating times at 5:30 and 7:30 p.m. Community Clayworks, an art studio based in Buellton, provided the event’s…
A Los Angeles jury found Kaelen Jacobkeali Wendel—a 32-year-old Lompoc resident and northern Santa Barbara County jail inmate—guilty of distributing fentanyl that resulted in the death and serious injury of two inmates, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. According to court documents, Wendel smuggled fentanyl into the North County Jail’s D unit on…
Spaceman What’s it rated? R What’s it worth, Glen? Matinee What’s it worth, Anna? Matinee Where’s it showing? Netflix Johan Renck (Chernobyl, Breaking Bad) directs this science fiction drama based on Jaroslav Kalfar’s 2017 novel Spaceman in Bohemia about Jakub Procházka (Adam Sandler), an astronaut on a solo mission on the edge of the universe,…
• U.S. Reps. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) and Julia Brownley (D-Oxnard) are urging the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to finalize the proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary with a larger footprint than the most recent federally proposed alternative and to include parameters that recognize the need for coexistence with future offshore wind development…
True Detective: Night Country What’s it rated? TV-MA When? 2024 Where’s it showing? Max Anthology series True Detective is always trying to recapture the magic of its premiere season. While there is no replacement for Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey, this fourth season, Night Country, brings the heat with legendary Jodi Foster as Police Chief…
Nancy Stearns was a longtime volunteer with NatureTrack, a K-12 program that helps kids experience the outdoors through field trips and accessibility programming, NatureTrack Founder Sue Eisaguirre told the Sun. “She was a dedicated volunteer; she loved being out there with the kids and just getting them to use all of their senses. She would…
Stop the world and melt with T Visit tsredtacos.com or call (805) 295-6084 for more info on T’s Red Tacos, located at 690 Dolliver St., Pismo Beach. The eatery is open daily, from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. There’s a popular carnival treat at T’s Red Tacos in Pismo Beach with ties to owner Roger…
Dune: Part Two What’s it rated? PG-13 When? 2024 Where’s it showing? Regal Edwards RPX Santa Maria, Movies Lompoc, Regal Edwards Arroyo Grande Co-writer and director Denis Villeneuve returns to his epic screen adaptation of Frank Herbert’s famed 1965 science fiction novel about a future feudal interstellar society of competing noble houses controlling planetary fiefs.…
A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge confirmed that the Cuyama Valley Groundwater Basin is one connected basin—not separate subbasins—allowing for the groundwater adjudication to move forward following a year-and-a-half of delays and litigation. “The court has been scrupulous to confine phase one of this adjudication to the boundaries of the court’s in rem [personal…
