Hoping to clear the waters about who has jurisdiction over a vacant ditch in Buellton that’s flooded in recent years’ storms, Mayor David Silva pressed staff to confirm whether it’s an issue the city should wash its hands of. “It does seem a bit like what we’re being told is: We know there’s a problem,…
On Oct. 22, the Department of Justice (DOJ) sent Santa Barbara County a list of 180 residents—names of “likely aliens” illegally registered to vote, First Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Central District Bilal A. Essayli alleged. “Within 48 hours, we ask that you commit to working with DOJ and DHS [Department of Homeland Security] to…
Future tenants of a four-story complex will live less than a block away from Old Town Lompoc. An empty parcel on South J Street is scheduled to turn into a commercial and residential development thanks to a 4-0 approval from Lompoc planning commissioners in October. Commissioner Brandon Bridge was absent. “Unlike a lot of developers…
As part of Santa Barbara County’s efforts to streamline its land use permit protocols, the Board of Supervisors will consider abandoning one procedure Planning Commissioner John Parke has considered “a time-waster” for years, he said. “On appealable hearings,” Parke said at the Planning Commission’s Oct. 28 meeting, “I would say of the appeals that I’ve…
•On Oct. 27, Speaker of the Assembly Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) joined the list of government officials issuing statements to condemn Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers’ Oct. 21 detainment of Santa Maria-resident Erik Zepeda, an American citizen, while he was walking to Santa Maria High School. The 20-year-old, diagnosed with intellectual and developmental disabilities, is…
On a surface level, nail-trimming is what Orcutt resident Tara Hoffmann—with a 31-year career in mobile foot care services for seniors and individuals with limited mobility—gets paid to do on a daily basis. For her, the reward of offering pedicures and other foot-based treatments in the comfort of a client’s home is knowing that her…
If you’re talking about voter fraud, you aren’t talking about inflation, gas prices, overly-aggressive federal law enforcement, government corruption, or that this presidential administration has been secretly dropping bombs in Iran, which they were hoping to keep a secret until after you already voted in the midterms. You also aren’t talking about whatever other batshit…
Well, there has been another school shooting, this time on Oct. 15 in Bend, Oregon, where a 16-year-old shot and killed three children and an adult teacher, before he was shot and killed by an armed private citizen. Predictably, all the partisans have retreated to their battlements to lob their usual talking points at each…
The ICE assault of a disabled student walking to school on Oct. 21 still reverberates throughout Santa Maria. The just outrage is growing. The unhinged cruelty and arrogance of ICE, running rampant through Santa Maria and the 805, calls into question: why here? I would like to suggest a major contributing factor not seen in…
Randy Freeman is good friends with a scrub jay. He’s cultivated a fond relationship with the bird, nicknamed Buddy, over the past five years. Buddy spots Freeman in his backyard, flies over to the artist’s side, and lands on his shoulder. “I’ll reach in my pocket and hold a handful of peanuts out. He’ll take…
One single cut can change everything. Two creatives explore the power of cutting with their mixed media pieces in an exhibit at the Allan Hancock College art gallery, which is up through Dec. 2. “Rather than erasing the past, the artists embrace it as part of the creative process, transforming existing elements into new compositions…
Keep up with local concerts, Santa Maria City Council meetings, and other informative forums with an app that recently expanded accessibility to Santa Maria’s community television programs. Content from the city’s public, education, and government (PEG) channels is free of commercials and available to locals on their devices 24/7. Residents can now download city of…
Set in a timeless yet antiquated village like those in countless fairy tales, Wicker is a comically dark adult fable that follows an ostracized Fisherwoman (Olivia Colman) who commissions the local Basketmaker (Peter Dinklage) to weave a husband for her. When her new, enchanted husband (Alexander Skarsgard)—made completely of wicker—comes to life, his infectious charm…
Lanterns What’s it rated? TV-MA When? 2026 Where’s it showing? HBO Max If I had to sum up the core demographic that HBO’s genre-bending Lanterns appeals to, it’s for the kid in all of us crime-drama-loving millennials who grew up watching Justice League on the Cartoon Network in the early 2000s. That was my introduction to…
The InviteWhat’s it rated? R When? 2026 Where’s it showing? HBO Max Olivia Wilde turns her director’s eye from the expansive world of her 2022 psychological thriller Don’t Worry Darling to the cozy San Francisco apartment of musician Joe (Seth Rogen) and his stay-at-home wife, Angela (played by Wilde), in The Invite. The couple’s marriage…
Inspiration for Leslie Verbryke’s side gig came to her the way a lot of today’s ideas strike: through TikTok. The Orcutt resident saw a content creator who had refurbished a horse trailer, turning it into a beverage stand. “She started selling lemonade out of it to pay for pharmacy school, so I kind of took…
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