AMY ASMAN

The remains of a Lompoc woman missing for almost a decade have been found, police announced at a press conference on March 23. Lompoc Police Department officials informed members of the media that a local citizen recently discovered a human jawbone while hiking in a remote part of Santa Barbara County. That person turned the […]

Starting 2012, Santa Maria could be home to the only licensed veterinary technician program on the Central Coast. A veterinary technician—vet tech for short—is the animal-serving equivalent of a nurse practitioner. And similar to nurses, vet techs are in high demand. Currently, locals interested in becoming licensed vet techs have to travel as far away […]

Stormy weather across the Central Coast had government and law enforcement officials working overtime the weekend of March 20. The Santa Barbara County Emergency Operations Center was busy monitoring flooding in Guadalupe and water flowing from Lake Cachuma into the Santa Ynez River. As a precaution, Guadalupe city officials evacuated approximately two dozen residents living […]

One day, about a year ago, Santa Maria resident Stephanie Hull was on Pabst Lane, driving through her neighborhood with her two daughters in the car. In front yards on both sides of the street stood fruit trees weighed down by overripe fruit. Rotten oranges littered the ground. “I said, ‘Look at all this fruit! […]

Results are slowly trickling in from the far-reaching survey of Santa Barbara County’s homeless population earlier this month. The nonprofit organization Common Ground Santa Barbara recruited volunteers in all parts of the county to gather information about the area’s most vulnerable residents Feb. 28 through March 4. The volunteers approached people living on the streets […]

Jane Russell—the Hollywood siren who dazzled for decades on the silver screen, and the devoted Christian, mother, and adoption advocate—died on Feb. 28 at her home in Santa Maria. She was 89. The buxom brunette first entered the public spotlight in the 1940s when she landed the role of Rio MacDonald in Howard Hughes’ controversial […]

Forget the light brown apple moth; there’s a new bug pestering the state. In September 2009, the European grapevine moth was discovered for the first time in California in the Napa Valley. Native to southern Italy, the fluttering winemaker’s nightmare produces larvae that feed on grape bud clusters and flowers. The damage opens the fruit […]

The native son has returned.In January, Abel Maldonado—California’s second-ever Latino lieutenant governor and Santa Maria’s most famous politician—surrendered his position as the state’s second-in-command to Democrat Gavin Newsom after a dogged campaign effort. Many Californians will recall that Maldonado was resolute in his path to the lieutenant governorship. In November 2009, former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger […]

A hearing has been scheduled to determine whether Curtis Martin—the 24-year-old parolee who in September 2010 allegedly attacked a Santa Maria Denny’s employee for “being gay”—is mentally competent to stand trial. The hearing has been placed on the docket for March 28. According to court documents, Martin has been charged with attempted murder, committing a […]