The price of beauty just went up: On July 1, lawmakers started turning up the heat on tanning salons throughout the United States by requiring them to charge customers an extra 10 percent tax to climb into their UV-powered booths. Congress slid the tax into the healthcare reform act at the 11th hour after surgeon-funded […]
AMY ASMAN
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Supervisors to consider increased funding for county agricultural program
Recently kindled concern over Santa Barbara County’s agricultural future is expected to die down soon. The Board of Supervisors is scheduled at its Aug. 10 meeting to decide whether or not to grant the additional funding needed to maintain the University of California Cooperative Extension program (UCCE). During its June budget hearings, the board voted […]
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Wanted: Host families for foreign exchange students
The new school year is about to start, and with it will come foreign high school students participating in semester- and year-long academic programs. But in order to study here, students need families with whom they can stay. Pacific Intercultural Exchange (P.I.E.) is currently making its final plea for host families on the Central Coast. […]
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Vandenberg welcomes a new squadron
Officials at Vandenberg Air Force Base will hold a July 30 dedication ceremony in Lompoc for the new Ellison Onizuka Satellite Operations Facility—now home of the 21st Space Operations Squadron. The squadron, along with base operations for Onizuka Air Force Station, was recently transferred to Vandenberg, following the Sunnyvale-based station’s closure. According to a press […]
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Be a P.A.L. to local teens
The Police Activities League (P.A.L.) is looking for adults to make a difference in the lives of Santa Maria’s teens. P.A.L. is in the recruitment phase of its new mentoring program, which provides recreation and leisure programs taught by local law enforcement officers and volunteers to the community’s youth. Program mentors are required to spend […]
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Welcome to Nerd-dom
The Sun makes its third journey to Comic-Con
It’s 7:30 a.m. I’m zooming down the freeway, Glee soundtrack blaring, toward Geek Mecca—a.k.a. the 2010 San Diego Comic-Con International—and already I’m getting a preview of the bountiful treasures to come: To my left looms a giant billboard of femme fatal Angelina Jolie, whose new movie Salt premiered the night before in theaters. Coming up […]
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Calories count
Locals react to a new law requiring food vendors to post nutritional information on their menus
Ordering an entrée, beverage, or dessert at a restaurant can sometimes turn into quite an ordeal: Should you go with the chicken or the fish? The exorbitantly priced umbrella drink or the more economical pint of beer? And who hasn’t heard that all-important question, “You want whipped cream with that?” Thanks to a new federal […]
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Nipomo Community Services District shrinks by 1,000 acres
On July 15, the San Luis Obispo Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) voted to decrease the Nipomo Community Services District sphere of influence—the area to which it provides water, sewer, and solid waste services—by about 1,000 acres. As a result, the NCSD will no longer be responsible for about 800 acres of rural land off […]
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Santa Barbara judge suspends construction of suicide barrier on Cold Spring Canyon Bridge
In light of a Santa Barbara County Superior Court judge’s decision to suspend construction of a controversial suicide barrier, the flimsy, orange mesh currently sitting on the Cold Spring Canyon Bridge on Highway 154 in Santa Ynez may be the only blockade for some time. On July 13, Judge Thomas Anderle found that the California […]
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See Flipped before everyone else
The Santa Maria Sun and New Times have passes to a movie premiere and want to share them with you. Flipped, a novel by local author Wendelin Van Draanen, is coming to the big screen. But before the rest of the world gets to see the movie, it’s playing at a dressy red carpet premiere […]
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Wells Fargo Wagon, donations come a-callin’ at the new Santa Maria bank branch
The July 10 grand opening of a new Wells Fargo branch in Santa Maria wasn’t just a special occasion for bank employees and bank patrons living on the south side of town. The branch, located in the Kohl’s shopping center on the corner of McCoy Lane and South Broadway, also used the time to honor […]
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Agribusiness as usual?
Locals worry, but county officials say 4-H and the Cooperative Extension program aren’t on the chopping block
Few, if any, people left the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors June budget hearings with smiles on their faces. While the supervisors did scrape together about $5 million to pad the county’s strategic reserve, they still had to make more than $15 million in cuts to balance the 2010-11 budget. Since then, confusion over […]
