• U.S. Reps. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara), Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale), David Valadao (R-Hanford), and Juan Vargas (D-San Diego) recently reintroduced bipartisan legislation to use federal dollars for programs that provide safe overnight parking locations for people experiencing homelessness and living in their vehicles, as well as supportive services, like rapid rehousing services and facilities like […]
Caleb Wiseblood
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Carla Mead leads Buellton City Council vacancy election with 60 percent
Determining who will take the Buellton City Council’s vacant 4th District seat rests on the results of the August vote-by-mail special election. While those results are set to be certified by Sept. 12, the city’s semi-official reports show candidate Carla Mead in the lead with 60 percent of the votes. According to an Aug. 29 […]
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Board of Supervisors passes retail food fee adjustments by a split vote
The time it takes local food regulators to clear hot dogs, nachos, popcorn, and other snack bar sales at Little League games is not reflected in the current costs of those inspections, according to Santa Barbara County Environmental Health Services (EHS). The department recently pitched an update to the county’s retail food facility fee policy—untouched […]
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Rule-bender: One Buellton cannabis grower has paid about $2 million in penalties for air quality violations
In the span of two years, Central Coast Agriculture—a cannabis cultivator with facilities in Buellton and Lompoc—agreed to pay nearly $2 million for breaking state and local air quality laws. That sum doesn’t include two pending violations issued by Santa Barbara County’s Air Pollution Control District (APCD) in 2025 awaiting resolution, according to the agency, […]
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Lompoc resident and PACE founder raises funds for all-girls school near Kolkata, India
What began as a tin-roofed, three-room shack gradually evolved into a 3-acre education center for young women in a rural village in India near the city of Kolkata—where the school’s Lompoc-based founder was born and raised. “I grew up with my mother telling me, ‘Finish the food on your plate, they’re starving children outside the […]
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Competitive advantage: Santa Ynez wants to build a CIF-approved pool for its athletes and a public recreation space for the community
Santa Ynez Valley Union High School is eager to have its own CIF-sanctioned swimming pool by the time Los Angeles hosts the Olympics in 2028—with help from some special equipment tied to 2016’s Olympic trials. In 2017, a local nonprofit dedicated to improving public pool access in the valley purchased two Myrtha pool systems that […]
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Board of Supervisors reduces cannabis acreage cap, responds to grand jury report
While the maximum acreage allowed for cannabis cultivation across unincorporated Santa Barbara County will decrease by the end of September, the new limit won’t impact current growers—which are essentially grandfathered in under a recent Board of Supervisors directive. At its Aug. 26 meeting, the board voted 5-0 to reduce the acreage cap from 1,575 to […]
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Solvang DRC ‘spars’ with city staff about regulating art murals
Holiday decorations and hours of operation are among the types of signs that businesses and private property owners can freely display in Solvang without a city permit. Distinguishing between what kinds of signage is under the Solvang Design Review Committee’s (DRC) purview and what might be exempt from the city’s upcoming sign ordinance update has […]
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Political Watch: August 28, 2025
•In an Aug. 21 statement, U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-California), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, commented on the recent passage of a package of bills allowing California voters to determine whether the state should temporarily redraw its congressional maps through 2030 to counter the Trump administration and Texas Republicans’ partisan […]
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Red Cross provides safe parking for evacuee during the Gifford Fire
Often wedged between Dave Hild’s van dashboard and windshield, the retired zookeeper’s road maps range from blueprint-style scrolls to thick, paperback atlases. “These don’t require batteries or a signal, and I can drop them in the creek and they’ll still work,” said the former Charles Paddock Zoo employee, who’s lived off-grid in his van for […]
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Political Watch: August 21, 2025
•U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla (D-California), Elizabeth Warren (D-Massachusetts), and Mark Kelly (D-Arizona) spearheaded a recent letter—co-signed by 45 government officials—that urged Department of Homeland Security (DHS) offices to launch an investigation into the department’s stops, arrests, detentions, and deportations of U.S. citizens. “Sweeping enforcement operations by [DHS] agents—particularly within Immigration and Customs Enforcement—threaten the safety, […]
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Local appraiser Courtney Hood auctions off antique jewelry from her personal collection
Helping others scope out the value of their earrings, necklaces, and rings is a daily occurrence for Courtney Hood, who began learning the ropes of her family’s business—CB Hood Diamond Co. in Santa Maria—from a young age. After graduating from Cabrillo High School in Lompoc, she enrolled at the Gemological Institute of America where she […]
