CHRIS MCGUINNESS

The city of Santa Maria is mailing out thousands of surveys to random households, kicking off an effort to get input on how to improve its parks and recreation offerings. The city’s Recreation and Parks Department mailed out the surveys to 3,830 households to collect information for its Leisure Needs Assessment Action Plan. That plan […]

Heart disease and overdoses remain the top killers of homeless individuals in Santa Barbara County, according to health officials. The information was included in an annual report from the County Health Department’s Homeless Death Review Team released earlier this month. According to the findings in the report, a total of 44 homeless individuals died in […]

Santa Maria plans to use revenue from a recently approved sales tax hike to beef up its police and fire departments, among other enhancements. Members of the City Council directed staff to use the revenue from Measure U tax hike, approved by voters in November 2018, to add staff to both departments as well as […]

As the cost of living in California continues to skyrocket, a growing population of people in the state are living in their vehicles. The trend has led to clashes between those people and cities trying to enforce parking ordinances; the city of Lompoc is no exception. Ground zero for the issue appears to be Aviation […]

The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office Cannabis Compliance Team found what it was looking for in some seemingly nondescript shipping containers on a property just outside Buellton city limits on Feb. 20.  Stuffed into black and silver garbage bags, the containers’ contents became the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow: the conclusion […]

Cases of tuberculosis are on the rise in Santa Barbara County, and health officials are hoping that an infusion of funding from the state will help them address the issue. The county Public Health Department reported 24 new cases of the infectious disease in 2018. That is more than double the 10 cases reported in […]

The lengthy process of determining whether a pipeline company responsible for a 2015 oil spill will be allowed to replace more than 100 miles of pipeline through SLO, Santa Barbara, and Kern counties kicked off with hearings and protests in two Central Coast cities. Hearings to determine the scope of an environmental review for Plains […]

A recent report touts the promising results of a pilot program to connect Santa Barbara County’s mentally ill population with critical outpatient treatment services. Created under the auspices of California’s Laura’s Law, Santa Barbra County’s Assisted Outpatient Treatment (AOT) program helps identify mentally ill individuals who are not engaged in treatment and get them to […]

Santa Barbara County’s tax on legal cannabis businesses has already raked in millions of dollars, leaving county officials to figure out just how to spend it. A recent staff report stated that the county has received $3.1 million as of January 2019. That number represents more than half of the $5.5 million in cannabis tax […]

It’s been less than a month since volunteers fanned out across Santa Barbara County to attempt to count the homeless population. While local governments, nonprofits, and others dedicated to addressing homelessness await the results, one countywide program announced some promising data from its initial efforts. But the year-old Home for Good program in Santa Barbara […]