Open any popular rideshare app on a Friday or Saturday night, and you will see a veritable fleet of drivers for services like Uber and Lyft dashing and back and forth from pickups and drop-offs. But on Jan. 17, SLO County law enforcement officials made an announcement that raised questions about just how safe those […]
CHRIS MCGUINNESS
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Losing it: Dieting trends for 2018
It’s January, which means many of us who spent 2017 glowering over our beer bellies at the growing number on the bathroom scale are trying to keep our New Year’s resolutions to shed a few pounds and get back in shape. In 2018, dieting trends range from the sensible to the downright bizarre (bugs, anyone?) […]
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Nipomo man accused of murdering his girlfriend convicted of immigration violation
NOTE: This article was corrected to reflect that Alonso Mata’s prison sentence was longer than one year. On May 30, 24-year-old Paulina Ramirez-Diaz was found stabbed to death in her Nipomo home. Six months later, the man once accused of ending her life received a sentence of just over two years in prison. That’s because […]
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Anthem nixes ACA coverage plans on Central Coast
Thousands of Central Coast residents will have to look for new health insurance next year after one of the area’s biggest providers announced that it will no longer offer plans through the state’s insurance marketplace in most California counties. Health insurance giant Anthem Blue Cross said it is pulling out of all but three of […]
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Some leave, others stay as Alamo Fire continues to burn
There’s a slight smell of smoke in the air as Fran Spencer and one of her friends sit on the concrete bench outside the Minami Community Center in Santa Maria. Both women are evacuees, forced to pack up what they could in their cars and flee their homes as firefighters work to get a handle […]
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APCD working with Nipomo to address waste treatment odor
Dust from the Oceano Dunes isn’t the only issue giving SLO County air quality officials a headache in the county’s southern region. The SLO County Air Pollution Control District is trying to work with officials from the Nipomo Community Services District (CSD) to address complaints about a pungent odor emanating from the CSD’s Southland Wastewater […]
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Man who died in house fire ran music studio
The man who died in a June 26 house fire in Nipomo is being remembered for his love of music, which he shared with others by running a recording studio. Friends offered condolences and memories of Thomas Edward Gingell, 61, on social media in the wake of his death. Gingell was the owner and operator […]
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‘Virtual kidnapping’ scam puts Nipomo school on lockdown
Law enforcement officials quickly mobilized and locked down a Nipomo elementary school in response to the suspected kidnapping of a young girl. The only problem was there was no actual kidnapping. The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office were continuing to investigate the incident, which they called a “virtual” kidnapping, warning members of the public […]
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Murder suspect was previously deported, ICE officials say
A 24-year-old Nipomo man arrested for allegedly stabbing his girlfriend to death had been deported from the United States nine months before the murder, according to federal immigration officials. SLO County Sheriff’s Office deputies took Julio Caesar Alonso into custody May 31 after they discovered the body of Alonso’s girlfriend, identified as 24-year-old Paulina Ramirez-Diaz […]
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Waiting behind bars: Inmates declared mentally unfit to stand trial languish in jails, awaiting treatment
It was 5:36 p.m. on Jan. 22, 2017, and Andrew Chaylon Holland was dead. An official report details the bleak tableau that greeted a coroner’s office investigator at the scene of the 36-year-old Atascadero resident’s death: Holland was naked and his legs were in shackles. His body lay supine on the floor of an observation […]
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Fit to print? Defamation trial highlights the complicated legacy of CalCoastNews
“We work in the public interest.” Karen Velie repeated a credo that many journalists live by from her seat on the witness stand in SLO County Superior Court. As she answered another pointed question from an opposing attorney, Velie—a reporter, owner, and cofounder of CalCoastNews—was flanked by the massive display of a 2012 article she […]
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Man convicted of Nipomo gang assault sentenced to probation
Just one week after his older brother was sentenced to serve a lengthy prison term for the gang-related assault of a community college student, 20-year-old Javier Chang was sentenced to probation for the same crime. SLO Superior Court Judge John Trice sentenced Chang Dec. 6 to five years of probation for the 2014 assault. The […]