The June 22 special election continues to loom over election officials. Though a lawsuit may put a temporary halt on the expedited election schedule, the candidates are gearing up to make a run at the 15th District Senate seat. Four candidates have officially declared their intention to run: San Luis Obispo Republican Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee, […]
COLIN RIGLEY
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What’s the rush?
A political tug-of-war in Sacramento is expected to cost local counties $3.5 million
Sometimes it seems California Democrats and Republicans are playing the coming election season like an underground card game: making bluffs, calling bluffs, and going all in. When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called a special election to fill a coveted Senate seat, it saddled five counties in the 15th Senate District with a multi-million dollar bill. And […]
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SLO County hospitals vie for trauma center designation
Let’s say a man has an accident while off-roading at the Oceano Dunes. He has a chest injury, an aortic disruption, and is bleeding internally. Paramedics arrive and quickly assess they have a trauma patient with multiple severe injuries. They load him into the ambulance, but instead of heading 3.5 miles down the road to […]
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Talks between Southern California Gas Company and SLO County are at an impasse
Talks between Southern California Gas Company and SLO County are at an impasse A lot’s changed since 1955. Presidents have come and gone. Wars have been fought. Physicists have reshaped our view of space and time. Then there’s the franchise agreement between SLO County and Southern California Gas Company, which has remained virtually unchanged for […]
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SLO County’s rate of cancer is higher than most other places in the state
Between 2003 and 2007, a person living in SLO County was more likely to develop cancer than he or she would in all but one other county in the state, according to the California Cancer Registry. During the same time period, the county had the eighth highest rate of invasive cancer—or cancer that has spread […]
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Not gonna budge
The Oceano Community Services District Board of Directors has almost always fought within itself, even now as it struggles simply to fill a vacant seat. On March 22, Director Pamela Dean filed with the SLO County Superior Court challenging the appointment of Lori Angello, who was appointed by a questionable “majority” of directors on a […]
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Hey, big spender!
Over the past decade, Pacific Gas and Electric Company spent more on political candidates, ballot measures, and lobbyists than Chevron Corporation, Philip Morris USA, or the Western States Petroleum Association, according to the Fair Political Practices Commission. In its report, “Big Money Talks,” the commission detailed the top 15 spenders in California between January 2000 […]
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I scream, you scream
If you recently passed by Doc Burnstein’s Ice Cream Lab in Arroyo Grande, you might wonder why protesters were handing out flyers depicting a sniveling cartoon rat gnawing on a shredded American flag. Or you might wonder what the labor dispute is about. On Dec. 28, you would have been more confused when new protesters […]
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Aaagh! Swine flu!
Want a vaccination? Older than 65? You’re going to have to wait.
Little about swine flu is routine, particularly when it comes to vaccines. This year, unlike in previous flu seasons, people older than 65 will be turned away from vaccination clinics. Historically, elderly people have been encouraged to get vaccinated early in the flu season because they’re at greatest risk. This year, they’ll be told […]
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Tibet Awareness Day won’t fly with China
Chinese lobbyists scuttle Assemblyman Blakeslee’s recent bill
The Chinese government wasn’t happy with a seemingly innocuous bill by Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee to declare March 10 Tibet Awareness Day in California. In a possibly unprecedented move, representatives from the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco actively lobbied against the bill in Sacramento. That lobbying appears to have worked. With his non-binding “consent item,” the […]
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Mr. Maldonado goes to Sacramento
One Republican’s vote gave California a budget, but shrank his own
Sen. Abel Maldonado doesn’t have many Republican friends in Sacramento right now. His vote ensured that the Senate would pass a controversial budget that also came with more than $12 billion in tax increases. That vote has won him praise—and the wrath of his own party. Maldonado, a moderate Republican representing the Central Coast, broke […]
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Resistance mounts to planned ag cluster
Critics argue that a proposed Laetitia development isn’t really an agricultural venture
A plan to develop the Laetitia winery estate south of Arroyo Grande is heading down a contentious path. Laetitia’s developers hope to build their project as an “agricultural cluster,” similar to the Santa Margarita Ranch development planned for farther north. And like critics of the plan for Santa Margarita Ranch, critics of the Laetitia project […]