It’s Friday night, most workers are gone for the day, and it’s dark, but the lights at the Hagerman Sports Complex are illuminated. It’s time to play softball. Sporting a No. 4 jersey and a San Diego Padres ball cap, Pete Williams cracks a high fly ball into right field. Williams bolts toward first base […]
DAVID MINSKY
Posted inNews
14-year-old boy shot in Santa Maria
Officers from the Santa Maria Police Department are investigating the shooting of a 14-year-old boy in the 300 block of W. Rochelle Lane. The shooting occurred Oct. 9 around 10:30 p.m. According to SMPD Sgt. Russ Mengel, the boy was shot in the leg. His injuries were serious but non-life threatening, Mengel said. The boy […]
Posted inNews
California to allow assisted suicide
California became the fifth state in the U.S. to allow assisted suicide when Gov. Jerry Brown signed the End of Life Option Act into law on Oct. 5. The law would allow medical doctors to prescribe lethal doses of certain medications to patients who want to end their lives. For years, Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa […]
Posted inNews
Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office trying to extradite Randy Quaid
For five years, actor Randy Quaid’s life seemed as zany as some of the characters he plays in movies. Quaid and his wife, Evi, were living on the run in Canada. Not anymore. They were both arrested as he tried to cross the border into Vermont, according to the Vermont State Police. Scott Waterman, Vermont […]
Posted inNews
Lompoc makes it easier to get permits for solar panels
It’s not easy bein’ green, according to Kermit the Frog. But that’s what California is hoping its residents will be with its new solar panel law that the Lompoc City Council officially adopted on Sept. 1. Passed into state law in September 2014, Assembly Bill 2188 mandates that cities in California streamline the process of […]
Posted inNews
DA’s office investigator settles free speech lawsuit with Santa Barbara county and SMPD
Last month, a settlement was reached in the civil rights case of Rick Prancevic, a Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office investigator who accused his employer and former Santa Maria Police Chief Danny Macagni for violating his free speech rights for actions following an open letter criticizing the chief’s policing practices. In his letter published […]
Posted inNews
Spotlight on: Meathead Movers
Aaron Steed, owner
Meathead Movers, a moving company based right here on the Central Coast, has been getting a lot of international attention for a service that it offers. Early in September, the LA Weekly ran a story about the Good Shepherd—one of Los Angeles’ oldest women’s shelters—and how it partners with the San Luis Obispo company to […]
Posted inNews
Civil asset forfeiture law defeated with the help of the Santa Barbara County district attorney
In 2014, Michael Joseph Rodriguez filed a claim in Santa Barbara County Superior Court opposing the seizure of $665 that police found in his pocket as they arrested him on suspicion of selling drugs, according to court records. He wasn’t yet convicted of a crime, but his money was taken anyway. So, if he was […]
Posted inNews
Hops and crafts: A small and fast-growing craft beer industry is making its mark on the Central Coast and beyond
View a slideshow from local breweries and the 2015 Great American Beer Festival. Men and women dressed in furry costumes, an autonomous motorized keg offering rides to strangers, and beards galore. A seemingly endless supply of small-batch, or “craft,” beer flowed from thousands of kegs behind rows upon rows of individual booths inside the Colorado […]
Posted inNews
New sanity trial ordered in 2008 Lee Leeds quadruple homicide
An appeals court awarded a new trial for a mentally ill Santa Maria man who was convicted of shooting four people to death at an auto salvage yard in March 2008. The judgment came down on Sept. 28 from California’s 2nd District Court of Appeals in Los Angeles, which ordered a new sanity trial for […]
Posted inNews
Santa Maria Police Department officer helps deliver baby at McDonalds
Writing tickets, enforcing traffic, and investigating homicides are par for the course for police work in Santa Maria. Tack on delivering babies, at least for two officers from the Santa Maria Police Department. SMPD officers Cole Whitney and Mason Jackson were out on patrol at 4:40 p.m. on Oct. 2 when they were called to […]
Posted inNews
Spotlight on: M&M Restaurant Supply and Service
Jacob May, manager
There are places along the Central Coast where restaurants can buy equipment, but they are few and far between. That’s according to Jacob May, the manager of M&M Restaurant Supply and Service, who supplies local restaurants with the commercial-grade stuff they need. They’ve got pots, pans, utensils, stoves, smokers, sets of cutting knives, ice machines, […]
