If you want to hang out with Cassandra Sigala on the weekends, you’re going to need to know how to decorate cupcakes. “You better know how to use sprinkles,” Sigala said. Every weekend Sigala bakes hundreds of those miniature cakes for Cupcakes Fighting Cancer, a nonprofit Sigala founded to raise money and awareness for children […]
DAVID MINSKY
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Orcutt man takes plea deal for shooting father
An Orcutt man accused of shooting his parents will be spending the next two decades in prison. The Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office announced on May 8 that Brian Keith Reid pleaded guilty to one count of manslaughter and one count of attempted murder. Reid was facing a mandatory sentence of life in prison […]
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CHP isn’t charging the driver in fatal Santa Ynez accident
Police aren’t pursuing charges against the driver of a van that allegedly struck a Santa Ynez high school student in front her school, a California Highway Patrol official told the Sun. Carina Velazquez, a 15-year-old Santa Ynez Valley Union High School student, was leaving an FFA meeting after school on March 26 and crossed Highway […]
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Santa Maria man arrested on suspicion of hotel arson
A Santa Maria man is suspected of starting a fire inside of his room following a small blaze that broke out in a residential hotel on May 6, Santa Maria police said. According to a press release issued by the Santa Maria Fire Department, several fire agencies responded to the fire and quickly snuffed the […]
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Spotlight on: FuzzyDuck Creations
Ken Martin, Toymaker
Ken Martin’s done a lot of things in his life. He was a truck driver, owned a janitorial services company, and ran a successful self-storage company in Cape Girardeau, Mo. Residents of Santa Maria may remember Martin from Stardust Cruises Limousine Service, carting customers around the Central Coast in pimped-out shuttle buses. He sold the […]
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Santa Ynez residents want 246 to be safer
More than a month has passed since the death of 15-year-old Carina Velazquez, and the feeling of anguish still resonates within the Santa Ynez Valley. On the evening of March 26, Velazquez, a student from Santa Ynez Valley Union High School, was attempting to cross Highway 246 in front of the school after an FFA […]
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Coco’s in Santa Maria closes with a lawsuit on its heels
After serving customers for several years in Santa Maria, Coco’s Restaurant Bakery on Broadway closed down suddenly on April 30. The restaurant in Santa Maria was part of a massive closure of at least 70 stores across California, Nevada, and Arizona after the chain was acquired by its new owners, Texas-based Food Management Partners, on […]
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Apel strikes out again with the Supreme Court
John Dennis Apel holds the rare distinction of taking his case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, twice. But on April 27, the justices refused to hear arguments in the United States v. Apel case the second time around and instead upheld a ruling by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The persistent […]
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Organizers protest Santa Maria ICE facility for May Day
The chants of protesters mingled with the sounds of traffic on the corner of Broadway and Main in Santa Maria during the evening of May 1. “Hey Obama, don’t deport my mama!” one protestor said. “Que queremos? Justicia! Cuando la queremos? Ahora!” another said. Organizers from local groups gathered at two locations in Santa Maria […]
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Spotlight on: Advanced Smile and Design
Sean Nolan, Dentist
Sean Nolan went to the dentist a lot as a kid, but it wasn’t always because he needed to. Growing up in Bakersfield with a dentist for a father, Nolan got to see a lot of the ins and outs of the profession. Nolan said once he found himself crafting dentures in his father’s lab. […]
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Costs pile up for the U-Haul murder trial
Most of Santa Barbara County’s residents didn’t even sit a day in court to listen to the brutal—and sometimes tedious—details of the murder of 28-year-old Anthony Ibarra, yet all of them will end up footing the bill in some small way. Ibarra was found dead in a rented U-Haul moving truck on March 19, 2013, […]
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Santa Maria police deploy ‘sponge round’ to end standoff
Santa Maria police arrested one man on the afternoon of April 27 following an hours-long standoff in the northeastern part of town, according to the SMPD. Lt. Dan Cohen said his department received a call to respond to the 1700 block of North Lynne Drive, where they found Juan Angel Salinas Peña allegedly trying to […]
