Children who experience four or more adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) before they’re 17 years old are more likely to experience unemployment and incarceration as adults, and often attain lower levels of education and low-wage jobs. That’s according to Santa Barbara County’s 2017 Children’s Scorecard, which defines an ACE as any traumatic or stressful event–ranging from […]
Kasey Bubnash
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Two injured in Lompoc during possible gang shooting
Two people were injured in Lompoc after what appears to be a gang-related shooting on Aug. 13, according to the Lompoc Police Department. After receiving multiple reports of fired gunshots just before 5 p.m. that day, Lompoc Police found two individuals who had been shot and injured on the 700 block of North D Street. […]
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Former Tommie Kunst principal working to bring new charter school to county
Just months after enduring what she called her “worst” experience in 25 years of teaching and education, which led to her recent resignation from a local junior high school, former principal Carmen Rivera is working to open a new charter school in Santa Barbara County. Although plans for the public charter school, Affinity Charter, are […]
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Elizabeth Enderle
She’s not the first in her family to love horses, but incoming Santa Ynez High School sophomore Elizabeth Enderle shows them like no one else can. Elizabeth, 15, has been riding horses since she was a child, but started competitively showing only about three years ago, according to her mom, Kerry Enderle. And she’s already […]
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Santa Maria High School District breaks ground on long-awaited CTE Center and Ag Farm
Shovels in hand, students donning corduroy Future Farmers of America jackets and hard hats giggled as they simultaneously dug into the freshly graded ground and tossed dirt into the air as a small audience snapped photos. Behind them, massive yellow backhoes and bulldozers sat still near the newly formed outline of what will soon be […]
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Adrian Santini
On the baseball diamond, 12-year-old Adrian Santini is a triple threat–he can pitch better, hit harder, and run faster than just about anyone his age. Santini, an Orcutt Junior High School student, has been an integral member on each of his Little League teams since he was just 7 years old. But recently, he’s been […]
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Local students get cost-free look at real careers during STEM Industry Days
Assembling a computer’s motherboard is just like skiing, according to computer repairman Kevin Dyson: It’s scary when you try it for the first time as an adult, but as kid, it comes easy. “When I got into this industry I was deathly afraid of opening up a computer,” Dyson told the Sun, hovering over the […]
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Full house(s): Peoples’ Self-Help Housing welcomes farmworkers to third low-income development
Only 34 of roughly 230 applicants were accepted to live at Los Adobes de Maria III, Peoples’ Self-Help Housing’s most recently opened affordable housing development in Santa Maria. The complex, which features 22 two-bedroom and 11 three-bedroom apartments, is the third low-income housing development open to farmworkers and their families in the neighborhood. And while […]
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Trivium Charter School to offer additional on-campus day this fall
Incoming Trivium Charter School students will have an extra day on campus to attend various previously unoffered elective and academic support classes starting this fall. Flex Days will be offered every Wednesday at Trivium’s Lompoc and Santa Barbara locations this school year, according to Executive Director Trisha Vais, who said the additional day on campus […]
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Haleigh Batty
Allan Hancock College track and field star Haleigh Batty is a record-breaker. During her freshman year at Hancock, she set new records in both the women’s long and high jumps. And after taking first place in seven of her first eight meets of the season, Batty won a Western State Conference long jump […]
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Santa Maria awarded nearly $300,000 for bicycle and pedestrian pathway project
Several bicycle and pedestrian pathway improvement projects are coming soon to Santa Maria. But first, the city needs to make a list. On May 11, the city was awarded a $296,700 Sustainable Transportation Planning Grant through the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), according to a city staff report, which will go toward the beginning stages […]
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Getting ‘trauma-informed’: County works to better address childhood trauma and the factors that cause it
Santa Barbara County is home to nearly 450,000 Californians, 60,000 of whom are living at or below the federal poverty level. An estimated 28 percent of those living in poverty are children, according to the county’s yet-to-be-released 2017 Children’s Scorecard. Economic hardship is just one of the many common factors that can put families and […]
