Orcutt might be the last place on Earth you’d expect to find America’s most popular independent podcaster. But that’s where Your Own Backyard creator Chris Lambert grew up, lives, and pieced together the hard-hitting 10-part docuseries that investigates the 1996 disappearance of Kristin Smart. The 33-year-old spent a year and a half researching the unsolved […]
PETER JOHNSON
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Natural Healing Center loses dispensary permit; former CEO pleads guilty to bribery, tax evasion
“NHC! NHC! NHC!” A few dozen employees of Natural Healing Center chanted their company’s acronym in unison on Oct. 19 while gathered on the steps of San Luis Obispo City Hall. Donning white T-shirts with “save my career” printed across the back, NHC executives and workers assembled to protest a recent SLO city decision to […]
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Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation steps up during COVID-19 to help families of local children battling cancer
Pediatric cancer is already one of the worst predicaments that a child and family can face. Having to contend with that illness and a global pandemic at the same time is almost unthinkable. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, Senior Development Director Brittany Avila Wazny with the Teddy Bear Cancer Foundation—which has served families […]
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Central Coast Community Energy overhauls electricity rates, looks to ramp up local energy programs
Since Central Coast Community Energy (3CE) first launched in 2018, it’s made two promises to its ratepayers from Santa Cruz to Santa Barbara counties: that it will provide carbon-free electricity, and it will provide that electricity at a discounted rate. While the regional public power provider says it still intends to keep both of those […]
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With state rental assistance slow to arrive, tenants and service groups look anxiously to the end of eviction protections
Adam Schooley of Los Osos owes more than $4,000 in back rent to his landlord after he lost his job in December for the second time during the pandemic. So in March, when the state announced a new rent relief program that would assist the estimated 900,000 California households also behind on rent due to […]
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Battle erupts over Natural Healing Center dispensary as investor sues founder over alleged malfeasance
Helios Dayspring, co-owner and founder of Natural Healing Center dispensary in Grover Beach, faces a civil lawsuit from 81-year-old William Szymczak—an early supporter and investor and a former director in the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). The lawsuit filed on Aug. 17 in SLO County Superior Court claims that Szymczak recently learned […]
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Hundreds in rural SLO County and Santa Maria lose power in PG&E shutoff
Gusty winds and dry conditions caused PG&E to preemptively cut power to hundreds of households in rural southern San Luis Obispo County and Santa Maria on Jan. 19—part of the utility’s first wave of Public Safety Power Shutoffs in 2021. The shutoff, which spans seven Central California counties, impacted 462 customers around Huasna, Suey, Twitchell […]
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Santa Maria, Guadalupe, and Solvang among communities joining Central Coast Community Energy this month
More than 100,000 residents and property owners on the Central Coast will start service with a new power provider this month. Central Coast Community Energy (3CE) is launching in Paso Robles, Pismo Beach, Grover Beach, and Arroyo Grande, as well as Santa Maria and unincorporated Santa Barbara County. The “flipping of the switch” for these […]
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Dayspring can remain head of Natural Healing Center while lawsuit moves forward
A San Luis Obispo County Superior Court judge ruled on Oct. 21 that local cannabis businessman Helios Dayspring may stay at the helm of his Natural Healing Center brand while a fraud and misconduct lawsuit filed by his top investor plays out. Judge Tana Coates denied investor William Szymczak’s preliminary motion to install a neutral […]
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As commercially insured patients pay more to hospitals and clinics, lawmakers fail to pass a local senator’s bill expanding oversight of the health care industry – Part 2
Editor’s note: This article is the second of a two-part series produced as a data fellowship with the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism. The first part, “Consolidated,” published on Sept. 10. Annual hospital financial reports highlight one big-picture health care trend across California: Hospitals are making increasingly higher profits on commercially insured patients, while […]
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Experts say hospital consolidation is driving up medical costs. Is it locally? – Part 1
Editor’s note: This article is Part 1 of a two-part series produced as a data fellowship with the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism. Jamie Maraviglia has spent long days and nights in the hospital, but her time at home with medical bills is sometimes even more intense. The Arroyo Grande resident is routinely in […]
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Groups announce partnership to grow commercial space at Vandenberg
Local political and economic leaders want to see Vandenberg Air Force Base in Lompoc become a national hub for the fledging commercial space industry. On Aug. 5, a coalition of agencies and industry groups—including REACH Central Coast, the California Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, the U.S. Space Force, Cal Poly, and Deloitte Touche […]
