Guadalupe City Administrator Andrew Carter doesn’t mince words when describing the current state of the city’s money situation. “We are in severe financial distress, if you want to use that term,” he said. This is no surprise to anyone in city leadership. Mayor Frances Romero indicated at the Aug. 12 council meeting that she would […]
RYAN MILLER
Posted inNews
Community Corner: The mechanics of rail shipping
Santa Maria-area farmers can’t feed the world if their produce stays put. Since 1911, the Santa Maria Valley Railroad has served as the first leg of a journey regularly undertaken by all sorts of sweet reds and leafy greens from the local ag industry. The 14 miles of mainline track that make up the Santa […]
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Discovery Corner: A new beginning
The Perseid meteor shower will be at its peak between Aug. 10 and 14, and while this is typically the best sky-watching time of the year—at least according to some people—there’s going to be a supermoon on Aug. 10, which will brighten the sky and make meteors a bit more difficult to see. No matter […]
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Strawberries continue to reign supreme in Santa Barbara County
Broccoli, wine grapes, and strawberries tend to jockey for the top spot each year in Santa Barbara County in terms of production value. The raw ingredient in pinots and chardonnays jumped up to second place in 2013, knocking the green vegetable down to No. 3, but the red berries that dot so much of the […]
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Community Corner: Girl Scouts bring a bit of home to young hospitalized patients
An overnight hospital visit is a necessity for some children, but being away from home and all its familiarities and comforts can be an unsettling experience—or even a scary one. Members of the local Girl Scout Daisy Troop 50507 recently worked to bring a feeling of home to the Marian Regional Medical Center Pediatric Unit […]
Posted inOpinion
Words when there shouldn’t be words
Canary’s note: My executive editor wanted to write this week, so I gave him the space usually reserved for my column: “I was giving the female gender one last chance to provide me with the pleasures I deserved from them.” This is the line that national media are attributing to Elliot Rodger, who recently wrote […]
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Community Corner: Go big at Righetti’s annual Big Show
Santa Marians can’t get enough of that marimba beat. The annual Big Show, a performance by the Ernest Righetti High School Marimba Band and Ballet Folklorico, will return to the Ethel Pope Auditorium stage at 3 p.m. on May 25 for an encore presentation of Mexican and Latino culture. Ricardo Gabaldon directs the 45 musician […]
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The community gets tuberculosis information
About 100 locals showed up at the Santa Maria High School cafeteria on the evening of April 11—not for a science fair or other extracurricular activity, but to learn about what’s being done in light of the revelation two days earlier that a student at the school has been diagnosed with an active case of […]
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Arrests continue for Dennis Apel
Dennis Apel, a protestor who’s long brought his anti-missile, -radiation, and -Marshall Islands testing message to the gates of Vandenberg Air Force Base, was arrested there again on March 5, a week after the U.S. Supreme Court sent a federal case against him back to the U.S. Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit. At issue was […]
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U.S. Supreme Court sends Dennis Apel’s case back down
After mulling arguments in United States v. Apel throughout the winter, the U.S. Supreme Court on Feb. 26 made a unanimous ruling that does little to resolve the issue at the heart of the local case and instead boots it back to the U.S. Court of Appeals, 9th Circuit. Dennis Apel has been protesting at […]
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English for everyone: Laura Davidson, new director of the Central Coast Literacy Council, talks about her hopes for the program–and community
“Never mind. Never mind.” A local shop owner—who asked to remain nameless, for now—was describing how his customers react when they bring questions to him at the cash register and can’t understand his response. Frustrated at the communication barrier, they walk out without buying anything. Some of them, as they leave, accuse him of being […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Driving drums: Get the beat on local author Mark Parsons’ debut YA novel
View a video trailer for ‘Road Rash.’ There’s an old adage in the world of wordsmithing: Write what you know. Mark Huntley Parsons knows drumming. Here’s a partial list of bands in which he’s handled the beat: Patch of Green. Tamerlane. Hero’s Welcome. Plains. Kiq. The Fear Brothers. Lures Kite. Bottoms Up. Tequila Mockingbirds. The […]