Mary Jo Gabel has taught sewing classes at Allan Hancock College for 35 years and never had issues until 2021, she said, when she saw a series of age discriminatory actions against her retired, noncredit students. “We were made aware back in October that the office has been referring to us—because we were seniors—as ‘the […]
Taylor O'Connor
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Jason Jewell is the new interim manager of the agency that oversees the Pacific Surfliner
The Pacific Surfliner train runs along the Pacific coast, extending from San Luis Obispo, cutting through Santa Barbara, and ending at its southernmost destination in San Diego. The surfliner is provided by Amtrak, but overseen by the Los Angeles-San Diego-San Luis Obispo (LOSSAN) Rail Corridor Agency—a joint powers authority used to give more local control […]
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Guadalupe approves its first three cannabis projects
The cannabis industry is making its way into Guadalupe as the City Council approved the city’s first two dispensaries and a processing facility during a series of March and April meetings in order to increase the amount of revenue coming into its general fund, Mayor Ariston Julian told the Sun. Guadalupe passed three ordinances in […]
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Farmers concerned about levee trail expansion
On May 17, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors is set to hear about the feasibility of a proposed Santa Maria River Levee Trail expansion to Guadalupe, a project that worries farmers who work the land along the river. In 2019, the county Public Works Department proposed expanding the 2.7-mile walking path along the […]
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John Savrnoch is the sole candidate for District Attorney
When Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce Dudley decided to retire after 32 years of leading the office, she looked for someone who could fill her shoes and keep moving the office in a positive direction, she said. She began speaking to several attorneys on staff about stepping up for the role in the 2022 […]
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Santa Barbara County nonprofit CommUnify celebrates its 55th anniversary in the community
The Community Action Coalition was founded to combat poverty rates in Santa Barbara County as part of President Lyndon B. Johnson’s Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. The organization became a countywide task force in 1965 and received nonprofit status in 1987. Now, it’s known as CommUnify, but its mission remains the same: to help community […]
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37th Assembly District race is down to two candidates
Santa Barbara County 2nd District Supervisor Gregg Hart wasn’t necessarily looking for something different, but when he saw redistricting’s impact on the 37th Assembly District, he said he decided to run for the state-level seat. “I enjoy my job at the county Board of Supervisors. We have lots of ideological differences, but we manage to […]
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Community advocates for Santa Maria skatepark improvements
When Santa Maria’s only skatepark’s ramps and equipment suddenly disappeared, the skating community was frustrated and angry, community advocate Dan Pankratz said. “Word had later gotten back to us saying the city wasn’t getting rid of the ramps, but planned to fix them and put them back. [That’s] all good, but it didn’t ease the […]
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Six Santa Barbara County veterans received retroactive high school diplomas through countywide initiative
Guadalupe Lopez left high school to go serve his country in the Vietnam War. Coming from a patriotic family with brothers who served in the Korean War, the then Santa Maria resident felt it was his calling to follow in their footsteps, Lopez said. “I wanted to finish school and have a diploma, but because […]
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Opioid crisis prioritized in sheriff’s 2022 budget proposal
Drug overdoses caused 133 deaths in Santa Barbara County during 2021, the highest in county history. To combat this, the Sheriff’s Office wants a little more than $1 million in general fund dollars to fund an additional narcotics team, Sheriff’s Cmdr. Kala Hubbell said during an April 12 Board of Supervisors budget workshop. “This expansion […]
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Two candidates vie for county superintendent of schools for the first time in decades
Christy Lozano decided to run for Santa Barbara County superintendent of schools because of what she saw as a teacher on the front lines, she said. “I’ve tried to address problems I’ve seen in my own district for a long time, and I think many people feel right now that they are not [being heard],” […]
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An endangered coastal California flower population is on the road to recovery
Known for its white and purple flowers with a yellow disk, the beach layia is a small sunflower that’s only found in California’s coastal dunes. Although the flowers were once found dotting the dunes from Lompoc’s Vandenberg Space Force Base to Humboldt County, they began to die off with land development, invasive species, livestock grazing, […]
