The Canary

Do elected officials have the right to be upset about their salaries, or should they live with it because they knew what they were getting into when they signed up to run for the job? If you’re outgoing Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce Dudley, apparently you throw a fit because you make a few […]

Jim “Don’t Point Those Finger Guns At Me” Mosby is sick of seeing Lompoc rise from the ashes of its once derelict City Council to actually increase funding for things like public safety. In the year and a half since the council’s been freed from his toxic grasp, the city has made real progress—and he’s […]

I’m not sure why the fine folks who appealed the Santa Barbara County planning director’s decision to OK a land-use permit for Dr. Greenthumb’s to open a cannabis dispensary in Orcutt felt that lyrics from a song released in 1998 would persuade planning commissioners to deny said permit, but they did.  The full lyrics of […]

What happens when science meets science? When one scientist says one thing and another says something different? Who do you believe? The chorus or the loner? We could talk about climate change, but let’s not. That horse has been beaten with extreme heat; dry, droughty years; and several 1,000-year flash flood events in the same […]

Deaths are higher in North Santa Barbara County than South County. Anyone surprised? Nope.  No one is surprised. And no one is surprised by the reasons county “experts” gave for that disparity either: poverty, health care access, and an unequal distribution of resources between the two geographical areas of the county. It’s been an ongoing […]

Santa Maria City Council is at it again!  Giving the have-nots nothing and ensuring that they know nothing. It’s the Patino-Waterfield special! The ol’ one-two sucker punch.  City Councilmember Carlos Escobedo, who often sides with Mayor Alice Patino and Councilmember Etta Waterfield, was visibly miffed at the end of a June 21 budget discussion in […]

We need housing! Should we cut down 4,000-plus oak trees to make that happen?  That’s a tough question. There has to be a way to both build and not totally destroy, right? Maybe.  The largest residential development proposed in SLO County in a quarter of a century could make its way into Nipomo in the […]

You know what it takes for federal policy to change?  Prayer. At least if you’re a God-fearing American citizen! Right to Life of the Central Coast’s prayers were answered by the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent ruling upholding a Mississippi abortion law and overturning Roe v. Wade. “In a country founded on the truth that we […]

I can’t exactly get mad at Santa Barbara County voters for not feeling motivated to make their voices heard on June 7. Most of the candidates were running unopposed, and unless you felt strongly that the 16-year reign of Sheriff Bill Brown needed to end or that Superintendent of Schools Susan Salcido needed to be […]

Benign, boring budget hearings usually snooze themselves into oblivion, but every now and then a little heat enters the building—as it did during the June 14 Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors hearing.  What was the fight over? Extra dollars. Unallocated money. Up for grabs and ready for takers!  County staff recommended that the board […]

Santa Maria has some squeaky wheels, let me tell you. I can hear them all the way from my birdcage across town. These squeaks are coming from a group of people advocating for the city to step in and adopt an ordinance preventing mobile home park owners from jacking up their rents in an unreasonable […]