The Canary

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wants to cancel DCPA—aka the pesticide dimethyl tetrachloroterephthalate; aka a weed-eating herbicide often used to treat broccoli and onion fields that’s associated with certain birth defects.  But officially canceling DCPA ain’t easy. It’s not like a clarion call to boycott your neighborhood racist coffee shop on TikTok. Or the right-wing […]

I’m a little confused about a recent Santa Barbara County Planning Commission decision about cannabis—mostly I’m confounded about Commissioner John Parke and his support of a processing project, something I assume he’s against.  You know, he’s always talking about that odor. Cannabis smells impacting quality of life seem to niggle Parke like no other, insinuating […]

Kudos to all the firefighters and other personnel who worked so hard to get the Lake Fire under control and prevent it from spreading more.  The 38,000-acre fire patchworked its way through the forest, left homes (but not property) relatively unscathed, kept campgrounds and trail systems fairly intact, and didn’t turn into the megafire that […]

Homelessness is not an issue that the majority of Santa Maria’s City Council seems interested in tackling, solving, or taking a bite out of.  To me, it simply sounds as if Mayor Alice Patino would simply like for it to just go away. Patino, by the way, is running for mayor, again. She doesn’t seem […]

Our country’s celebrity obsession hit a new low earlier this month.  If it please the court of readers, I’d like to submit these exhibits regarding the Lake Fire.  Exhibit A: “The battle to save Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch from destructive Lake fire” is the headline for an LA Times July 12 feature-length piece. Exhibit B: […]

Can you believe that governments aren’t required to record their public meetings and post them in an archive so anyone can view them? It seems like they have to, but they don’t. They have to keep “minutes”—and depending on the governing board those can be extremely detailed or not detailed at all.  Basically, if you […]

Who knew a 24-hour gym was such a big deal? 24-Hour Fitness has gyms all over the state: the greater Los Angeles area, the Bay Area, Santa Cruz, the Sacramento Valley, San Diego area, and in Santa Barbara.  But there isn’t one in the Santa Ynez Valley, which has a YMCA that wants to keep […]

Why does it always feel surprising when budgets dry up? We go a year or two without having to think too hard about money on the municipal level, and then, bam! Your city’s gotta start pinching those pennies again. Santa Maria’s currently moving forward with a solution for its $21.3 million budget deficit. Sort of.  […]

Before putting tax measures on the ballot, most cities get the word out and gauge public sentiment. But that didn’t happen in Guadalupe.  The City Council recently voted to put a bond measure on the ballot to raise funds that will help pay to revitalize Guadalupe’s historic theater. And while the city may have had […]

After almost getting shut down by the Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District last year for noncompliance, one cannabis company agreed to pay more than $1.3 million for its polluting ways. Central Coast Agriculture will now hold the incredible title of paying more than any other for violating air pollution regulations in the county—even […]

Is there a limit to how high we can raise taxes, even on tourists?  Every four years, it seems like local municipalities devise a way to increase sales tax or transient occupancy tax (TOT). Boy, public safety sure could use a boost, or the roads sure could use an influx of funding, or it’s not […]

Is Lompoc a place that you associate with “Earth-based lodging”? Seems a little targeted toward luxurious hippies, doesn’t it? Like some place someone would pay thousands of dollars a night to stay in the Brazilian Amazon or along the Big Sur coast, where they could zip-line through the forest, get massages under trees, eat all […]