Guadalupe, Guadalupe, Guadalupe, what are we going to do with you? After fits and starts, false starts, and no starts, the city’s calling it quits on the Royal Theater restoration project. I think anyone’s who’s been following my sarcastic commentary on the matter probably knows that should have happened a long time ago—maybe when the […]
Opinion
Posted inOpinion
Lompoc Fire Department has sounded the alarm for more than a decade and no one answered
“Deferred maintenance” is a term used to define things that need to be done but will have to wait until we can afford it. In government it usually means that they have the funds to fix the roof, but the politicians guiding the use of tax money would rather defer fixing the roof and use […]
Posted inOpinion
Nuclear should not be a part of the Central Coast’s energy future
There are many concerns about adding another 15 to 20 years to an aging Diablo Canyon nuclear plant operation, which uses radiation to boil seawater to make electricity. Sounds outdated and dangerous. Last year, Trump signed an order to allow greater radiation exposure to the public ignoring its disproportionate effect on children and women. Our […]
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No gloves
Solvang lost some of its Danish charm in a battle over one partially developed lot with nine almost-built little cottages on it. A fight over what the developer calls whimsical and how closely it resembles the permit granted to him by the city landed the two sides in court. The gloves came off, and the […]
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Cal Poly’s research helps ensure a healthy future for California strawberries
When people bring home a carton of California strawberries, they probably aren’t thinking about plant diseases, soil health, or the students spending long days collecting samples in a field. As a plant pathologist, I do. Because behind every strawberry is years of research, countless hours of fieldwork, and a shared commitment to finding better ways […]
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Diablo Canyon is preparing a massive bait and switch
As public hearings continue regarding the Diablo Canyon Power Plant, San Luis Obispo County residents must confront a terrifying reality. While regulators use rare loopholes to bypass environmental rules for a supposedly brief five-year extension—this is the bait—the truth is a multi-decade push to secure power for a surging tech sector and unpublicized AI data […]
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Accidents and malice
The news this week almost made me want to set down my feather pen and bury my head in the sand, à la my long-legged cousins. A Vandenberg Space Force Base airman died on base after the heavy equipment he was operating fell down an embankment. Airman 1st Class Cedric Eneluna was 23 years old. […]
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South County leaders know nothing about a world without fossil fuels
Imagine a world without fossil fuels; it would be dark, very few people, only foraged food, no houses, nothing but silence and emptiness. This is the world that the movers and shakers in Santa Barbara County and statewide would like to take you to. Their endless assault on the production and use of fossil fuel […]
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Vote for change: democratic socialists, progressives, independents, prairie populists
Was Dwight Eisenhower a communist? As a Republican president in 1956, he ran on a platform of expansion of Social Security; federal assistance for construction of hospitals; increased federal aid for medical care of the needy; and the creation of a Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. And an immigration policy that provided a haven […]
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Loss of USAID affects higher education programs in California
At a Senate hearing in June, Marco Rubio claimed that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) operated as “an independent State Department,” working contrary to U.S. interests. Despite Rubio’s previously claiming “no kids were dying under [his] watch,” former leading USAID administrator Atul Gawande told The New Yorker that according to recent studies, approximately […]
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Too far gone
The city of Buellton no longer considers Pea Soup Andersen’s an official city landmark. After hemming and hawing this spring over what exactly it was going to allow the current landowner to do to the building, the Buellton City Council came up with a solution to the problem it had inadvertently created: Pull the historic […]
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Salud Carbajal’s housing spin is why voters are tired of politics
Housing is one of the most pressing issues facing the Central Coast. So when Congress passes a bipartisan housing bill, it should be good news. But instead of simply telling the truth, politicians too often turn good news into campaign spin. That is what Congressman Salud Carbajal is doing through the 21st Century ROAD to […]
