Canary

I’d almost rather pay for a wedding than vote in the primary election. I might not be the only person who feels that way. There isn’t a lot of exciting stuff on the ballot. The choices are almost predetermined.  But, hey, at least no one is running unopposed!  You’ve got incumbent conservative 4th District Santa […]

What can I say about Proposition 1?  It’s hard to know how to vote—unless you’re adamantly against the state taking out a $6.4 billion bond to build more places where people can get mental health care and substance abuse treatment and more housing for people with health and substance abuse challenges.  Sounds like a problem […]

Tennis players and pickleball players are frenemies who simply cannot share a court—and the battle over volleying space is getting tense in Solvang.  Hans Christian Andersen Park hosts the city’s only two pickleball courts but they’re on the verge of closure with cracking and drainage issues.  “The current courts are getting to the point where […]

Water’s a hot commodity in the Cuyama Valley. So when someone says the word “drill,” people’s ears perk up.  This time around, it’s not water they’re looking to store in “frost ponds” on Harvard University’s North Fork Vineyard property in Cuyama. They’re looking for oil. West Bay Exploration Co. wants to drill a probing solitary […]

As if the campaign for Santa Barbara County’s 3rd District supervisor wasn’t already a little weird—with Frank Troise holding his own candidacy hostage by threatening the other two candidates to agree to his budget terms or else he’ll continue running—the race’s finance filings are weirder still.  Lompoc Mayor Jenelle Osborne, who surprised everyone with her […]

Breeding flocks need one rooster for every 10 hens to be successful.  You know, fertile eggs, baby! As in eggs that can produce little chickee chicks. With Santa Barbara County’s new rooster regulations, you can’t really breed a flock of more than 10 hens on less than 1 acre, 20 chickens on 2 to 5 […]

We’ve finally got some races on our hands for the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors! Not one supervisor who’s up for reelection is running unopposed in the March primary. Huzzah!  Great! What do we have for quality candidates? Mm. That one’s a bit tough to discern.  Restaurateur and Carpinteria City Councilmember Roy Lee is […]

When the rooster crows, it gets kicked out of a Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors meeting!  On Jan. 9, during a hearing about future rooster regulations, the cacophony was a little too loud, upsetting the delicate balance of debating deeply held convictions with decorum. Instead of simply enjoying the peaceful boredom of facilitating discussion […]

Oceano is hoping for a brand new 2024.  The little town in southern San Luis Obispo County is hoping that its Community Services District will finally pull itself together, that the governing board will do more than bicker, and that its new leaders will move forward into a more civil era of policymaking.  I wouldn’t […]

We sure did a lot of fighting this year! Maybe it was all that rain in January and March, filling up Northern Santa Barbara County’s streets with mud and debris, causing our reservoirs to spill over, and leaving us with repair needs—some of which have yet to be fixed.  It made us grumpy for the […]

The lack of mental health help in North Santa Barbara County isn’t a new issue. It comes up repeatedly. We don’t have enough inpatient beds for involuntary or voluntary mental health holds. We need more outpatient facilities. If you need emergency help, head to Marian Regional Medical Center’s emergency room and plan to wait a […]

Great news, everyone!  Santa Barbara County’s farmworker resource pilot program is a success!  Why? Well, according to a Dec. 14 presentation, it connected with more than 3,500 farmworkers from July to November—helping them fill out forms for CalFresh and Medi-Cal, get school supplies, and learn financial literacy.  “This could now be the model for the […]