Canary

It’s probably not surprising to some that there has been divisiveness around us. Within Santa Barbara County income, diversity, and crime has caused an economic divide, an ethnic divide, and a class divide. In a bigger sense those same issues discussed in the political arena have caused a divide within our country.  We’ve become a […]

It was a beautiful Central Coast day at the beach as Rep. Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara) and a host of marine supporters gathered for a press conference for the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary. The sanctuary proposes to protect a swath of coast from Santa Barbara and into northern San Luis Obispo County from fossil […]

As I got my little tail feathers in gear to purchase my tickets to the third annual Pups & Purrs FUNdraiser at Fess Parker Winery in Los Olivos May 21, I marveled at the extent of outreach that the event sponsors, C.A.R.E.4Paws and Old Yeller Ranch Rescue, go through to support animals in need.  C.A.R.E4Paws […]

I love a sense of the incongruent. Irony. Those situations that make you laugh at the absurdity. For instance I chuckled when I got a press release from Santa Barbara County Association of Governments announcing an April 21 unmet transit needs meeting that would give people a chance to suggest new bus routes or service […]

When a truck full of boxes pulls into your development, you never know who you might move in. Not all neighbors are neighborly. Some are downright scary.  Residents in Nipomo recently found out just how scary neighbors can be after a fire destroyed a structure intended as farmworker housing.  Residents living near the structures weren’t […]

For all the wild-child ways of my school days, I’m such a law-abiding, society-conforming birdie these days. So much so that my high school self would probably pummel my grown-up self for being such an annoying rule follower. Whenever I pop into Spencer’s Markets to grab a quick deli lunch, I always enter the parking […]

So what do you do when you arrive at a showdown and the other party doesn’t show? You can throw your arms in the air, tip your cowboy hat, and strut in a slow circle, nodding at the audience with that look that says your opponent is chicken, without actually saying it because it’s implied […]

More than once I’ve been called a nosy little bird. I think it’s more accurate to say I’m a champion for transparency. More often than not the people who object to my snooping questions are politicians. No surprise, politicians and journalists have long had a love/hate relationship. They need us in order to forward their […]

Is it over yet? Can I open my eyes? Oh wait, it hasn’t even started yet, has it? You know what I’m talking about because you’re thinking the same thing. Election season. It seems like it’s been going on forever. And yet, as good citizens we have to remain awake and attentive through it all—and […]

There have been times when I’ve been accused of enjoying the power of the pen a little too much. That I love my position perched high above the ag fields of the Santa Maria Valley, wielding my pen like a scepter and spilling my bias all over the pages of the Sun like so much […]

Oh, how our coastline is changing. In a big way. I understand that what happens at the coast doesn’t have the most immediate effect on most of Northern Santa Barbara County, but it also kind of does. It affects the overall picture of our lives as Central Coast residents, not to mention our ability to […]

Do you know what the problem with blue jays is? They have no respect for a gal’s seeds. I’m talking about the plump, tasty seeds that burst from the giant sunflowers I grow in my garden. I do all the work and those aggressive, mean thieves muscle their way into my yard and steal them, […]