Canary

Can we just scrap the entire North County Jail project and start over again?  No? Crap. It’s an absolute mess. Absolutely.  I watched the Nov. 19 Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors meeting with a mixture of boredom, shock, and head shaking confusion. Yes, that’s how I watch all of the supes meetings. But when […]

If you’re not running for president, but you’re a candidate in another race, then there’s no need to attend a debate. After all, Donald Trump won’t be there to make it interesting. It’ll just be you, Katcho Achadjian, and Matt Kokkonen if you’re running as a Republican in the primary to snag the soon-to-be open […]

It’s been a week of fire and rain, preparedness and a little mudslinging. Fire consumed 70 acres in the hills above Montecito Oct. 29, days before Mother Nature sent a brief deluge of rain that gave us a taste of the storm waters to come, but was just a tad late to the fire.  I’ll […]

So did you miss me? In case you were curious about my sabbatical last week, I’ll be frank. My finely tuned birdy sense felt a storm brewing. No, not one of those weird “pop up” thunderstorms we’ve been enjoying between oppressive heat waves, a different kind of storm.  You see, the week before last, our […]

Maybe I’m just a little biased, but when it comes to where I like to perch, Santa Barbara County is the ideal. It’s the reason I don’t fly south for the winter. Why would I? People come to vacation here. I happen to live here.  That’s why I was so disappointed to see that Santa […]

Are you on Santa Barbara Mayor Helene Schneider’s email blast list like I am? If you aren’t, you’re definitely missing out. The woman’s PR machine is like a magical combination of ridiculous and relentless. It seems like every day, a new note’s waiting for me in my inbox. They include headlines like these: “Counting on […]

Divorce. Yuck.  And yet, it happens—although, at a much lower rate than previously thought. Apparently, if current trends continue, nearly two-thirds of marriages will never end in divorce, according to data a University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers gave The New York Times blog UpShot.  But still. Yuck. Imagine if Bill and Melinda Gates got […]

Lompoc’s been chasing a Space Center dream for a long time. And every time that little snippet of hope pops up in news headlines, there’s always a tidbit of information threatening to burst that balloon of optimistic/unrealistic thinking.  In 2009, the California Space Authority (CSA) was looking for members of the community to become members […]

A clap went up at the end of an unexpectedly long resolution hearing at the Sept. 15 Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors meeting, which was held in Santa Maria. It was a very different round of applause than any of the 20-plus clapping sessions that came before it in three-minute intervals during public comment […]

In the sleazy underworld of corporate criminals taking advantage of one another, it would seem Albertsons reigns supreme. And not because it spawned a grocery store or two in every town on the Central Coast.  Sometimes, I just want a local grocery store, you know, not some mad dash into a corporate store where it […]

As if Nipomo didn’t have enough water drama, Erin Brockovich had to bring her two cents to the Facebook table, which received attention from several media outlets: including the SLO Tribune, Cal Coast News, and KSBY. And, I guess, you can now add the Sun to that list. Damn bandwagons.  Brockovich protested against the Nipomo […]

We would have almost nothing to talk about if it wasn’t for Ashley Madison. And if you don’t know what that is, you obviously live under a tree in the middle of nowhere without cell phone service or Internet connection.  It’s everywhere. Facebook. OMG. We are consumed by infidelity. Ooh, scandalous. I will not jump […]