Canary

One of the Sun’s reporters recently took an evening trip down Highway 101 to see for himself what the hubbub over this oil spill thing was all about. The smell was the first thing he noticed. It was unmistakable—the effervescent essence of freshly laid blacktop mixed with that familiar scent of gasoline straight out of […]

Last summer (2014) the California Department of Conservation discovered a little hiccup in the regulatory oversight of one of its agencies (a department within the department)—the Department of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources, also known as DOGGR. That little curve in the road led state regulators to review 50,000, that’s a lot, underground injection wells […]

Did you hear? The California State Water Resources Control Board finally passed regulations on water conservation. FINALLY! But they only did it because Gov. Jerry Brown finally—FINALLY—announced mandatory 25 percent water reductions statewide in an executive order. How long have we been in a drought now? Last time I checked, we were in year 4. […]

What’s a slimy, slippery miniscule critter with stripes or dots and beady little eyes that’s also considered an endangered species in two California counties? No, it’s not the red-legged frog—stripes and dots, people! Oh, and they scurry; they don’t hop along.  Yup, it’s that other species doggedly plaguing development projects in Santa Barbara County, the […]

Marching, protesting, and speaking out are one thing. Rioting, looting, and violence are another altogether. But if the dissatisfied recent echo that blasted through yet another U.S. city is any indicator of how people are feeling about the status quo, it’s explicitly clear: They’re unhappy, and they want things to change. Racism: It can be […]

Hepatitis means inflammation of the liver—that’s the official definition, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website, and so are the definitions that follow. There are three common types, listed here alphabetically: A, B, and C. They’re caused by three different viruses, and each can impact the liver in its own way. Hepatitis […]

Red fish, blue fish, green fish. North County Jail, Main Jail, Santa Maria Jail. SB 1022, AB 109, Prop. 47. One fish, two fish, three fish. Money, staffing, numbers. All of this stuff is too much to wrap my little pea-sized birdbrain around, except for the fish. That I can get behind. For everything else, […]

Medical marijuana, huh? Hoo! Talk about a touchy subject! The green stuff is less controversial today than it’s been in years past, considering that it’s been decriminalized in several states—even for recreational use alone!—and is kinda sorta allowed in certain situations in California, as long as the right person is looking the wrong way and […]

Did you see that report from a few weeks back? The one from the NASA scientist who predicted that California has only a year of water left? Um. The L.A. Times, which ran the mouth-parching opinion piece, has since admitted that the original headline might have given state residents the wrong impression. It’s not that […]

First of all, let me say this: There’s a lot I don’t understand about teaching. I do understand that it’s harder than it looks to the average outsider who sees a photo of a classroom full of shiny, happy kids—all with their hands folded politely, or maybe raised in the air, eager to answer the […]

I am not against NIMBYism, per se. For you non-acronym-speakers in the audience, NIMBY stands for “Not In My Backyard,” which sums up the sentiment of someone who doesn’t want the signs of progress or development to appear near their homes, even if they realize that such signs need to go somewhere. Home, in this […]

Why does it seem to be so hard to educate the children in our culture? Last week, I wrote about one local district’s contract negotiation impasse, which—if it stays as unresolved as it’s been for months now—could result in a strike. This week, our cover story is about the almost total dissolution of an area […]