Commentaries

Earlier this year, a few local citizens created great concern when they tried to imply that something sinister was happening concerning the finances of Visit Lompoc Incorporated (VLI).  According to a May 21 staff report, “Between the months of March and June 2023, three individuals made public comments during the regularly held City Council meetings […]

I seriously doubt that Ron Fink has ever had an honest discussion with an electric vehicle (EV) owner (“Who will pay?” April 25). I am an EV owner and would like to respond to his claims with facts. Ron claims that EVs catch fire spontaneously or after a crash, that the electric grid will be […]

As Santa Barbara County and the state of California continue with their efforts to save the Earth, the metrics for measuring success of the effort continue to change like the weather. For example, in 2021 the Board of Supervisors set a goal of reducing so-called greenhouse gasses (GHG) by 50 percent of the 2007 levels […]

American college students should not be forced to give up their constitutional rights to free speech, to peacefully assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances. That is what is happening today on college campuses across the country. It began when protesters set up tents on the South Lawn of Columbia University […]

According to the state Air Resources Control Board, California is mandating by executive fiat the electrification of all new vehicles purchased in California by 2035. Not mentioned is the cost of the mandate or who will pay for it. The first issue is fire safety. According to Business Insider, “Car fires have always been dangerous […]

The 2024 election is hurtling toward us like a runaway train. The far right has launched a full-scale attack on alleged “indoctrination” of political correctness that they claim to find throughout public education, from kindergarten through high school and especially in colleges. I’m a retired history teacher with 20 years’ experience in our local secondary […]

In January of this year, the state of California raised the minimum wage to $16 per hour, but this wasn’t good enough for some union leaders and the politicians they own in Sacramento. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has been trying to organize fast food workers but has failed, so they hatched a plan […]

Seventy-five years ago, the legendary California Zephyr debuted with “modern” passenger train service from Chicago to Oakland. As a child, I often watched from my bedroom as the orange-and-silver Zephyr locomotive roared by our Redding home.  In the 19th century, iron rails literally stitched our continent together. In 1875, the narrow-gauge Pacific Coast Railway reached […]

Anyone who lives in the city of Lompoc knows that many streets and alleys in our city are in poor shape. But when subjected to a professional review using a nationally accepted roadway standards, how bad are they? During a City Council meeting on March 19 to discuss a public hearing to consider Measure A, […]

Winston Churchill famously observed that Americans will always do the right thing, only after they’ve tried everything else. It seems that San Francisco may be trying to emulate Churchill’s pithy observation. Yes, this is another rant about San Francisco’s descent into dysfunction and squalor. Criticizing the mess in San Francisco is so easy that I […]

The city of Lompoc like many other jurisdictions is adding a new environmental justice element (chapter) to the general plan.  The introduction to the new chapter says, “Today, and throughout California and United States history, communities with lower incomes, lower levels of education, and higher proportions of minority residents often bear a disproportionately large burden […]

The other night, I heard an elected leader talk about her time as an activist and how the “inside-outside” approach has been a theme in her life. This local female leader is what I would label a “badass.”  Time and age have mellowed her but if you scratch the surface, the hard-core activist is still […]