Letters To The Editor

After two years, untold tens of thousands of dollars spent, scores of meetings with wineries, several press releases, a business improvement district (BID) website, four proposals, and a rejection by the Board of Supervisors staff, the Santa Barbara County Vintners Association board at the end of October announced they were dropping the wine BID. How […]

A developer wants to build as many as 11 homes on a 1 1/2 acre lot in Los Alamos with access from a quiet road that is less accustomed to vehicular traffic than to walkers and joggers, dog walkers, children on bikes, and parents with infants in strollers. The county Planning Department is in the […]

I’m eager to see how much national treasure will be looted by President Trump and his swamp critter pals on their way out the door in the next 2 1/2 months: billions in no-bid contracts? Artwork? Everything with a presidential seal? Historical furnishings? Pencils/paper clips? For a karmically appropriate Inauguration Day gesture, Joe Biden could […]

Dystopian. You’ve read the books and have seen the movies. Classics like Dark City or Road Warrior, The Matrix. Authors like Aldous Huxley, George Orwell. The themes are similar. Paranoia of our government and even our neighbor. “Newspeak” where the language becomes controlled by the enforcer. “Thought Police” where any expression can be a criminal […]

In the midst of a year that has brought challenges to all of us, one bright spot is our ability to make our voices heard this election on a topic valued by everyone—quality education. Dr. Richard Fulton, who is running for reelection to represent District 3 on the Santa Barbara County Education Board of Trustees, […]

Late the afternoon of Friday, Oct. 16, the Newsom administration quietly issued six new fracking permits to Aera Energy (owned by Shell and Exxon), bringing the total of approvals since April to 54. As a candidate, Gov. Gavin Newsom promised to oppose fracking. During our recent wildfires, he took to the national stage to declare […]

More than 5,500 medical and public health scientists and 11,000 medical practitioners have signed the Barrington Declaration.  According to the declaration, “current lockdown policies are producing devastating effects on short- and long-term public health.” It concludes that “keeping these measures in place until a vaccine is available will cause irreparable damage, with the underprivileged disproportionately […]

At its Tuesday, Oct. 20, meeting, the Lompoc City Council passed a resolution stating: “The City Council does not consent to the inclusion of the city of Lompoc in the BID.” This was in response to a petition from 32 Lompoc wineries opposing the Santa Barbara Vintners’ Wine Business Improvement District (BID). The petition signers […]

I am very unsure about the future of my education right now. The only thing I do know is that we will need more funding for our schools and communities as we move past COVID-19.  Proposition 15 is one of the only solutions that could help us get funding to get through this crisis. I […]

What could be more un-American than Brits trashing this country. John Oliver recently took to task the Electoral College with how it misrepresented minorities and more irrelevant falderal. John, become a citizen, and then you might have some standing. The Electoral College is always topical because we stopped teaching the foundations of our government. Headline […]

California is facing a financial crisis with two idiotic proposals. First is Proposition 15. Small business owners already have difficulty paying workers. Workers who are struggling to put food on their family’s table and struggling to pay their bills. Proposition 15 is a deceptively worded bad idea trying to gut Proposition 13’s limitation of confiscatory […]

California Coastal Commission and State Parks were supposed to review the final draft of the public works plan for Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area (ODSVRA) on Oct. 15. Unsurprisingly, the public works plan is not ready, and the meeting has been canceled. The public works plan has been an excuse for State Parks to […]