On March 18, 2021, the California Coastal Commission made the historic decision that off-road vehicles must be removed from Oceano Dunes because off-road vehicle use jeopardizes one of the world’s rarest coastal ecosystems and endangered wildlife (not to mention harming local public health and air quality). Four years later, the court struck down the Coastal […]
Opinion
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Restore Oceano’s natural defenses
The draft 2025 Soil Conservation Plan for Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area is a disappointing endorsement for hauling our beautiful beach to the dump. For years, massive amounts of sand have been tracked out on vehicle tires from the Grand and Pier Avenue exits, resulting in tons of sand being hauled to landfills—an estimated […]
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Who’s counting?
In the stand-off to see who wins in the great pipeline battle of the 2020s, it seems like Sable Offshore Corporation’s closer to the finish line than environmental organizations want it to be. In May 2025, the oil company began pumping oil from its offshore oil platforms to its onshore facility in Las Flores Canyon, […]
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Shortsighted politicians never consider the impacts of their decisions
What do you do when you have a significant government budget deficit? If you are a politician in Santa Barbara County or the governor of California, you double down on shutting off revenue flows. Both the state of California and Santa Barbara County are facing significant budget shortfalls; according to the state Legislative Analyst’s Office, […]
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Let’s work together to find peace
Freedom is peace, and peace is freedom. Peace. We all seek peace. In our lives. In our families. Among our friends and neighbors. In our country, and in the world. But we may ask ourselves, “Is peace even attainable?” And, “Is there anything I can do to bring peace into my life and into the […]
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At least we Californians passed Proposition 50 legally
I would like to inform John Donegan (“The ideological spirit of California Supreme Court Justice Rose Bird lives on with Proposition 50,” Jan. 1) that the only reason we in California needed Proposition 50 is because of Trump insisting on illegal gerrymandering in Texas and other states. At least we did it legally! Jacqueline Claire […]
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Shock factor
Northern Santa Barbara County is rounding out 2025 with an alleged maternal filicide case that’s captured national interest. It’s a shocking case in which a 9-year-old girl from Vandenberg Village was murdered and left on the side of a remote road in Utah, where she stayed for weeks before being discovered. It’s sad on a […]
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The ideological spirit of California Supreme Court Justice Rose Bird lives on with Proposition 50
There is a lot of talk these days about gerrymandering, both in the context of Proposition 50 and in a pending challenge to a part of the Voters Rights Act of 1965 that requires that race be considered in redistricting so that a minority can be assured of districts in which they dominate. It seems […]
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Let’s spew out some big numbers for the people to love
President Trump’s recent staccato-like speech to the nation featured a host of big percentages, apparently to mask the little percentages in the 30s showing plummeting support for his economic policies. Our No. 47 boasted that the price of eggs was down 82 percent since March. Illegal drugs are down 94 percent. Also, 100 percent of […]
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Tough crowd
Anyone who thought that Guadalupe’s downtown was finally going to be home to construction activities on the Royal Theater revamp needs to wait just a little bit longer. After breaking ground in early December, the project hit another snag. The city needs Santa Barbara County Air Pollution Control District [APCD] approval to move forward with […]
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Reflect on the most wonderful time of the year before 2026
Well, the Christmas parades are behind us; all the Christmas displays are up and running, and the Lompoc City electric division is counting more revenue from all those home-lighting themes. When I was young, Christmas morning was the long-awaited culmination of a boy’s hopes and dreams. We saw angels, mangers, tumbleweed snowmen, and Santa’s sleighs […]
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Trump’s deal-making benefits the world, not us
The international equivalent of the S&P 500 Index is the ACWI Index, which tracks large and mid-cap stocks in almost 50 developed countries and emerging markets. It usually performs similar the S&P 500 and at times even underperforms it. This year, since Trump took over, the S&P 500 is up almost 18 percent, which is […]
