The sand trap at Oceano’s Pier Avenue ramp proposed by the settlement between State Parks and SLO County Air Pollution Control District (APCD) is going to make our beach and community even uglier and noisier than it already is. The ramp itself should not even be there. It is illegal. It has been illegal for […]
Opinion
Posted inOpinion
Think twice on Measure T
The proponents of Measure T2018 say Santa Barbara County embarked on a yearlong process to review issues surrounding countywide marijuana grows. The two cities most impacted by the marijuana operators in our county, Carpinteria and Goleta, oppose the regulatory framework the county adopted to mitigate impacts from marijuana grows. Opposing Measure T isn’t about opposing […]
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More of the same in Lompoc
Six weeks after 57 percent of Lompoc voters passed Prop 64, city staff, including then City Manager Patrick Wiemiller, City Attorney Joe Pannone, and both the police chief and former fire chief initiated, drafted, or supported a city ordinance to ban adult-use recreational cannabis businesses in opposition to the voters directive. Ultimately, the Lompoc City […]
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Just keep digging
Do you ever feel like you’re just slogging through the news cycle? There’s so much to know, it just keeps piling up! But hey, at least you don’t have to slog through hours-long meetings of minutia and bureaucratic hemming and hawing—that’s our job! The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors were up to their knees […]
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SB County No. 1 for pot licenses now what?
Recently a local newspaper in an online posting reported that Santa Barbara County Supervisor Janet Wolf said 250 temporary state cannabis operation licenses have been issued for Santa Barbara County, while only three have been issued for San Luis Obispo County, and the county had achieved No. 1 status in the state. This even surpasses […]
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The truth about Australia’s gun laws
Gary Wechter, in his “criticism” entitled “Gun-free Australia” (March 8) wrote that another letter writer, Ken McCalip, “lied or failed to check his facts when he stated that since 1996, when Australia banned and confiscated certain types of weapons, they’ve had ‘zero’ mass shootings” and suggested McCalip “take the time” to check Google’s link to […]
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NIMBYs and the Nipomo Dunes
Since the 1990s, some of the bigger developments on the Nipomo Mesa have imported a bunch of well-to-do NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yard) who are out to eliminate the recreational activities in the Nipomo Dunes. Those activities have been long enjoyed by locals and visitors alike well before these newcomers moved into an area […]
Posted inOpinion
Time warp again
The Santa Barbara County news cycle time loop I mentioned last week (“On repeat,” March 1) is still going strong: The county is hemorrhaging millions of dollars, another county jail inmate died, another Lompoc Prison inmate walked out of the facility, and lawmakers are stuck on gun control. Something that’s all too familiar to Sun […]
Posted inOpinion
Gun-free Australia
Ken McCalip either lied or failed to check his facts when he stated that since 1996, when Australia banned and confiscated certain types of weapons, they’ve “had ‘zero’ mass shootings” (“Australia got tough,” March 1, New Times; see commentary). Had Mr. McCalip taken the time to perform a quick Google search, “mass murders in Australia,” […]
Posted inOpinion
Hello, Sun
Thanks for publishing my oil letter (“Support offshore oil in California,” Feb. 15). But you insist on showing the anti-Trump jibber-jabber rantings of McCalip (“Attack on U.S. farming interests,” Feb. 15). Isn’t some balance needed in evaluating the work this great man—President Trump—is doing for us? Trump has done everything right for this country. Washington […]
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Now is the time to act on gun control
It’s time for all of us baby boomers as well as all Americans to take a look back to our time in high school and grammar school and visualize the classrooms in America that gave us a secure beginning and a basis for our future with loving and dedicated teachers. For the vast majority of […]
Posted inOpinion
On repeat
Are we caught in some kind of Star Trek-esque time loop, where the same events keep repeating themselves in perpetuity? Another threat on a local school following a national mass shooting. Violent crimes in the streets of North County cities. Natural disaster warnings buzzing phones. County government and residents arguing over recreational cannabis regulations. It’s […]