The dominos are finally beginning to visibly fall for Big Oil on the Central Coast. Dinosaurs like the Phillips 66 refinery in Nipomo are on their last legs—thanks in part to massive environmental outcry over the projects proposed to keep them humming. SLO County’s 2017 decision to deny P66 a rail spur extension on its […]
Opinion
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A fuller look at history reveals that the intrepid ‘pathfinder of the West’ has a complicated reputation
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 […]
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What Oppenheimer didn’t tell us
Oscar-winning Oppenheimer fails to depict the experience of the Tewa people with the Trinity test. Using First Peoples and the land and water they protected as sacrifice for atomic testing, just weeks before the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the U.S. government poisoned the air, water, and sacred land of the Tewa—communities that for more […]
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An exercise in futility
I never understood the point of the California Coastal Commission’s attempt to regulate federal agencies. Who reigns supreme? Well, if it’s the Coastal Commission vs. the U.S. Department of Defense, I’ll let you guess the agency that gets to call the shots. If you think the commission is more powerful than the largest taxpayer-funded agency […]
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Listen to the voice of the village
The name Nipomo is said to have come from a Native American word that means village. The Community Alternative Plan for the Dana Reserve Project offers a single-family and affordable housing development choice that represents the voice of a village that has come together with experts to design a proposal with lasting beneficial impacts to […]
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Fast food workers’ new $20 an hour minimum wage is proving to be too good to be true
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 […]
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Mo’ money
Every time the Santa Barbara County jails get critiqued, Sheriff Bill Brown is ready with one of his classics: We need more money. He’s uttered an iteration of that line more times than I can count. With any whiff of constructive criticism, Brown’s armed and ready with his defenses. The county jail is short-staffed, has […]
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We must end our addiction to fossil fuels
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 […]
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Homelessness solutions require broad agreement
Most people can broadly agree on a few things about the homeless. It is distressing to see them. They make an awful mess. Some of them are dangerous. They devalue our cities and neighborhoods. They reduce our collective quality of life. Beyond these areas of broad agreement opinions diverge. Consensus is lost. Possibilities are limited. […]
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What would Texas do?
For everyone who’s yammering on about how California is such a strict state to do business in, we sure are lax when it comes to holding oil companies accountable for their messes. Texas has stronger laws than California does. Texas. The state all the RINO’s are leaving us for. Texas state law requires oil field […]
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Lompoc’s street and alley conditions are measurably bad
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, […]
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‘Do the right thing’ should extend beyond liberals
Having read John Donegan’s recent epic “Do the right thing” (March 28), I do have to admit that I agree with a lot of what he has to say, which, as a recovering progressive, is a bit painful for me. It does seem that it takes American liberals, especially progressives, an inordinate amount of time […]
