To save our United States, we must vote in the 2024 elections at all levels, from city council to president. There was the primary election on March 5 and the general election on Nov. 5. But how will we vote? The last election in 2020 was a crazy-quilt example of irregularities. Because of the COVID-19 […]
Opinion
Posted inOpinion
Too little, too late?
The United States is getting $80 million from Southern California Edison for the 2017 Thomas Fire, which burned through more than 280,000 acres. That’s cash money. Why? To recoup the damages and cost of fighting said fire on 150,000 acres of Los Padres National Forest in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties. Los Padres is getting […]
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The electric vehicle mandate will cost more and cause more problems—for everyone—than it solves
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 […]
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Mother Nature will have her revenge on Dana Reserve development
[Regarding the SLO County Board of Supervisors April 24 approval of the Dana Reserve development in Nipomo.] Really? This is an outrage on all levels, an insult and attack on our sense and sensibilities. We have surpassed our oak tree removal quota after letting Resnick clear-cut 15,000 oaks in Paso Robles. What is going on […]
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Dinosaur messes
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 […]
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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 […]
