Many of you may have read of the brouhaha over the Netflix special of comedian Dave Chappelle, The Closer. Chappelle’s routines are notorious for jokes that insult and mock nearly every group, including whites, women, gays, Jews, and Asians. His usual material largely revolves around biting comments on race and identity, and Bloomberg has glowingly […]
Opinion
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Media matters
Copenhagen Drive in Solvang is reopening to vehicle traffic on Feb. 2, according to the Santa Barbara-News Press. According to the Sun’s reporting, it most certainly is not. In fact, the Solvang City Council is now considering potentially keeping the city’s main downtown drag closed to trucks, trailers, cars, and buses in perpetuity. Ooh. So […]
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High pension risk in Lompoc affects the future of public projects citywide
Lompoc taxpayers and those in many other cities of the county have a problem: The Public Employee Retirement System (CalPERS) is underfunded. This should concern everyone, and I’ll explain why. CalPERS was created to provide public (government) employees with a retirement fund paid by employee and taxpayer contributions. It replaces the federal Social Security program, […]
Posted inOpinion
Marine sanctuaries are essential for preventing unwanted harmful activities off our coast
How will the Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary provide economic benefits and environmental protections to the Central Coast? Let us count the ways. A 2014 study of the potential economic impacts of a national marine sanctuary off the Central Coast (conducted by Jason Scorse, director of Center for the Blue Economy at the Monterey Institute […]
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Chin up!
Well, kids, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but just in case you don’t pay attention to anything vaguely internet-related: COVID-19 is back! The omicron variant is sweeping the country (Thanks, globalization! Thanks, anti-vaxxers!), including Santa Barbara County, and it’s more contagious than ever! Yahoo! So mask up, vax up, and keep […]
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There’s always next year
This year is over, man. And it almost feels like the only thing left to do is shake my little bird head. My takeaway from 2021 is that everything would be much easier if we all just learned how to communicate with others and genuinely sought out reality rather than ideas that strengthen our existing […]
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Sanctuaries aren’t working
One of the things I am not seeing in the discussion over a new marine sanctuary off our coast is how well are the ones we have working? As written by Lori French (“Unnecessary,” Dec. 23) there are four national marine sanctuaries designated in California since 1980. Also, there are 124 state marine protected areas, […]
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It’s the end of the year; how was it?
The past year saw a continuance of teeter-totter COVID-19 rules. It’s hard to keep up with the off-again, on-again restrictions, mandates, closures, and misinformation concerning this disease. All this confusion has led the government to use cash and political pronouncement’s once again as a cure-all for something they can’t fix. In the process of infusing […]
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Cannabis. Cannabis.
I almost felt bad for the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors on Dec. 14 when they had to decide on yet another appeal of an approved cannabis cultivation project. Only this time, the decision before them felt like it had higher stakes. Former Lt. Gov. Abel Maldonado was on one side, and the Millers […]
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Designating a national marine sanctuary off the coast of the Central Coast isn’t needed to protect an already protected ocean
In 1974, President Ford established the first National Marine Sanctuary off North Carolina—The USS Monitor National Marine Sanctuary. It was established to protect the shipwreck, and is currently being considered for expansion to protect additional shipwrecks. Currently there are five National Marine Sanctuaries off the West Coast, four of which are located off the coast […]
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Undefined plans
Before I move to the dark side, I’m going to give a shoutout to the Alisal fire burn scar for making it through this last storm relatively intact! According to Santa Barbara County Public Works rain gauges, areas of the county tallied between 1.3 and 7.5 inches of rain. Wowzers! And kudos to Santa Barbara […]
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American Rescue Plan Act funds will save Lompoc, but only if council members can make up their mind
The Lompoc budget, like may other municipal budgets, covers a span of two years. A lot can happen to both revenue and expense predictions during that period. The Lompoc City Council wisely chose to have a periodic review to see where they were with the spending plan. On Dec. 7 they received that update, and […]
