I don’t know whether I’m surprised or not, but the owner of Stadium805—aka the Santa Maria Raceway—announced the impending closure of the landmark of Highway 101. Owner Nick Duggan posted his long rant about why and when via Facebook on Aug. 9. Apparently, it’s all San Luis Obispo County’s fault—well, big, bad SLO County and […]
Opinion
Posted inOpinion
Does the city of Lompoc have a sound financial plan?
The budget is a topic that isn’t normally of concern to most people; in fact, I would guess that most residents in Lompoc or anywhere else don’t even know what’s in the budget or how it is prepared. Most certainly very few people know anything about the principles that govern municipal budgets. History suggests that […]
Posted inOpinion
Diablo Canyon and desalination
We in California face a historically deep drought advancing on our state, in addition to the global warming increase that takes our Western U.S. water more every day. Yet, what are politicians fretting about? The plight of our Golden State? Not so much. The governor worries about the recall and where donations will come from […]
Posted inOpinion
Discrimination station
Man. You guys. If it wasn’t for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Santa Maria would still be racist against agricultural workers. Thank God that federal agency found out about the city’s “discriminatory” housing ordinance and threatened a $400,000 fine for noncompliance. If the city hadn’t repealed its employee housing ordinance, agricultural […]
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The full environmental impact of trucking oil across the Central Coast is hardly shown in the final report
Between an explosive sting video starring a senior lobbyist and a shareholders meeting that saw three seats on their board going to climate activists, ExxonMobil’s been having a rough year. It couldn’t happen to a nicer oil company. But it hasn’t slowed their roll on the Central Coast. It’s been almost a year since I […]
Posted inOpinion
Public parody
If I could point out one thing that’s wrong with our health care system right now, it’s this: A health care system that essentially has a monopoly on providing services in Santa Maria just terminated its contract with one of the largest health insurance providers in California—and it’s legal. In fact, it happens all the […]
Posted inOpinion
Neglected minor crimes lead to larger quality-of-life crimes that rot the core of society
In September 2017 in a locally published commentary, I observed “Broken windows; Lompoc is full of them”; this commentary was based on a theory by social scientists James Q. Wilson and George Kelling in 1982 that used broken windows as a metaphor for disorder within neighborhoods. Expanding on the theory, they wrote: “If the first […]
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In answer to your question
Vandenberg Village resident and frequent Sun letter writer Jan Lipski asked a question in the opinion section of this issue (“Still scared,” page 10) that hit too close to home. If I were in a generous frame of mind, I would figure that this is exactly what he intended to do—to ask a personal question […]
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A fearful, right-wing agenda
The three SLO County Board of Supervisors government obstructionists did it again. Instead of appointing the current deputy clerk recorder to fill the vacant SLO County clerk-recorder position, they want to open it up for their review of candidates. They want their hand-picked interim candidate for an elected position. They expect to get candidates from […]
Posted inOpinion
Tax dollars shouldn’t bail out nuclear industry
Do you want your tax dollars to be used to bail out the nuclear industry? Do you want to see between $50 billion and $100 billion of taxpayer dollars used over the next decade to keep these unprofitable, expensive, dangerous, and dirty reactors operating? Do you want to accumulate more radioactive waste with nowhere to […]
Posted inOpinion
Google isn’t the answer, teachers are
We’ve pretty well sorted out sex education in schools, and found that knowledge helped students make informed decisions. Rates of teenage pregnancy are down, and now school administrators and parents are arguing over whether we can trust students with the real history of this country. Never mind that any student who hears that adults don’t […]
Posted inOpinion
Still scared
The media did a real good job scaring everyone. So after all this time, you should let reality set in. Has anyone in your immediate or extended family tested positive for COVID-19? I had two. My son and a son-in-law. Did any of those people have symptoms, become hospitalized, or die? My family had no […]
