Everyone follows a path through life; some paths are littered with traps and dead ends, others with an easy ride/walk/run and nothing but positive outcomes. In Lompoc, the city used a transportation grant to build a paved path with all of those things wrapped up into one project. Dubbed the Riverbend Bike Path it was […]
Opinion
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Way out there
It’s “pretty obvious what went on in this election,” according to Matt Walker, who made that comment on a Facebook post from local shock jock and resident right-wing conspiracy theorist Andy Caldwell, who lost to U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) and is now insinuating voter fraud on the Central Coast. “I think it stinks […]
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Economic, environmental transitions shouldn’t happen suddenly
A group of residents wants to ban [oil] production in California in the name of the environment. What is this ban trying to accomplish? Californians today need to drive, heat and cool their homes, and use any of the 6,000 everyday products made from petroleum. Since everyone’s goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, is […]
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Central Coast leftists are traveling a dangerous path
Oh, no! Once again, our Central Coast “woketariat” is in an uproar! This time, the irritated and indignant insurgents have fixed their sights on Cuesta College Trustee Pete Sysak, and on Paso Robles school district Clerk Chris Arends and demand their banishment for the usual liberal litany of “-isms.” What has our youthful cadre of […]
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Yo-yo time
Here we are. Back in the purple zone. And it’s not just Santa Barbara County either. It’s basically most of the state’s populated areas. COVID-19 is here and spreading fast, again. New lockdowns seem imminent. It looks like distance learning won’t become a thing of the past anytime soon, mask wearing isn’t going away, and […]
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Why the Santa Barbara County Vintners’ wine BID imploded
After two years, untold tens of thousands of dollars spent, scores of meetings with wineries, several press releases, a business improvement district (BID) website, four proposals, and a rejection by the Board of Supervisors staff, the Santa Barbara County Vintners Association board at the end of October announced they were dropping the wine BID. How […]
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A tale of a town
A developer wants to build as many as 11 homes on a 1 1/2 acre lot in Los Alamos with access from a quiet road that is less accustomed to vehicular traffic than to walkers and joggers, dog walkers, children on bikes, and parents with infants in strollers. The county Planning Department is in the […]
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The election ushered in a new era for Lompoc’s leadership
By all accounts, the recent election had the highest level of participation in anyone’s memory—a stunning 85 percent countywide! Maybe this is the only positive outcome of the COVID-19 virus pandemic. I think that our county handled this well by allowing four in-person days of voting and counting vote-by-mail ballots as they arrived to provide […]
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Did we break?
Jubilation, despondence, and chaos. That’s where America is living right now. Some are looking forward to a brighter future. Some are struggling to hold onto the past. And me, I’m feeling a little hopeless. You don’t really need to look much farther than Stowell Road in Santa Maria to see where the good ol’ U.S. […]
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The 79-day interregnum
I’m eager to see how much national treasure will be looted by President Trump and his swamp critter pals on their way out the door in the next 2 1/2 months: billions in no-bid contracts? Artwork? Everything with a presidential seal? Historical furnishings? Pencils/paper clips? For a karmically appropriate Inauguration Day gesture, Joe Biden could […]
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Lessons learned about America while volunteering for the 2020 elections
I volunteered to be a poll worker in the Santa Maria area for the presidential election of 2020. I was assigned to work at Orcutt Junior High School; here is what I learned. On the first day of a four-day work assignment, at around 8:30 a.m., about 16 to 20 volunteer poll workers (the number […]
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Right to complain
It’s Election Day 2020. I’m swinging in my cage, pecking away at the keyboard as I anxiously await the results that you can’t read in this week’s paper. Why? Well, it’s our press schedule, you see. We hit the printer before the results get announced. I’m no prognosticator, but I think it’s going to be […]
