But Katie Davis, chair of Sierra Club’s Los Padres Chapter (Santa Barbara and Ventura counties), recently described what it was like to live through the Refugio Beach oil spill five years ago: “You can’t completely clean up an offshore oil spill. The oil sinks into the marine environment, damaging fragile underwater ecosystems, killing or contaminating […]
Opinion
Posted inOpinion
Some victory, EDC
I would like to offer my congratulations to the EDC for their great victory against the people of Santa Barbara County. The consistent extremist anti-petroleum posturing in Santa Barbara County is nothing if it is not consistent. It never ceases to amaze me, their ability to attack an entire industry with no accountability to the […]
Posted inOpinion
‘Don’t just hope for a better Lompoc, vote for it’
Mayor Jenelle Osborne is running for reelection in November; she has served as mayor for the last two years, during which she has been consistently disrespected by three councilmen who serve with her. They regularly ignore her ideas and instead impose their own brand of governing, and it has caused a significant deterioration of city […]
Posted inOpinion
CANARY: Bye, bye energy
Well, it really happened. Solvang’s voters will get the chance to recall City Councilmember Chris Djernaes on Nov. 3. More than 25 percent of the city’s registered voters signed the petition, so neither the city nor Santa Barbara County has a choice but to put it on the ballot. The people have spoken! Lammy Johnstone, […]
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Hearing what you want to hear?
To all of the Americans who are still adamantly supporting, defending, and enabling the president—have you had enough yet? Has the swamp been drained enough yet? Four years ago the president appointed the wealthiest cabinet in U.S. history and plugged in family members. His tax plan two years ago disproportionately benefited the wealthy (not the […]
Posted inOpinion
We’re clearly not affected equally
With a language as rich as what is spoken in the United States, how is it that we have been reduced to four catchphrases: “In these uncertain times.” “In these unprecedented times.” Maybe there are only three. “We’re all in this together” is the third, and it is the most annoying. We are not all […]
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Support your post office
We’d all hate to not get our bills, beneficial checks, letters from loved ones, medication, celebration cards, magazines, etc. Our post offices are self-funded, but Donald Trump doesn’t want to add funding during the coming election because he knows if more people receive mail-in ballots, Republicans will lose. Support our post offices by buying stamps, […]
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Test the answers
How is COVID-19 test data reported on the Santa Barbara County Public Health Department website; what does it represent? On July 24, the “total test” data was as follows: 70,350 tests were administered; 5,576 were positive; and 64,856 were negative. The number grows every day. Is this the number of individuals who were tested, or […]
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Keep oil trucks off our roads
Soon ExxonMobil may receive permission from Santa Barbara County to truck oil from its Gaviota facility, up highways 101 and 166 to refineries in Kern County—280,000 to 560,000 gallons of oil per day in 70 trucks, 140 round trips, will pass through my town, Buellton, as well as Los Alamos, Orcutt, Santa Maria, and Cuyama […]
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CANARY: The ol’ switcheroo
Sometimes when you tune in to the right Santa Barbara County Planning Commission, you get more than you bargained for. And often, that’s in hours—people droning on about zoning and regulations that support their opposition to their neighbor installing a patio. “The very thought of them enjoying their backyard conjures up noise, noise, noise!” But […]
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Vote with your forward-thinking wallet
Assemblymember Jordan Cunningham (R-San Luis Obispo) authored AB 2898 in a last-ditch effort to extend the life of dirty Diablo Canyon Power Plant. This bill foolishly seeks to reclassify nuclear energy as a renewable resource. Not only is nuclear power by definition not renewable because the world’s supply of uranium is limited—but it’s also dirty, […]
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Lompoc needs a City Council majority that’s focused on economic development
Everyone knows that “Lompoc is at the end of the road” geographically, and this semi-isolation impacts our economy: Can city leaders improve the economic situation in our city? Since the space shuttle program ended at nearby Vandenberg Air Force Base, the city has seen relatively little growth. Developers like large parcels of land to build […]
