Some stories stick. They unfold slowly over time and are a constant source of news. We’ve been covering some of those in the Santa Maria Valley since this paper was founded in 2000. For 26 years, Sun reporters have watched and written about Santa Maria’s downtown—complaints about how the mall killed it, how the city […]
Special Issues
Posted inNews
Some of the Sun’s earliest story subjects are still making headlines
Within its first year of publication, the Sun shined a light on local issues, leaders, and lore that continue to make headlines 26 years later. Santa Maria’s desire to make its downtown core more walkable and attractive to pedestrians, for example, graced the cover of the Sun’s premiere issue, which hit stands on March 31, 2000. Today, […]
Posted inSpecial Issues
For 26 years, the Sun has pursued thoughtful coverage, welcoming and including all voices
Since 2000, the Santa Maria Valley’s population has grown by more than 30,000 people. It’s gained school campuses, a county jail, and more box stores and chain restaurants than it probably needed to. Cannabis is now legal. Politics is über-polarized. Ideology, more entrenched. Social media has changed the way we interact with one another. The […]
Posted inSpecial Issues
OUTDOORS 2021
We decided to try something new this year with the Sun’s first Outdoors issue. In it Staff Writer Malea Martin covers the 12,000 pounds of trout planted in Cachuma Lake at the end of 2020 and the uptick in fishers and boaters using the recreational spot during the COVID-19 pandemic, while Staff Writer Kasey Bubnash […]
Posted inSpecial Issues
Moments in time
A photograph can capture a moment in a way that words simply can’t. And the way in which that point in time is portrayed has everything to do with the person behind the camera. Each photographer’s unique view of the world—the way they think, how they look at things, what they find interesting—colors the snapshots […]
Posted inSpecial Issues
We like short stories and we cannot lie
For the second year in a row, we invited guest judges to wade through the stacks of 55 Fiction entries and impose order on chaos, selecting the very best to print in our annual 55 Fiction issue. The judges were San Luis Obispo County District 3 supervisor and former Cal Poly English lecturer Adam Hill; […]