Cover Story
Local governments pursue temporary housing as first step to getting people off the streets
Editor’s note: This is the second story in a two-part series on solutions to homelessness. The first, “Shelter, services, support: Local governments along the Pacific Coast innovate to address the growing issue of homelessness,” ran on April 14. When the COVID-19 shelter-at-home mandate went into place in March 2020, 5 Cities Homeless Coalition (5CHC) Executive…
Central Coast Film Society recognizes winners of third annual Student Showcase
Students from various local high schools were awarded with scholarships at the Central Coast Film Society’s third annual Student Showcase, which was held at San Luis Obispo High School in the beginning of April. Each winner was a participant of this year’s Student Film and Digital Media Arts Competition, and had the opportunity to showcase…
RoseDog Books publishes new thriller, ‘The Horrendous Disaster’, by Santa Maria-based teen author
Santa Maria local and eighth grade student Penelope Wasylychyn wrote a 30-page fiction book, The Horrendous Disaster, which was recently published by RoseDog Books and is currently available for purchase. Paperback editions are $9, while the eBook version is $5. According to RoseDog Books, Wasylychyn began writing the book during the pandemic. In her free…
37th Assembly District race is down to two candidates
Santa Barbara County 2nd District Supervisor Gregg Hart wasn’t necessarily looking for something different, but when he saw redistricting’s impact on the 37th Assembly District, he said he decided to run for the state-level seat. “I enjoy my job at the county Board of Supervisors. We have lots of ideological differences, but we manage to…
Community advocates for Santa Maria skatepark improvements
When Santa Maria’s only skatepark’s ramps and equipment suddenly disappeared, the skating community was frustrated and angry, community advocate Dan Pankratz said. “Word had later gotten back to us saying the city wasn’t getting rid of the ramps, but planned to fix them and put them back. [That’s] all good, but it didn’t ease the…
One Room Escapes and Coffee prepares to debut its first escape room, The Sorcerer’s Sanctum
Primarily open during the day for breakfast and lunch, One Room Escapes and Coffee is best known for its drinks, baked goods, and seemingly endless amount of board games available for patrons to play. All three of those offerings are about to extend into occasional evening hours at the Lompoc venue, along with a new…
New Perspectives highlights a septet of artists at Gallery Los Olivos
Seven artists recently assembled to showcase their varying media, diverse perspectives, and different artistic approaches in Gallery Los Olivos’ latest group exhibition, New Perspectives. One of the featured painters, Marcia Burtt, also served as curator and coordinator for the show. “Pulling together such widely different points of view felt like a challenge,” said Burtt, who’s…
Six Santa Barbara County veterans received retroactive high school diplomas through countywide initiative
Guadalupe Lopez left high school to go serve his country in the Vietnam War. Coming from a patriotic family with brothers who served in the Korean War, the then Santa Maria resident felt it was his calling to follow in their footsteps, Lopez said. “I wanted to finish school and have a diploma, but because…
Political Watch: April 21, 2022
• U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) and a group of 40 members of Congress pushed the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) for updated and explicit guidance on illegal machine gun conversion devices—also known as auto sears—to reduce gun violence and protect communities, according to an April 12 statement. “These devices, which…
Kamala Harris announces ban on anti-satellite missile testing while visiting Vandenberg
Air Force Two touched down on the Central Coast April 18, when Vice President Kamala Harris landed at Vandenberg Space Force Base. While she was there, Harris announced that the U.S. was taking a “major step forward” in addressing “the problem of destructive missile tests in space, like the one Russia took in November.” “We…
Very nice
To hear Mike Stoker tell it, campaigning for elected office is really about one thing: “How it really should work is to have two candidates with two different perspectives who are willing to own those perspectives. We can both be nice people but it’s a question of what direction you want for California.” Two candidates…
A cost history of how the Lompoc Aquatic Center has become a ‘money pit hidden from public view’
A white elephant is a possession that its owner cannot dispose of and whose cost, particularly that of maintenance, is out of proportion to its usefulness. First let’s stipulate that a community needs a recreational venue like an aquatic center; in Lompoc the city’s aquatic center currently serves about 10,000 users each month. The second…
