Cover Story
18th Annual Best of Northern Santa Barbara County
DINING OUT Best Santa Maria Restaurant Shaw’s Steakhouse 714 S. Broadway, Santa Maria You might have the nicest roadster or hot rod in town, but you’ll still struggle to find some parking at Shaw’s Steakhouse in Santa Maria. The famous restaurant is almost always packed with locals looking for a perfect sit-down dinner…
PCPA’s Instagram features backstage footage and more
Followers of Pacific Conservatory Theatre (PCPA) on Instagram will be able to view exclusive behind-the-scenes videos during productions of upcoming performances. Actors from various projects periodically shoot brief videos and answer questions from followers live, giving followers and fans a chance to see what goes on during a typical production. In addition to the videos,…
Valley Art Gallery hosts reception for Hattie Stoddard
Orcutt’s Valley Art Gallery will host a meet-and-greet with local artist Hattie Stoddard on Aug. 3, at the launch of her new show, Botanicals From My Garden. Stoddard is a former graphic artist who launched her own successful line of handcrafted teddy bears. She retired to Santa Maria and began her work in botanical illustrations.…
Artist Carol Simon featured at Gallery Los Olivos
Gallery Los Olivos will present A Country Ramble, a one-woman show featuring the work of Carol Simon through Aug. 31. Simon is an oil and watercolor painter who uses her personal travel photography as inspiration for her paintings. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Simon is also a classically trained musician who plays organ,…
Drinks and more: Pico’s bar highlights drinks influenced by the chef’s imagination
Chef Drew Terp of Pico is easily most at home when he’s stomping around the restaurant’s backyard garden, but on this day, he’s more excited than usual. Terp is showing off an impressive large-scale smoker that he built himself. He can now smoke multiple cuts of meat at once, as opposed to the smaller version…
Free wheelin’: Open Streets event celebrates second year in Lompoc
On any given day, the streets of downtown Lompoc are typically filled with a steady cluster of cars, weaving in and out of lanes and whizzing through intersections. It’s not always a picnic for pedestrians. But that will change on Aug. 3. For one day, the city will host a unique event which eschews cars…
Joyful: Tonya Romano Schultz brings her radiant worldview to the Lompoc Valley Arts Association
People. Nature. Life. Love. These are just a few of the things Lompoc painter Tonya Romano Schultz listed as the main influences of her work. She paused on “love” to explain further. “I think more than anything else in this world, we need love and acceptance,” she said. “I try to emulate that in my…
And still we hope
The United States brought nuclear weapons into the world. It is the only country to have used them and did so on innocent civilians. Nuclear weapons are now many times more powerful than the fission bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They make no nation safer but imperil all nations and the planet we…
USDA grant program serves as reminder for needed work on Central Coast
On July 30, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced a series of grants and loans it awarded to help upgrade and rebuild rural water infrastructure. “[The] USDA is committed to being a strong partner to rural communities in building their futures,” assistant to the Secretary for Rural Development Anne Hazlet stated. “All people–regardless of…
Santa Barbara County has one of highest poverty rates in state
Santa Barbara County’s poverty rate is the third highest in the state, according to a new report from the nonpartisan, nonprofit think tank Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC). The Central Coast county’s 23 percent poverty rate trailed only Los Angeles (24.3) and Santa Cruz (23.8) counties. “The picture of poverty is quite different than…
NTMA turns 10: The New Times Music Awards (NTMAs) calls for singer/songwriters and bands to submit new music for 10th annual competition
Without fail, just about every year now for the past decade, one or more musician friends ask me after-the-fact: “Dude, why didn’t you tell me about the New Times Music Awards?” Well here it is, unequivocally: The Sun and New Times is currently accepting entries for the 10th annual New Times Music Awards, which we…
Shop not: Rebecca fights a bored man for one Sunday of shopping
One of my biggest joys in life (aside from revelling in the downfall of Natalie Portman, but I’ll get to that another time) is shopping. I’m so good at shopping I consider it my cardio. I love nothing more than strolling around any shop picking through jewelry, clothes, shoes, decorative items, and more. That would…
Best wishes
Just as summer starts each year, the Sun staff goes collectively insane working on Best Of. Don’t get me wrong, we love Best Of! What a great way to celebrate excellence in our community. But seriously, it’s a lot of work. We count hundreds and hundreds of votes, contact dozens and dozens of businesses owners…
Pot calling the kettle black
I would like to respond to a letter in the Santa Maria Times titled, “Democrats and hypocrisy,” (July 20). A part-time janitor who worked at a processing center for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Why, Arizona, discovered plastic rosary beads and Bibles in the trash, personal items confiscated from people who supposedly entered the…
Carbajal doesn’t do enough for veterans
I am writing this letter with regard to Veterans Affairs in Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, and specifically on how Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) plans to approach the issue. Carbajal has pushed for a mere $8 million increase in funds allocated to transportation services that allow veterans to get to Los Angeles and receive…
About the midterm elections
I am concerned that the Democratic Party is veering too far to the left for these midterm elections. We want to win the election, and I believe that a move towards the extreme left at this time is counterproductive to the cause. We cannot assume that the dislike of Trump and his policies and behavior…
Adrian Santini
On the baseball diamond, 12-year-old Adrian Santini is a triple threat–he can pitch better, hit harder, and run faster than just about anyone his age. Santini, an Orcutt Junior High School student, has been an integral member on each of his Little League teams since he was just 7 years old. But recently, he’s been…
Local students get cost-free look at real careers during STEM Industry Days
Assembling a computer’s motherboard is just like skiing, according to computer repairman Kevin Dyson: It’s scary when you try it for the first time as an adult, but as kid, it comes easy. “When I got into this industry I was deathly afraid of opening up a computer,” Dyson told the Sun, hovering over the…
Spotlight on: Community Bank of Santa Maria Janet Silveria, CEO
It’s been a year of change for the Community Bank of Santa Maria. But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In fact, since the firm completed the sale of its Lompoc branch on May 18, net income increased by more than 130 percent, according to Janet Silveria, the bank’s president and CEO. The agreement between…
Full house(s): Peoples’ Self-Help Housing welcomes farmworkers to third low-income development
Only 34 of roughly 230 applicants were accepted to live at Los Adobes de Maria III, Peoples’ Self-Help Housing’s most recently opened affordable housing development in Santa Maria. The complex, which features 22 two-bedroom and 11 three-bedroom apartments, is the third low-income housing development open to farmworkers and their families in the neighborhood. And while…
Missing the pointe: Dance studio may move despite being granted youth center status
When Angela Mill and her husband, Mason, built their several-thousand-square-foot dance studio in Old Town Lompoc, it was a dream come to life. But in recent months, the owners of the Classical School of Ballet say they felt as if they’ve been living in a nightmare. “This has been hell,” Angela said, as she weaved…
Political Watch 8/2/18
• Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) plugged her bill, the Keep Families Together Act, in her opening statements as the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on July 31 on family reunification efforts as ranking member of the committee. The bill, introduced with 31 other Democrats including Sen. Kamala Harris (D-California), would seek to reunify all the children…
Trivium Charter School to offer additional on-campus day this fall
Incoming Trivium Charter School students will have an extra day on campus to attend various previously unoffered elective and academic support classes starting this fall. Flex Days will be offered every Wednesday at Trivium’s Lompoc and Santa Barbara locations this school year, according to Executive Director Trisha Vais, who said the additional day on campus…
