Cover Story
Caught in the middle
You can still see the scar on Vicky Duniven’s sternum. It barely peeks over the neckline of her shirt—a glint of mangled skin that hints at the remnants of a much larger wound left when her chest was split open to remove a cancerous growth the size of a grapefruit. Duniven is a quintessentially tragic…
What song always makes you happy when you hear it?
Dianne Miller retired “‘Hangin’ Around’ by the Counting Crows.” Bessi Duran retired “A lot of songs make me happy.” Jesus Hurtado unemployed “Any song I listen to.” John Robb retired “‘Yes, Jesus Loves Me.’ I sing it to my grandchild.”
What’s on Deck?
Thursday, Aug. 4 Semipro Baseball Santa Maria Reds Wood Bat Tournament @ Elks Field TBA Friday, Aug. 5 Boxing ESPN Boxing Night @ Chumash Casino 5 p.m. BMX Racing Summer Series @ Elks Unocal Events Center 6:30 p.m. Semipro Baseball Santa Maria Reds Wood Bat Tournament @ Elks Field TBA Saturday, Aug. 6…
On the roster
• Tri-the-Bull Triathlon: Athletes of all skill levels can test their endurance by swimming, running, and biking their way through the third annual Tri-the-Bull Triathlon, held Aug. 6 at Pioneer Valley High School. For more information, call the Recreation and Parks Department at 925-0951, Ext. 260. • Orcutt soccer coaches’ clinic: The Orcutt United Youth…
Golf tourney to benefit the needy
St. Vincent’s, a nonprofit organization serving the needy of Santa Barbara County, will hold its 10th annual Golf Classic fundraiser on Aug. 22 at the La Cumbre Country Club in Santa Barbara. The 18-hole Texas scramble tournament features hole-in-one contests with prizes such as a 2011 BMW, $15,000 in cash, golf equipment, and vacation packages.…
Youth rugby league takes off
The Santa Maria Sharks, the first youth rugby league in Santa Barbara County, is currently signing up players for its inaugural season. The league will have a registration booth at St. Joseph High School’s flag football game on Aug. 6, followed by a sign-up date at the Santa Maria Walmart, 2220 S. Bradley Road, on…
Hunting ban goes into effect
Los Padres National Forest officials recently announced that hunting won’t be allowed within the Lower Santa Ynez Recreation Area of the Santa Barbara Ranger District until Feb. 29, 2012. Agency officials said they issued the order to provide for public safety, after the agency received a petition requesting the recreation area be closed. The order…
The Green Milestone
If golf courses could talk, the Santa Maria Country Club would have tales to tell. Since they can’t, 94-year-old Sally Scaroni, the club’s oldest and longest tenured member, is the next best thing. Drawn by a passion for golf, Scaroni signed up for a junior membership at the club back in 1938. At the time,…
Danny Lauer
The ground shakes and the engine roars, an angry machine begging to be set loose. The cars line up at the start, waiting for that green flag to signal the beginning of a fast-paced event. This adrenalin fueled, heart-pounding sport could only be racing—a competition that sends cars flying around a dirt track at speeds…
A world of music
Our world is full of music. Some cultures and tribes have music intended to accompany every task of the day, but the oldest kept records of traditional music have always been the spiritual. Two very learned musicians and historians—Anton Mizerak and Laura Berryhill—will share music that spans time, space, and spirit in their concert on…
Take an adventure with PCPA
Join Hans Christian Andersen on a magical journey as he confronts his shadow and characters from his fairytales. PCPA will present My Fairytale, with previews in Santa Maria at the Marian Theatre Aug. 12 through Aug. 20 and opening in Solvang at the Festival Theater on Aug. 27. This musical by Stephen Schwartz, composer of…
Nipomo High thespians headed to Fringe Festival
Nipomo High School has been selected to perform this month at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. The students were chosen to participate in the world’s largest and most prestigious arts festival as part of the American High School Theatre Festival. Nominated by PCPA, the school’s Drama Department competed against 3,000 applicants from across the…
Summer heat
About seven minutes before her birthday, my daughter decided she had to have a barbecue-slumber-swim-movie-camping-birthday party. The extensive party style is standard for my daughter, who always wants everything to be epic, huge, and always about her. Since we are parents of the 21st century, and we only know how to raise our kids one…
Visual impact
When 16 descendants of the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians participated in a workshop by photographers Angelina Hernandez and Allen Garcia, none of them could have imagined it would evolve into a philanthropic movement. But that’s exactly what’s happened. During a one-week workshop in June of last year, the students learned basic photography skills.…
Art and apps
On the surface, art and computer coding don’t seem to be skills that go hand in hand. However, as software continues to evolve, programmers are learning that having an artistic side is the peanut butter to the chocolate of computer coding skills. The two seem to go together with amazing results—and that’s especially true when…
It’s all about the soil
When asked about the tricks of their trade, most Santa Barbara County winemakers quickly declare that wine is made in the vineyard. They admit the impossibility of crafting great wine from mediocre grapes and generally spend as much time prowling among the vines as they do working in the cellar. The soil, a living medium…
With Democrats like these …
This is a sad, sad day for America. The massive spending cuts of this debt-ceiling deal will mean thousands of jobs lost, not gained. Consumer spending will continue to decline, trashing the economy. The poor, elderly, and disabled will sink further into poverty, losing what little health care they have with the inevitable cuts to…
Talk about an exercise in futility!
I can’t believe you are publicizing this guy (“Trials and tribulations,” July 28). First, it wasn’t Jeff Lind’s case. Why butt in where you don’t belong? Why isn’t your “relative” saying anything? There isn’t a mention anywhere in the article of his name or any comments, other than Lind believed “Ortega was out of line.”…
Thanks for investigating
Excellent and intriguing article concerning our Santa Maria police chief (“Betraying the badge?” July 21). It is very encouraging to see some investigative reporting (and hopefully follow ups!) in our local news press. Unfortunately, we never get any type of investigation or follow up from KCOY or the Santa Maria Times. They seem only interested…
Be present
I doubt anyone would choose “She regretted not spending more time on Facebook” as an epitaph, or would want their obituary to say they cherished the time spent on their cell phone with family and friends. So why do so many of us, particularly those younger than 40 years old, devote so much time to…
Flexing to fight muscular dystrophy
When asked to define the Pentecostal faith, many people would probably know just enough to say it’s a mystical religion that involves lots of singing, speaking in tongues, and sometimes even snakes. But to thousands of people across the United States and countless other countries, it’s much more. “We’re not a cult by any means,”…
Get the stats on honored grads at Allan Hancock College
On Aug. 2, Allan Hancock College announced that 214 graduates from high schools in the Santa Maria Valley were named to the Deans Honors List for the spring 2011 semester, including 77 named to the Special Honors List. The college reports that, of the 214 graduates, 85 came from Righetti High School, 59 from Pioneer…
Women’s Fund donates $30,000 to youth leadership program
The young women of Santa Barbara County can put on their dancing shoes and kick up their heels. They have a lot of reasons to celebrate. To be exact, they have 30,000 reasons. On Aug. 10, the Women’s Fund of Northern Santa Barbara County will donate $30,000 to the new Teen Court project, which sponsors…
Spotlight on: Thin Line Tattoo Co.
Tattoo parlors have long carried the stigma of being seedy, dimly lit, and a magnet for riffraff. But as body art continues to gain mainstream acceptance, an increasing number of today’s parlors look more like dentist’s offices than Prohibition-era speakeasies. The bright, airy Thin Line Tattoo Co., a year-old Lompoc parlor recently purchased by Dean…
‘Hallowed ground’
When asked to define the Pentecostal faith, many people would probably know just enough to say it’s a mystical religion that involves lots of singing, speaking in tongues, and sometimes even snakes. But to thousands of people across the United States and countless other countries, it’s much more. “We’re not a cult by any means,”…
Redistricting Commission approves final draft
The historically significant citizens committee tasked with redrawing political districts across the state has voted to move its final draft to the public review stage before it’s expected to finalize the maps later this month. On July 29, the independent California Citizens Redistricting Commission voted 13-1 to release the final preliminary draft of new state…
Airport District fails to agree on director
Despite optimism expressed by board members, appointing a new director to fill the seat left by vacant on the Santa Maria Airport District Board of Directors by the death of Ted Eckert has proved far more difficult than anticipated. On July 28, the district’s Board of Directors was scheduled for a second chance at appointing…
Protests, arrests, and a failed test launch–Vandenberg is busy
Vandenberg Air Force Base’s most recent missile test launch on July 27 brought with it a bit more drama than usual. Base officials were forced to destroy an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile over the Pacific Ocean for safety reasons after detecting a “flight anomaly” during the last portion of the mission. “We plan…
