Cover Story
Fairy merry Christmas: Use our annual nonprofit wish list to bring a little magic to local organizations
With the swoosh of a wand, the Sun fairy godmothers would like to help poof nonprofit wishes into reality this holiday season. And unlike Cinderella, the wishes granted won’t disappear at midnight and won’t come in the form of a pumpkin carriage and some glass slippers—unless for some reason that’s on this holiday season’s wish…
Do you think undocumented people should get their driver’s licenses?
Jacob Romo Romo’s Market stocker “I would say yes, I would want them to have driver’s licenses. It could help out the economy in a lot of ways, lower insurance costs—it would help all around.” Cole Perea Seaside Packing forklift driver “I personally don’t think so because I have been in almost seven car accidents…
Krider publishes a book about his CHP Academy experiences
“I had been at the California Highway Patrol Academy for a total of 30 seconds before I decided I hated the place.” So reads the opening sentence to Rob Krider’s new, not-so-fictional novel Cadet Blues. Longtime Sun humor columnist Rob Krider’s alter ego “Cadet Karter” tells his story of making it through the California Highway…
All keyed up and nowhere to go
I do dumb stuff. I don’t mean to do these dumb things, but, well, I’m just dumb sometimes. The weird part about how dumb I can be is I don’t consider myself a dumb person. I went to college. In fact, I went to a few of them. I attended one of them long enough…
Christmas and holiday music offers a view of musical evolution
The holiday season arrives each year without fail, and artists have been writing music to celebrate this time of year for centuries, such that the lexicon of hymns, carols, and songs now offers an almost seamless procession of Western music’s slow evolution. You can find me tickling the ivories at the Santa Maria Town Center…
Learn more about the Chumash in a web series
The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians has released a web series of 20-minute documentaries titled Chumash Life on YouTube and soon to appear on Santa Barbara’s Cox Communications Channel 1892. The documentaries showcase Chumash historical information, as well as current preservation efforts. The series began in the spring of 2014 and featured two more…
Santa Ynez Valley Charter School students give to local families
The Santa Ynez Valley Charter School fifth grade class, clad in elf hats, helped in the preparation of 159 care packages for needy families on Dec. 16 at the Mission Santa Ines. The students are joining in the effort organized by Old Mission Santa Ines and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul to provide…
Viva mariachi
Viva el Arte de Santa Barbara is bringing another world-class musical ensemble for a three-day artistic residency, including workshops, classes, and performances. Flor de Toloache is an all-female mariachi group from New York City that will perform in Goleta, Guadalupe, and Santa Barbara on Jan. 9, 10, and 11, respectively. Viva el Arte de Santa…
Yoga for a cause
Treetop Yoga in Santa Maria is playing host to a Winter Solstice Celebration event in benefit of Toys for Tots on Dec. 21. The event will include yogis demonstrating and performing sun salutations in recognition of the winter solstice. Yoga teachers Jenya Hubbard, Luana Knowlton, Jennifer May, and Kimberly Zimmerman will lead the class in…
Guadalupe offers an afternoon of small town charm
The sleepy town of Guadalupe takes up barely a mile and a half of Highway 1, right up to the Santa Barbara/San Luis Obispo county line. Most of Guadalupe’s attractions are available on the main drag, so the town is perfect for an afternoon stroll. Restaurants, stores, and several cultural institutions make the small but…
Discovery Corner: Explore the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes with the Discovery Museum!
Does your child enjoy exploring nature? How about photography or poetry? If the answer is yes to either of those questions, you’re in luck! The Santa Maria Valley Discovery Museum has partnered with the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes Center to offer a special winter field trip to the dunes and the museum. This daylong adventure will start…
Santa Maria Joint Union High School District approves $29 million in bond sales
Selling the approximately $29 million in bonds remaining from Measure C was a no-brainer for the high school district’s board during its last meeting. Voters approved $79 million worth of bonds for the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District when they passed the measure in 2004, and the board voted 5-0 to authorize sale…
School districts swear in new board members
On Dec. 10 the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District and the Santa Maria-Bonita School District swore in new trustees during their regularly scheduled board meetings. Dominick Palera is a new face for the high school district. He’s a retired Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department commander who was with the department for 30 years.…
Spotlight on: Santa Maria Raceway
The stands of the Santa Maria Speedway have been comparatively empty in the last few years. But Mike Kappmeyer plans to change that. The owner of MRK Motorsports, Kappmeyer was hired in November as the racetrack’s new promoter. He wants to bring it back to the glory days of Doug Fort, who founded the track…
Political Watch 12/18/14
• Eric Bauman, the vice chair for the California Democratic Party, will be the featured speaker at the annual holiday dinner at the headquarters for the United Domestic Workers of America in Santa Maria on Dec. 18. Bauman is also the Chair of the Los Angeles County Democratic Party, which also happens to be the…
Community Notebook 12/18/14-12/25/14
MONDAY, DEC. 22 • The Solvang City Council has its regular meeting at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers, 1644 Oak Street, Solvang. agendas are available at cityofsolvang.com.
Community Corner: Join local gift-givers on a mission
It’s never a good time to be struggling in life–looking for work, wondering where the next meal is coming from, wrestling with addiction–but the staff at Central Coast Rescue Mission in Santa Maria recently noted that the Christmas season can be a “particularly painful time” for people in such a precarious position. Considering the local…
DMVs prep for the influx of AB 60 driver’s license applicants coming in 2015
An estimated 1.5 million more people than usual are expected to apply for a California driver’s license in 2015. All of them will be undocumented immigrants. AB 60, signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in October 2013, allows undocumented immigrants to obtain a California driver’s license starting on Jan. 2, 2015. In anticipation of the number…
Beers and bites, off the beaten path: Babi’s Beer Emporium of Los Alamos kicks off a monthly craft dinner series
The moment I stepped through the creaky, wooden threshold of the artfully adorned beer haven, I knew I was home. Babi’s Beer Emporium is all warmth, laughter, and true reverence for craft brew. Owner Sonja Magdevski never fails to flash each patron a wide smile, her spritely eyes dancing with unceasing energy. Ask anyone in…
DA clears Lompoc City Council of Brown Act violation allegations
Talk of Brown Act violations–real or suspected–dominated the election debates in the races for Lompoc City Council seats and mayor this year. And while the Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office announced in July that it was investigating the Lompoc City Council for allegedly violating that open-meeting act, the office didn’t release its findings until…
Correction
In her Dec. 11 column, the Canary was apparently mentally stuck in the past and attributed a water plan to the wrong California governor. The California Action Water Plan released in early 2014 came under the stewardship of Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr.–the current leader of the state.
Police consider connections in Santa Maria kidnappings
The Santa Maria Police Department is investigating two incidents in which victims and their children were allegedly abducted and forced to hand over cash and jewelry. The incidents occurred within months of each other, with the most recent one on Dec. 4. Police are unsure if the abductions are related, but both involved a diamond…
Rainstorms bring some relief from forest fire worries to Santa Barbara County
A few days of light to heavy rainfall have more than doubled the year-to-date records at monitoring sites around Santa Barbara County and resulted in looser fire restrictions in the Los Padres National Forest. Santa Maria’s Public Works station recorded 3.24 inches in the seven days prior to Dec. 16. The county’s high in that…
Lompoc Theatre Project shows off renovation renderings
The night of Dec. 12 ushered in excitement about the future of the historic but dilapidated Lompoc theater building, as the Lompoc Theatre Project unveiled future renderings of what a renovated theater could look like. “We are close, we are very close,” said Laurie Jervis, the project’s media chairperson. “We are just waiting on the…
A big goodbye to 2014
This is my last column of the year. A quirk of the calendar puts the Sun’s annual year in review issue pretty much smack dab on Christmas, and then 2015 will be here, along with that distinct new year smell I always enjoy inhaling, even if it does make me dizzy. As I look back…
Support the sanctuary
It’s one of the most beautiful coastlines in the world–and now we have the opportunity of a lifetime to create a new National Marine Sanctuary to protect the wild and wonderful ocean ecosystems of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced this summer that it would start considering…
Luis Villa
It was just before the end of the second period. Luis Villa, the Santa Maria High School wrestling team’s 195-pound grappler, dragged his opponent, Rufino Martinez, by the feet toward the center of the mat to prevent the referee from stopping the match. The only sounds aside from the squeaks and scuffles coming from the…
The Titans secure their first ever CIF championship
Being part of the team that claims its school’s first CIF championship is definitely one of those moments a high school student will never forget. For the Nipomo High School varsity football players–the CIF Southern Section Northwest Division champs–it’s a memory that will go down in the history books. “In some ways, it feels like…
