Cover Story
Government closed: How did Central Coast cities, nonprofits, and workers cope with the partial government shutdown?
It was nearing noon outside the Internal Revenue Service’s branch office in Santa Maria. After weeks of wet weather, it was sunny again, and the bright light coming from a cloudless sky warmed the cracked black asphalt of the building’s mostly empty parking lot. An American flag hung limply from a tall pole. There was…
The play’s the thing: PCPA celebrates the Bard with ‘Shakespeare in Love’
Not everything comes easy to writers. Not at first, anyway. This is one of the central ideas tackled by playwright Tom Stoppard and his screenwriting partner Marc Norman in the 1998 movie, Shakespeare in Love. Audiences remember it as the film that won Gwyneth Paltrow a Best Actress Oscar and the very best eight minutes…
Soprano Maria Jette joins the Santa Maria Philharmonic for Masters in Vienna concert
Unlike fellow Minnesota-born musician Prince, soprano Maria Jette never changed her name to The Artist Formerly Known as Prince—or The Artist Formerly Known as Maria Jette, for that matter. This Twin Cities native is making her way to California’s Central Coast for a Santa Maria Philharmonic performance, Masters in Vienna, on Saturday, Feb. 23, from…
Little has changed since Parkland
When 17 students and adults were shot and killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, a year ago, students across the nation staged school walkouts to protest gun violence, hosted memorials to commemorate the victims of the shooting, marched for their lives, and fought for further restrictions on firearms. In Santa Maria,…
Spotlight on: Santa Maria Connect
For young local professionals, specifically under age 40, the Santa Maria Valley Chamber of Commerce offers a unique networking opportunity every other month, starting with the first Santa Maria Connect event of the year on Feb. 28 at Far Western Tavern in Orcutt. The chamber started holding the event in 2018 to help young professionals…
Rumors of homeless person starting Shaw’s Steakhouse fire illuminate bigger issue
Shaw’s Steakhouse and a neighboring furniture store, Sergio’s Furniture and Mattress, have both been closed since Jan. 3, when a fire that started just outside the buildings grew into a blaze that destroyed two-thirds of the restaurant and the entirety of the store. The fire was initially described by first responders as a “rubbish fire,”…
Camp 4 taken from Chumash reservation in federal court ruling
A ruling by a federal judge on Feb. 13 overturned the 2017 decision to take Camp 4 into trust for the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians, pulling the land off the Chumash reservation and returning the case to the Department of Interior for further action. In the decision, U.S. District Court Judge Stephen Wilson…
Santa Maria high school district and Faculty Association reach tentative agreement
After more than a year of contract negotiations, Santa Maria’s high school district and its teachers union reached a tentative agreement on Jan. 31, during a fact-finding hearing that lasted until about 2:30 a.m. The agreement, which was ratified by the Faculty Association on Feb. 5, has not yet been approved by the Santa Barbara…
Ménage a trois: Presqu’ile Winery offers a trio of special vintage wines meant to be sipped, not saved
I used to have a friend who delighted in collecting vintage toys and collectibles. He spent every spare penny he had snapping up everything from original Star Wars toys to comic books to Ghostbusters memorabilia and lots more. The thing is, he never really seemed to enjoy it much. They sat in pristine boxes on…
Pay for pain
I consider myself a fairly confident man. I have confidence because I am a bit delusional. I choose to look the other way and ignore the things that might shake my confident ways. For instance, I ignore the fact that I have consumed enough pizza and beer in the last 12 months that my belly…
Orcutt Children’s Arts Foundation to honor Pryor Baird
The Orcutt Children’s Arts Foundation will honor The Voice contestant Pryor Baird, who originally hails from Orcutt, at its annual fundraiser on Feb. 23 The foundation’s primary fundraiser directly benefits local arts education. The evening will also include a silent auction, dinner, and performances by local students and Baird celebrating his dedication and passion for…
CORE Winery to host Los Angeles and Santa Maria poets
CORE Winery’s Second Saturday poetry series will feature Los Angeles poet Laurel Ann Bogen as well as Santa Maria poet Dorothy “Dot” Winslow. Winslow recently earned her MFA from Antioch University Los Angeles and is currently in training to become a Certified Applied Poetry Facilitator. She is a teacher for California Poets in the Schools…
About this life: Artist Bob Nichols unveils a ceramic mural that tells a complex story
Bob Nichols was in his second year of architecture school at Cal Poly when he noticed a friend wearing an unusual ring. The year was 1967. The friend told Nichols he made the ring and offered to show him the craft space on campus where students in various art programs worked on their projects. It…
Technically, a win
Well, well, well. Looks like a little bird stuck its tiny talon in its teeny beak. It’s time for a reckoning! Only it wasn’t the one-legged barn owl from next door. It was me! Remember back in January, when I was making fun of those Santa Ynez Valley citizen groups who keep suing the Santa…
How to train a terrorist
With the full admission of departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services, and the seeming unwillingness of those agencies to make a fulsome attempt to reunite the thousands of children taken forcefully from their parents when they came to this country seeking asylum, one has to wonder what the future of these children’s…
Oceano needs a safe beach
Last week, State Parks disclosed its proposed new general work plan for the management of Pismo State Beach and the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area. Good news: There are plans for a boardwalk on the foredunes to connect Grand Avenue with the Arroyo Grande Creek and a small structured campground (versus the free and…
Green dreamin’
Wow! The Democratic Party is taking on a new face: young ambitious faces, many of them women and persons of color, arrayed in new ideas, grand plans, and endowed with a passionate intensity, inspiring a hope we haven’t seen since the early Obama days. (Whatever happened to that anyway?) Some of the recently elected congresspersons,…
Marlen Carrillo
On average, it takes Lompoc High School wrestler Marlen Carrillo about 30 seconds to pin her opponents. And on average, she wins every match. Coach Cheyenne Amaro said it’s a combination of Carrillo’s natural athletic ability and quick feet that have allowed her to lay so much of her competition out on the mat. Carrillo,…
Political Watch 2/21/19
• On Valentine’s Day, state Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson introduced legislation that would assist older and disabled adults with home modifications to help reduce the risk of falling and allow more Californians to age independently in their homes for as long as possible. Senate Bill 280 would require the Department of Aging to work with Area…
Bob Nelson announces run for supervisor seat
Kicking off his official bid to replace his current boss as Santa Barbara County’s 4th District supervisor in 2020, Bob Nelson echoed a sentiment that’s probably on a lot of voters’ minds. “Many of you are asking yourselves, didn’t we just finish with an election? How on earth can we be starting another one already?”…
