Cover Story
55 Fiction 2018: Keep it short, keep it sweet, and if it’s good enough, you’ll read it this week
55 Fiction Keep it short, keep it sweet, and if it’s good enough, you’ll read it this week You can say a lot in 55 words. You can kill someone, love someone, or save someone. Tell stories about torture, divorce, or family drama. Make political statements. Riff on societal issues. But there are only…
Bright lights, small town: A group of independent filmmakers bring Hollywood to Santa Maria
Santa Maria is going a little bit Hollywood, thanks to some local filmmakers. Cindy Kitagawa was born and raised in Santa Maria and worked in Los Angeles as an aspiring writer and filmmaker. Now she and a group of local and non-local filmmakers are in Santa Maria shooting a feature length film called Coast. Like…
Exxon tanker truck proposal met by protesters before meeting
They came by the dozen and filed in front of the county Engineering Building in Santa Barbara just as the sun began to set on July 11. Armed with signs and shouting slogans decrying fossil fuels, the protesters then marched haphazardly inside, squeezing into the small meeting room that was quickly packed to near capacity.…
Debonair affair: Urbane Cafe brings a diverse menu to Santa Maria
When the Urbane Cafe first opened, we beelined it straight for the new venue. Journalists like two things in life: fast, affordable food and funny videos of cats (but we’re not here to talk about that). The venue quietly opened a few months ago in the new Enos Ranch center, which along with bringing mind-numbing…
Fly me to the moon: Santa Maria Public Airport’s latest art display is filled with bold visions
The Santa Maria Public Airport is filled with quiet spaces–people reading books, waiting in line for car rentals, or sharing a meal at the restaurant. Hovering over all of them is an ongoing display of public art featuring painters and photographers from the community. Valley Art Gallery is behind the colorful works that line the…
Building a band: Certain Sparks Music offers summer program so kids can join a band in Lompoc
Studying the art of music can often feel like an isolating, solitary affair, with hours spent alone practicing the necessary scales and chords to one day become a “real” musician. That approach to education neglects one thing that has always spurred musicianship throughout the ages: collaboration. Having aspiring musicians study together can actually be an…
Of course
Sometimes, you just see things coming. At least, those of us who’ve reported on Santa Barbara County, its cities, towns, industries, and activists for any period of time can. That’s why I wasn’t at all surprised to see the Santa Barbara County Planning Commission flooded by protesters from The Center for Biological Diversity, Citizens For…
Cave rescue in Thailand was no ‘miracle’
The rescue of 12 boys and their soccer coach who were trapped deep in a cave in Mae Sai, Thailand, by flooding from monsoon rains in late June captured worldwide attention. “Miraculous!” was the common exclamation made in response to the news when the last boy and coach were escorted out of the cave.…
Spotlight on: Pashion Footwear, Haley Pavone, CEO
It took a freak dance floor accident for Haley Pavone, 22, to look down at her high-heeled shoes and wonder if there was a better way. Working her way through college at Cal Poly SLO as a business major with a focus on entrepreneurship, Pavone attended a formal event in spring of 2016. Like she…
Strips that save: Pacific Pride Foundation distributed thousands of fentanyl test strips in past year
It’s been a little over a year since several organizations throughout the state started giving out free fentanyl test strips in an effort to curb opioid overdoses. Since then, California has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars distributing the strips to syringe exchange programs across California, including Santa Barbara County’s Pacific Pride Foundation, which alone…
Garbage disposal disposition: Krider isn’t allowed in the kitchen, unless it’s to fix something
I’m not allowed to be inside the confines of the kitchen area of my own house. Yes, the same house that I send most of my paycheck to the bank each month so we can live in. That is the house where I’m not allowed to walk through, or especially loiter in, the general kitchen…
Arts Briefs
Sphinx and Drinks gala featured in Guadalupe The Dunes Center in Guadalupe is hosting its Sphinx and Drinks gala event on July 21 to benefit the center’s educational programs and activities. The event is to commemorate the unveiling of the most recent artifacts excavated from Cecil B. DeMille’s Ten Commandments movie set site in the…
We knew about Trump
So many of us knew what a dangerous, corrupt, and unintelligent resident landed in the White House, a puppet of Russia and Putin. The facts around the 2016 election have dribbled out slowly via the press, silenced by Fox News and right-wing entities, right-wing politicians, and a racist base. Ignoring our nation’s intelligence investigations to…
GI Forum supports Aera expansion
Every community faces the challenges of unmet needs–not enough money to go around for basic public services, let alone taking care of underserved residents in virtually every sector of our community. This includes our veterans–women and men who served our country honorably and well–for whom it’s challenging to find jobs despite the training and discipline…
The cost of oil
Oil brings in revenue for Santa Barbara County. This has been a selling point when new drilling permits are sought. But oil operations cost us more than they generate. Some direct costs include fire department enforcement of violations, unreimbursed disaster response, staff time for the treasurer-tax collector to get oil companies to pay millions of…
Lompoc High School Unified Basketball
After beating out teams from across the nation in the 2018 Special Olympics USA Games, the Lompoc High School Unified Basketball team took home bronze medals on July 6. More than 4,000 participants representing all 50 states and the District of Columbia competed in 14 team and individual sports at the tournament, which Seattle hosted…
County works to detain fewer youths
Fewer kids are being detained in local juvenile detention facilities because of several newly implemented policies that county officials say could better aid at-risk youth and their families. As part of Renew 22, a five-year countywide initiative aimed at increasing departmental efficiency, the Santa Barbara County Probation Department launched an internal investigation into its juvenile…
Political Watch 7/19/18
• President Donald Trump appeared with Russian President Vladimir Putin after the two held a one-on-one summit in Helsinki, Finland, on July 17, when the two leaders answered numerous questions from the press. The summit came three days after Special Counsel Robert Mueller delivered 12 indictments of Russian intelligence officers for hacking Democratic agencies and…
Laurus College now offering four bachelor’s degree programs
Santa Maria residents hoping to get a bachelor’s degree at home are in luck. Laurus College, a family-owned private college established in 2006, is now offering four bachelor’s degrees in business systems management, digital arts and computer animation, information technologies and network systems, and web design and development. The programs, which were already offered by…
Lompoc City Council provides exemption buffer zone for dance studio
Lompoc’s Classical School of Ballet will have a buffer zone protecting it from encroaching marijuana businesses after all, following an agreement struck between the school’s owners and the city’s attorney. Owner Angela Mill threatened the city with legal action after its council voted 3-2 not to include dance studios as youth centers, eliminating a protective…
Guadalupe awarded $4.5 million for LeRoy Park renovations
Long-awaited repairs are coming to Guadalupe’s LeRoy Park and its community center, according to Guadalupe Mayor John Lizalde, who announced on July 10 that the city was awarded a $4.5 million federal grant to fund the project. A sprinkler system, barbeque pits, and new landscaping will be added to the 5-acre park, which Lizalde said…
