Cover Story
55 Fiction 2021
Short stories about love, life, and sandwiches It doesn’t sound like much, but writers can do a lot with 55 words. They can kill someone, love someone, and surprise someone. And this year, yes, people from around the world submitted stories about the Trump administration, discrimination, and COVID-19. Some were cheesy, some were mushy, and…
GUILTY PLEASURES: JOLT
GUILTY PLEASURES: JOLT Where’s it playing? Amazon Prime What’s it rated? R Tanya Wexler (Buffaloed, Hysteria) directs this action comedy about Lindy (Kate Beckinsale), a former bouncer prone to murderous rage who controls her homicidal tendencies with an electrode-lined vest that shocks her back to normal. Under the care of therapist Dr. Munchin (Stanley Tucci),…
Flying Goat Cellars scores recent wine competition awards
Founded in 2000, Flying Goat Cellars is technically, legally old enough to drink its own wine. While 2021 marks this local winery’s 21st year in business, birthday wishes aren’t the only cause for recent celebrations at its tasting room in Lompoc. Among some big wins in multiple wine competitions over the past few months, one…
PCPA returns to the Solvang Festival Theater with an uplifting concert revue, ‘Together: A Musical Journey’
It’s 8 p.m. and the sun is setting, but George Walker’s got enough sunshine in his pocket to light up an amphitheater during his cover of Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling!” His peers in the cast of PCPA’s Together: A Musical Journey can’t help but join in and dance along. And let’s be real,…
SLO NightWriters hosts Zoom talk with local authors Wendelin Van Draanen and Mark Parsons
Husband and wife Mark Parsons (author of Road Rash) and Wendelin Van Draanen (creator of the Sammy Keyes series) will discuss their respective careers in children’s literature during the San Luis Obispo NightWriters’ next virtual meeting, on Tuesday, Aug. 10, at 6:30 p.m., via Zoom. Admission to join the meeting is free. Call (805) 703-3132…
805 Wave hosts comedy, barbecue fundraiser supporting United Way of Northern Santa Barbara County
805 Wave is hosting a special comedy night fundraiser at Willow Ranch in Nipomo on Saturday, Aug. 21. Doors open at 6 p.m. A portion of the event’s proceeds will be donated to United Way of Northern Santa Barbara County. Guests of the event can look forward to comedy acts, live music, prize giveaways, drinks,…
Elwin Mussell Senior Center hosts upcoming dance concert
The Santa Maria Valley Senior Citizens Club presents Let’s Dance, a special dance concert featuring live music from the Riptide Big Band and vocalist Bob Nations, at the Elwin Mussell Senior Center on Sunday, Aug. 15, from 1:30 to 4 p.m. Admission to the concert is free, thanks to grant funding from the Community Foundation…
Public parody
If I could point out one thing that’s wrong with our health care system right now, it’s this: A health care system that essentially has a monopoly on providing services in Santa Maria just terminated its contract with one of the largest health insurance providers in California—and it’s legal. In fact, it happens all the…
Neglected minor crimes lead to larger quality-of-life crimes that rot the core of society
In September 2017 in a locally published commentary, I observed “Broken windows; Lompoc is full of them”; this commentary was based on a theory by social scientists James Q. Wilson and George Kelling in 1982 that used broken windows as a metaphor for disorder within neighborhoods. Expanding on the theory, they wrote: “If the first…
Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Project opens program to help build charging stations
San Barbara County has close to $5 million available as part of a $12 million effort to get roughly 1,000 new electric vehicle (EV) chargers installed in Ventura, Santa Barbara, and SLO counties. On Aug. 5, the California Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Project (CALeVIP) will start accepting applications on a first-come, first-served basis. And the money…
Political Watch: July 29, 2021
• On July 19, Assemblymember Jordan Cunningham (R-San Luis Obispo) announced that his Assembly Bill 841 was signed into law. The legislation aims to help keep foster children and families together by ensuring that “children cannot be removed from the care of their parents in a child welfare proceeding solely because a parent did not…
Public Health pleads with locals to get COVID-19 vaccine
Public health officials urged community members to get vaccinated as Santa Barbara County experiences soaring COVID-19 case rates, hospitalizations, outbreaks, and deaths. The county also reported one of the youngest local COVID-19 deaths so far in the pandemic: a Santa Maria individual between the ages of 18 and 29 who was unvaccinated and had no…
Dignity ends Anthem contract after other insurance disputes
As of July 16, Central Coast residents insured by Anthem Blue Cross lost in-network coverage at Marian Regional Medical Center in Santa Maria, Arroyo Grande Community Hospital, and French Hospital Medical Center in San Luis Obispo, which are part of the nonprofit Dignity Health system. “Dignity Health and Anthem Blue Cross have been negotiating new…
Veterans say fireworks affect them beyond July 4
Local veterans say fireworks are a multi-month ordeal in Santa Maria. Matthew Woody, a local resident and veteran, spoke during public comment at a July 20 Santa Maria City Council meeting where Fire Chief Todd Tuggle presented a fireworks report to the council members. Woody said he started hearing fireworks as early as May this…
