Cover Story
Hidden history: The Chumash rebellion of 1824 illustrates the changing conversation surrounding life at California’s missions
View a slideshow from La Purisima Mission. The salmon-hued tower of Mission La Purisima looms over the pastoral grounds near Lompoc where generations of California fourth-graders field trip each year to learn about the state’s mission era and the people who called Purisima home centuries ago. But life at the mission wasn’t always so serene.…
Santa Barbara County braces for massive winter storm
Emergency responders and planners in Santa Barbara County braced themselves for the worst as the largest storm of the year slowly made landfall beginning on March 20. That day, a mandatory evacuation order went out for the Thomas, Whittier, and Sherpa fires burn areas. As much as 10 inches of rain was expected to fall…
Lompoc councilmember’s poop emoji bumper sticker brings up questions of ethics
A crude bumper sticker on the back of an elected official’s pickup truck in Lompoc sparked a dialogue in recent weeks about how representatives should conduct themselves in public. “I think it’s important to have in most any sort of elected body some sort of standards of conduct,” local columnist Ron Fink told the Sun.…
Orcutt native Pryor Baird talks the blues, singing with soul, and making it on NBC’s ‘The Voice’
Pryor Baird had barely finished the opening verse of “I Don’t Need No Doctor” when the first judge on The Voice, Adam Levine, hit the button that flipped his chair around, meaning Baird had passed through the show’s “blind audition” phase. By the end of the song, all five judges had hit their buttons to…
The Solvang Library’s poetry challenge seeks to awaken the inner poet in area youth
Whatever you do, don’t call it a contest. Local poet Steve Braff will politely correct anyone who makes that mistake. “It’s not a contest,” he said. “It is isn’t about who’s best or anything like that.” Braff is one of the co-organizers of the Solvang Library’s annual youth Poetry Challenge, which invites seventh and eighth…
Santa Maria Civic Theatre tackles difficult stage comedy with ‘Noises Off’
Even as he does an interview to help promote the new play at the Santa Maria Civic Theatre, actor and director Cody Fogh is busy working. At the moment, Fogh, a UC Santa Barbara film school graduate, is painting the stage floor, holding a phone in one hand and a brush in the other. It’s…
Lompoc’s CK Wings offers a new spin on classic chicken wings
Be forewarned if you should be moved enough by this review to seek out Lompoc’s newest chicken wing venue, CK Wings: The restaurant is so new, it doesn’t even come up on Google Maps yet. That was one hurdle I didn’t mind navigating on my search for the restaurant, after hearing rumor of a place…
Lompoc YMCA names widow and late husband as honorary chairs
Before Jim Dixon passed away from esophageal cancer early last year, he asked his wife, Shelly, to do one thing for him. “He made me promise I would continue to support the Lompoc YMCA,” Shelly told the Sun. In March, Shelly and Jim were honored as the local YMCA’s honorary chairs, which represents the “essence…
Spotlight on: Morley and Art Brut 117
Art galleries may be sparse around Santa Maria, but at least one nearby is managing to carve out a comfortable niche. Morley & Art Brut 117 at 117 E. Clark Ave. in Old Town Orcutt features local and California paintings handpicked by curator and owner John Morley. “I’m an entrepreneur of sorts,” Morley told the…
Santa Barbara County Commission for Women to host listening sessions in Guadalupe and Santa Maria
Fears of deportation, sexual harassment, rape culture, and discrimination are just some of the topics that will be welcomed and up for discussion at the Santa Barbara County Commission for Women’s upcoming Women Speak Up events. The Commission for Women, which hosted four Women Speak Up events in southern Santa Barbara County earlier this month,…
Outside expert health care reports echo previous investigation into Santa Barbara County Jail conditions
Several documents, including medical and mental health care reports on the Santa Barbara County Jail, were filed in court on March 6 as part of a federal class action lawsuit against Santa Barbara County and the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office, which oversees the jail. The complaint, which was originally filed on Dec. 6 last…
Santa Barbara County election season comes into focus
The upcoming primary election on June 5 in Santa Barbara County is beginning to take shape. Incumbent Sheriff Bill Brown will face his own Lt. Brian Olmstead for county sheriff. Brown is a three-time incumbent. Fifth District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino is running unopposed in his district, and the same goes for 2nd District hopeful Gregg…
Rebecca Rose offers some important advice to millennials
Millennials! How do they work? Apparently, millennials don’t buy soap or diamonds anymore, which is slowly causing the physical Earth to bend in on itself and create a vortex into a dark parallel universe where human suffering is a currency among demonic overlords. At least, that’s what I gathered from reading articles about millennials online.…
Just keep digging
Do you ever feel like you’re just slogging through the news cycle? There’s so much to know, it just keeps piling up! But hey, at least you don’t have to slog through hours-long meetings of minutia and bureaucratic hemming and hawing—that’s our job! The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors were up to their knees…
SB County No. 1 for pot licenses now what?
Recently a local newspaper in an online posting reported that Santa Barbara County Supervisor Janet Wolf said 250 temporary state cannabis operation licenses have been issued for Santa Barbara County, while only three have been issued for San Luis Obispo County, and the county had achieved No. 1 status in the state. This even surpasses…
St. Joseph High School names Erinn Dougherty principal
A new principal will soon be walking the halls of St. Joseph High School in Santa Maria. The Department of Catholic Schools of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles announced the appointment of Erinn Dougherty to the position on March 3. Dougherty replaces Joanne Poloni, who is retiring following the conclusion of this school year. Poloni…
Team Starstruck
A group of Santa Maria cheerleaders took home a national title to close out February. Team Starstruck, a junior level cheerleading team based out of Santa Maria, placed first in their division at a national competition in Dallas, Texas, and also won a separate choreography award, according to coach Kali Williams. The Triple Threat Cheer…
Political Watch 3/15/18
• One March 6, the U.S. Department of Justice announced a lawsuit against the state of California over alleged obstruction of federal immigration law, and U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions gave a speech at a meeting of the California Peace Officers Association the following day, where he said, “Contrary to what you might hear from…
The truth about Australia’s gun laws
Gary Wechter, in his “criticism” entitled “Gun-free Australia” (March 8) wrote that another letter writer, Ken McCalip, “lied or failed to check his facts when he stated that since 1996, when Australia banned and confiscated certain types of weapons, they’ve had ‘zero’ mass shootings” and suggested McCalip “take the time” to check Google’s link to…
NIMBYs and the Nipomo Dunes
Since the 1990s, some of the bigger developments on the Nipomo Mesa have imported a bunch of well-to-do NIMBYs (Not In My Back Yard) who are out to eliminate the recreational activities in the Nipomo Dunes. Those activities have been long enjoyed by locals and visitors alike well before these newcomers moved into an area…
County says it will remove material from Montecito mudflows for two to five years
Santa Barbara County will be removing debris from the Montecito mudflows for the next two to five years, according to a staff report presented at the Board of Supervisors’ regular meeting on March 13. Assistant county CEO Matthew Pontes told the supervisors that even though 30,000 cubic yards of material had been removed from roads…
Dance Spectrum opens at Hancock
Allan Hancock College presents the dance program’s annual spring show, Dance Spectrum, from March 15 to 18 in the Marian Theatre on the Santa Maria campus. Dance instructor Jesus Solorio will direct the cast of more than 60 dancers in 14 original works, including ballet, modern, jazz, hip-hop, contemporary, tap, Chinese, pop, and Latin fusion.…
Art show in Santa Maria spotlights travel photography
St. Mary of the Assumption Church presents a Fine Art Travel Photography Show featuring San Francisco-based artist and photographer, Frederico Domondon and local photographer Lee-Volker Cox, from 1 to 5 p.m. on March 25. Domondon and Cox have traveled extensively throughout the world, to places including Asia, North and South America, the Arctic, and Europe.…
First United Methodist Church brings The Last Supper to life
Santa Maria’s First United Methodist Church is hosting a one-night only performance of The Living Last Supper, a play based on Renaissance painter Leonardo Da Vinci’s famous painting. The musical drama depicts the story of the moment when Jesus Christ told his disciples one of them would betray him. The music was written by Ruth…
