Cover Story
SPRING ARTS 2022
Spring 2022 is shaping up to be chock-full of events—just like old, pre-pandemic times. The Sun’s annual Spring Arts issue has all the good ones ready for you to tick off your list, from gallery exhibits to plays to live music, crafting activities, and food festivals, Arts Editor Caleb Wiseblood pooled them into a calendar…
NEW FLICKS: THE FOREVER PRISONER (2021)
NEW FLICKS: THE FOREVER PRISONER (2021) Where’s it playing? HBO Max What’s it rated? Not Rated This HBO Max documentary is important reminder that the Muslim world has a very good reason to think of the USA as a land of hypocrites. We may profess to be freedom loving and ruled by law, but try…
Expert testimony
If Santa Barbara County Planning Commissioner Larry Ferini likes it, then you should like it! At least when it comes to agriculture, according to fellow Commissioner Michael Cooney. “Similar to a baseball team, you figure out who the best players are for a given project,” Cooney said during a March 9 hearing about a giant…
Lompoc officials, community organizations respond to violent crimes through investment in public safety and youth violence prevention
Shooting investigation. Homicide investigation. Firearms seized. Homicide investigation. Homicide arrest. Felony hit and run arrest. Two homicide investigations. Gang-related shootings. The list continues as you scroll through recent posts on the Lompoc Police Department bulletins page, which announces the department’s activities and investigations. Violent crime is tangled throughout Lompoc’s history, and city officials, grassroots organizations,…
Aly’s Grill from Brazil introduces South American flavors to the Santa Ynez Valley
Garlic, onion, tomatoes, coconut milk, bell pepper, and red palm oil imbue mild white fish with tons of flavor in the classic Brazilian stew moqueca baiana. “It has a redness base to it and it just gives the fish stew like an exotic color to it. It has a distinct taste to it, and it’s…
Oceano’s Great American Melodrama shines spotlight on Sherlock Holmes in latest production
The Great American Melodrama and Vaudeville in Oceano presents its production of Sherlock Holmes and the Sign of the Four, which premieres on Thursday, March 17, and is scheduled to run through Saturday, April 30. Adapted for the stage from Arthur Conan Doyle’s mystery novel, this madcap musical features a cast of five actors who…
Grammy Award winner Melissa Etheridge performs live concert in Santa Ynez
The Chumash Casino Resort presents Grammy Award-winning musician Melissa Etheridge, live in concert, on Thursday, March 24, at 8 p.m. This concert is part of Etheridge’s One Way Out Tour. Admission to the show ranges from $59 to $89. Visit chumashcasino.com for tickets and more info. The Chumash Casino Resort is located at 3400 E.…
PCPA presents ‘Mother Road,’ a present-day sequel to ‘The Grapes of Wrath’
Performances of the Pacific Conservatory Theatre’s (PCPA) current production of Mother Road will be held through Sunday, March 27, at the Severson Theatre in Santa Maria. The play was written by Octavio Solis as a sequel to John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, which takes place 90 years after the events of the novel. The…
Ann Foxworthy Gallery showcases a diverse body of artworks from Hancock College instructors
Adrienne Allebe described how she allowed the unexpected to emerge in her mixed-media piece: After splashing a blank sheet of paper with a wave of watercolor, she tilted the canvas in different directions and watched the paint slide from side to side. As soon as vague shapes started to emerge, Allebe knew the direction she…
Greener Pastures Animal Sanctuary gives farm animals a new lease on life
When Dinky the potbellied pig first came to Greener Pastures Farm Sanctuary, she had mechanical blindness—a condition that occurs when pigs are so obese, the fat on their face rolls over their eyes and leaves them without sight. “She came from a shelter down in Los Angeles where she had been surrendered during a fire,”…
Political Watch: March 17, 2022
• U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal joined a bipartisan U.S. House of Representatives majority to pass measures supporting Ukraine in its fight against Russia, to hold Russia accountable, and to cut off funding sources for Russia’s war effort, according to a March 9 statement. Carbajal voted to approve $13.6 billion in emergency humanitarian, economic, and security…
Santa Maria-Bonita picks new voting areas despite extension requests
After more than an hour of debate on March 9, the Santa Maria-Bonita School District board approved a new map designating board member voting areas, in the face of a community push for more time to consider all of the maps presented during the redistricting process. Following the 2020 census—a data collection process that occurs…
County green-lights new produce freezer in the Santa Maria Valley
Arctic Cold was the hot topic of discussion during a recent Santa Barbara County Planning Commission meeting. Commissioners spent the majority of the four-hour hearing, held on March 9, talking about the proposed agricultural facility before unanimously approving the project. David Swenk, representing the planned Arctic Cold development, said it will encompass approximately 449,248 square…
Students no longer required to wear masks in school
Beginning March 14, school teachers across the state of California started seeing something new: The bottom half of their students’ faces. The California Department of Public Health announced Feb. 28 that effective after March 11, masks are no longer required indoors in schools and child care centers—regardless of vaccination status. Santa Maria-Bonita School District (SMBSD)…
Downsize the proposed Dana Reserve housing development
I am very much opposed to the development proposed in Nipomo (“Develop and preserve,” Feb. 17). I usually exit Highway 101 at Willow Road to avoid the traffic on Tefft Street. If this development goes through, the traffic at this intersection will increase dramatically. I also am appalled that the developer will be removing 3,400…
As the pandemic turns a corner, schools reflect on where COVID-19 has brought us
Two years have passed since COVID-19 forced schools around the world to close their doors, a tectonic shift in daily life with effects still unfolding. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic. By Friday, March 13, many schools here and beyond announced that campuses would cease in-person instruction and…
