Cover Story
Taking their shot: Student filmmakers have dreams of making it big in Hollywood
In the back of a darkened room, a light burns hotly into a small corner. Crouched near a desk is a man, his face flustered, with a look of searing fear and anticipation fixed in his eyes. He takes a deep breath, but before he can make a move, a sharp voice pierces the room.…
Lompoc Restaurant Week sees growth in second year
When even the bread tastes exquisite, you know you’re in a special restaurant. Such is the case with Scratch Kitchen. Headed by Chef Augusto Caudillo, the venue serves up rustic takes on contemporary California dining, starting with that sumptuous bite of cornbread. Moist and accented with dashes of diced jalapeño, the bread alone is enough…
Drunk driver charged with murder
A traffic collision that killed two in Santa Maria in early February resulted in murder charges against 25-year-old Cameron Wesley Oliver. Santa Barbara County District Attorney Joyce Dudley announced on Feb. 23 that Oliver had been charged with two counts of murder and a felony violation of driving with a blood alcohol content exceeding the…
What’s your favorite film?
Chelsey Cornell works at Tilly’s “Josie and the Pussycats, because that movie defined my childhood.” Gabby Tinoco works at Tilly’s “As Above, So Below, because I love the history behind the Paris catacombs.” Jeremy Rosenberg works for ChildFund “The Matrix, because it’s the perfect blend of action and epistemology.” Zach Lelevier-Joseph property manager “The Shawshank…
Righetti’s Latinos Unidos club to provide district-wide college workshop conference
College applications, financial aid, and career goals—it’s the stuff of nightmares for high school students everywhere. But Santa Maria’s high schoolers can expect some help planning for higher education, thanks to a conference organized by the Ernest Righetti High School Latinos Unidos Club on Saturday, March 18. The fifth annual conference, arranged by the 30…
Spotlight on: Dignity Health
In addition to government grants, nonprofits rely on the charity of individuals and organizations from the local private sector and sometimes from not-for-profits. On Feb. 13, Dignity Health awarded $271,821 in checks to community nonprofit organizations across the Central Coast. Dignity Health, a San Francisco-based organization, is a not-for-profit that operates Marian Regional Medical Center…
Clan of the cave Brit
I love the weekends. I can sleep late, I don’t have to drive my husband, The Brit, to his various doctor appointments, or our teenager, The Briteen, to school or sports practices. I settle in on our electric recliner sofa, put my feet up, and savor my coffee while doing crossword and sudoku puzzles. That’s what…
Politics of discourse
Hey, has anyone else noticed this trend going on nationally, and locally, among arguing political factions? It goes like this: Instead of addressing an argument or a position, the arguer only attempts to discredit the person making the argument they disagree with. It is going on literally from the highest office in our country down…
Democracy 2.0
In 2015, Santa Barbara made the historic move of ditching at-large elections for City Council members and implementing a district election system instead. Now, Santa Maria—Santa Barbara County’s largest and most populous city—is taking the first steps to get rid of the at-large system it’s used since incorporating in 1905 and implement district elections before…
Hobnobbing with Helen
STEM is in the air. The acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics seems to pop up everywhere. Frequent use of the term STEM, relatively new to our vocabulary, is intended to make what it stands for less intimidating to students. Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics can be fun. STEM’s fun aspects were brought to…
Santa Maria opens Bradley Road at Betteravia intersection
Santa Maria motorists have a new road and some new intersections to look out for. According to a press release from the city, a recently realigned portion of South Bradley Road opened to traffic on Feb. 24. Part of the ongoing Enos Ranchos project, South Bradley Road has two new signal intersections as well, located…
Judge upholds criminal charges against Plains All American Pipeline
A judge denied motions to waive the criminal indictment against Plains All American Pipeline and James Buchanan, the company’s environmental and regulatory compliance specialist, for alleged violations of state law in connection with the May 2015 Refugio oil spill. The Plains All American indictment comprises 46 counts of criminal charges, including four felony charges for…
OAHS robotics team Spartatroniks unveils new robot before competitions
With the building and designing portion of the season behind them, Orcutt Academy High School’s robotics team, FIRST 3512 Spartatroniks, can only wait to display their new robot in competition. Antikythera, which owes its name to the earliest known computing device, was completed in February and is gearing up for competitions later in March. More…
Randi Robertson
More than 5,000 archers of all ages gathered in Las Vegas, Nev., in February for the 2017 Vegas Shoot competition—the largest indoor archery tournament in the world—including 15-year-old Randi Robertson of Santa Maria. Robertson, a sophomore at Pioneer Valley High School, was excited but intimidated at the same time by the amount of people at…
Prepare, but don’t panic
The last few weeks have made clear that Donald Trump meant every word of his anti-immigrant campaign rhetoric and is intent on fulfilling the wish lists of the most extreme fringes of his base. But they’ve also proven that our resistance is powerful and that the movement emerging across the country is just beginning. Trump’s…
Oil and water
Tensions surrounding the oil and gas industry in Santa Barbara County may ramp up in the near future, as legislation from U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) proposing to ban new offshore drilling clashes with President Donald Trump’s promise to expand offshore oil and gas production in the U.S. The Clean Coast Act, proposed by…
Santa Maria Philharmonic makes Mozart matter in Feb. 25 concert
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791) is often held up as the example of the consummate musical genius. A famous wunderkind in his lifetime, he gave humanity an incredible amount of music in his 35 years. But unfortunately, it has become easy to take Mozart for granted. We hear him all the time, from film scores to…
Central Coast lawmakers face lively crowds at town hall meetings
When U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) walked into his Feb. 22 town hall meeting in Arroyo Grande, the crowd erupted into a standing ovation. The cheers from the audience of about 400 continued over the next two hours as Carbajal vowed to continue pushing back against much of President Donald Trump’s agenda, including efforts…
Wildling Museum receives $75,000 from Santa Barbara Foundation
The Santa Barbara Foundation donated a grant of $75,000 to the Wildling Museum of Art and Nature’s building purchase campaign. The goal of the campaign is to raise $1.8 million, which will allow the Wildling Museum to close escrow on the purchase of the current building. “Our investment in the Wildling Museum of Art and…
Barbershop Harmony Society hosts youth festival
The Barbershop Harmony Society welcomes local music students to join the seventh annual Youth-in-Harmony Festival in Santa Maria. The festival is exclusively for middle school, high school, and community college students. Attendees will receive free singing lessons from experienced barbershop-style veterans. The event is sponsored by various local singing organizations, including the Central Coast Chordsmen…
Local musicians to perform European classics in Santa Maria
If you’ve ever wanted to hear traditional European songs performed on accordion, a pair of local musicians have you covered. Starting March 5, accordion player Chuck Osborn and singer Gale McNeeley will perform a series of intimate shows on the Central Coast as part of their One World, One Heart—A Celebration of the Music and…
Japanese internment camp survivor shares heartbreaking stories to a packed crowd in Santa Maria
When Margaret Nakamura-Cooper was 11 years old, she looked down at her newborn cousin, nestled in a lettuce crate and wrapped in a towel. Even as a young child, she knew there was something deeply wrong about the conditions her family was living in. Cooper is one of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans who were…
Political Watch 3/2/17
• The heavy rain (good) California’s been receiving for the last two months has caused serious flooding (not so good) to the point of damaging the Oroville dam, which came dangerously close to bursting. An evacuation order for more than 180,000 people came Feb. 12. On Feb. 23, California Sen. Kamala Harris (D) took an…
Speaking up
I am the lady who was thrown out of the Santa Maria City Council meeting a couple of weeks ago (Feb. 21). I don’t usually attend the council meetings, but I wanted to be there to support the resolution, which would begin the process to transition to district-based city elections. The city attorney and city…
Statement on Homeland Security immigration memos
Secretary John Kelly’s memos to the DHS (Department of Homeland Security) detail unprecedented operating guidelines that lay the groundwork for President Trump’s inhumane plan for mass deportation under his administration. There is no question that dangerous criminals should not be allowed to stay in this country illegally, but under these new guidelines, our immigration agency…
