Cover Story
Spring Arts 2019
Every year in March, we bring all the arts events we can find together in one place. There’s dancing for the booty-shaker in your life, easy listening jams for the coffee shop or wine bar lovers, galleries to please the art gawker, films that will satiate the biggest movie buffs, festivals to liven up your…
Political Watch 3/7/19
• Lompoc City Manager Jim Throop announced that he appointed Capt. Joseph Mariani as the new chief of the Lompoc Police Department. Mariani was sworn in on March 5 during the Lompoc City Council meeting. He will be the department’s first Latino and bilingual police chief. In September 2015, Mariani came out of retirement from…
At Naughty Oak Brewing Company, hops take center stage
I had the exciting opportunity a few weeks ago to sit down with a brewer and talk about one of the many aspects of beer making—hops. If you spend enough time around fans of microbrewing, you will probably hear people say, “I love hoppy beer,” enough times for you to lose count. But have you…
Peter-gram
Based on my age, I’m undoubtedly and firmly and proudly a part of Generation X. That means I grew up listening to Nirvana when Kurt Cobain was still alive, and it means I’m not a millennial. Let me clarify, I am definitely not a millennial. Now, I’m not here to say anything derogatory about millennials.…
High school talent show featured in Santa Maria
Santa Maria High School’s annual Saints Talent Show is scheduled for March 8. Organized by SMHS Drama Club participants, the show features 85 performers from the students and faculty in a variety of genres and styles. Piano, guitar, singing in English and Spanish, as well as the administration staff’s rock band No Class will all…
Santa Ynez hosts dinner and a film
The NatureTrack Film Festival (NTFF) will host Canadian painter Cory Trépanier, director of Into the Arctic: Awakening, at a Spotlight Dinner and film event on March 23. Trépanier began filming his plein-air painting expeditions in 2001, which led to the development of several television documentary series. At the dinner, he will give a presentation about…
Spoken word performance featured at Wildling Museum
The Wildling Museum of Art and Nature will present a new poetry reading on March 10 as part of the museum’s ongoing poetry series. A Conversation in Poems and Stories features spoken word artists Jerry DiPego and Ron Colone. DiPego, who resides in the Santa Ynez Valley, is a writer with screenwriting credits including Sharky’s…
Daytripper: A visit to Hearst Castle is never a bad idea
Wet and windy with an icy chill, the clouds part for a few moments so we can see the Pacific Ocean from this enchanted hilltop above San Simeon. A stormy sun peers through the far away gray. Neon green pastures, naked winter oaks, and the shine of angry water. I turn around to face four…
Local actor Brian Kasicki tackles challenging ‘Elephant Man’ role in Orcutt Community Theater’s production
The first time actor Brian Kasicki tried to contort his body to accurately imitate the physical ailments of John Merrick, he experienced some notable physical pain. “It’s very interesting to try and re-create that,” he said. “I had to try and figure out how can I try and re-create that comfortably but still do [it]…
The Last Gang headlines punk night at O’Sullivan’s Pub
St. Patrick’s Day isn’t just about four-leaf clovers anymore—it’s about four-leaf punk concerts too. The Last Gang is just one of four punk bands—the other three being The Lucky Eejits, Unbinding, and Genocide Jack—performing on Saturday, March 16, at O’Sullivan’s Pub in Santa Maria. Made up of Brenna Red (vocals and guitar), Robby Wantland (drums),…
Man your battle stations
The age of the Great Energy Fight is upon us and the battle lines are definitely drawn. Global warming and environmental disasters are on one side. Meeting energy needs and stimulating the economy are on the other. Protests were in full force over Plains All American Pipeline scoping hearings in Santa Barbara and Arroyo Grande…
Say no to Oso Flaco entrance
State Parks proposed to add a campground and off-highway vehicle (OHV) staging area at the Oso Flaco Lake day use area to facilitate access to the existing Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area (SVRA). Better access points to the OHV area would be through the Railroad Avenue, Silver Spur Place, or Callender Road, locations considered…
Start small: We can realize the green dream a little at a time
I would like to respond to Mark Henry’s opinion piece “Green Dreamin’” (Feb. 21) with a letter I recently sent to U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara): Dear Congressman Carbajal, I have reviewed the goals of the Green New Deal recently proposed as a congressional resolution. Although I agree with many of the overall goals of…
Immaculate inspections
Thanks to frequent complaints of odious oil company violations of safety standards, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors received a report from the Planning Department in February detailing the industry’s compliance with various health and safety regulations. Not surprisingly, one oil company stood out as a chronic violator of various health, safety, and environmental…
Lizette Pompa
Pioneer Valley High School student Lizette Pompa is the captain and inspirational leader of the most successful girls wrestling program on the Central Coast. That’s according to coach RD Noel, who said Pompa, a senior and fourth-year wrestler, led her team to another CCAA League Championship, a CIFCS Regional Championship, and the State Championship tournament…
District meeting highlights dual immersion
It’s her second year in Santa Maria’s only dual-immersion language program, and second-grader Arianna Rodriguez can already speak, read, and write in Spanish. Though her dad, Leo Rodriguez, is bilingual in Spanish and English, her mom, Tiffany Rodriguez, speaks only English. Arianna often hears her dad and grandparents communicate in Spanish, but at her house,…
Spotlight on: Santa Maria Wisdom Center
The only adult day health care facility in Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties nearly doubled its capacity in January with a move across town into a brand- new building. Santa Maria Wisdom Center Program Director Linda Gadbois said the center built the facility on Depot Street to be able to serve more individuals.…
Cannabusts: Have recent raids on Santa Barbara County’s unlicensed cannabis operations assuaged county residents’ concerns?
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office Cannabis Compliance Team found what it was looking for in some seemingly nondescript shipping containers on a property just outside Buellton city limits on Feb. 20. Stuffed into black and silver garbage bags, the containers’ contents became the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow: the conclusion…
Owner of Sergio’s Furniture and Mattress discusses new location and plans for future after devastating fire
Two workers ripped open a large cardboard box that they’d just rolled in slowly on a dolly. As the men unloaded the tissue paper and Styrofoam packaging surrounding the cream-colored, rustic dresser inside, others were busy organizing high thread-count bed sheets and pillows near the mattresses on display. It was Feb. 27, and although the…
Teen killed by stray bullet in possible gang shooting
A 17-year-old girl was killed outside a Lompoc convenience store by a stray bullet from gang-related drive-by shooting, according to police. Lompoc Police Department officials said the shooting occurred at 7:40 p.m. on March 4 in the 600 block of Ocean Avenue and Walnut Avenue. Police said an unnamed adult male who was a “known…
County seeks funding after rise in tuberculosis cases
Cases of tuberculosis are on the rise in Santa Barbara County, and health officials are hoping that an infusion of funding from the state will help them address the issue. The county Public Health Department reported 24 new cases of the infectious disease in 2018. That is more than double the 10 cases reported in…
Scoping hearings for oil pipeline project begin
The lengthy process of determining whether a pipeline company responsible for a 2015 oil spill will be allowed to replace more than 100 miles of pipeline through SLO, Santa Barbara, and Kern counties kicked off with hearings and protests in two Central Coast cities. Hearings to determine the scope of an environmental review for Plains…
