Cover Story
Local psychotherapist is determined to not let an elaborate scam targeting her industry happen to anyone else
Editor’s note: This is the second segment of a two-part story covering scam calls on the Central Coast. The first installment described one local woman’s experience with a scammer who used knowledge of her job and background to target her. The second focuses on the aftermath, others who have had similar experiences, and the resources…
BINGEABLE: ANATOMY OF A SCANDAL (2022)
BINGEABLE: ANATOMY OF A SCANDAL (2022) Where’s it playing? Netflix What’s it rated? TV-MA David E. Kelley has us unraveling a mystery as this six-part series unfolds. Prosecutor Kate Woodcroft is obsessively entrenched in her case against Parliament Minister James Whitehouse. Her own dark history is teased out as we also see—through flashbacks—how the two…
Santa Maria PD enacts new military equipment use policy
Rubber bullets. Tear gas. Armored cars. The definition of “military equipment” outlined in Assembly Bill 481 includes resources accessible to police departments in many cities across the state, including Santa Maria. The legislation became effective in January and requires every law enforcement agency in California to draft a formal policy on its use of military…
County struggles with unpredictable cannabis cultivation tax revenue
Santa Barbara County is anticipating a $6 million shortfall in the cannabis cultivation tax revenue it predicted for this fiscal year, thanks to an oversupply of wholesale cannabis in California and the resulting price decrease. “We overestimated revenues by almost 30 percent this year, and we don’t want to be in a position where there’s…
Infrastructure bill tofund transit, traffic flow improvements on Central Coast
California continues to have the highest gas prices in the nation by more than 40 cents a gallon, according to AAA data. But with a lack of accessible public transportation on the Central Coast, driving is many residents’ only option to go where buses and bikes can’t take them. With new money coming down the…
Guadalupe approves its first three cannabis projects
The cannabis industry is making its way into Guadalupe as the City Council approved the city’s first two dispensaries and a processing facility during a series of March and April meetings in order to increase the amount of revenue coming into its general fund, Mayor Ariston Julian told the Sun. Guadalupe passed three ordinances in…
Political Watch: May 5, 2022
• U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) issued an April 29 statement responding to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s comments to the Los Angeles Times about the possibility of delaying the closure of Diablo Canyon Power Plant, which generated 6 percent of the state’s power in 2021. PG&E plans to begin decommissioning the local nuclear plant in…
Central Coast fire safe councils, fire departments are mitigating fire risk using funds from the California Climate Investments Wildfire Prevention Grants Program
When asked when fire season officially starts, SLO County Fire Safe Council Executive Director Dan Turner couldn’t help but chuckle. Thanks to climate change, he said, fire season is practically year-round in California. “Typically in San Luis Obispo County, you start experiencing fires mid-April out on the east side of the county, which dries out…
Hancock College lecturer Patrick Shattuck opens up about his new thriller novel, ‘Dawn’s Web’
After a body is found in Central Park, two teenage New Yorkers with violent tendencies become the prime suspects. The police bring in a psychologist to observe the duo’s erratic behavior, but as he’s drawn deeper into the investigation, both his professional and personal life become increasingly jeopardized. Before writing Dawn’s Web, a new thriller…
Students from Righetti, Pioneer Valley, and Santa Maria high schools collaborate on new, outdoor production of ‘Grease’
A new, local production of Grease—with upcoming performances on Friday, May 6, and Saturday, May 7, at 5:30 p.m. both evenings—features a cast of students from Righetti High School, Pioneer Valley High School, and Santa Maria High School. Tickets to the show, held at Pioneer Valley High School’s outdoor amphitheater, are available online at onthestage.tickets.…
Santa Maria Civic Theatre presents ‘The Lifespan of a Fact’
The Santa Maria Civic Theatre’s (SMCT) latest production, The Lifespan of a Fact, runs through Sunday, May 8. The show’s plot follows a feud between an essay writer and a fact checker, who has been assigned by a magazine to proofread the essay before it becomes published. The play is described as comedic yet gripping…
Local restaurateurs Mike and Kathie Gordon to be honored at California Winemasters’ 33rd annual soirée and fundraiser
Lights, camera, auction! Hundreds of high-end wines and other coveted items will be auctioned off during an upcoming fundraiser at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank. This year’s edition of A Culinary Event with the California Winemasters will showcase about 75 different California-based vintners, as well as more than 50 international chefs—including a handful employed by…
Why is there such a lack of affordable housing?
The availability of affordable housing has been a big issue in California for decades. I received a mass e-mail from the California attorney general, Rob Bonita, the other day and he is concerned about “skyrocketing housing costs” and “a housing crisis of epic proportions.” The current city of Lompoc Inclusionary Housing Ordinance specifies that “the…
Taxing taxes
Mayor Aristan Julian believes cannabis is the answer to Guadalupe’s long-running general fund revenue problems—4 to 6 percent of gross receipts from future dispensaries ought to do the trick, he said! “If they make $3 million, we could get 6 percent of that into our general fund,” he said of the three cannabis businesses the…
More than only Los Alamos lessons
This began not as a Los Alamos NIMBY thing, but as an unfortunate example of much-less-than-best practices by government. Hundreds have signed petitions and sent letters requesting better plans for development of a lot. Why place 12 dwellings on an acre-and-a-half without safe and adequate access? The access road, a shoulderless fire lane, would remain…
Hoping for mutual respect and kindness
This is in response to a recent article featuring problems with the newly hired district manager, Ron Jacobs, at the Santa Maria Cemetery (“Residents and workers complain about oversight at the Santa Maria Cemetery, which is showing little sign of changing,” April 7). Our bereavement organization, Angel of Hope, which memorializes children who have passed…
