Cover Story
Hops and crafts: A small and fast-growing craft beer industry is making its mark on the Central Coast and beyond
View a slideshow from local breweries and the 2015 Great American Beer Festival. Men and women dressed in furry costumes, an autonomous motorized keg offering rides to strangers, and beards galore. A seemingly endless supply of small-batch, or “craft,” beer flowed from thousands of kegs behind rows upon rows of individual booths inside the Colorado…
PW Environmental fined for overbilling cleanup costs
The State Water Resources Control Board has taken action against environmental contracting, engineering, and geological consulting firm PW Environmental for overbilling cleanup costs to California’s Underground Storage Tank Cleanup Fund. The charges of grand theft, to which PW Environmental pleaded no contest, came after allegations that PW Environmental fabricated the books for cleanup work they…
Who is your least favorite Santa Maria City Council member?
Audrey Nash volunteer at the library “Not sure who they are. I don’t get the paper, and there’s not much said about them on TV.” Bill Reid retired “Hard to say. I don’t have a least favorite.” Caroline Reid retired “To be honest, there is nothing about them I’m unhappy about. I like them all.”…
Mother and daughter from Orcutt raise money for St. Jude
An Orcutt mother-and-daughter team is undertaking a challenging journey to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. For both members of the Santa Maria Joint Union High School District family, the 13.1 mile St. Jude Memphis Marathon will be personal. “You may see me struggle,’’ said Lori Cook, who works at the Santa Maria Joint Union…
Ceremony, scholarship honor students killed in Ventura car wreck June 22
Two fallen Pioneer Valley High School junior varsity basketball players will be memorialized on Saturday, Oct. 3, during a presentation at the school. The school will present the parents of Milinda Parra and Justin Walker, who were killed in a traffic wreck near Ventura on June 22, with their jerseys. A presentation for Parra’s parents…
Teachers from Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties get energy education training from Phillilps 66 and NEED
Phillips 66 and the National Energy Education Development Project (NEED) hosted an energy education workshop on Thursday, Sept. 24, for dozens of teachers from Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. At the workshop, a NEED energy education trainer, explained how to use experiments and research and analysis activities to make learning about the science…
Spotlight on: M&M Restaurant Supply and Service
There are places along the Central Coast where restaurants can buy equipment, but they are few and far between. That’s according to Jacob May, the manager of M&M Restaurant Supply and Service, who supplies local restaurants with the commercial-grade stuff they need. They’ve got pots, pans, utensils, stoves, smokers, sets of cutting knives, ice machines,…
Political Watch 10/1/15
• Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill on Sept. 22, which will give local governments more economic development tools to help improve struggling communities. SB 107 will help cities and counties streamline efforts to enhance affordable housing in areas that need it the most. “These important new measures enacted today will help boost economic development…
Community Notebook 10/1/15 – 10/8/15
TUESDAY, Oct. 6 • The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors has its regular meeting at 9 a.m. in the Board of Supervisors Hearing Room, 105 E. Anapamu St., Santa Barbara. • The Vandenberg Village Community Services District has its regular board meeting at 7 p.m. in the District Office Conference Room, 3757 Constellation Road,…
Hobnobbing with Helen
It was a big night for Jeremy Deming, executive director of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Santa Maria Valley (B&GC), and Kathryn Scott, marketing manager. The B&GC held its Annual Celebrity Waiters Night on Thursday, Sept. 17, at the Santa Maria Country Club, and raised more than $40,000 to support the club’s many programs. …
Santa Barbara Supoervisors attempt to clarify relationship between ICE and the sheriff at Sept. 22 hearing
It was a long, hot hearing before the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors on Sept. 22. Sheriff Bill Brown and officer David Marin of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), along with a small army of concerned residents, packed into the government center on Betteravia Road to gain a better understanding of the relationship between…
CHP releases name of bicyclist killed Sept. 18 on Highway 154
The California Highway Patrol identified the bicyclist who was struck and killed on Highway 154 near Lake Cachuma on Sept. 18 as Reyes Cabrera of Lompoc. According to the CHP, Cabrera was riding a bicycle at 9 a.m. on eastbound Highway 154 when a black Toyota 4Runner driven by 30-year-old Santa Maria resident Mikhail Panko…
Santa Maria police investigate triple shooting on Cypress Street
Detectives from the Santa Maria Police Department are investigating a triple shooting that occurred on Sept. 28. in the 1000 block of West Cypress Street. According to SMPD Sgt. Jesus Valle, police were called to the area around 11:20 p.m. Monday, where they found three men suffering from gunshot wounds. As of press time, police…
Ninth Court voids use of controversial pesticide
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco overturned the Environmental Protection Agency’s unconditional approval of controversial insecticide, sulfoxaflor on Sept. 7, saying the EPA relied on “flawed and limited data” in its registration of the chemical. Sulfoxaflor is a subclass of neonicotinoid—the family of insecticides that some believe are responsible for colony collapse…
Panga boat carrying marijuana bails washes ashore on Gaviota coast
Another illicit-drug-carrying panga boat washed ashore along the Gaviota Coast. This time, a man taking his dog for an early morning walk on along a San Onofre Beach trail on Sept. 28 found a boat sitting among the rocks down below, according to Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Kelly Hoover. The boat…
C.L.A.S.S. act
California Attorney General Kamala Harris’ 2015 report on truancy and absenteeism, In School + On Track, states that 83 percent of students chronically absent in kindergarten and first grade are unable to read on-level by third grade. Even more staggering, the report adds, is the fact that students who cannot read on-level in third grade…
Dwelling in the past
Dwelling on the past has kind of been a thing in our house lately. Most of this centers on how much things have changed—the economy, the educational system, the cost of living—but not all of it. Tired of hearing us reminisce about fond memories, my two oldest sons usually put Ron and me in check…
Santa Maria Philharmonic Society’s season opener a resounding success
Anyone who thinks that top quality classical music is the province of places like Santa Barbara or Los Angeles certainly wasn’t in attendance at the Santa Maria Philharmonic Society’s premier concert of the 2015-2016 season on Sept. 26 at the historic Ethel Pope Auditorium at Santa Maria High School. The concert was a testament to…
Bedford Winery in Los Alamos celebrates grape harvest with accordion music
Bedford Winery is welcoming locals to enjoy their annual Celebration of Harvest Festival at the winery’s tasting room in Los Alamos on Oct. 10, which will feature a special musical guest. Jeffery Iacono is a former heavy metal drummer and jazz vocalist from Southern California who turned to the accordion later in life and plays…
Local rockers come together to help Batty family
A benefit rock show has been arranged to help offset medical costs for the daughter of local drummer and teacher, Kyle Batty. The Batty Family Benefit concert is scheduled for Oct. 11 from noon to 9 p.m. at O’Sullivan’s Pub in Santa Maria. The show will include a barbecue and raffle as well as a…
Wildling Museum seeks volunteers
The Wildling Museum in Solvang is currently seeking volunteers to help with a variety of the museum’s operations and functions. Volunteers who love art, nature, and interacting with people are welcome to join the team there, according to a release prepared by the Wildling Museum. The museum needs volunteers for helping in the gift shop…
Generations dance together at the annual Santa Ynez Chumash Pow-Wow
View the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians’ short documentary about the 50th annual Intertribal Pow-Wow. This year’s Santa Ynez Chumash Intertribal Pow-Wow event is the tradition’s golden anniversary. It began in 1965 as an effort to raise funds to bring running water to the reservation. Now the annual Pow-Wow event invites competitive dance and…
Santa Maria Arts Council will raffle artful birdhouses at the Autumn Arts Festival
While attending the Santa Maria Recreation and Parks Department’s huge annual Autumn Arts Festival on Oct. 3, among booth after booth featuring the work of local artists, arts organizations, and galleries, attendees can find Santa Maria Arts Council members scattered throughout the leisurely street festival. Some will be at the Art Council’s booth of course,…
Mary Kavaloski
It was over pizza at Giovanni’s that Mary Kavaloski, tennis ace for Santa Ynez, was recognized as an athlete of the week by the Northern Santa Barbara County Athletic Roundtable on Sept. 21. Santa Ynez is a force to be reckoned with in the Los Padres League. The Pirates thoroughly trounced Cabrillo the week before,…
YELL conference brings Hollywood star Carlos Pratts to Allan Hancock
What do a Houston Rockets fan turned movie star and Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) have in common? They’ll both be speaking at the Young Educated Latino Leaders (YELL) conference on Oct. 3 at Allan Hancock College’s Marian theater. Diana Perez, the event organizer, said that the YELL conference is geared toward motivating high…
Separate by equal?
Divorce. Yuck. And yet, it happens—although, at a much lower rate than previously thought. Apparently, if current trends continue, nearly two-thirds of marriages will never end in divorce, according to data a University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers gave The New York Times blog UpShot. But still. Yuck. Imagine if Bill and Melinda Gates got…
Phillips 66 is a good neighbor, and progress is inevitable
The Santa Maria Refinery is a small facility located on the mesa that has been a good neighbor for 60 years. They own 1,780 acres of land but only use a very small portion of it. Refineries intentionally purchase large plots of land to provide a buffer between them and the surrounding community. This adds…
In response to ‘Fear vs. Fact …’
The talking points of the Phillips 66 cadre of supporters are those that Phillips 66 beats like a dead horse, including the loss of 200 high paying jobs should the rail spur not be approved. No one has ever challenged the jobs at Phillips, and in fact when asked about the plant closing, Dennis Nuss,…
The ‘vocal minority’ isn’t imagining oil-by-rail hazards
If Patrick Sidun (“Fact vs. fear in the Phillips 66 debate,” Sept. 24) thinks “a vocal minority has raised alarm about mostly imagined hazards from transporting oil to the Nipomo refinery via railroad,” he hasn’t been paying attention, nor would it appear that he’s read the project’s Environmental Impact Report. For the record, that “vocal…
Quit personal attacks on those who don’t agree about oil trains
Since he doesn’t have facts, Patrick Sidun, a Phillips 66 employee, is personally attacking those opposed to hauling 520, mile-long oil trains through the county each year. He called them “a minority of retired wealthy people living in exclusive, expensive homes in a relentless fear campaign against working families’ lives,” in a letter to the…
Santa Barbara County’s 2015 wine harvest began earlier than ever, and is already almost over
Seasoned Santa Barbara County vineyard manager Ruben Solorzano’s 25th wine harvest has also been his earliest. The respected viticulturist oversees 22 vineyards, “all the way from Lompoc to Happy Canyon,” for Coastal Vineyard Care Associates. The 2015 wine harvest began for Solorzano on July 23. Sauvignon blanc, growing in Happy Canyon in the eastern Santa…
