Cover Story
‘The Great Imitator’
A Western blacklegged tick is like something out of a Ridley Scott-directed nightmare in miniature, all HR Giger joints and glossy exoskeleton. Adult females resemble burnt sesame seeds dipped in ketchup. Despite their miniscule size—with their eight legs spread wide, they’d pretty much cover Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s nose on a dime—they can have a huge…
Educational evening classes offered at CORE Family Winery’s tasting room
Dave Corey, a Santa Maria Valley winemaker and former competitive cyclist, talks almost as fast as he pedals his high-performance Cannondale road bike; he still rides 200 miles a week on the back roads of Santa Barbara County, except during the busy grape harvest. Get him on the topic of wine and he has both…
What’s your favorite fall food?
Julie McLaughlin volunteer “Pumpkin pie; it’s a tradition. If I don’t have pumpkin pie during the fall holiday, I miss it.” Derek Kazianka dancer “Pasta; I like all kinds—lasagna … and you can’t go wrong with mac ’n’ cheese. In the fall, it’s cold out, so you want to eat something that’s warm and then…
Worth 1,000 words: New Times Media Group’s 18th annual photo contest
New Times Media Group’s 18th annual photo contest is rapidly approaching with the “Winning Images” issue hitting stands on Nov. 7. The deadline for entries in the contest is Oct. 7 by 5 p.m. at the New Times office, 1010 Marsh St., in SLO, or the Sun office, 2540 Skyway Drive, Santa Maria. A completed…
Clay Taylor
The first thing football player Clay Taylor likes to do after playing a good football game is to go home, call his brothers, and brag. “We’re all very competitive,” he said. Valley Christian Academy’s Sept. 21 game against Coalinga Faith Christian gave Taylor a lot of bragging rights. The running back scored the first four…
What’s on Deck? 9/26-10/3
Thursday, Sept. 26 Girls’ Volleyball St. Joseph vs Righetti @ RHS, 6 p.m. Santa Maria vs. Templeton @ SMHS, 5:30 p.m. Pioneer Valley vs. Arroyo Grande @ PVHS, 6 p.m. Nipomo vs. Morro Bay @ MBHS, 5:30 p.m. Boys’ Water polo St. Joseph vs. Lompoc @ LAC, 3 p.m. …
Grow older actively
Annual Active Aging Week, Sept. 22 through 28, got its start with the International Council on Active Aging. The weeklong event emphasizes the importance of a healthy lifestyle for older adults while providing safe and diverse community activities. Visit centralcoastseniors.org for more information.
Golf Ball Drop coming to Goleta
ServiceMaster Anytime is the sponsor of the first-ever Golf Ball Drop at California’s Lemon Festival and Safety Street Sept. 29 at Girsh Park in Goleta. Working with the Santa Barbara Firefighters Alliance, Team ServiceMaster is busy collecting donated golf balls for the event. According to a recent firefighters alliance press release, all of the purchased…
Golf: Titans victorious over Spartans
The Nipomo golf team defeated Orcutt Academy 246-278 Sept.18 at Monarch Dunes Golf Course. Erin Shusterich shot an impressive 45 and was the day’s medalist. The Titans improved to 3-2 on the season.
Not your typical boat race: Fourth Annual Youth Boat Regatta
Sept. 28 marks the fourth annual youth boat regatta at the Paul Nelson Aquatic Center in Santa Maria. Children ages 12 to 18 will work together in teams of two to build a boat from cardboard and duct tape. Once they have their watercraft built, the team members will race their boats across the 50-meter…
Hidden in the sand: Lunar Craters
On Sept. 27, the Guadalupe Dunes Center, in conjunction with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, will be host to a refuge hike to Lunar Craters in the Oceano Dunes. The scenic five-mile hike adventures to normally inaccessible parts of the dunes. The hike will require difficult exertion with steep inclines in the sand. The…
Turning the page: The Bulldogs’ women’s volleyball is on its way
Being a volleyball player at Allan Hancock College means having discipline and determination. It also means facing some of the toughest competition in the state. A majority of the teams Hancock faces in conference are ranked in the Top 50, including Cuesta, L.A. Pierce, and Moorpark colleges. Santa Barbara City College is ranked fourth in…
What Kids Are Reading – Martín de Porres: The Rose in the Desert
Sept. 15 to Oct. 15 is National Hispanic Heritage Month, celebrating Hispanic culture, and recognizing and affirming the contributions of Hispanic and Latino Americans to the United States. Sept. 15 was the anniversary of independence in 1821 for Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Mexico, Chile, and Belize attained their independence on September…
Community Corner: Barbecue fundraiser for a kidney transplant patient is scheduled for Sept. 29
In just a couple of months, Santa Maria resident Libby Walling will head to Cedar Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles to receive a kidney transplant from her sister. It’s not Walling’s first kidney transplant either. She received her first one at the age of 17, with her brother as the donor. While that kidney…
Literacy is the top priority at upcoming reading association event
The San Luis Obispo County Reading Association will knock its love of literacy up a notch during the third annual school giveaway and silent auction on Oct. 1. It’s a free event that comes complete with appetizers. Last year, Orcutt Academy K-8 won a $1,000 gift package, which included an author visit, more than $400…
Altrusa International gives grants to Santa Maria teachers
Fifty Santa Maria-Bonita School District teachers received $300 each from Altrusa International of the Golden Valley on Sept. 24. The $15,000 in grants will go to classroom supplies, activities, or lessons and will cover a range of subjects, including field trips, technology, and assemblies. Teachers had to apply for the grants by describing their objectives,…
Students celebrate National Hispanic Heritage Month
Santa Maria High School’s Chicano/Latino studies class took a trip to David Sanchez Elementary School for a book-sharing session on the morning of Sept. 18. More than 20 students read children’s books written by or about Latinos to elementary school youngsters in order to share culture and promote literacy for Latino Heritage Month. In a…
Political Watch 9/26/13
• The Santa Maria Valley Republicans will have their monthly meeting on Friday, Oct. 4, at 11:30 a.m. For more information or to RSVP, e-mail Mariln Brown at buglegroup@yahoo.com. • The unemployment rate for Santa Barbara County was 6.3 percent in August 2013, according to figures released Sept. 20 by the State Employment Development…
Community Notebook 9/26-10/3
TUESDAY, OCT. 1 • The Vandenberg Village Community Services District has its regular board meeting at 7 p.m. in the District Office Conference Room, 3757 Constellation Road, Vandenberg Village. www.vvcsd.org • The Santa Maria City Council has its regular meeting at 6:30 p.m. in the City Council Chambers, City Hall, 110 E. Cook St., Santa…
Correction
The Sun improperly listed in its Sept. 19 Arts Briefs the name of Altrusa International Foundation, Santa Maria. The nonprofit is accepting applications for fall 2013 grant funds from local nonprofits. More info: 938-9262 or stevens280@comcast.net.
A Santa Maria couple talks about living with Alzheimer’s disease
Joe Cohan enjoys many of the same activities most retired men his age do: He plays tennis and bridge. He works in the yard and volunteers for Dignity Health Hospice at Marian Regional Medical Center. This fall, he wants to start walking dogs around his neighborhood. Joe also has Alzheimer’s. “The condition came on about…
People with disabilities advocate for their rights on the Central Coast
Self-advocacy is something that many folks on the Central Coast probably don’t think about on a daily basis. But for some adults, both young and old, the need to not only be treated as an equal, but also to have a quality of life that’s equal to everyone around them, presents itself on a daily…
KCOY and KKFX will see more changes in ownership
On Sept. 23, News-Press & Gazette Company announced, pending approval from the Federal Communications Commission, the purchase of KKFX/FOX11 in San Luis Obispo and the CBS and Telemundo news affiliates in Monterey from Cowles California Media Company. The two companies have also agreed to co-own KCOY-TV, the CBS news affiliate in Santa Maria. According to…
Santa Barbara County’s poverty rate is higher than the national average
New census data released on Sept. 19 by the American Community Survey showed the poverty rate in Santa Barbara County at 16.3 percent for 2012, while the official poverty rate for the nation is at 15 percent. The city of Santa Maria’s poverty rate stands even higher than the county’s at 23.5 percent. The census…
Villalpando is ordered to pay restitution to one of his victims
A Santa Barbara County Superior Court judge has ordered former St. Joseph High School student Shane Villalpando to pay more than $36,000 in restitution to one of his victims and her family. A jury convicted Villalpando in July of three felony counts of unlawful sex with a minor. He was sentenced to one year in…
Mission ride brings history to life at the Dana Adobe
The late San Luis Obispo County supervisor Paul Teixeira loved visiting the Dana Adobe. Debbie Gleason, legislative assistant for Teixeira’s 4th district, said he used to tell her how magical the adobe was, how he could always feel the history when he visited. On Sept. 20, she finally understood why. Gleason stood in the cupola,…
Spotlight on: Wild West Pizza and Grill
Hanging on the wall at Wild West Pizza and Grill in Lompoc is an autographed photo of Stuart Whitman. Best known for playing Marshal Jim Crown in the 1960s TV Western Cimarron Strip, Whitman also owns the shopping center in which the restaurant is located. “When he found out it was going to have a…
Santa Maria Library calls for artists
The Friends of the Santa Maria Library are preparing the third annual Drop Everything and Read Painted Chair Event, which features chairs painted by local artists and benefits the Friends of the Santa Maria Public Library. The Friends of the Santa Maria Library will be giving away a number of paintable chairs to local artists…
Last chance to join Autumn Arts Grapes and Grains Festival
The Santa Maria Recreation and Parks Department has extended its application deadlines for the 2013 Autumn Arts Grapes and Grains Festival activities and attractions. Commercial vendor/food both, nonprofit booth, and arts and crafts vendor booth applications are being accepted through Sept. 30. Applications for entering the fine art show are also due Sept. 30. The…
Tony Piazza explores mystery in the Golden Age of cinema
Read the first chapter of the book The early 1930s are often romanticized as the Golden Age of cinema, specifically in Hollywood. Though the bourgeoning motion picture industry ensured that the Depression didn’t hit so hard in the City of Angels, things weren’t always so golden in Hollywood. Local author Tony Piazza—with the help of…
Ian M. Hassett Foundation supports emerging local artists
Ian Hassett was just a young man when he was given his cancer diagnosis. Though he always remained hopeful, he was also realistic, his mother Stefanie Hassett explained. He sought to use his time well, engaging in the creative outlets he grew up enjoying and branching into new ones. “He handled his diagnosis so gracefully;…
The Santa Maria Winds have a special ‘Rendezvous’ concert
With the help of several large donations and a wealth of community support, the Santa Maria Philharmonic Society is back in the game of providing quality live music to Santa Marians. The society originally canceled its season subscription concert this year due to a lack of funds, but now a smaller two-show series has been…
The Many Adventures of Pita and Huha
Both of my kids are teenagers in high school, which means it takes a fair amount of patience on my part not to end their lives on a daily basis. I find this awkward point in my children’s development sort of ironic because I worked so hard during the first part of their lives to…
Oust the crash-test dummies
Here we go again. A government shutdown is looming. It feels like Groundhog Day 2. According to Congress, partisan politics and posturing are more important than diligent governing. Democracy has evolved into a messy, broken system. Politics is a tug-of-war game, and the people are the rope. We the people need to come up with…
Why the Core rush?
After reading the recent article “Understanding the core” (Sept. 12), I am worried that parents have lost their ability to think critically about their children’s education? I am sadly one of the few parents who have taken the time to pull back the curtain and explore these new standards beyond the buzzwords of “rigor,” “critical…
Long live wrestling
In February 2013, the wrestling and sporting world was dumbfounded when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) removed the sport of wrestling as one of the “core 25 sports” in the Olympic Games. Wrestling—along with eight other sports—was being forced to plead its way back into the Olympic games lineup. The morning I learned of this…
Same planet, different worlds
Hey, I’m keeping it brief this week, mostly because I got an e-mail that stated “Good Afternoon, I have a number of potential customers looking for a Document Shredding company in your area. I thought you would make a good fit.” Frankly, I was flattered that they thought of me, so I’m researching the best…
