It’s not every day that the paper you tweet (as in chirp, chirp not type, type) for gets compared to the National Enquirer! I don’t know whether to be offended, confused, or proud.
Guadalupe City Councilmember Eugene Costa Jr. apparently doesn’t really think too highly of the little paper that could: “To go off a report that’s coming from the Sun is like, to me, reading the National Enquirer about aliens,” he said during the council’s Jan. 13 meeting.
I’m offended!
For full context—I know that you can’t get that in the Enquirer—Costa was referring to a comment Councilmember Whitney Furness made about getting more information out of the Sun than she got out of city staff when it comes to the Royal Theater project and the asbestos holdup. I’m proud!
“Those should be things not necessarily written about before the city knows about them,” Furness said.
For the record, that information did come from the city, not an alien and certainly not some random person from the Midwest who had a life-changing experience in the middle of a crop circle.
Costa also added that, of course the theater would have asbestos, duh! Why would you need to read a paper to get that information?
Wait, does that mean that Costa thinks, of course there are aliens, duh? I’m confused!
I’m also confused about what’s happening in Los Alamos. There’s a lot of hubbub surrounding Plenty on Bell and the eviction notice it got from the new owner of the building the restaurant rents. The community has landed firmly on Plenty on Bell’s side in all of this, sending letters to the Sun and rallying local residents to support the restaurant that’s in the middle of a court battle over its lease and who’s supposed to pay for what and what constitutes “rent.”
In the middle of that, rumors swirl about what exactly these new owners—who happen to own Dovecote Estate Winery—want to do with the space if Plenty on Bell vacates the premises. Such as potentially turn it into a wine tasting room. But they’re just rumors, you know?
That owner, Noah Rowles, is saying that Plenty on Bell owes $85,000 for repairs that need to be completed but weren’t and has been sending notices to that effect for the last six months. My question to Plenty on Bell is why would you want to stay somewhere that’s so toxic and tense?
“We have no exit strategy at this point except to fight it until the bitter end,” restaurant co-owner Christine Gallagher said.
And the community seems intent on helping them with that fight, by supporting the restaurant in person and online. But Rowles is trying to sniff out some anonymous Facebook accounts that he accuses of spreading misinformation about him online. He’s trying to compel Facebook to release information about who might be behind those accounts, so he can sue the keyboard warriors directly for libel.
Interesting. A case like that could have broader implications if it makes it far enough through the legal system—and I’ll be watching.
The canary isn’t a legal beagle but wants to be. Send advice to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in January 22 – January 29, 2026.