The Santa Barbara County Planning Commission voted 4-0 (with 5th District Commissioner Vincent Martinez absent) during its May 8 meeting to push its decision on a cannabis cultivation project near Buellton to July 10 so the project could further analyze odor, viewshed, and other environmental impacts. “I’m very cognizant, because I’ve been in the middle […]
Odor, environmental concerns delay decision on Buellton cannabis project
Posted inNews
Santa Maria Firefighters advocate for Measure U to fund salary increases
Santa Maria Firefighters Local 2020 members planned to attend the May 21 City Council preliminary budget meeting to advocate that the city use its Measure U funds to increase firefighter salaries, Local 2020 Public Information Officer Chris Robles told the Sun. “Our position is that it’s a matter of priorities,” Robles said. “It doesn’t take […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Great American Melodrama presents Pirates of Pismo A-Go-Go
Set in Pismo Beach during the 1960s, Pirates of Pismo A-Go-Go is the Great American Melodrama’s latest production, slated to run Friday, May 17, through Saturday, July 6. The show is described as an adaptation of Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance with a 20th century Central Coast setting. The plot follows Frederic, a […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
LA singer-guitarist Erinn Alissa travels up the coast with stops in SYV
Tunes and tastings Prolific musician Erinn Alissa will perform at Firestone Vineyard in Los Olivos on Sunday, May 26, from noon to 4 p.m., and Brick Barn Wine Estate in Buellton on Wednesday, May 29, from 4 to 7 p.m. Based in LA, the singer-songwriter and cover artist has additional shows lined up at venues […]
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Central Coast native joins the Boys and Girls Clubs of Mid Central Coast as new CEO
After being away for more than 10 years, Maria Fabula made her way back home to the Central Coast by joining the local Boys and Girls Club team as its new chief executive officer. “There’s nowhere quite similar in the world to San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara. We’ve always been drawn to this area,” […]
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Political Watch: May 16, 2024
• U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal joined several of his colleagues in introducing the Combat Veterans Pre-Enrollment Act, a bipartisan bill to allow service members to opt in to the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA) patient enrollment, according to a May 9 statement from Carbajal’s office. Currently, members of the armed forces cannot apply for VA […]
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Santa Barbara County supervisors move forward with hybrid cannabis tax
A new cannabis tax ordinance cleared another hurdle to make the November ballot after the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1, with 5th District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino dissenting, to move forward with proposing a hybrid tax that considers gross receipts and a base square footage tax. Currently the county uses a gross receipts […]
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Solvang gas station seeks ABC approval in area ‘oversaturated’ with beer licenses
Canned and bottled beer sales are commonplace at many convenience stores, but Jim’s Service Center in Solvang isn’t one of them. In business for nearly 50 years, the local gas station recently asked the Solvang City Council to endorse its application for an off-sale beer and wine license. In order to move forward, the California […]
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Santa Maria, Vernon Group negotiate development agreement for downtown
Santa Maria city staff is working on an agreement with the Vernon Group to move forward with developing four city-owned parcels, a big step toward realizing the city’s Downtown Revitalization Plan. “This is the hardest part. This is moving beyond the planning efforts into implementation and getting stuff built,” Assistant City Manager Chuen Wu told […]
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Vital draw: The FDA changes guidelines for LGBTQ-plus men who want to donate blood for the first time
An update to the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) guidelines on blood donation allows a whole new cross-section of people to roll up their sleeves and help those in need. In May 2023, the FDA eliminated time-based postponements and screening questions posed to men who have sex with other men (MSM population). Previous instruction deemed […]
Posted inOpinion
Don’t knock EV ownership till you try it—at least learn more now
If I was going to write an editorial in the opinion section, I would make sure I knew the topic that I was talking about. If I was an editor, I wouldn’t print an editorial from someone who knows nothing about the topic. Ron Fink just wrote an article about the electric vehicle mandate (“Who […]
Posted inOpinion
We cannot achieve greenhouse gas reduction if the goals are continually changing
As Santa Barbara County and the state of California continue with their efforts to save the Earth, the metrics for measuring success of the effort continue to change like the weather. For example, in 2021 the Board of Supervisors set a goal of reducing so-called greenhouse gasses (GHG) by 50 percent of the 2007 levels […]