An energy company might soon harness Lompoc’s winds to provide energy to up to 50,000 homes. On Feb. 10, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors voted 4-0, with 4th District Supervisor Joni Gray abstaining, to approve the project after denying the only remaining appeal filed against it. Originally, two parties—the California Department of Fish […]
Santa Barbara County Supervisors give proposed Lompoc wind farm the go-ahead
Posted inNews
School district braces for employee layoffs
At its Feb. 11 meeting, the Santa Maria Joint Union School District School Board of Trustees hammered out a framework for determining how teachers will get laid off. The district will lose almost $5 million over the next few years because of the state budget crisis. To cope with that financial hardship, the district is […]
Posted inNews
Help stop the cycle of abuse
The Santa Barbara County Human Services Commission is currently accepting grant applications for batterers’ treatment starting April 1 and running through July 30, 2010. Funds available for the period total $20,182.50, subject to the Board of Supervisors’ final budget decisions. Grant applicants must be nonprofit 501(c) organizations and comply with county nondiscrimination policies. The grants […]
Posted inNews
Be on the alert this tax season
Santa Barbara County Clerk, Recorder, and Assessor Joseph Holland recently sent out a warning to county taxpayers. “Our office reviews property values for free; it’s part of our job,” he said in a news release. “We proactively seek out and review thousands of properties.” His announcement came after mailers came to county residents, offering a […]
Posted inNews
HR has never looked this good
Your People Professionals and the Santa Maria Enterprise Center are holding a joint open house for local businesses. Your People Professionals, which handles human resources for companies and businesses, overhauled its technical infrastructure, remodeled its building, and added wireless networking to its conference room. Check out the shiny new improvements on March 5. The Santa […]
Posted inOpinion
Look to the right
True conservatives believe: Eight-hundred billion dollars to help our own country is too much, but $1 trillion for the Iraq War was money well spent. Spending is not stimulus, it’s how liberals waste our tax dollars. Tax cuts for the rich are the best way to help middle-class Americans—trickle-down economics works. Rush Limbaugh spoke the […]
Posted inOpinion
Let’s talk crude
I see we’re still taking the hit from Big Oil, and maybe now the stations. As most of you have read in the paper, the price of oil is now down to the $30-range for a barrel. Isn’t it amazing how the price of a gallon of gas has risen about 35 cents since the […]
Posted inOpinion
Why destroy instead of preserve?
Living in Long Island, New York, for the past 10 years, I’ve taken many trips to Fire Island to see the beautiful dunes and all the wonderful wildlife and organisms it holds. Just arriving in Nipomo yesterday, I was very excited to hear that you had dunes as well. Taking a trip there today, I […]
Posted inOpinion
We needed that stimulus plan!
It averts the loss of somewhere between 3 or 4 million jobs, needed green jobs, and needed infrastructure jobs, averts teacher layoffs, etc. The opposition just doesn’t care about the rest of us.
Posted inOpinion
Tell our supervisors to stand strong against the state
State mandated housing, at its inception many years ago, had many worthwhile goals, but virtually none of these high-minded goals has been achieved, and it has become a bonanza for developers who are selected for high density rezoning and for those state and county workers who administer this unnecessary program that causes excessive growth. The […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
The Tour stops here
After months of planning and anticipation, it’s finally here. The Amgen Tour of California races into Solvang for individual time trials on Feb. 20. Solvang Park kicks off the day with a free lifestyle festival running from 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Find health and fitness tests, booths, race merchandise for sale, and live broadcasts […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Smoked on the water
I didn’t think I was going to write about it, but I did. Call it an homage to our former sports editor, who would have been all over this in her regular column. Maybe her spirit still lingers in our office, because I’m not really a sports guy, yet here I am, on the sports […]