Featured news

Caught on camera: New evidence based on bus video footage led to mistrial, guilty plea in deadly forklift crash case

Nearly two years after pleading not guilty to vehicular manslaughter, Santa Maria resident David Baskett agreed to plead guilty to killing a local resident while driving a forklift. Baskett’s March 24 plea followed new evidence that Santa Barbara County Deputy District Attorney Ryan Clausen said contradicted what the 83-year-old originally told Santa Maria Police Department (SMPD) officers.  “The defendant intentionally provided false information to SMPD at the time of the crash,” Clausen wrote in court documents. On May 2,…

Caught on camera: New evidence based on bus video footage led to mistrial, guilty plea in deadly forklift crash case

Nearly two years after pleading not guilty to vehicular manslaughter, Santa Maria resident David Baskett agreed to plead guilty to killing a local resident while driving a forklift. Baskett’s March 24 plea followed new evidence that Santa Barbara County Deputy District Attorney Ryan Clausen said contradicted what the 83-year-old originally told Santa…

latest canary

An Orcutt artist is ready to geek out at Santa Maria Comic Con

Chuck Jones and Bill Peet aren’t necessarily common household names, but their work begs to differ. Jones was the animator of Looney Tunes and Peet was an artist for many an early Disney project.  To “geeks” like Brett Nance, those guys are more than household names. They’re legends.  Nance grew up drawing, and by the time he was in middle school, he dreamed of having an artistic career.  “Pretty much anything that I tend to do on my own…

Gift this article