The Santa Maria City Council responded to a Santa Barbara Barbara County grand jury report on Aug. 7. The city’s answer included two recommendations, which Santa Maria officials say the city has already implemented, as well as several findings that the city partially disagreed with and noted in its letter, sent by Mayor Alice Patino. […]
Santa Maria responds to grand jury report on pensions
Posted inNews
State Sen. Jackson’s bill targets wildfire prevention
As much of California burns in the middle of a particularly bad fire season, one bill penned by a Central Coast state senator is making its way through the Assembly. Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson’s (D-Santa Barbara) Senate Bill 1260 aims to improve “forest management practices to reduce the risk of wildfires in light of our changing […]
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Santa Maria High School District breaks ground on long-awaited CTE Center and Ag Farm
Shovels in hand, students donning corduroy Future Farmers of America jackets and hard hats giggled as they simultaneously dug into the freshly graded ground and tossed dirt into the air as a small audience snapped photos. Behind them, massive yellow backhoes and bulldozers sat still near the newly formed outline of what will soon be […]
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18th Annual Best of Northern Santa Barbara County
DINING OUT Best Santa Maria Restaurant Shaw’s Steakhouse 714 S. Broadway, Santa Maria You might have the nicest roadster or hot rod in town, but you’ll still struggle to find some parking at Shaw’s Steakhouse in Santa Maria. The famous restaurant is almost always packed with locals looking for a perfect sit-down dinner […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
PCPA’s Instagram features backstage footage and more
Followers of Pacific Conservatory Theatre (PCPA) on Instagram will be able to view exclusive behind-the-scenes videos during productions of upcoming performances. Actors from various projects periodically shoot brief videos and answer questions from followers live, giving followers and fans a chance to see what goes on during a typical production. In addition to the videos, […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Valley Art Gallery hosts reception for Hattie Stoddard
Orcutt’s Valley Art Gallery will host a meet-and-greet with local artist Hattie Stoddard on Aug. 3, at the launch of her new show, Botanicals From My Garden. Stoddard is a former graphic artist who launched her own successful line of handcrafted teddy bears. She retired to Santa Maria and began her work in botanical illustrations. […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Artist Carol Simon featured at Gallery Los Olivos
Gallery Los Olivos will present A Country Ramble, a one-woman show featuring the work of Carol Simon through Aug. 31. Simon is an oil and watercolor painter who uses her personal travel photography as inspiration for her paintings. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Simon is also a classically trained musician who plays organ, […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Drinks and more: Pico’s bar highlights drinks influenced by the chef’s imagination
Chef Drew Terp of Pico is easily most at home when he’s stomping around the restaurant’s backyard garden, but on this day, he’s more excited than usual. Terp is showing off an impressive large-scale smoker that he built himself. He can now smoke multiple cuts of meat at once, as opposed to the smaller version […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Free wheelin’: Open Streets event celebrates second year in Lompoc
On any given day, the streets of downtown Lompoc are typically filled with a steady cluster of cars, weaving in and out of lanes and whizzing through intersections. It’s not always a picnic for pedestrians. But that will change on Aug. 3. For one day, the city will host a unique event which eschews cars […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Joyful: Tonya Romano Schultz brings her radiant worldview to the Lompoc Valley Arts Association
People. Nature. Life. Love. These are just a few of the things Lompoc painter Tonya Romano Schultz listed as the main influences of her work. She paused on “love” to explain further. “I think more than anything else in this world, we need love and acceptance,” she said. “I try to emulate that in my […]
Posted inOpinion
And still we hope
The United States brought nuclear weapons into the world. It is the only country to have used them and did so on innocent civilians. Nuclear weapons are now many times more powerful than the fission bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They make no nation safer but imperil all nations and the planet we […]
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USDA grant program serves as reminder for needed work on Central Coast
On July 30, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced a series of grants and loans it awarded to help upgrade and rebuild rural water infrastructure. “[The] USDA is committed to being a strong partner to rural communities in building their futures,” assistant to the Secretary for Rural Development Anne Hazlet stated. “All people–regardless of […]