When Angela Mill and her husband, Mason, built their several-thousand-square-foot dance studio in Old Town Lompoc, it was a dream come to life. But in recent months, the owners of the Classical School of Ballet say they felt as if they’ve been living in a nightmare. “This has been hell,” Angela said, as she weaved […]
Missing the pointe: Dance studio may move despite being granted youth center status
Posted inNews
Political Watch 8/2/18
• Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) plugged her bill, the Keep Families Together Act, in her opening statements as the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on July 31 on family reunification efforts as ranking member of the committee. The bill, introduced with 31 other Democrats including Sen. Kamala Harris (D-California), would seek to reunify all the children […]
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Trivium Charter School to offer additional on-campus day this fall
Incoming Trivium Charter School students will have an extra day on campus to attend various previously unoffered elective and academic support classes starting this fall. Flex Days will be offered every Wednesday at Trivium’s Lompoc and Santa Barbara locations this school year, according to Executive Director Trisha Vais, who said the additional day on campus […]
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Following footprints: State scientists aim to map mountain lion numbers and species health
You probably should’ve died,” the husky, walrus-mustached U.S. Forest Service worker told me that balmy July evening. It was 2015, the height of the last so-called drought that never really ended on California’s Central Coast. And the animals, myself included, were restless. One long summer after another, interrupted by brief winters that brought only sputters […]
Posted inFood & Drink
Festival fare: Guadalupe Buddhist Church celebrates annual Obon Festival
Food is and always will be a reflection of our culture. What we put on the plate isn’t just an expression of what we’re hungry for, it’s a window into where we come from. And there’s no better time to get a look in the window of another culture’s rich cuisine history than at the […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Rockin’ in the vines: The AJM Band brings classic rock sound and new album to Firestone Vineyards
It all begins with a riff, electrified with more than just amplifiers, but also a lifetime of love for the rock ‘n’ roll of the 1970s and into the ’80s. The title track off The AJM Band‘s new album, The Hard Way, will sound familiar to anyone who grew up listening to bands like the […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
A fine pair: Local artists team up for poetry reading at Wildling Museum
Allen Koehn never thought of himself as a poet. Koehn spent years as a Presbyterian pastor and later as a practicing therapist who trained as a Jungian analyst. But there was something about a certain style of poetry that drew him in. “I really liked the haiku model,” he said. “A few years ago, I […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Shutterbug: Pat Stalter’s photography blends whimsy with an eye for realism
Pat Stalter’s two Cavalier King Charles spaniels are bored with her. By now, the dogs are so used to the Orcutt photographer using them as models for her images, they barely raise an eye when she wants to film them. “If I aim the camera at them, I swear I hear them say, ‘Oh not […]
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U.S. Forest Service releases proposal for new trail east of Santa Maria
A new U.S. Forest Service project aims to convert miles of damaged dirt road into non-motorized trail in the Los Padres National Forest. Forest Service officials released an environmental assessment for the La Brea Restoration Project on July 23. The work would involve repairing road destroyed by major flooding about a decade ago along the […]
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Santa Barbara County Ag report says most crops increasing in value
The 2017 Santa Barbara County Crop Report released this month said most commodities were rising in value, with strawberries leading the pack and broccoli replacing wine grapes as the years’ second most valuable. “Agriculture is the No. 1 contributor to the county’s economy and through the multiplier effect, contributes approximately $2.8 billion to the local […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Arts Briefs
Elverhoj holds last in series of events with local artist Nancy Yaki The Elverhoj Museum of History and Art presents a discussion with artist Nancy Yaki on July 28 titled, The Process is the Destination. Yaki will discuss how she chooses composition, imagery, and then what specific techniques set her apart from other artists. Yaki’s […]
Posted inOpinion
Must be nice
Another year, another crop report from Santa Barbara County (see page 5), and this one is (Borat voice), berry nice! Sorry, I couldn’t resist–the county’s strawberry farmers raked in an astounding $457 million during 2017! Local broccoli farmers got a significant boost as well, surpassing wine grapes as the second most earning crop from 2016 […]