The public has a little more than 30 days to comment on a report released by the engineering firm Luhdorff and Scalmanini detailing hydrologic conditions for the Santa Maria Valley Management Area. On June 12, at the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors hearing room in Santa Maria, Senior Hydrologist Liese Schadt told a small […]
Waterwise: Twitchell Management Authority gives update on Santa Maria groundwater while wary of fluctuating future
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Santa Marians discuss concerns, solutions at first H-2A forum
Dozens of community members talked housing and farming needs at the city’s first of five forums regarding H-2A on June 14. The forums, which will be hosted by various city and county officials throughout the next five months, are the city’s effort to further understand the H-2A program, its importance to the region’s agricultural operations, […]
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ICE arrests 22 in county, 15 in Santa Maria
Officers with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested more than a dozen undocumented Santa Maria residents over the course of a three-day sweep beginning on Sunday, June 10. The arrests were part of a larger operation that resulted in more than 160 arrests in Los Angeles, Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside, Santa Barbara, and Ventura counties. […]
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Political Watch 6/21/18
• After President Donald Trump placed the fault for his administration’s policy of separating children from parents seeking asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border on Democrats, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California) introduced the Keep Families Together Act on June 8, which would prevent the Department of Homeland Security from taking children from their parents at the border […]
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Gloria Soto to announce candidacy for District 3 City Council
Lifelong Santa Maria resident Gloria Soto planned to announce her candidacy for the Santa Maria City Council District 3 seat at noon in the Minami Community Center on June 21. Soto, a nonprofit development manager, hopes to better represent the community’s needs and create a more responsive city government, according to a media statement released […]
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State water board launches web-based map for schools
California’s Water Resources Control Board recently issued a web-based map that it says can be used as a tool to show which public schools in California have had their drinking water tested for lead. “Our newly developed website allows the public to search the status of lead testing of drinking water at schools in their […]
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Snapshots: Central Coast photographers share life through their lenses in this year’s Winning Images contest
A picture is more than just the image it portrays. It encompasses the way the photographer who captured it sees light and dark, angles and lines, animate and inanimate. Each snapshot is as unique as the person holding the camera. Since 1994, New Times Media Group has invited local photographers to show us life […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
NatureTrack Film Festival now accepting submissions
The 2019 NatureTrack Film Festival in Los Olivos is now accepting long and short film submissions in both live and animated form in the categories of Adventure, Animation, Biography, Conservation, Kids Connecting With Nature, Scenic, Student, Music Video (short only), and a special category called Outdoors and Out of Bounds. Films will be judged by […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Rose Compass artists host discussion panel
The Rose Compass artists group will hold a panel discussion from 3 to 4 p.m. on July 8, which is the final day of The River’s Journey exhibition at the Wildling Museum of Art and Nature. The public is invited to hear stories from the six artists about their one year, 92-mile investigation along the […]
Posted inOpinion
Cat Canyon, oil or water?
My graduate studies were in water and air pollution. I’m on the advisory committee of a nearby Groundwater Sustainability Agency, but I am writing this on my own today and am not speaking for the agency. More than 100,000 people totally depend on this water. It sustains many thousands of jobs in agriculture. The entire […]
Posted inOpinion
Nothing to see here …
Collectively, countywide, for the fiscal year 2018 (July through June), taxpayers will spend nearly $2 billion on programs and services delivered by local governments. The largest expenditure will occur at the county of Santa Barbara, which just adopted a $1.1 billion budget. In an unprecedented move, the Board of Supervisors boiled down a $1.1 billion […]
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Santa Maria-Bonita School District and employee union reach tentative agreement
The Santa Maria Elementary Education Association (SMEEA) and Santa Maria-Bonita School District reached a tentative agreement on June 1, after months of negotiations and spats over salary increases and benefits. At a negotiating session in February—where the district and SMEEA disagreed on a number of key issues—the groups reached an official impasse, and discussions were […]