A small group of lawyers and community leaders gathered on Feb. 28 in Santa Maria to discuss the criminal justice system, with particular focus on state Senate Bill 10, the California Money Bail Reform Act. If passed, the legislation would effectively ensure individuals are not kept in jail because they cannot afford bail. Proponents argue […]
Bail reform key topic in NAACP-chaired community forum
Posted inNews
Business as usual: Santa Barbara County supervisor candidates face little opposition for 2018 election
Change is coming to the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors. However, as the days until the June 5 primary slowly melt away, the painting emerging from below the surface is one richly layered in the region’s historical status quo. Indeed, as of March 6, neither 5th District Supervisor Steve Lavagnino nor 2nd District hopeful […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Nipomo High School presents two new theater productions
Nipomo High School Theatre Company is set to present two rotating repertory shows from March 8 through 24. She Kills Monsters, a comedic Dungeons and Dragons battle play, kicks off on March 8 at 7 p.m. in Olympic Hall. A reimagining of William Shakespeare’s tragedy Titus Andronicus begins March 9, also at 7 p.m. The […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Guadalupe hosts native garden beautification days
Local volunteer Judith Evans will be at the Guadalupe Native Plant Garden on the third Saturday of each month, and she’s seeking volunteers to assist with caring for the garden. Evans needs volunteers to help work with the local plants housed in the garden. The garden serves as an open space for the community of […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
PCPA presents ‘The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence’
The Pacific Conservatory Theatre PCPA presents The (curious case of the) Watson Intelligence showing from March 8 through 25 at the Severson Theatre. Madeleine George’s time-jumping play tells the story of four versions of characters named Watson, some based in literature and some in reality. One is the famous sidekick of Sherlock Holmes, one is […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Pioneer Valley High senior Daniel Geiger wins big at Teen Star competition in Santa Barbara
Local high school student Daniel Geiger was nervous the first time he performed at the Teen Star competition in Santa Barbara, but that was three years ago. When he took to the stage at this year’s competition, he was still nervous, yet that didn’t stop him from taking first place and top honors on Feb. […]
Posted inOpinion
Gun-free Australia
Ken McCalip either lied or failed to check his facts when he stated that since 1996, when Australia banned and confiscated certain types of weapons, they’ve “had ‘zero’ mass shootings” (“Australia got tough,” March 1, New Times; see commentary). Had Mr. McCalip taken the time to perform a quick Google search, “mass murders in Australia,” […]
Posted inOpinion
Hello, Sun
Thanks for publishing my oil letter (“Support offshore oil in California,” Feb. 15). But you insist on showing the anti-Trump jibber-jabber rantings of McCalip (“Attack on U.S. farming interests,” Feb. 15). Isn’t some balance needed in evaluating the work this great man—President Trump—is doing for us? Trump has done everything right for this country. Washington […]
Posted inOpinion
Now is the time to act on gun control
It’s time for all of us baby boomers as well as all Americans to take a look back to our time in high school and grammar school and visualize the classrooms in America that gave us a secure beginning and a basis for our future with loving and dedicated teachers. For the vast majority of […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Issaya Finley
Ernest Righetti High School student Issaya Finley fought his way to the top of his weight class at the 2018 California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section Masters Wrestling Championship on Feb. 23 and 24. There, the local high school senior outmaneuvered hundreds of wrestlers from more than 300 schools and took home a first place medal, […]
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Inmate walks out of Lompoc Prison
In the early morning hours of March 4, Lompoc Federal Correctional Institution staff discovered that an inmate had walked away from a Satellite Prison Camp in Lompoc, according to a release from the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP). Mauricio Martinez, a 29-year-old Hispanic male serving time at the prison for dealing methamphetamine, was still at […]
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Political Watch 3/8/18
• Sen. Kamala Harris (D-California) issued a statement on March 5, the day President Donald Trump set as the deadline to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, saying that the Trump administration “callously rescinded” the program and “arbitrarily chose today as its final date.” “This administration created this crisis and sabotaged every […]