Santa Ynez Valley High School’s Annie Ackert has veteran-level water polo experience despite her young years—and despite only picking up the sport as a freshman. As a sophomore, the now-junior utility player put in two goals in the 2017 CIF Southern Section Division 7 championship game, helping lead the Pirates to their first-ever title. The […]
Annie Ackert
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Righetti and Lompoc boys, Santa Ynez girls climb prep soccer standings
On a very chilly soccer field at Pioneer Valley High School on Jan. 19, two crosstown rivals clashed until things got heated. With fourth place at stake in the PAC-8 standings, the Pioneer Valley and Righetti high school varsity boys battled it out in a rough, high-intensity match under the lights. Both teams’ goalkeepers suffered […]
Posted inOpinion
Read my beak
I’m surprised it took this long, I honestly am, but I can finally say it: I’ve got a Trumpian nickname. Thanks to Justin Ruhge, my buddy from Lompoc, you can now call me the “Yellow Canary” if I write anything you don’t like. But Ruhge isn’t the only one upset with me! Another Lompoc Valley […]
Posted inNews
Trustees approve funding and improvements to Allan Hancock College Police Department
The Allan Hancock College Police Department dodged a major blow on Jan. 16, when the Hancock Community College District board of trustees voted unanimously to fund much-needed improvements to the troubled department. After several assessments of the police department’s practices, various meetings, and a thorough look into possible funding and systematic solutions, board members voted […]
Posted inNews
Lompoc Police say car thefts not a trend
If you visit the Lompoc Police Department’s website or use its smartphone app, you’ll notice five of the last six reports concern car theft. While the number may seem high for such a short span of time (10 days), Sgt. Kevin Martin told the Sun they were no cause for alarm. “As far as the […]
Posted inOpinion
Climate science warnings coming true
From the BBC, the picture of tomorrow that climate scientists warned about for years has arrived. South Africa is rationing water to residents. California and the American West is not far behind South Africa. Yet politicians do nothing to protect our national security threatened by fossil-fuel-caused global warming. The fossil fuel lobby is just too […]
Posted inOpinion
Rebuttal to rebuttal
The editors of the Jan. 18 issue of the Sun allowed my small conservative rebuttal letter (“Trump’s bluster gets things done”) to be published in response to the liberal McCalip’s big op-ed (“Trump’s bluster makes U.S. unsafe,” Jan. 11). So thanks for that. But then, in the next column over, the Yellow Canary assailed me […]
Posted inOpinion
This we need in the White House?
Trump referred to Haiti and African nations as “shithole” countries, a disgrace to the White House and the Congress, and sheds a shameful image on Democracs and Republicans alike, on the overall American people, on humanity in general, and particularly on honorable and good people-in-need of the nations referred to. And this is a role […]
Posted inOpinion
Democrats will bleed you dry
For all of you that have received your new mortgage payments, car insurance premiums, and obvious increase at the gas pump, get used to it. The Democrats of this state will bleed you for all your worth and then a little more. Of course it’s for the good of all the people of the great […]
Posted inNews
Former Church for Life pastors facing sexual battery and harassment lawsuit
A Santa Maria church and two of its former senior pastors are facing a sexual battery, harassment, assault, and gender violence civil lawsuit that was filed anonymously by a churchgoer in July 2017. The plaintiff, listed as Jane Doe in court documents, alleges that Robert and Cindy Litzinger, who left Church For Life in 2016 […]
Posted inNews
County slowly lifts evacuation orders for Montecito
Santa Barbara County lifted evacuation orders for parts of Montecito on Jan. 23, primarily for the western side of the exclusion zone that emergency responders put in place in the days following the winter storm that brought rains and mudslides that battered the wealthy oceanside community. “We are fully prepared to take care of those […]
Posted inNews
Prepared: Learn from the locals who are ready for the next natural disaster
The first rain of the season always brings a distinct wave of scents with it, and in the yard of Renee O’Neill’s Tepusquet Canyon home, the flat smell of ash emanated from the hillside. The hilltop behind her home was stained black, the result of the Alamo Fire’s southernmost spread through Tepusquet. The fire, which […]