I’ve been living with kidney failure since 2019. Like so many Californians, I’ve faced more than just one diagnosis—diabetes, high blood pressure, gastroparesis, gout—and even the amputation of my foot due to sepsis. Dialysis, an intensive treatment done three times per week to keep me alive, has permanently affected my life. But I’ve fought every […]
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Posted inOpinion
Reflections on the team spirit that fuels the Air Force
Old guys like me like to tell “war stories” about their military service, stories you never heard about on the news; I am no different. Like hundreds of thousands of military members, in 1976 I was chosen to serve a one-year “remote” tour of duty—that means that you don’t take your family with you, only […]
Posted inOpinion
Eat, prey, love
Even as a fully fledged bird, I need a mother every now and again. Sometimes I miss the comfort of a sheltering wing; sometimes I just need to be reminded of what’s right and what’s wrong. But needing someone to fill that mama-shaped hole in my heart is no excuse for going all cuckoo on […]
Posted inNews
One local graduates from Righetti High School, Allan Hancock College at same time
Samantha McDonald was 13 years old when the COVID-19 pandemic took the world by storm, forcing schools across the United States to pivot from in-person to virtual learning sessions. Then a seventh grader, Samantha suddenly discovered she had a lot of free time for the first time in her young life. Most kids that age […]
Posted inNews
Political Watch: May 29, 2025
•Assemblymember Gregg Hart (D-Santa Barbara) recognized the Immigrant Legal Defense Center as the California Nonprofit of the Year for Assembly District 37 on May 21. This recognition was part of the Legislature’s annual California Nonprofits Day, a statewide effort honoring the vital role that nonprofit organizations play in California communities, according to Hart’s office. Founded […]
Posted inNews
Planned Parenthood’s Central Coast workers approve strike
Planned Parenthood clinics in Santa Maria, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Thousand Oaks, and Oxnard are poised to stop services until management improves labor practices contributing to high turnover rates. “We’ve heard a few different things from staff who have quit recently,” Planned Parenthood staff physician Mike Solemar said. “Some of the most common […]
Posted inNews
Santa Barbara Supervisors prepare for next potential pandemic
The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution to prepare for the next pandemic on May 20. In response to the 2024-25 Santa Barbara County grand jury’s March 10 report that identified a need for the county Health Department to develop a proactive approach to the next potential epidemic, board members Laura Capps, […]
Posted inNews
Orcutt investment pro sentenced to 10 years in prison for defrauding elderly clients
Convicted of stealing more than $2.2 million over the course of seven years, a former financial advisor based in Orcutt will face a prison sentence of more than three times the amount her attorney argued for. On May 19, U.S. District Judge Otis D. Wright II sentenced Julie Darrah to serve 121 months—a little more […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Stage direction: Great American Melodrama artists and operators reflect on the quirky theater’s 50th anniversary
Flanked by unmarked gravestones, vampire coffins, and headless mannequins, scenic carpenter Martin Ramirez stands inside a two-story building on the north end of the Great American Melodrama’s parking lot. He’s one of the employees who breathes fresh life into the theater’s archive department on a regular basis. His workspace across from the theater preserves oodles […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Fred & Rose West: A British Horror Story reveals uncovered tapes of the notorious serial killers
Fred & Rose West: A British Horror Story What’s it rated? TV-MA When? 2025 Where’s it showing? Netflix Fred and Rose—you may know their names well or not at all, but once you know their story, you’ll never forget them. The murderous British couple looked as normal as could be, but behind the Sears portrait […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Fountain of Youth follows adventurers trying to find the mythical source of immortality
Fountain of Youth What’s it rated? PG-13 When? 2025 Where’s it showing? Apple TV+ Guy Ritchie (The Covenant, Sherlock Holmes) directs James Vanderbilt’s (Zodiac, The Amazing Spider-Man) screenplay about estranged siblings—Luke (John Krasinski) and Charlotte Purdue (Natalie Portman)—who reunite to seek the legendary Fountain of Youth. I usually enjoy these fantasy adventure movies. Think Raiders […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning is an over-the-top spectacle
Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning What’s it rated? PG-13 What’s it worth, Anna? Full price What’s it worth, Glen? Full price Where’s it showing? Regal Edwards RPX Santa Maria, Movies Lompoc, Regal Edwards Arroyo Grande Christopher McQuarrie helms this part 2 to Dead Reckoning (2023), where Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) and his Impossible Missions Force must […]