MONDAY, FEB. 1 • The Solvang Planning Commission has its regular meeting at 7 p.m. in City Council Chambers, 1644 Oak Street, Solvang. TUESDAY, FEB. 2 • The Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors has its regular meeting at 9 a.m. in the Board of Supervisors Hearing Room, 105 E. Anapamu St., Santa Barbara. • […]
Community Notebook 1/28/16 – 2/4/16
Posted inNews
Too much CrossFit? What can happen if you overdo it?
There’s exercise and then there’s CrossFit. Both get you in shape, but the latter is more akin to high-intensity training like you experience if you’re training to be an Olympic athlete. There’s no denying the enthusiasm for the intense level of fitness offered by CrossFit. It’s a strength-and-conditioning exercise system that consists of a medley […]
Posted inNews
Strong grrrls: Crazy cardio and strict diets are out as women embrace a fitness trend that emphasizes strength and health over what the scale says
Strong is the new skinny. It’s a motto that’s heard throughout the fitness community, and it’s changing women’s approach to fitness and providing a boost to women’s confidence and body image. Trends in fitness are nothing new. In earlier times people were told, “Reach for a Lucky instead of a sweet,” promoting cigarette smoking, or […]
Posted inNews
Chill out: US Cryotherapy brings cold immersion technology to Santa Maria
Cold immersion is not a new idea. The Coney Island Polar Bear Club is an organization famous for taking chilling dips every year since 1903, and ice baths are a long-utilized method for athletic training in a variety of disciplines. What’s new to the cold immersion fitness scene though, is cryotherapy, which comes to Santa […]
Posted inNews
Homeless in the storm: El Nino weather spurs Santa Barbara County into action
In the wake of El Niño’s harsh weather conditions, Santa Barbara County will lend an extra hand to the homeless by providing daytime shelters during periods of heavy rainfall. The County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted Jan. 19 to revise the Community Service Department budget, allocating $128,000 to daytime drying shelters and expanded nighttime warming […]
Posted inNews
Barely above water: A third of households in Santa Barbara County struggle to meet basic needs
At Allan Hancock College on a Friday afternoon, a 24-year-old woman named Elizabeth Pampa finished cleaning and arranging tables and chairs into a neat pattern. She and her coworker were preparing the conference room for its next meeting. Between this job and another one at a church in Orcutt, Pampa earns about $800 per month […]
Posted inNews
Santa Barbara County bans medical marijuana cultivation with some exceptions
There’s good news and bad news regarding the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisor’s ban on medical marijuana cultivation on Jan. 19. Bad news first. The new ordinance, which passed unanimously, bans any new cultivation of medical marijuana on unincorporated county land. However, according to Supervising Planner for Long Range Planning Allen Bell, existing cultivators […]
Posted inNews
‘Ask a Muslim’ anything at Islamic Center of Lompoc’s forum
The Islamic Center of Lompoc (ICL) will host an “Ask a Muslim” event next month, making an effort to maintain ICL’s relationship with the community in a time of turbulence for American Muslims. The past year has seen a string of high-profile Islamic extremist attacks across the globe, occurring as far-off as Somalia and as […]
Posted inNews
Three homicides in Santa Maria in less than 7 hours
“I thought this side of the town was the safest,” 52-year-old Annette Blanco said. Blanco was inside of her relative’s home during the evening of Jan. 25 when she thought she heard fireworks, but was too afraid to look outside. They were actually gunshots. Responding to a report of gunshots at 9:45 p.m., police officers […]
Posted inNews
ExxonMobil requesting approval to truck crude through county
ExxonMobil (Exxon) is seeking an emergency permit to truck 425,000 barrels of oil from its Las Flores Canyon facility to refineries in Santa Maria and Kern County, pending Santa Barbara County approval. Exxon applied for the permit on Jan. 4, requesting to send up to 30 trucks per day on Highway 101 to remove oil […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Sharpest tool in the shed
Last weekend I found myself hanging out with my old man. We knocked back a beer or six and began to reminisce about the good old days working on cars and hanging out in the garage. Our visit down memory lane was going swell until he asked me the stupidest question I have ever heard, […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
The Peculiar Pretzelmen kick off Mardi Gras with concert at Standing Sun Winery
The music of New Orleans has always been a boiling cauldron of everything—mixing elements like a batch of good gumbo. The raw ingredients tossed into the pot include American roots music and the classical tradition, which together gave birth to ragtime, Dixieland, jazz, Creole, blues-rock, and much more. For the leader of the band Peculiar […]