Category Feature
Posted inNews
Lompoc resident and PACE founder raises funds for all-girls school near Kolkata, India
What began as a tin-roofed, three-room shack gradually evolved into a 3-acre education center for young women in a rural village in India near the city of Kolkata—where the school’s Lompoc-based founder was born and raised. “I grew up with my mother telling me, ‘Finish the food on your plate, they’re starving children outside the […]
Posted inOpinion
Lompoc’s luck
How many times has the city of Lompoc been denied by the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) of Santa Barbara County? I’m not sure, but the city’s efforts to annex some of the land near Bailey Avenue out of the county have met with roadblock after roadblock. For a quarter of a century, the city […]
Posted inOpinion
A fabricated “emergency” aims to reduce environmental protections
Do you know about the Conservation and Landscape Health Rule? It prioritizes the health and resilience of ecosystems on public lands. The rule, legally binding on the actions and decisions of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), requires them to “protect intact landscapes, restore degraded habitat, and make informed management decisions based on science and […]
Posted inOpinion
Parachute drops are similar to paper towels: They don’t do much to help
Tax-funded parachute drops on rescue missions in Gaza remind one of another intervention by Trump during a crisis. In September 2017 when Puerto Rico was hit by Hurricane Maria and left in ruin, its infrastructure was rendered useless and its people were in dire straits. Trump visited, arriving armed with paper towels that he lobbed […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Honey Don’t! is violent black comedy with a twist
Honey Don’t! What’s it rated? R What’s it worth, Anna? Full price What’s it worth, Glen? Full price Where’s it showing? Regal Edwards RPX Santa Maria, Regal Edwards Arroyo Grande Co-writer and director Ethan Coen has reteamed with co-writer Tricia Cooke (Drive-Away Dolls) on this second installment of their planned “lesbian B-movie trilogy.” This time […]
Posted inFood & Drink
A new family-run brunch spot in Grover Beach serves American classics with a Mexican flair
Flores described herself as the face of Holy Belly, the one at the front of the house. Cindy Flores never pictured herself running a restaurant. Instead, she was thinking of opening her own hair salon when she found a restaurant space for rent in Grover Beach last October. Flores sent the link to two of […]
Posted inNews
Board of Supervisors reduces cannabis acreage cap, responds to grand jury report
While the maximum acreage allowed for cannabis cultivation across unincorporated Santa Barbara County will decrease by the end of September, the new limit won’t impact current growers—which are essentially grandfathered in under a recent Board of Supervisors directive. At its Aug. 26 meeting, the board voted 5-0 to reduce the acreage cap from 1,575 to […]
Posted inNews
Political Watch: August 28, 2025
•In an Aug. 21 statement, U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla (D-California), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration, commented on the recent passage of a package of bills allowing California voters to determine whether the state should temporarily redraw its congressional maps through 2030 to counter the Trump administration and Texas Republicans’ partisan […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
A muralist returns home to Lompoc, aiming to inspire students through affirmations and art
Follow along In the future, Jose Bustos plans to paint more murals in Lompoc and experiment with new media like spray paint. Follow Jose Bustos on Instagram @jose_bustos_art. In 1992, when Jose Bustos was 12 years old, he painted his first mural. He created the design for an art contest at Arthur Hapgood Elementary in […]
Posted inMusic, Arts & Culture
Nobody 2 delivers a satisfying dose of violent comedy
Nobody 2 What’s it rated? R 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 Timo Tjahjanto (The Night Comes for Us) directs this sequel to the 2021 original about Hutch Mansell (Bob Odenkirk), a seemingly docile family […]