Cover Story

Inside the small community room at Maramonte Park in Santa Maria, about 10 classroom-style chairs are arranged to make a semicircle. As people and members of the press trickle in around 7 p.m. on Feb. 20, they’re greeted with smiles from women wearing Warren for President T-shirts, who sign them in at a folding table […]

  The Kaleidoscope Inn offers a unique setting for a wedding with a Victorian house surrounded by gardens BY ZAC EZZONE Tucked in behind a tree-lined lawn in Old Town Nipomo sits a 130-year-old blue and white Victorian house with stained glass windows, a house that looks unlike any other on Dana Street.  The aptly […]

  Love at first sip One woman serves up elegant boozy drinks at an affordable price at weddings or any event on the Central Coast BY KAREN GARCIA Weddings have so many details that are similar to puzzle pieces. Each play a big part in creating the picture-perfect day for a couple that’s ready to […]

The day Philip Ruggles died, he was the picture of health. Until, suddenly, he wasn’t.  Nearly 34 years of teaching sales, estimating, marketing, and pricing in Cal Poly’s graphic communication department left Philip with a propensity for organization and a keen eye for detail. In the classroom, he was pragmatic, voraciously curious, and boundlessly devoted […]

Editor’s note: Between August and December 2019, New Times Staff Writer Karen Garcia profiled several cadets in the Grizzly Youth Academy, including Stephanie Recio-Soltero from Lompoc. Recio-Soltero’s story is compiled here, from her admission to graduation. The last of the fog is melting away from the hills that surround Camp San Luis Obispo on this […]

Healthy People Healthy Trails program aims to get people healthy while connecting them with nature BY ZAC EZZONE Through a growing program in Santa Barbara County, participating doctors are prescribing some patients to take a hike. The effort started in 2015 after Mark Wilkinson learned about Healthy Parks Healthy People, a program within the National […]

A couple of goats scamper down San Miguelito Road as George Bedford slowly drives in the opposite direction. He says it’s not the first time he’s seen animals on this road, before pointing to a spot where he once passed a mountain lion. Only a few miles south of Lompoc, the area feels worlds away. […]

From fights over cannabis to fights over oil drilling, city budgets, and housing, 2019 was anything but boring. Vandenberg Air Force Base got a new commander and Santa Maria actually put an employee housing ordinance into place. Vaping is being banned across Santa Barbara County and the battle over the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation […]

Four people faced regional librarian Aracelli Astorga in a fluorescent-lit room where she stood in front of a dry-erase board. That day, Astorga was going over a portion of the application to become a naturalized citizen of the United States, a form known as the N-400. Her students range from 30 to 40 years old, […]

On the outer edges of a swath of homes—some finished, some nearly there, others meandering toward completion, purchase, and the American dream—Craig Smith pointed at a hand-drawn home on transparent vellum paper.  “Nobody draws them anymore, but I do,” he said, pointing to his right middle finger. “You know when someone draws by this indent […]