Cover Story

� Toymaker Tom Merrin builds toys in memory of his father BY WILLIAM D’URSO Even 23 years later, the grief remains a silent passenger in Tom Merrin’s life, prodding him now and then, stirring those memories of long ago. As the holidays draw near, and the toymaker builds wooden planes, trucks, and trains in Arroyo […]

Still wearing his civilian clothes, Lompoc Police Chief Joseph Mariani explains that he hasn’t yet had time to put on his uniform. His busy morning followed a late night, during which he oversaw a gang sweep throughout the city that resulted in the arrest of 11 people. The city didn’t carry out the operation solo. […]

Depressing the trigger, kickback hammers my body as the bullet exits the barrel.  The polished wooden stock jams into the part of my shoulder where it’s nestled, rocking me back as I open my closed eye, hoping to catch a glimpse of what I hit more than 300 yards away.  There isn’t a dust cloud, […]

Nearly 20 spinning hula hoops engulfed Ben Franklin—the circus performer, not the Founding Father—during a Wednesday afternoon warm-up session in Santa Maria’s Severson Theatre. His partner, Joshua Dean, stood at the opposite side of the arena with one hoop of his own, but its diameter was much larger than the others, even taller than Dean […]

As soon as the news broke on Labor Day, Sept. 2, Scott Smith of Nipomo started anticipating the call. Earlier that morning, the Conception, a 75-foot commercial dive boat, had caught fire off the coast of Santa Cruz Island, killing all 33 passengers and one crew member on board. The charred vessel—and the remains of […]

In his office at Marian Regional Medical Center, Dr. David Ketelaar described a mental health crisis.  He may not be a psychologist or psychiatrist, but he’s seen what happens when people with mental health needs or even emergencies wind up at the hospital’s emergency room: A patient comes into the emergency room with a physical […]

For more than 20 years, California pondered what to do about steelhead in the Santa Ynez River.  On Sept. 17, the State Water Resources Control Board finally made a decision. It voted to pass an order that will increase water releases from Lake Cachuma.  Since at least 1998, a handful of local, state, and federal […]

There are 14 mobile home parks within the city of Santa Maria with more than 1,500 housing units. Each park differs in how it’s run and what amenities are included. Some of the newer parks in the city have nine-hole pitch-and-putt golf courses and pools, while older ones offer little more than a place to […]

The expansion happened fast. In the span of a year, 10 Central Coast cities and Santa Barbara County all had voted, one after the other, to join as members of Monterey Bay Community Power (MBCP), a growing Community Choice Energy (CCE) utility that currently serves Monterey, Santa Cruz, and San Benito counties. It started with […]

Rocket engines and old stories of spaceflight take up vast stretches of undulating terrain just above sea level.  Northwest of Lompoc, Vandenberg Air Force Base (VAFB) encompasses 110,000 acres, more than 15 times the size of the town right next to it. The base is rich in aerospace expertise and extra land, and broad coalition […]

The number of people experiencing homelessness in Santa Barbara County hasn’t really fluctuated all that much over the last six years. It’s hovered between 1,900 and 1,800 since 2013, with the latest homeless point-in-time count tallying up 1,803 on one night in January 2019.  While volunteers counted 670 individuals living in emergency shelters or transitional […]