Cover Story

As a child you may have looked up at the sky and made a wish on a shooting star. At the time maybe the wish was something whimsical or over the top. For nonprofits, wishes are often practical. They often wish for the basic items that help them continue providing the vital services they offer […]

It started in first grade. Rachel* came home from school, stunned. That day, she’d seen a boy pin a female student against a wall, hitting her. It was scary. And when Rachel described the scene, concerned, her mother could hardly believe it. “In first grade,” her mom said, “kids are already trying to be mean?” […]

Holidays by their very nature provide ample opportunity to create tradition. However, there is something about culinary practices that solidifies those traditions in a way that gift swaps, the annual portrait, or holiday outings cannot.  People create tradition with their favorite dish. Some families pass a recipe down from one generation to the next. Often […]

Close your eyes and picture yourself by the bank of a river. Next to you is a tall tree with branches stretching out across the sky. A slight breeze begins to blow loosening the leaves from the branches. The breeze begins to swirl the leaves around, blowing them away. Now imagine all of those leaves […]

It was hard to watch a grown man like Noe Chang Sr. break down. He sobbed loudly while the judge and lawyers in the SLO County courtroom remained stone-faced. His wife joined him soon after, and the couple watched as two of their sons were handcuffed and led away from them as they wept.  The […]

Senior Skip Day is an event not officially sanctioned by local schools, but it’s a day anticipated by many high school seniors. Many from Lompoc High School went off to a beach on this day, June 4, 1963. While some students basked together on the beach, Bobby Domingos and Linda Edwards instead went to a […]

Orcutt Academy High School’s classroom No. 18 buzzed with the chatter of two groups of teenagers on either side of the room. Some worked silently on compact laptops, while others talked and laughed, or intently discussed various topics. It wasn’t the middle of the school day, but rather 7 p.m. at night. In the center […]

At 5:30 p.m. on a Tuesday in September, Eliseo Martinez was fresh off his shift. His jeans were covered in dust, his sweatshirt askew, and his sneakers caked in mud. When asked, “¿Cómo estás?” he smiled and said he was “cansado.” He was tired. Martinez wore the telltale signs of a 10-hour workday in the […]

My co-workers scanned me from head to toe the day, just a few years ago, that I entered the building after riding my bike to work. Their mouths slightly agape, they took stock of the helmet on my head, my rolled up pant leg, and my mountain bike and questioned me about the health of […]

I want to touch it, but that sort of thing is frowned upon.  Layers and layers of thick black, red, and white paint ebb and flow to create the likeness of none other than Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. At the top of the painting are the words “Can’t Even” and below is a direct […]