Cover Story

Before Teddy Cobb died, he left his wife a bag of ash. It was gray, about the consistency of baby powder, and known among the guys who dealt with it mainly for its ability to turn shovels green. When the cancer he’d been living with for almost seven years eventually took him, Cobb’s wife had […]

A needle pokes through the protective film of a vaccine vial, while a hand simultaneously pulls up on the needle’s handle, sucking in an engineered cocktail that includes elements like gelatin, phosphate, chick embryo cell culture, and human lung fibroblasts. As that needle next pushes through someone’s skin, it delivers a combination of substances designed […]

The one thing Aaron has been asked about that most other people will never have to answer is the shape and condition of his genitals. It’s a question he clearly doesn’t like to answer, but it’s a question he’s been all but forced to answer almost any time he’s had to use any form of […]

When viewed from the proper angle, the central conflict here bears a peculiar type of poetic symmetry: A local refinery would like to transport much of its crude oil into San Luis Obispo County via train, while opponents would prefer such plans to be driven out of the county on a rail. Many stakeholders adamantly […]

A woman with dark brown hair, a paisley-print top, and brown slacks points to a mass of words projected on a classroom wall in the Elwin Mussel Senior Center. She talks to an audience of 11 about sugar and healthy food. “A lot of these so-called health foods aren’t even healthy,” she says. “Check the […]

Santa Maria Police Department Lieutenant Daniel Cohen has been investigating and policing local gangs for more than a decade, and has seen firsthand the multitude of victims left in the wake of gang crimes. He has seen young men mature behind bars and others who never got the chance. He remembered one particular interrogation with […]

Shadows take up the space between rows of tarp-covered raised ground to the west of Highway 101. Darkness comes early this time of year, and the reflected sky turns the strips of black plastic into soft yellow rivers, highlighting row after row of soon-to-be-producing strawberry plants. During the day, it’s easy to see the green […]

There’s more to a big story than one article. Covering a gigantic issue takes more time than one story does, more digging, more questions, more stories, more than the first few hundred words that are written about it. The good stories are the ones with nuance and depth, the ones with subjects that encompass more […]