Cover Story

As of June 6, there were still some ballots to be counted here and there, but the chips had pretty much fallen where the chips were going to stay. A variety of local offices and measures came before voters for the midway mark in 2014, and, on the whole, there were few—if any—surprises. That doesn’t […]

Here in America, the idea that “bigger is better” is a long-standing, cultural line of thought. “Go big or go home” is an archetypal American colloquialism. We love our mega-churches, super-size meals, big-box stores, giant trucks, enlarged breasts, and most of all—big houses. Part of our desire for bigger things can be attributed to our […]

Dorothy* is the proud birth mother of eight children—from five different families. “And I’m currently carrying babies nine and 10,” she told the Sun in a recent interview. “This is my second set of twins. The first set will be turning 18 this year.” The 50-something medical professional is a surrogate for Surrogacy International Inc., […]

    I felt at home the moment I walked through Palo Mesa Pizza’s doors. There’s something truly genuine about the environment that owner Michael Stevens has built at his businesses—not to mention the amazing pizza. We’re talking internationally acclaimed pizza. In March 2013, Stevens competed in the International Pizza Challenge in Las Vegas and […]

Every day, all over the world, people engage in transactions, large and small. Whether they’re buying a sandwich or a house, most of these transactions involve money. Essentially a bartering tool, money allows populations to easily engage in exchanges of goods and services with official and recognizable paper or coins. Business conducted across countries’ borders […]

The aromatic combo of manure and not-so-fresh vegetables wafted up from the ground, mingling with the dry scents of dust and animals. A 2,000-plus-pound black bull with what looked like foot-long white horns plodded toward a dump trailer. A nearby generator fired up, and the back end of the trailer slowly creaked its way into […]

“Who am I?” ranks high on the list of most obvious questions an introspective person can ask, but the answer doesn’t come so easily. A person’s identity tends to correspond with the roles he or she leads in life: Mother. Father. Teacher. Friend. Doctor. Then there’s the role of athlete, an identity based on dedication, […]

On May 3, Lompoc resident Jim Mosby welcomed paintballers back onto his property for the first time in several months. After listening to Mosby talk about the importance of paint gun safety, excited men and women donned helmets and goggles and prepared their weapons for long-awaited battle. The day before, on May 2, the local […]

This race was never supposed to happen. San Luis Obispo County’s 4th District—which includes Arroyo Grande, Oceano, Nipomo, and small communities along Highway 166—was firmly in the grasp of Supervisor Paul Teixeira. Like Katcho Achadjian before him, Teixeira was a beloved South County moderate Republican who represented his district with folksy aplomb. It was widely […]

The North America of the Pleistocene Epoch—a geological time period that spanned from about 2.5 million years ago to 11,000 years ago—was a continent of tumultuous change. During that time, several glacier-heavy cycles shaped the landscape and even lowered sea levels hundreds of feet, exposing the continental shelf that lies under water again today. Also […]

A low-hanging mist is strung out between the summits directly above the gray-blue expanse of Lake Cachuma. From the Bradbury Dam overlook, you can only see the side of the lake that butts up against a 2,976-foot-long, 206-foot-high, rock-covered slope of a wall with a road running along its top and a gigantic cement structure […]

Sidebar story: Local child abuse prevention center helps give kids a voice. Shock waves are physically powerful forces. They can carry energy strong enough to move through just about any barrier, disrupting everything they touch. Then there are shock waves of an intangible sort, the kind that can unsettle a community with an energy that […]