Cover Story

Jimmy Riggs was laying down a driving rhythm on his acoustic guitar and singing a heartfelt tune at a local music venue when his manager, Dale Clotiaux, slid a small paper card into my hand. Clotiaux made sure every member of the audience received one, which wasn’t a typical business card, but featured a coupon […]

The message “S.O.S. Save Our School”—emblazoned in white on red T-shirts worn by teachers, parents, and faculty association representatives—appeared on a quarter of the crowd at a Feb. 13 school board meeting in Santa Maria. Attendees wore the shirts in response to a January KCOY 12 TV interview with Arnulfo Romero, parent of a local […]

Cheerful, red-heart-shaped balloons lined the fence outside the large brown building, the sun reflecting off its numerous windows. Live music greeted guests while young children hoping for new furry companions waited anxiously outside the doors. The not-yet-finished shelter will replace the fading paint and cramped quarters of the Santa Maria Valley Humane Society’s old facility […]

I am not a morning person. Well, at least not an early morning person. If I have to get up before 7 a.m., I’m a grump and a half (just ask my co-workers, or better yet, ask my husband). So when my alarm clock went off at 5 a.m. on Jan. 23, I naturally questioned […]

Throughout the past year, many of the most successful films have seemed especially concerned, each in its own way, with justice. Spielberg’s Lincoln is, of course, an obvious example—the masterful telling of how slavery was abolished. But at the movies, justice can also be served retroactively in a show of flamboyant ultraviolence, as in Tarantino’s […]

The carpeted floor of the portable classroom rumbled with the collective movement of nearly 30 Alice Shaw Elementary School fourth graders and their dance instructor. Nina Rippy was teaching the youngsters basic ballroom dance technique, playing swing music over a stereo, while the mass of legs stepped, kicked, and spun. While most of the kids […]

The mighty Greek deity Zeus presided over his council of gods atop Mount Olympus, dictating his divine wisdom to the mortals on Earth. In California, we have the California Coastal Commission, the ever-powerful independent and quasi-judicial regulatory body that overseas and enforces the Coastal Act, the legislation that ensures the pristine California coastline doesn’t befall […]

Though the first woman to get elected to the Santa Maria City Council did so in 1930, such a victory wasn’t repeated until 1999, when Alice Patino secured enough votes to do the same. On Dec. 18, 2012, Patino made an even larger mark on local history when she was sworn in as Santa Maria’s […]

Dec. 18 was an emotional evening in Santa Maria, at least for the 100-plus people crammed into City Council chambers on South McClelland Street. After a turbulent year that included eight officer-involved shootings, law suits, and the retirement of longtime Police Chief Dan Macagni, the city finally got a new leader in retired Los Angeles […]

January 2012 was a foreboding month: KCOY/KKFX cut its staff of reporters, producers, and videographers to the bone; two local homeless shelters abruptly closed their doors; and a Santa Maria police officer shot and killed one of his brothers in blue. It’s no wonder, then, that the year that followed included some of the biggest […]