Cover Story

Look at Refugio Beach from the freeway. Tilt your head slightly to the side and squint hard, and you’ll faintly see the words “Welcome to California” burn across the sky in hot pink. Just don’t do it while driving. Refugio is the quintessential California beach, even if it’s not the Hollywood picture of surf and […]

The signs are everywhere: in place names like Nipomo, Lompoc, and Sisquoc, in art and rock carvings hidden among dim caves and wind-swept valleys, and buried deep in the soil under our feet. They’re the remnants of an ancient maritime Native American civilization that once prospered on the Central Coast, but today is struggling to […]

Each year, hundreds of writers from around the Central Coast, state, country, and world roll up their sleeves and start writing. They click on keyboards. They scratch pens on paper. They hammer away at typewriters. Then, they submit their tiny literary endeavors to the annual 55 Fiction contest, started years ago by founder Steve Moss […]

Ammunition suppliers and manufacturers seem to be running short on the bread-and-butter of their trade these days. If gun shops aren’t already completely out of stock, they’re hawking bullets for about $1.50 each, depending on the caliber. Customers at Range Master of Santa Maria have had reason to balk—or at least raise their eyebrows—at such […]

Lieutenant L.A. Franco flings open the door of an East L.A. apartment, moves determinedly past a table piled with crack cocaine, and ignores a hysterical addict in pursuit of her prey—a thug named Tunnel with an arrest warrant. Her 9-mm drawn, she swings her 5-foot-9 frame into the living room, and fires, splattering the right […]

Women dressed in dark uniforms—each adorned with a unique patch and insignia—stand around the room. They have belts fastened around their hips, all bearing staples of law enforcement gadgetry: guns, handcuffs, and walkie-talkies. Each of these women is ready, at a moment’s notice, to respond to emergency situations specific to their agency. That might mean […]

Step back a few years to a time of peace, love, and music. Imagine a sun-soaked clearing and a stage filled with performers all day and night. Hundreds of people dance among shady oak trees, while children run about or get creative at art stations making tie-dyed shirts. The feeling is relaxed, there’s a sense […]

Unless you’ve been living in a cave for the past nine months, you know the economy is in dire straits and isn’t going to get better any time soon. The statistics don’t lie, but they also don’t tell the whole story. Lost among the facts and figures are the effects of the recession on mental […]

George Alvarez has been many things in his life. He’s been a certified drug counselor, a four-year commissioner on the Santa Barbara County Advisory Board on Drug and Alcohol Problems, a former Guadalupe city planning commissioner, and a distant relative of that city’s mayor. It may seem an unlikely résumé for a man who wants […]

When Allan Hancock College student Stephanie Fredriks started looking for a job back in December 2008, she knew the endeavor would be a difficult one. The recent Righetti High School graduate needed a part-time job to help pay for school and other expenses. With the weight of a down economy on her shoulders, she started […]

Poll parents about career dreams for their children, and the top three jobs are probably doctor, lawyer, and maybe social networking website creator. What’s on the low end of the list? Try community theater actor or potter. That’s not so much a dig at off-Broadway thespians as it is a reflection of how society’s values […]

Lompoc’s Alex Taylor and Tamara Cravit met online in 1998, back before it was trendy to do so.    “We met in a chat room on IRC, how sad is that?” Alex said with a laugh. The couple had already been planning a commitment ceremony in their synagogue when the California Supreme Court ruling legalizing […]