Cover Story

Movie production has always meant big money: money for the actors, money for the moviemakers, money for pretty much anyone who touches the camera, script, costumes, or equipment. What isn’t as obvious is that the industry also spreads the wealth. Production creates jobs. In other words, it opens doors for taxpayers and consumers to dole […]

What are you holding right now—besides this newspaper? A pen? A mug? Take a closer look at whatever you’ve wrapped your fingers around, and you might find these familiar words stamped into the bottom: Made in China. Sometimes those three little words—or variations on them—are a great thing: Cheap materials and cheap labor add up […]

The highest-grossing movies of this summer have been comic-book adaptations. Think Hollywood invented Iron Man? Hellboy? Batman? The Hulk? Please. Tinsel Town writers have been mining the most hallowed trusts of geekdom for their latest blockbusters, and comic books aren’t the only film fodder. Audiences still want to believe in Fox Mulder and Dana Scully: […]

On the afternoon of July 1, Goleta residents Elaine and Jerry Smith were about to leave for a concert and picnic on the beach. They had just listened to a small blurb on the news about a fire burning in the hills above town, but didn’t give it much thought. “We knew that the fire […]

Plump strawberries, mouth-watering tri-tip, award-winning Pinot Noir—Santa Maria is known for many things. But stuff like public art and fine galleries? Probably not on the list. The city is surrounded by art-loving communities and breathtaking vistas that have long inspired artists, but it hasn’t fully developed a definitive artistic identity. Sure, there are plenty of […]

Do you want a house? Then do it. Go buy a house. If you have any money at all—some savings, lotto winnings, an inheritance—then put down this paper and go get yourself a new dwelling. There may be some extras in it for you if you do. Michael Crews Development, a company in Escondido, made […]

John Denver, Sisyphus, and a survivor Twinkie. This assortment of characters has all the makings of the worst joke ever told. Or the best assortment of short stories ever published. You’ll have to be the judge. I can’t believe that the cold, clinical measurements and algorithms of science and math could ever be applied to […]

Hospital staffers pace up and down the hall, whispering urgently about some kind of outbreak. A woman dressed in scrubs and a red emergency vest enters the control room to talk to someone about the barrage of patients crowding the emergency room. No, this isn’t a cliffhanger scene out of the popular medical dramedy Grey’s […]

The president of Santa Maria Valley Railroad loved trains as a kid, but never laid a penny on the track to watch a locomotive flatten it. “Most of the time they just fly off,” he explained. Such no-nonsense practicality is the driving force behind management at the railroad, led by Robert Himoto, a man with […]