Cover Story
Dead in the water
Windy Cove; also known as the no-man’s-land of Morro Bay. From the Rock to the sandy, shallow inlets along Los Osos, the bay is divided up into an almost-checkerboard of law enforcement jurisdictions. But inside those lines is an anomaly: Windy Cove. Over the past three decades, dozens of boats have moored in this backwater…
Forest officials open Los Padres to more oil drilling
In a move that could have been worse, the Los Padres Forest supervisor opened up 52,000 acres of the national forest to gas and oil leasing. Gloria Brown said her decision, which came after 10 years of study and thousands of public comments, prohibits leasing on 715,000 acres that were examined for possible drilling. She…
Yoga on par
Over an old, weathered bridge sits a studio enveloped by rich, green trees. A small stream trickles by, parting the sounds of a busy town from the quiet of nature. Tony Criscuolo has lived here for eight months and acknowledges that it’s the perfect place for a yoga studio. Criscuolo, a former clinical psychologist, has…
SWAT team involved in SLO standoff
The San Luis Obispo Police Department SWAT team was dispatched when a woman called 911 on Aug 2 at 11:39 a.m. The women abruptly hung up the phone, so the dispatcher called the number back. A man answered and hung up. On the second callback, the woman answered again, telling the dispatcher that a man…
Gibson’s apology: a eulogy for Chris
There has been much dying lately, writers of novels, princes of nations, captains of industry, but to my eyes the world seems most crippled by the loss of one perpetually penniless, marginally homeless, progressively toothless, absolutely irreplaceable San Luis Obispo philosopher. Cayucos Creek was his cup of hemlock. Even in dying Chris Gibson poses a…
Expect West Nile spraying at Laguna Lake
Don’t freak out when you see low-flying helicopters dropping a granular substance over your neighborhood. That was the general drift of a County Public Health Department press release. It’s all part of an effort to kill mosquitoes and, more importantly, West Nile Virus carried by mosquitoes, which can “pose a risk to public health.” And…
Roxy found
Roxy, a 3-year-old Pomeranian abducted from downtown SLO July 15, was re-united with her owner Connie Jacobson Tuesday night. An anonymous tip led Jacobson and police to a home in Atascadero, where Roxy was locked inside a closet. Jacobson spent $3,000 in her 17-day search for her dog. The kidnapper, a 22-year-old woman, faces felony…
Fatal plane crash under investigation
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating a plane crash on Islay Hill that killed Fresno native Heber Jesse Meeks Monday night. According to Sgt. Rick Neufeld of the SLO Sheriff’s Dept., the 44-year-old Meeks had taken off from the SLO County Airport about 9:45 p.m. when for reasons unknown his single-engine craft slammed into…
Letters
Molski needs a new scam I read with glee the news that three of Jarek’s cases were tossed in favor of the defendants, all reputable businesses in our and the neighboring community of Santa Barbara (“Molski loses three cases,” July 28-Aug. 4). Finally the court system has ruled against that mentally crippled fuck (oops, hope…
Don’t mark my words
Picasso, or someone like Picasso, is reputed to have said “Good artists copy, but great artists steal.” Really great artists use words like “reputed” to prove how really great they are, but enough about me. I’m pretty sure that Picasso’s point was that most people aren’t great artists, so most people shouldn’t steal. After all,…
Plea could mean 12-year sentence in DUI killing
Regina Bennett, a Paso Robles woman charged with hitting and killing a man bicycling with his son last year, has pleaded no contest to a reduced set of charges – ones that will send her to state prison for 12 years instead of for life. In court on Tuesday, Bennett’s voice was so soft as…
County supes take on Marketplace
In a 3-2 vote on Tuesday, San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors agreed to consider the highly controversial Dalidio Ranch Marketplace project. Their vote sends the project, a 650,000-square-foot shopping center on the Dalidio Ranch along Highway 101 near Madonna Road, on a long path that will eventually lead to the county’s planning department.…
Sewer spill in SLO creek
A sewer glitch in the city of San Luis Obispo caused about 30,000 to 40,000 gallons of sewage to flow from the city’s treatment facility down SLO Creek to Avila Beach. The incident occurred around 3 a.m. on Aug 2, said Curtis Batson, director of Environmental Health. Batson said that Environmental Health officials were coincidentally…
A sweet deal for developers?
A group of county residents is quietly fighting developers over a proposed ordinance that would potentially open the door for developers in rural county lands. The ordinance, the group says, would fill the developers’ pockets and destroy the rural character of SLO County. The Rural Planned Development [RPD] ordinance seems to have slipped under the…
