Cover Story
Snitching game: Confidential informants risk danger on the front lines of SLO County’s war on drugs
A group of men met among the tombstones of a Paso Robles cemetery sometime in 2014. Two of them were lawmen from the SLO County Narcotics Unit, a multiagency group dedicated to tackling drug crime in the county. The third was a civilian. A man with a wife and kids and a past checkered by…
Middle school student seeks restraining order against 60-year-old Los Osos man
A 12-year-old girl is seeking a restraining order against a 60-year-old Los Osos man after she said he approached her multiple times and exhibited behavior that made her uncomfortable and afraid. The girl filed the restraining order in SLO County Superior Court May 31 against Jeff Harrison Edwards, a business owner and local government activist…
Bernin’ it down: Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders makes a stop in Santa Maria
View a slideshow of the May 28 rally. There was no violence. He didn’t talk about taking everyone’s guns away. And the crowd wasn’t all speaking Russian or Chinese as they left. Instead, there were just a lot of people feeling the Bern. Sen. Bernie Sanders stopped by Santa Maria High School on May 28,…
Farmer frenzy
More freshness at the farmers’ market means more deliciousness at your table: Starting June 2, downtown SLO’s Thursday night farmers’ market is getting a big boost of meats, fish, dairy, and more! New purveyors lined up on Chorro Street will include local beef, seasonally caught fish, poultry and eggs from BeeWench Farm, yogurt from Farm…
The Live Oak Music Festival near Lake Cachuma is the place to be June 17-19
It took me years to get to the Live Oak Music Festival. Every year I got the press materials and dutifully wrote something about it, but it always felt a little too hippie for me, a little too far away, a little too out of my comfort zone, so I never went … until five…
Jared’s night: Community unites to crown Arroyo Grande teen prom king
When the Lucia Mar Unified School District denied Jared Springer, an Arroyo Grande high school senior battling brain cancer, a chance to attend his senior prom, caring members of the SLO community knew they needed to give the story a new ending. On May 8, Frank Springer, Jared’s father, published a Facebook post titled “Jared’s…
What’s your favorite event or thing to do in the summer?
Rick Snyder veteran “My favorite part of the summer is getting on my Harley and riding.” Alexandra Houser student “I love to enjoy the wildlife that comes out!” Iva Rupp office assistant “Going hiking. Oh, and we’re in wine country, so the wineries are great!” Keri Wilmore office assistant “To go to the Camp Hollywood…
Down the mighty Mississippi: Great American Melodrama presents ‘Across the River’
The Great American Melodrama has always had a down-home, old timey feel to it, so when the Oceano theater produces a play set in the frontier times or the American South, it just makes sense. The latest production of Across the River is no exception. The musical by Thom Babbes and Brad Carroll is an…
Spelling error may be clue in SLO Airport area groundwater contamination
A possible spelling mix-up may lead investigators to a clue in whether the SLO County Regional Airport is responsible for high levels of a toxic chemical found in nearby groundwater. The Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board is currently trying to find out if the airport is the source of the trichloroethene, or TCE,…
Cougars & Mustangs
Getting lost on Cal Poly campus is a bit like getting lost in Tomorrowland, but with far less neon. One tends to stumble upon all sorts of glimpses of the future if one does enough poking. For example, Congresswoman Lois Capps herself was at a meeting with kinesiology professor Suzanne Phelan, student Stephanie Gomez-Rubalcava, and…
Sweeping gun restrictions head to California Assembly
June 2 marks the second annual National Gun Violence Awareness Day, calling gun safety advocates to wear orange in memory of lives lost to firearms violence. This year’s awareness day comes less than a month after the California Senate passed a historic bundle of bills proposing new regulations on semi-automatic weapons, ammunition purchases, and gun-loaning…
Clarifications
• In the May 19 news story “Power struggle,” the Cal Poly College of Agriculture, Food, and Environmental Sciences faculty vote of no confidence against Dean Andrew Thulin was taken prior to the appointment of Cyrus Ramezani as Agribusiness Department Chair in July 2015. • In the May 26 news story “Paso Robles woman charged…
Los Osos water basin contains chromium
Los Osos residents received a mix of good and bad news about the status of the Los Osos Valley Groundwater Basin during an annual report presented at the Los Osos Basin Management Committee meeting on May 25. The bad news: Los Osos water purveyors recently detected the presence of hexavalent chromium—the chemical contamination famously uncovered…
SLO County supervisor candidate sued over property dispute
On the surface, it’s a common disagreement between two neighboring property owners over an access road that goes through one property to the other. But that dispute has quickly turned into a public spectacle because a property owner and the opposing attorney are both involved in a hotly contested election for a seat on the…
Guilty Pleasures: Basket Case
When? 1982, R | Available: iTunes, Amazon, DVD. The first time you discover a so-called “cult” movie is always a memorable experience. The best way to discover one of these films is through a friend, someone who knows you and your tastes, and there’s really nothing like that moment when they turn to you with…
Author Susan Branch to give talk in Morro Bay
When a relationship meets its demise there’s a tendency to create change by getting a new haircut, a new piercing even—or perhaps buying a cabin on Martha’s Vineyard to live in. The latter is what local author and watercolor artist Susan Branch did in the winter of 1982. After the sudden unexpected end of her…
Pewter Plough presents ‘Strange Bedfellows’
We often forget that less than a hundred years ago, women didn’t have the legal right to vote; yet today feminism really isn’t that radical of a concept. You can learn all about it by attending a showing of Strange Bedfellows, a play set in 1896 that follows the story of how women really won…
Just a taste: A partial tour of the Pismo Preserve
As I’m leaving SLO to head toward the ocean on a beautiful May day, I can see the white of fog in the distance, fingering the hills with a glint in its eye. What a jerk. The one day I get to leave work early to go on a hike with views of the Pacific…
Bird is the word: Artist Jeannine Emmett looks to the sky for inspiration
Just a pane of glass separates the cats from the tantalizing birds, but every morning they watch and stare as their winged counterparts frolic about in the fountain and daintily eat seeds from the bird feeder, so close, yet so far. The visitors captivate the human in the house too, but for different reasons. Artist…
Nuclear energy can be dangerous
William Gloege’s very biased and myopic letter “Make your political support about nuclear energy” in the May 26 issue of New Times certainly deserves a strong response. Mr. Gloege, your complaint about “dirty” natural gas falls on deaf ears with me. You can spin your disinformation any way you want but here’s a fact you…
Clubs 6/2/16 – 6/9/16
Goin’ South THE CLIFFS RESORT: 2757 Shell Beach Rd., Shell Beach, 773-5000, cliffsresort.com. F. MCLINTOCKS SALOON: Two locations: 750 Mattie Rd. in Pismo Beach and 133 Bridge St. in Arroyo Grande. 773-1892 or mclintocks.com. Live music at the Pismo Beach location every Fri. and Sat. from 6-9pm. Tennessee Jimmy Harrell and Doc Stoltey play on…
Felten Cellars 2014 Zinfandel and Barton Family Wine’s 2013 Grenache Blanc
Fruity, spicy, and extremely well balanced, this medium bodied zinfandel from plucky boutique winery Felten Cellars is a good spring barbecue sipper, indeed! With notes of fennel and cocoa and aromas of blackberry, it sips swell on its own, but shines bold and beautiful when paired with a charred rack of barbecued ribs. Pour on…
Morro Bay’s Flavor Factory sizzles up the best beefiness
If you stop by Flavor Factory before 10 a.m., you can probably glance through the front window and see chef/owner Adam Pollard elbow deep in a white plastic bucket of bright red meat. When I come knocking, the sleeves of his clean chef’s coat are rolled way up, showing off a mix of tattoos and…
Smeared!
Have you seen the mailer attacking 24th District congressional candidate Helene Schneider pictured side by side with presidential candidate Bernie Sanders? It’s super cute! Their little mugs are encircled in green peas inside a pea pod, and in between them is a pink heart because they looooove each other so much. “Two peas in a…
Cayucos residents underestimate the proposed fire tax
I am very concerned that the Cayucos voters are unaware of the actual cost of the Fire Tax in Measure C-16. The ballot states that it is a “new Special Tax at $125 per unit of benefit,” but one must read the additional voter pamphlet to find out that a single family home counts as…
Katcho’s voting record speaks for itself
Ashley Hernandez writes that she is ashamed of the Democratic Party because recent TV ads “frame Katcho [Achadjian] as anti-woman” (New Times, May 26). She says that “Katcho has always been at the forefront of women’s issues in this community.” Apparently Ashley does not regard the right of a woman to decide whether to have…
Guns are a God-given right and protection
The NRA holds our Constitution together. Without it we would be enslaved. Guns save lives; guns stop crime; guns are why America is free. In a free society where we have the God-given right to protect ourselves, there will be crazies and mass killers. Of course we have to keep these gun death percentages low. …
Dump Trump
What many thought would be impossible has already happened. Except the formality of official nomination at the Republican convention in July, for all practical purposes, Donald Trump is the presidential nominee of the Republican Party. It happened despite denouncements from the GOP establishment and the decision by a group of generous benefactors of the party…
