The Los Osos Community Services District isn’t making enough tax revenue to fully fund its fire services for the first time in 20 years. A $280,000 funding gap for the 2025-26 fiscal year and more projected cost increases in the future are causing the Community Services District (CSD) to look at its options. The CSD […]
Posted inNews
San Luis Ambulance must compete to serve SLO County through bids process
After 80 years of serving San Luis Obispo County, San Luis Ambulance must now contend with other providers for the job after facing widespread dissatisfaction about long response times and working in an outdated system. “Just yesterday, we had a call at Templeton High School and our engine responded to that incident, and we had […]
Posted inNews
Atascadero upholds cannabis retail ban
The Atascadero City Council voted 3-2 on Oct. 14 against allowing retail cannabis storefronts, keeping the city limited to delivery and testing lab operations and potentially forgoing up to half a million dollars annually in new tax revenue, according to a staff report. “After talking to consultants, Atascadero could expect possibly up to $500,000 a […]
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SLO City Council conditionally revokes a Cal Poly frat permit
Racking up 17 noise complaints and 10 different citations since the beginning of 2023, Cal Poly’s Delta Chi fraternity at 1236 Monte Vista Place must cease operations at the property after the San Luis Obispo City Council tentatively revoked its conditional use permit. “I heard a lot of, ‘Give us another chance; we want to […]
Posted inOpinion
Wah-mbulance!
It’s reassuring to believe that if we suffer a stroke, heart attack, or a significant injury and require an ambulance, it will be there staffed by trained professionals called to their vocation through a compulsion to care for people. It’s less reassuring to be reminded that ambulance service is a business designed to make money […]
Posted inOpinion
PG&E shouldn’t pay San Luis Coastal a unitary tax
When a dentist is administering a shot of novocaïne, they will typically palm the syringe and move in from the side of the patient’s head so that the patient will not see the needle coming and grow apprehensive about the pain of the injection. PG&E seems to employ a similar approach, although the result is […]
Posted inOpinion
Proposition 50 is not about saving ‘democracy,’ so please quit saying it is
Proposition 50 has very little to do with democracy; it is quite the opposite. The California representatives in the House are currently 43 Democrats and nine Republicans. This is 83 percent Dem and 17 percent GOP, yet California’s registered voters are only 45 percent Dem, 25 percent GOP, and 30 percent “other.” This is nowhere […]
Posted inOpinion
Bobby Cain endured mobs to children could learn freely; Charlie Kirk told crowds those wounds no longer mattered
America lost two very different figures this September. Bobby Cain, little known outside his small county in Tennessee, died quietly at 85. Charlie Kirk, a nationally recognized conservative activist, was shot while speaking at Utah Valley University at the age of 31. Both men’s lives touched on the same subject—race. But the comparison ends there. […]
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Turtle Organization of SLO has been spreading the word about the shelled reptile for decades
Did you know turtles and tortoises can be fast, their beaks can grow into overbites if they aren’t trimmed, and their shells are actually bone that is part of their spines? Turtle Organization of San Luis Obispo (TOO SLO) member Denise Boddeker and fellow aficionados of the reptile have been collecting these tidbits of knowledge […]
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C.A.R.E.4Paws will offer boarding for pets living with struggling families
About a year ago, C.A.R.E.4Paws was offering its services to a shelter for the unhoused, when a woman staying at the shelter asked for help to take care of her dog who had become pregnant and would eventually have 10 puppies. The woman wasn’t in a state to be able to care for either the […]
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From Paso Robles to the world, Atlas Animal Rescue saves dogs in need
When Emily Everett-Nelson arrived at a Lake Elsinore animal shelter expecting to walk dogs in 2018, she was shown a list of animals scheduled to be euthanized that day. “They were like, ‘OK, these are the dogs, and these are the ones that are gonna be euthanized today,’” she recalled. “I was like, ‘Wait what? […]
Posted inSpecial Issues & Guides
Happy feet: See some of the sweetest animals on the Central Coast in our annual Pet issue
Find some peace by checking out the winners of our third annual pet photo contest. They’re cute! Really cute. Readers from San Luis Obispo and northern Santa Barbara counties submitted hundreds of images of their fur, feather, and scale babies as part of this year’s competition. A panel of in-house judges narrowed them down to […]