Cover Story
Weed wars: While mobile cannabis dispensaries dominate the local industry, one group is seeking to open a storefront in Nipomo
Beneath the ice pack on a small black fabric cooler sits more than trim, smelly buds of cannabis. Botanical Elements Owner Justin Bonfield carries a slew of medical marijuana products, each one designed to serve a specific function. There are lotions and salves to sooth aching muscle pains and arthritic joints. There are pills and…
Appellate court sides with off-roaders in Oceano Dunes case
In the next chapter of a years-long legal dispute over the controversial Oceano Dunes “dust rule,” the California Second District Court of Appeal in Ventura ruled in favor of an appeal by off-highway vehicle advocacy group Friends of Oceano Dunes on April 6. The decision means that the San Luis Obispo County Air Pollution Control…
Course correction: The Cuesta community reels after 67 students were recently caught cheating
After seeing the results of the first few history quizzes of the 2015 spring semester at Cuesta College, Dr. Anthony Koeninger began to grow suspicious. “Something wasn’t feeling right,” he told New Times. “So I switched up the order of the questions on the midterm.” Koeninger describes what happened next as “brutal” and “devastating.” Not…
What do you wish was a tax exemption?
Leslie McKinley director of resource development, United Way “Groceries or eating out.” Lizzy Spence Splash Café “Game show winnings.” John Nixon retired “Probably all consumer credit interest.” Puck Shakespearean Trickster “Loincloths.”
They’re grrreat: Thanks to Grrrnola, healthy mornings have bite
For Betsi Clark, starting her own granola business was a lot like climbing a mountain. As in, totally enjoyable, exciting, and a wee bit terrifying. With her 1970s aviator sunglasses and long, blond surfer hair, Clark is more than this reporter’s vision of “bohemian cool.” She’s a self-proclaimed “glutton for adventure.” She’s the kind of…
Hot stuff
The coolest ever: When the weather heats up, you know I am craving a dry, chilled rosé full of luscious fruit. This spring, why not reach for Paso Robles’ HammerSky Vineyards, whose rosé recently won a prestigious double gold medal from the Rosé Competition held at SIMI Winery in Healdsburg late last month? … My…
Spearhead Coffee’s Cold Brew and Hidden Oak Winery’s 2012 Estate Viognier
What better place to experience my first cold brew of spring than San Francisco, at a hipster-y little place near Golden Gate Park? As I entered the sparsely-decorated coffee house (artisanal lightbulbs dangling) I knew I was probably the butt of some joke or another. I mean, I get that the all-glass cold brewing system—which…
Cambria’s Pewter Plough Playhouse stages ‘Butterflies Are Free’
“I only ask to be free. The butterflies are free,” so says Harold Skimpole, a childish character in Charles Dickens’ Bleak House. Don Baker, the protagonist of Leonard Gershe’s 1969 play, Butterflies Are Free, embodies this statement. You see, Baker is a blind man who has spent his entire life living with his demanding mother.…
SLO Little Theatre stages one-woman show, ‘The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe’
In the hustle and bustle of Times Square, you’re likely to find someone like Trudy, a bag lady who does what many a Times Square eccentric does—shout about aliens. But Trudy’s deeper than this. She may be crazy, but as she wisely admits, “Going crazy could be just the evolutionary experience trying to hurry up…
Lena Rushing’s new exhibit Methods of Madness at The Steynberg Gallery reveals an artist in her prime
View a slideshow from Lena Rushing’s current exhibition, Methods of Madness. Visual artist Lena Rushing looks like Snow White, but edgier and surrounded by zero dwarves but lots of admirers who are literally gushing over her new collection of paintings and shadow box constructions. And why not? The work is maddeningly good, dripping with weirdness,…
Clubs 4/9/15-4/16/15
Goin’ South THE CLIFFS RESORT: 2757 Shell Beach Road, 773-5000 or cliffsresort.com. CUVEE BISTRO AND CHAMPAGNE BAR: 550 1st St., Avila Beach, 595-2245. Live music Thurs. and Sat. 6-9pm. F. MCLINTOCKS SALOON: Two locations: 750 Mattie Road in Pismo Beach and 133 Bridge St. in Arroyo Grande. 773-1892 or mclintocks.com. Live music at the Pismo…
Jeff Bridges & The Abiders return to the Fremont Theater on April 17
The good news is, Jeff Bridges is every bit as cool as you hoped he’d be. When I heard he was returning to Fremont Theater next Friday, April 17 (7 p.m.; all ages; $30 to $55 at ticketfly.com), I begged and pleaded to get him on the phone for a minute. I had hoped to…
Cal Poly Student Opera and OperaSLO present comedic opera, ‘The Merry Widow’
There’s a certain perception of opera that lends itself to certain adjectives: long, slow, somber, inaccessible. But you can be certain, The Merry Widow is none of these things. In a “co-opera” production, both the Cal Poly Student Opera Theatre and Opera San Luis Obispo are staging Franz Lehar’s timeless tale of romantic and political…
Growing up: ‘Kaufman’s Hill’ chronicles the mysteries of boyhood
Suffering the guilt of killing a bird with a slingshot, examining a dead animal, traversing a dark tunnel without knowing where it leads, leaping before you look, being bullied, pulling pranks, and fending off peer pressure to do what you know is right—these are the trials and travails of boyhood, that mysterious period where every…
C is for cheater
Four score and seven years ago, our fathers (and mothers) brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men (and women) are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated,…
Change has already come
This commentary is in response to former San Luis Obispo Tribune reporter Bob Cuddy’s March 26 New Times commentary, “A change is coming.” Cuddy’s insulting polemic is a foretaste of a protracted attack on COLAB, several county supervisors, and citizens who speak at public comment periods before the Board of Supervisors and other public bodies.…
It could be worse, San Luis Obispo
For those who think our SLO City Council has overstepped by passing the new law regulating odors, check out a few of these gems from DumbLaws.com: In Alabama it was illegal to carry an ice cream cone in your back pocket; a Delaware law prohibited wearing pants that are form fitting around the waist; in…
It’s not about politics or rights; it’s about water
I know I am going to get more than a few dirty looks for writing this letter, but oh well—desperate times call for desperate ideas! I moved here from L.A. about 14 years ago, and I was rather perplexed when I realized that if you had a well, you could use and waste as much…
A ‘nut’ case
We get it: four years of drought, dried-up reservoirs, and no significant rain in sight. We’ve got a problem. A few reliable sources have come forward to publicly mention the facts about how our water is “shared.” Some have even pointed out the glaring inequity in distribution to residential, business, and governmental users (estimated as…
When ya gotta go, you gotta go!
“Mommy! I have to go potty, NOW!” What parent has not heard these words and frantically looked around for somewhere to take their child? No gas station handy or big store to run to. “Ah, we’ll just pop into (insert a food place or smaller retail store).” Hmmm, maybe not. Just recently, I was assisting…
Flight of fancy: The Experimental Aircraft Association will host the Ford Tri-Motor NC8407 airplane in April
Ah, the majesty of flight. Birds do it, bees do it, educated fleas don’t do it, but Superman sure does. Unfortunately, humans do not. The closest we earthbound mortals can get to pulling an Elphaba and defying that gravity is with airplanes, and most of the time it’s not even that great because you get…
Cougars & Mustangs
It was a dark, cold December in the sound stage of my mind, and the chilled air whispered to itself in that crackling sort of way an old fire does to try and keep his mind off of what is really the matter. In the physical existence we claim to be “real,” I sat in…
A new program in San Luis Obispo County will give misdemeanor offenders a second chance
If the plan works—and if it keeps in line with some other counties that have tried the same—San Luis Obispo County law enforcement officials believe they can take as many as 1,000 low-level misdemeanor cases out of court. That would mean less prosecutor time devoted to filing cases for offenses such as petty theft, driving…
Paso Robles to draft a letter highlighting concerns over crude oil transport by rail
The city of Paso Robles will be sending a letter to several agencies and decision makers detailing concerns about the shipment of crude oil by rail. The letter won’t address, however, a major project chugging toward San Luis Obispo County Planning Commissioners and then likely the Board of Supervisors: the proposed rail spur extension project…
Firestone buys a building proposed to become a cardroom
A stark disagreement that’s been brewing in Paso Robles since July hinged on where a cardroom does and does not belong has been resolved with the sale of a building and a handshake. Don Ezzell, owner of the Paso Robles Central Coast Casino, announced this week that he’s completed the sale of a building at…
Janeka Samuels’ case against Chipotle manager is dismissed after she fails to show in court again
With about as much ceremony as a breakup after one date, a civil case alleging that a Chipotle restaurant regional manager mistreated a black employee was thrown out of court because the plaintiff once again didn’t show up and has otherwise fled from the controversy that surrounds her case. Superior Court Judge Barry LaBarbera shrugged…
Twelve locals arrested for alleged drug trafficking
A multi-agency investigation launched in 2013 came to a dramatic conclusion on April 7 of this year, as law enforcement officers raided eight homes in the Nipomo area before dawn and arrested 12 San Luis Obispo County residents for alleged drug-trafficking activity. The effort—spearheaded by the FBI, the SLO County Sheriff’s Office, and the California…
