Grover Beach wants applications for vacant City Council seat
No stranger to resignations and appointments, the Grover Beach City Council is calling for applications to fill its recently vacated 3rd District seat. Third District Councilmember Kathy McCorry-Driscoll resigned from the council on Aug. 14. McCorry-Driscoll, the owner of a brand strategies company and HR director at nonprofit Restorative Partners, moved away from Grover Beach…
Paso Robles school district brings book vending machines to Title I campuses
Forget chips and candy, the newest vending machines headed to Paso Robles schools will be stocked with books. On Aug. 18, the Paso Robles Joint Unified School District board unanimously approved spending up to $105,000 on book vending machines and a year’s supply of books for eight Title I schools. The machines are intended to…
Lucia Mar families struggle with after school care waitlist, parent says
Lucia Mar Unified School District’s before- and after-school care program is at capacity, according to a local parent hoping her son gets off the waitlist for the 2026-27 school year. Oceano resident Anna Cordero is juggling her job as an online U.S. history teacher while making sure her Harloe Elementary second grader receives adequate attention…
TAAG chair resigns following felony conviction
Templeton Area Advisory Group Chair David Leader formally resigned on Aug. 26, ending an eight-month tenure overshadowed by his felony conviction, restraining orders protecting eight neighbors, and growing pressure from fellow board members to step down. His resignation came one week after he was sentenced to jail for felony vandalism and violating court orders—and as…
Long-term interest
Templeton just wrapped up eight months of its life that it will never get back. Despite David Leader’s involvement in several restraining order cases and a criminal case, the Templeton Area Advisory Group (TAAG) appointed him as its chair in January. Shortly thereafter, TAAG changed its policies so that someone with a felony could still…
The culture wars take over the WNBA
It seems that the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) has really gotten itself between a rock and a hard place and is becoming ground zero in the culture wars. While I have little interest in basketball, I am always fascinated by the culture wars. The WNBA finds itself as the focus of a lively donnybrook…
Restore Laguna Lake
As a longtime San Luis Obispo resident (grade schools, Cal Poly grad, now retired), I have a great love of this town. I even used to fish Laguna Lake as a kid. Currently, I am a member of the Laguna Lake Model Yacht Club. For years, this club has enjoyed sailing our model sailboats and…
Roads should be county’s first priority
What if we could fix more roads, bring home more state and federal transportation dollars, and do it without raising the overall tax burden? The San Luis Obispo Council of Governments (SLOCOG) board and the county Board of Supervisors voted to remove Measure H from the November ballot after consultants concluded it did not have…
Political manipulation surrounds offshore wind
Sad to say, we are living in a time of incessant manipulation, subterfuge, and downright hype at the hands of our politicians and their favorite corporate donors and glad-hand buddies. Here, in the land of “energy opportunity,” the Central Coast of California, we have been the recipients and guinea pigs of political and corporate hype,…
Save Cuesta Inlet launches boat identification campaign to clear shoreline
Parked your boat on the waters of the scenic Cuesta Inlet? Claim it soon or say goodbye. Nonprofit Save Cuesta Inlet is on a mission to identify boats and separate abandoned vessels from those still in use. It’s the group’s first stewardship project since it became inlet owners with the hope that the public can…
Paso Robles distillers brace for end of direct shipping
For six years, a customer who discovered a bottle of Paso Robles gin or whiskey on vacation could return home, order another online, and have it delivered to their door. Come Jan. 1, that could end. A pandemic-era allowance that lets California craft distilleries ship spirits directly to consumers is set to expire Dec. 31,…
PG&E will pay SLO County $16 million for two of the five years of extended Diablo Canyon operations
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) agreed to a $16 million payment to San Luis Obispo County and its communities, months after the introduction of a Senate bill that would have kept it on the hook to pay local communities for extended Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant operations. Authored by State Sen. John Laird (D-Santa…
Central Coast author Sharon Sheltzer’s Lady of the Waves uses a climate change backdrop
Central Coast author Sharon Sheltzer’s new young adult romance and adventure novel, Lady of the Waves: Love in the Time of Climate Change, opens with a bang. Twelve-year-old protagonist Aallotar, on vacation with her Finnish family in Thailand, heads to the beach with her mother. “We only have another week in paradise,” her mom says.…
Enter surf and skate short-film fest by Oct. 15
Calling all surfers, skaters, and filmmakers! Salty, an award-winning, locally produced short film, is stoked to announce the Stay Salty Surf and Skate Short Film Festival at the Bay Theatre, on Monday, Nov. 2 (5:30 p.m.; $10). “For one night only, let’s celebrate surf and skate culture, our community, and independent film, while raising funds…
See Shankar Vedantam’s Hidden Brain live on Sept. 20
Have you ever wondered why humans engage in sometimes counterproductive or puzzling behavior? There’s a podcast for you. NPR’s popular show Hidden Brain is coming to SLO live and in person with show host, veteran science journalist Shankar Vedantam, thanks to KCBX Public Radio and Cal Poly Arts. This event is part of Hidden Brain’s…
Tony follows 19-year-old Anthony Bourdain’s first restaurant experience
Matt Johnson (BlackBerry) directs this story about 19-year-old Anthony Bourdain (Dominic Sessa), who in 1975 travels to Provincetown to follow his crush, Nancy (Emilia Jones), and winds up with his first kitchen job. (106 min.) Glen The film begins with a quote from Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, Anthony Bourdain’s a raw confessional…
The Idaho Murders: College Nightmare examines a chilling quadruple homicide
Ethan Chapin, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle, and Madison Mogen were Ohio State students whose lives were cut short by a Washington State student in 2022 in an off-campus home while they slept. This series blends memories shared from those who loved them most, heartbreaking footage from first responders, and interviews with the perpetrator’s fellow students…
Normal finds Bob Odenkirk revisiting his unlikely action hero role
Directed by Ben Wheatley (Meg 2: The Trench, Free Fire, Kill List) from Derek Kolstad’s script based on a story co-written with star Bob Odenkirk, Normal follows an interim sheriff, Ulysses (Odenkirk), of the fictional town of Normal, Minnesota. After a botched bank robbery, Ulysses discovers the town’s bank is safeguarding a huge stash of…
Public Image Ltd plays the Fremont Theater during their first U.S. tour in eight years
Even though I could tell at the time that the Sex Pistols were not great musicians, their energy appealed to teenage me in an undeniable way. Frontman Johnny Rotten (then the stage name for John Lydon) had crazy swagger, and the band’s sound was abrasive enough to annoy my parents, so—you know—bonus points. After they…
Big Mamas bakes cinnamon rolls, cupcakes, and cheesecakes to perfection in Guadalupe and beyond
Playing in the kitchen always kept young Alicia Rubio happy. An only child for 15 years, some of her early memories are of bonding with her grandmother while baking. “I don’t know Spanish, but my grandma’s more of a Spanish speaker, so we had to figure out a way to understand each other more. Baking…
