Cover Story
Into another dimension: A local couple uses a 3-D printer to help diagnose and treat a brain tumor
In late summer 2013, Shavaun Scott began getting headaches. Not too long before, Scott, a marriage and family therapist who works in San Luis Obispo, had undergone an intensive thyroidectomy at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC). There, the surgeon used an advanced robotics system, known as the da Vinci, to operate with minimal…
Ex-Cal Poly fraternity president pleads no contest to felony marijuana possession
Cal Poly student and ex-Delta Sigma Phi President Gear McMillan pleaded no contest to a felony “marijuana possession for purpose of sale” charge on Feb. 6. A plea of no contest results in a conviction but is not an admission of guilt. The Delta Sigma Phi fraternity house where McMillan was arrested on suspicion of…
SLO County libraries celebrate Black History Month with a series of diverse lectures and performances
In honor of Black History Month, the SLO County Library system will be holding a series of varied and wide-ranging events. Not only will libraries across the Central Coast feature art, books, and bibliographies centered on the history and experience of African-Americans, they will also host lectures and performances from prominent African-Americans within the community.…
Should there be limitations on public art?
Tim DePlanche Apple Store, reformed journalist “We should have some kind of rules and regulations, since it’s taxpayer-funded art.” Loree Bliss retired “I think so, there should be some guidelines for what’s acceptable.” Bill Rodenhi retired “I think there should be standards, but if the majority of people aren’t offended, then there’s no need to…
A day of upheaval at the SLO County Board of Supervisors
A parliamentary spat that has been approaching its climax since the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors’ first meeting of the year finally concluded as 5th District Supervisor Debbie Arnold took over the chairmanship from 1st District Supervisor Frank Mecham. What was set to be a contentious discussion over who should rightfully be chair,…
Phillips 66 Santa Maria Refinery workers show solidarity with union strikers
Starting on Feb. 1, roughly 3,800 union refinery workers across the country walked away from their jobs, and shockwaves from that strike have registered here in San Luis Obispo County. Since Jan. 28, a rotating group of members of the Grover Beach-based United Steelworkers (USW) Local 534 chapter have been picketing at the gates of…
Disappearance dustup: A new publication has made big claims in the 19-year-old cold case of Kristin Smart
A few weeks ago, San Luis Obispo residents opened their mailboxes to find a 12-page broadsheet black-and-white publication bearing a masthead in Old English font reading The California Register. By all appearances, the publication—the fourth of its kind—looked like a regularly published periodical newspaper new to the scene: It’s labeled Volume 3, Issue 1, dated…
Guy Budd plays Libertine Pub on Feb. 6 to promote his new album
Guy Budd does not churn out CDs. Albums still in print include 2001’s Woke Up Dreaming, 2006’s Gypsy Souls, and 2009’s Live. Now add one more, Another World, which Budd quietly released to the world in late 2014, and which he’s just now starting to promote with a free show this Friday, Feb. 6, at…
Clubs 2/5/15-2/12/15
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…
The Devil Makes Three puts on a raucous show at the Alex Madonna Expo Center
It’s Friday, Jan. 30, and Joe Pug is already on stage playing to a massive crowd at the Alex Madonna Expo Center. As soon as I walk in the door, I see a shit-housed woman clinging to a wall as some guy tries to talk a security guard out of throwing both of their drunken…
Cuesta College screens avant garde video art in new exhibit
There’s a strange noise coming from Cuesta’s Harold J. Miossi Art Gallery. Passersby are being assaulted with a cacophony—thousands of discordant piano notes that combine into one long, nightmarish tone. And things only get more weird and fascinating upon entering the gallery. The usually well-lit space is dark and nearly empty. The eye is immediately…
Local artist and musician Jake Johnson overcomes dark past with creative vitality
A few years ago, Jake Johnson found himself in dire straights. He had been arrested for burglary and possession of heroin. Up until that point, he had been in and out of jail, and, according to him, declared dead three times. Things needed to change. So, he began an 18-month treatment program through the SLO…
Force of Nature’s 2013 Tempranillo and Farmgirl Creamery’s Vanilla Cream-Top Yogurt
The only thing I like more than this courageous, steak-worthy Tempranillo is the wine label. The scene: A small village town overrun by a crashing tidal wave. The picture is “painted” with swipes of yellow and teal; the effect is in fact so beautiful I can’t bring myself to fling the empty vessel into my…
Join the nosh pit!
Talk about lovey dovey: Surprise the one you love with a four course menu paired with three wines at Madonna Inn this Feb. 13 through 16, and if you’re really smooth, have a dozen roses delivered to your pinker-than-pink table. Aroused? Spa and chocolate packages, romantic room stays, and more edible excitement is heating up…
The anti-Kraft: Santa Margarita’s Farmgirl Creamery puts the ‘art’ into artisan cheese
The Santa Margarita barn is cool, musty, and mostly empty, save for a small pen in the corner. The sound of our cowboy boots swishing through the dirt alarms the mother ewe in the enclosed area. Worried, she seems to call out to us, “are you friend or foe?” Behind her wide body, a leggy,…
Merrily we troll along: Workshop will address the effects of cyberbullying on teens
The typical picture of a bully is normally an unusually burly child with anger issues. Like Biff Tannen from Back to the Future. You know, they aren’t the brightest bulb, but they know how to get the job done. But with the age of the Internet has come a new form of bullying, of the…
Cougars & Mustangs
It is frightening to think that the countless social cues we transmit and receive daily through our tone of voice and body language could be so lost on a person as to require him/her to attend special classes deep into young adulthood in the hopes that she/he might eventually feel some vague sense of normalcy.…
San Luis Obispo city officials are streamlining rooftop solar and rain-collection permitting processes
It should become easier to install rooftop solar for residents in San Luis Obispo under a newly adopted streamlined permitting process. Under the 2014 California bill, AB 2188, local municipalities are required to adopt ordinances that create expedited, streamlined permitting processes for small residential and rooftop solar systems by Sept. 30. And SLO may be…
San Luis Obispo’s public art policy is receiving new scrutiny
San Luis Obispo city officials tweaked language of the city’s public art policy, and set the stage to do away with at least one piece of public art that drew controversy. On Feb. 3, SLO city councilmembers voted unanimously to approve changes to the public art policy. It was last updated in mid-2011, and the…
Templeton deeply needs a mental illness facility
The private, 162-bed mental illness treatment center proposed for our county has drawn a negative public reaction from residents of Templeton, its proposed location (“What’s he building in there?” Jan. 29). The deep need for such a local facility has been fully documented by many trusted sources. However, the core of public opposition concerns the…
Don’t give me a ‘K’
You’re probably already aware of this, but knowing or seeing someone famous makes you 23.5 percent more attractive, 79.8 percent more interesting, and 100 percent more likely to wind up with your mug in the local news. Which is why I’m coming forward to announce what most of you have probably already suspected: Batman is…
The old king wasn’t the leader he’s been made out to be
The death of Saudi Arabia King Abdullah ibn-Abdulaziz al-Saud brought out gushing praise from both British and American leaders of what a wonderful man he was. King Abdullah may have been a political ally, and a good partner to United States corporate interests. But was he a humanitarian, a supporter of women’s rights, a man…
An open letter to Brooke Gutierrez, Hearst Castle interim director
As you are no doubt aware, the film Citizen Kane is a loosely based, “Hollywoodized,” and very unflattering portrait of the life and life choices of publisher William Randolph Hearst. Even though full of myth and inconsistency, no more than 70 years after its release, it is unfortunately seen by many as definitive documentary fact.…
Criminals aren’t polite
It is not Police Chief Steve Gesell, but retired College of Business professor Zaf Iqbal who “erroneously equates rule of law with law enforcement” in his opinion column (“Are we policing for the people?” Jan. 29). It appears Prof. Iqbal is also erroneously equating giving term paper instructions to his college students with a direct…
Many Templeton residents know mental illness is treatable
We were disappointed that the article “What’s he building in there?” in the Jan. 25 New Times did not contain any comment by those of us in Templeton who strongly support the proposed behavioral health hospital. We are 45-year residents of the county, and have lived the last 18 in Templeton. The need for mental-health…
Can lily white SLO ever understand the black experience?
I just saw Selma in the Downtown Centre Cinemas—which wouldn’t be unusual, except that “black” movies usually don’t play in SLO Town theaters. If you’re thinking, “What do you mean ‘black’ movies don’t play in SLO Town theaters?” maybe you didn’t notice that usually they don’t. Seriously. I’d been noticing the trend for a while,…
