Cover Story
Diminishing returns
Howard Mankins doesn’t give investment experts much credence: “They bamboozle us with their bullshit, as the guy says, and we’re supposed to sort it out.” Mankins should know. For nearly four decades, as a trustee of the SLO County Pension Trust, he’s been helping SLO County sort out how to invest the money needed…
Take it from a Vietnam veteran
Reading the articles on assault weapons in the July 16 issue (“What assault weapons ban?” and “Automatic arsenals”) ignited my smoldering disdain for combat weapons—mere toys for insecure children with dreams of macho grandeur. What else could these killing machines be used for other then eliminating enemy soldiers? If someone would like firing bullets…
Should California raise income taxes for people who make more than $250,000 a year?
Doug Huston carpenter “I don’t see how the budget problem can be solved without raising taxes. The state could have managed the budget better; this is a wealthy state.” John Price escrow service “The wealthier people should take care of those who can’t afford as much. And the tax on small businesses should not be…
Healing by fragrance and color
Constance Hart, the owner of the Conscious Colors Energy Center in Los Osos, is a pioneer of color aromatherapy; not to be confused with color therapy, an ancient alternative healing method. As a certified color therapist, Hart incorporates elements of the ancient practice in her therapy but the addition of specialized color aromas distinguishes her…
Charter wars
When the new kindergartners at the Bellevue-Santa Fe Charter School take their seats this year, not all who might have been there will be present. After an arbitrary change to the school’s admissions policy, eight students were bumped to the back of the waiting list. Some parents had to find new schools, some became so…
Farming it out
Local wedding planners, DJs, photographers, caterers, and many small-scale farmers say they can’t afford a proposed events ordinance backed and even put together by environmental groups. The ordinance, which would nearly eliminate non-agriculture-related events on agricultural land (but not wineries), is set to be considered by the SLO County Planning Commission July 30. Opponents have…
The work before the appeal
The Los Osos sewer project is coming as close as it’s ever been to getting underway, which is to say basically nowhere. The latest wrench in an already rusty set of gears came from the California Coastal Commission. On July 15, the commission’s Central Coast District Manager Dan Carl wrote a letter to Public Works…
Attorney asks to seal Wilcox report
County officials and the attorneys for Gail Wilcox and David Edge are playing a cat-and-mouse game with a report. If it goes public, the report is expected to answer many of the questions surrounding the recent bout of firings amid a county sexual harassment debacle. Wilcox’s attorney David Warren is expected to file a formal…
Making the news
In an unusual step, KSBY technical employees who have been working without a contract for several weeks since talks with the station’s South Carolina-based parent company broke down are calling on local advertisers to boycott the station or face boycotts themselves. Despite mediation efforts scheduled to begin in early August, the union, the National Association…
Sheriff snubs county on take-home cars
County officials who asked Sheriff Pat Hedges to justify his department’s use of county vehicles say they haven’t heard back from him. And they’re probably not going to. In response to a report by the SLO County Grand Jury, county administrators asked departments to provide a “brief justification” for vehicles employees are allowed to take…
Sierra Vista nurses call out for support
Sierra Vista Regional Medical Center nurses and nurses at other Tenet Healthcare hospitals protested on July 21 against cuts made to their sick leave benefits. The nurses focused on cuts to their extended illness bank. Under a policy change, new Tenet employees will be unable to take paid sick leave without using time designated for…
Remove Sarah Christie from the planning commission
Does anybody care that the SLO County Board of Supervisors has chosen to ignore and bury a scandal brought to light by the county grand jury? It’s a scandal involving an “unacceptable probability of bias” in the decision making process by an unnamed county planning commissioner, with charges of bias that were reiterated in the…
Praise
Congratulations, New Times, for recognizing Kathy Johnston’s talent and for being recognized by the National Newspaper Association for her reporting. Kathy really did a fabulous job of providing an informative read and researching a difficult story in her article “Shut down for Speaking Up” (Oct. 30, 2008) focusing on the proposed sand mines in the…
Pledge allegiance to the world
In view of our little world being shrunk by transportation and communication, I offer a little piece of bombast to speak for a broader loyalty than to our nation, a nation divided by racial and economic differences. Here we go: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United Nations and to the world…
Health department concern is unwarranted
Once again the polarized, puritanical view that one is either a perfect saint or a falling-down drunk has defeated common sense and personal responsibility. Let’s get realistic before we have pregnant women arrested over a glass of wine and before we buy into the government as better qualified to raise children than parents. It…
Crack down on reckless drivers
I have a suggestion to help solve our budget debacle: Effective today, every law-enforcement representative across the state, including local authorities, should immediately start ticketing drivers for hands-on cell-phone use. Every day I could easily hand out three tickets per car trip even in my short commute between Nipomo and Santa Maria. If I spent…
Everyone should have health insurance
Regarding Paul Bischoff’s letter about not being required to have health insurance (“Hands off,” July16), I don’t quite understand his position. I think it is for everyone’s benefit that each individual have health insurance. I assume those who don’t want health insurance don’t have jobs, don’t have a home, and don’t pay any bills. What…
Do veterans deserve socialist health care?
In this, the most free country on Earth, there is no excuse for relegating those who have served our country with honor, maintaining the freedoms we all cherish, to a creeping growth of socialist programs. This is not what our veterans fought for. Government-run programs, funded by our tax dollars, staffed by government employees, and…
Ban only automatic and long-range weapons
Thank you for the July 16 article “What assault weapons ban?” about the erosion of state control over military assault guns. I’m disturbed by the ease with which full-auto freaks turn semi-automatic guns into illegal automatics. I would support a sensible assault gun ban that does not ban semi-automatic arms; guns that carry eight…
Speaker Bass backed down
Once again I am disappointed that the Democratic leadership in California refuses to stand up, take a principled stand, and keep it. The proposed budget they have agreed to is just one more example of abandoning the people who elected them; another example of caving to a Republican minority bent on dismantling the state. Speaker…
Signs of the end of days
Yikes. Did you see that a guy got arrested at the SLO County Jail for driving an allegedly stolen car to visit a prisoner? Setting aside for the moment the brainpower behind such a decision on the part of the driver, let’s focus on the creepiness of the policy that has the sheriff’s department checking…
Minerva Soto
New Times: What is the daily traffic like at the mission? About how many visitors do you get? Soto: The museum is very busy. We get at least 100 visitors every day. New Times: A lot has changed since the 1700s. Who currently owns and operates the mission? Soto: The mission is owned and operated…
Laetitia Brut Cuvee Arroyo Grande Valley
This creamy sparkling wine offers aromas and flavors of sweet apples and pears with nuances of honey, nuts, and citrus. An easy drinking bubbly, it’s a reminder you don’t need a holiday to pop the cork; it’s delicious anytime. And it’s the wine to have on hand when you’re serving hors d’oeuvres. Priced at $22…
Surviving hard times
I received a call from chef Maegan Loring of the Park at 5 p.m. Tuesday, July 14, telling me her SLO restaurant would be shuttered after the following night’s service. I was floored by the sad news. “We’ve been barely eking along and after the first of the year, doing a month-to-month contract with the…
Wind ensemble needs help to get to Disney
Cal Poly’s Music Department has launched a campaign to raise $31,000 needed to send its 60-member Wind Ensemble to participate in the 2010 Los Angeles International Music Festival next summer. The Wind Ensemble has been chosen to serve as the festival’s Showcase Ensemble and is scheduled to perform as part of the closing ceremonies…
Mural restoration
Since 1985, Cayucos artist Peter Ladochy’s mosaic mural has adorned the west wall of the Morro Bay Library. This 625-square-foot mural depicts scenes of local history, flora, and fauna against a background of ocean waters and verdant hillsides. Time and the elements have taken their toll and many of the 125,000 one-inch square tiles that…
Prefix 927 time
New Times How did you get involved with the Prefix 927 Art Show? Carolyn Berney, artist This is my 13th year I have entered. I started without knowing what it was about, and when I went to my first show I was just amazed at the diversity. Anything goes in this show. Art [Van Ryhn]…
Shades of nude
The five artists on display in the SLO Art Center’s exhibit “Corpora in Extremis” fulfill the show’s stated purpose of pushing the body to the limits, and they do so in a mad hodgepodge of materials: bronze, acrylics, powdered pigment, oils, glass, synskin. The question is what the figures—portraits painted on glass, silhouettes dangling from…
Kiss my Black Eyed Peas!
I’ll admit it: I’ve been sort of hard on the Mid-State Fair’s entertainment in the past. The fair’s got the biggest venue in the county—the grandstand can seat something like 12,000 people—so it always seemed like something of a waste to trot out some of the tired old acts they’ve had over the years. This…
