Cover Story
Vintners feel the heat
In wine there is truth, according to the ancient Bacchanalian philosophers. These days, though, it’s more of an inconvenient truth, as the rising temperatures associated with climate change are already having an effect on the world’s—and SLO County’s—premium wine grapes. As “toasting” takes on a new meaning for the billion-dollar local wine industry, some vineyard…
Where’s Dame Edna?
One of the great things about summer—besides the departing college students and downy pink mountains of cotton candy at the Mid-State Fair—is the opportunity to pull out your calendar and salivate over the dozens of theatrical productions, dance companies, comedians, and musicians who will be performing in San Luis Obispo County in the coming months.…
We’re so great!
God bless America! God bless its corrupt wars, its high gas prices, its attempts at legitimizing torture, its pathetic health-care system, its racism, its incarceration rate, its corporate welfare, its greed, its destructive environmental policies, its ineffective test-focused education system, its inhuman immigration policies, its distrust of diversity, its fear of same-sex marriage, its wholly…
What would you do with $50,000?
Brandie Newton Full-time mom I would use it to pay off my student loans. That would just cover my student loans. Jason Newton Computer technician I would use it to get out of debt, and buy a more fuel-efficient car. I drive a Honda. James Eaton Student I would buy all that stuff (gesturing to…
Starborough 2007 Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough
This friendly, easy drinking white wine is atypical of New Zealand’s best known variety, but it’s refreshing. For those unaccustomed to the zippy, tart flavors of classic Sauvignon Blanc this provides a great starting point. It offers bright fruity flavors of pink grapefruit, nectarine, and ripe melon, which makes it tasty as an aperitif and…
A foodie in paradise
Whenever I start stressing out, I head to the nearest beach for solace, just as I did when I lived in San Francisco. Recently I made a sojourn in paradise even more serene, thanks to a sun-drenched Friday afternoon in Shell Beach at the Lido Restaurant’s new “fireside grill.” What’s the fireside grill, you ask?…
What a deal!
Here’s a quick quiz: You’ve got a prime piece of land. You get it appraised and turns out it’s worth, max, about $9 million. A developer comes in and offers you $1 million in cash for it, plus a couple million more so you can replace the parking spots that were on it. You walk…
John Callahan – City of San Luis Obispo Fire Chief
NEW TIMES: What is the SLO Fire Department doing to help with the Northern California fires? CALLAHAN: We currently have nine people out of the county helping. We have some on the Indians Fire and the Basin Complex, and we’ve got someone helping out with communications in Redding. We have commitments that we’re fulfilling to…
Think this one through, Lois Capps
Lois Capps needs to get past her 1969 oil-spill mentality and embrace modern technology and science. Energy and oil are for everyone, not only for the elite who fly to Washington weekly on planes using oil. Our economy needs the oil. With increased drilling, prices will decrease because the oil-producing counties will no longer have…
Don’t drink and drive this Fourth of July
The San Luis Obispo County DUI Task Force and the AVOID the 14’s goal is to warn people of the dangers and consequences of driving while impaired. Every 39 minutes and nearly 40 times a day, someone in the United States dies in an impaired driving-related crash, according to research by the National Highway Traffic…
Tax gas and fund transit
It’s outrageous! Gas nearly costs what bottled water does these days. It may sound counter to the problem, but we need to slap a serious tax on gas, immediately make public transit free and more available, and promote all non-petroleum means of transportation (read bicycles).In the same way McCain and Clinton’s tax cuts would have…
Thanks for your help, everybody!
Both of us want to take this opportunity to publicly thank the fine restaurants, caterers, wineries and breweries who donated so much to make EOC Health Services (EOCHS) 21st “Afternoon of Epicurean Delights” such a stunning success. The purveyors’ cheerful hospitality, as well as some wonderful culinary creations and fine vintages, are sincerely appreciated. Through…
Shame on council for cop pay talk
The San Luis Obispo City Council should be ashamed. Ashamed. It is completely reckless and irresponsible the way you are trying to deceive the citizens of this city in regards to binding arbitration. Going on local radio, letters to the editor, etc., spewing half-truths as well as flat-out lies in an effort to scare people…
Let drilling, diesel and Europe point the way
In early 2007 we took a trip to Greece and Southern Europe. Gasoline cost about $7 to $9 a gallon and diesel was less. We just returned from England and Northern Europe, gasoline is now costs $9 to $11 a gallon and diesel costs $12. To pass time on our tour bus for both trips…
Solutions to the oil problem
Correcting three root cause problems will go a long way toward making America self-dependent, and move us toward regaining the honor and respect we no longer enjoy on the world stage. Root Cause 1: The oil standard. Our next president should immediately initiate a “Manhattan Project” on energy, using our best and brightest to provide…
Sex should be private
I’m sick of hearing pro-gay and anti-gay people shrilly assault each other’s intelligence and decency. For the record, I do not support gay marriage and will vote yes in the upcoming election to overturn it. The majority of voting Californians supported Prop 22 and our courts should recognize that. Having said that, I’m also angry…
McCain means more nukes
John McCain’s plan to build 45 new reactors by 2030 demonstrates more about his connections to nuclear industry lobbyists than to any real concern about addressing climate change. The experts at Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) have pointed out that nuclear power provides far less climate protection per dollar than any of its competitors. RMI notes…
We need single-payer healthcare
When will all Americans participate in the Medicare (single-payer) system that, despite the efforts of neo-conservatives, has managed to serve the health needs of seniors for more than 40 years? Will our struggling economy be the impetus for reform, or will it take a public-health disaster to force our legislators to adopt a system of…
Cooperation brings success
Small businesses, or any business for that matter, have difficulty thriving during the current economic downturn as the price of gas rapidly escalates and housing values fall. But for two local businesses, collaborating with each other has aided their success. Michele Ward-Knecht, owner of Seasonal Custom Cuisine Delivered in Atascadero, and Melanie Blankenship, owner of…
Fast facts
Kim Kelly is the new owner of Bliss Body Spa. Kelly is offering massages, facials, and a full-service hair salon. Bliss has a beautiful garden, with two rooms for outdoor massages. Kelly can be reached at 805-787-0970, and Bliss Body Spa is located on 970 Chorro St. in San Luis Obispo. Business hours are 8:30…
Invasive mussels could cost millions
The $176 million Nacimiento Water Project could be facing an expensive threat from an animal the size of a quarter—quagga mussels, an invasive, rapidly multiplying species that could clog up the project’s pipes if it gets a foothold in the lake. None have been found in SLO County to date. “If we’re trying to deliver…
City to consider lower price for Chinatown land
SLO City Council members will vote July 1 on a sale price for 1.3 acres of city land slated for the Chinatown Project that is lower than an earlier price and half its value on the open market. Under the new agreement, which was reached during closed session negotiations, the city would accept $1.1 million…
Smog in SLO Town
Record-breaking temperatures in San Luis Obispo created record-breaking smog on June 19 and 20, according to air quality officials. For the first time ever, a monitoring station showed, on June 19, that the air in SLO violated federal air pollution standards for ozone, a type of smog that can cause health problems, especially for children…
Justice and Dan DeVaul
The county’s justice system didn’t appear well-designed to handle Dan DeVaul on June 24. DeVaul was compelled to come to court to answer nine misdemeanor charges related to alleged code violations on his Sunny Acres “sober living facilty,” where dozens of homeless and drug-and-alcohol-addicted people live and attend programs on DeVaul’s 72-acre ranch outside SLO.…
Jerry’s kids send him back to high school
It may take a village to raise a child, but it only takes a few dozen bar patrons to send their favorite bartender to his 50th high school reunion. Last week McCarthy’s Irish Pub patrons presented bartender Jerry Bender with $1,500 towards the approximately $2,000 needed for the trip back to Ohio, where Bender graduated…
Fire sale
Attention-grabbing firework stands will start opening for business, in the coming days in parking lots across the state, as well as in the five SLO County communities that allow them. The brightly colored stands provide cash bonanzas for the church groups, youth sports leagues, and other nonprofit groups whose volunteers staff them, bringing in as…
