Cover Story
Playing with fire
How’s this for irony: The Grover Beach Firefighters association and the Oceano CSD’s volunteer firefighters are selling fireworks to raise money. It’s better than the old one about the fireman’s house burning down, yet fireworks sales have local nonprofits, like the firefighters association, clamoring to rake in some much-needed dough this Fourth of July, even…
For as long as we both shall live
Whatever Rick Martel puts in his hair must be what’s kept him preserved for so long. He’s been on the air in some form or another in some place or another since I was just a little Shredder spreading rumors and flinging gossip on the playground at my elementary school. Anyway, Rick’s reinvented himself again,…
Jackson case cost Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Dept. $3 million
Two weeks after a Santa Maria jury acquitted Michael Jackson of child molestation and related charges, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department estimated that it spent a little more than $3 million to investigate the pop star and provide security for his trial. The preliminary estimate of costs associated with the case against Jackson shows…
United by the lowest common denominator
“From where I sit, the game to play is compromise solution” so said Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones in “Street Fighting Man.” That is the normal way to run any democracy – through compromise. But there is a time when compromise becomes nothing more than making a deal with the devil. The Democrats have…
One man’s war on war
“I want to go to Washington, I want to stand on people’s desks, if that what it takes [to end the war],” Bill Mitchell told New Times over a year ago after his son Sgt. Michael Mitchell was killed in Iraq. “I want to stop this insanity.” Since then Mitchell, of Atascadero, has been making…
Feds investigate ASH
A group affiliated with the Church of Scientology is claiming that patient abuse at Atascadero State Hospital (ASH) is rampant – an allegation that could be the source of a federal investigation into the facility. ASH first received a notice of investigation from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in February. ASH Spokeswoman Barrie Hafler…
Autopsy reveals drowning death off Montana de Oro
Moreno Valley is a hot place to be in the summertime. It’s on Highway 50 between Riverside and Palm Springs, nearly 300 miles from the Pacific Ocean off the Central Coast. Last Friday, at about 3:30 in the afternoon, 17-year-old Melissa Kaitlin Brace and two of her friends took advantage of their visit here and…
Step away from the courtroom
Robin Werderits loves to get in the middle of things. Not in a “dark” kind of way like carnage-hungry paparazzi or lowlifes provoking and filming bum fights. No, Robin’s arena is divorce proceedings. She likes to get in there and help out, kind of like a therapist-slash-lawyer. She knows people and knows how to work…
