Cover Story
Choosing change? Turnout nearly hit a new low, yet early election results signaled upsets in a few local races
The midterm primary has come and gone, and even though every registered voter in the state received a mail-in ballot, only some 15 percent had voted ahead of the June 7 election day. That’s worse than in 2018, according to the LA Times. Yet preliminary results show that local voters who did cast their ballots…
Americana legend Robert Earl Keen plays Live Oak Music Festival on June 19
In his famous song “The Road Goes On Forever,” Robert Earl Keen weaves the tragic story of Sherry and Sonny and their crime spree that sends Sonny to the chair, with its familiar chorus: “The road goes on forever and the party never ends.” It certainly seemed like that for the tirelessly touring Keen, but…
Morro Bay’s Silvia Martinez vies for the title of America’s top home chef on PBS series
Root for Silvia Watch Silvia Martinez on PBS’ The Great American Recipe, which will air Fridays from 9 to 10 p.m. Pacific Time June 24 to Aug. 12. For more information, visit mamalatinatips.com. Follow Martinez on Facebook @mamalatinatips and on Instagram @mamalatina. Silvia Martinez stands out in a crowd, with her radiant smile and vibrant…
Great American Melodrama’s The Mark of Morro is fun, funny, and fresh
Make your mark The Mark of Morro is on stage Wednesdays through Fridays at 7 p.m.; Saturdays at 2 and 7 p.m.; and Sundays at 6 p.m through June 18. Get your tickets at tickets.americanmelodrama.com or at the box office (1827 Front St. in Oceano). Check americanmelodrama.com for more information. As Cal State Oceano’s head…
Crimes of the Future finds auteur David Cronenberg returning to earlier themes
CRIMES OF THE FUTURE What’s it rated? R What’s it worth, Anna? Matinee (maybe) What’s it worth, Glen? Full price (if you like weirdness) Where’s it showing? Downtown Centre of San Luis Obispo Writer-director David Cronenberg (The Fly, A History of Violence, Eastern Promises) helms this sci-fi horror film set in the future, where performance…
San Luis Obispo County Arts Council seeks applicants for Open Studios Art Tour
Applications to join this year’s Open Studios Art Tour—scheduled to be held during two weekends in October, at venues throughout San Luis Obispo County—are now available online at artsobispo.org/osat. This yearly tradition is hosted by the San Luis Obispo County Arts Council. During the event, the public is granted free admission to several different outlets…
Candy
What’s it rated? TV-MA When? 2022 Where’s it showing? Hulu If you’re ready to be transported to small-town Texas circa 1980, tune into Candy. Between the sets and décor, the costuming, and the hairstyles, this Hulu original series perfectly captures the era. Candy Montgomery seems to be a typical mother and housewife, yet when a…
Wine Country Theatre presents latest comedy, Love, Loss, and What I Wore, in Paso Robles
Wine Country Theatre will debut its upcoming production, Love, Loss, and What I Wore, on Friday, June 10, at 7:30 p.m., at Plymouth Congregational Church Hall in Paso Robles. The show will run for two weekends only, with performances every Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and every Sunday at 2 p.m., through Sunday, June…
Save The Establishment
The Establishment, “The Stab” for short, or sometimes just “the house,” has been evolving into what it is today since about 1968 when it served as a de facto Cal Poly architecture student house. The big green house, located at 1703 Santa Barbara Ave. in San Luis Obispo, has 19 bedrooms, four bathrooms, four fridges,…
Joe Pickett
What’s it rated? TV-14 When? 2021 Where’s it showing? Paramount Now that a second season has been confirmed for release in late 2022, it’s time to dive into Joe Pickett, a soulful contemporary Western that follows Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett (Michael Dorman), who’s recently been posted to a small rural community that may be…
A medical miracle
Sometimes important advances in science can come from a most improbable source: politics. Who would have thought that the political process could contribute so much to advance science? Recently, the publishers of an established and renowned medical reference work, the Merck Manual, found themselves in the politically uncomfortable position of being cited by the Florida…
Catch-22 percent
Hey everybody, let’s have fun with math! SLO County has 181,894 registered voters. On Tuesday, June 7, only 39,777 votes were cast, which means 78 percent of you didn’t bother to vote, and when I say “you,” I clearly don’t mean “you” who’s reading this column because I’m betting you did vote. I’m talking about…
Paulding, Ortiz-Legg, Gibson take leads in SLO County supervisor elections
Even after two years of intense campaigning in South County, Jimmy Paulding said he had no idea what to expect on June 7 when the preliminary results for his 4th District county supervisor race posted shortly after 8 p.m. What they immediately showed: signs of an upset and a great night for the Arroyo Grande…
Facing no challengers, SLO County Sheriff Ian Parkinson and District Attorney Dan Dow are reelected
San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson and District Attorney Dan Dow both expected fights. Given the criticism that’s followed the county’s top law enforcement officers in recent years—from the jail death of Andrew Holland in 2017, to Parkinson’s comments criticizing mask mandates and denying systemic racism in 2020, to Dow’s prosecutions of Black Lives…
Arroyo Grande is considering a sales tax ballot measure to save its deteriorating roads, but the problem isn’t unique to the area
Arroyo Grande’s worsening pavements might have a long-overdue makeover on their horizon. But fixing those potholes, cracked curbs, and crumbling asphalt would cost residents a 1 percent increase in sales tax. After receiving an “increasingly frightening picture” of its pavements analyzed by city staff, the Arroyo Grande City Council approved the submission of a sales…
Dawn Addis leads Democratic nomination for 30th District Assembly race
The pop of a Champagne cork and hoots of jubilation from a crowd of 20 resounded through the San Luis Obispo County Democratic Party headquarters on June 7. They celebrated Dawn Addis, the party’s endorsement across three counties for Assembly District 30, for leading the blue nomination on election night. “The early results are extremely…
Hart leads Assembly District 37 preliminary election results
Candidate for the 37th District Assembly race Gregg Hart spoke with New Times on June 8 after a morning hike to de-stress and get some fresh air to celebrate finishing a long trail of campaigning to represent Santa Barbara and SLO counties at the state level. Campaigning efforts seemed to pay off as unofficial election…
Elaina Cano holds big lead in county clerk-recorder race
San Luis Obispo County voters appear to have overwhelmingly picked Elaina Cano to continue leading the county election and clerk-recorder offices. Preliminary June 7 election results showed Cano with a commanding lead over challengers James Baugh and Stew Jenkins, taking 66.8 percent of the vote as of press time. Cano, who was appointed to the…
Panetta and Carbajal secure Democratic leads for congressional races
U.S. Representatives Jimmy Panetta and Salud Carbajal emerged as the lead Democratic candidates for the 19th and 24th District congressional elections, respectively. Hours after polls closed at 8 p.m. on June 7, incumbent 24th District Congressman Carbajal had won 62.7 percent of the votes from his district, which spans all of San Luis Obispo and…
Community fun run in Laguna Lake Park to raise funds for Ukraine
While Russia’s war in Ukraine has fallen out of the news in recent weeks, partially due to Ukraine’s stout defense, it continues to rage on and sow destruction in the country. The focus of recent fighting has shifted to Ukraine’s eastern region, where San Luis Obispo resident Kateryna Shyshlenko was born and raised. The Kharkiv native…
