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Hold off on renewal, Diablo critics say
Reportedly fueled by their constituents’ concerns following the nuclear crisis on the Japanese coast, a number of public officials loudly calle–or reiterated their cal–for regulatory officials to hold off on relicensing the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant until more is known about the seismology of the region. Republican Sen. Sam Blakeslee, who originally penned legislation that…
Attorneys replaced in Myers case
Attorneys for two defendants in the Dystiny Myers kidnapping and murder trial have been dismissed. On March 23, San Luis Obispo-based attorney Raymond Allen was told by Superior Court Judge Barry LaBarbera that he did not meet the requirements of the court to represent a murder defendant facing capital charges. Allen was the court-appointed counsel…
A cross burns in Arroyo Grande
In the early morning hours of March 18, an 11-foot-tall cross was set ablaze outside the window of a 19-year-old African American woman in Arroyo Grande, according to police reports. The Arroyo Grande Police Department is investigating the cross burning as arson and a hate crime. Arroyo Grande Police Chief Steve Annibali said two FBI…
If you were Noah, which animal would you leave behind?
John Kelley carpenter “The skunk, because they smell so bad when they spray my dog.” Reuben Espino photographer/apartment manager “I would leave behind the goat. Well, it makes too much racket and noise—makes irritating noise. Reminds me of a couple of my exes.” Ian Johnson sales “The unicorn, because then it won’t be missed by…
Reading, writing, and drinking
I’ve attended the Cal Poly Wine Festival since its inception in 2003. The first year, I was joined by Dr. Keith Patterson and student John Behr, a member of the university’s Vines to Wines Club, for lunch at Firestone Grill to discuss coverage of the inaugural event. Eight years later, this popular wine tasting attracts…
Announcing the first Last Friday!
Better watch your back, Art After Dark. There’s a younger, louder, badder art walk in town, and its name is Last Friday. All the cool businesses—Sally Loo’s, Dr. Cain’s, SLO Bike Kitchen—are doing it. So are local artists Lena Rushing, Pete Ljepava, and a badass called Stenzskull. “I feel like these are some of the…
Walmart and the Wickershams: thumbs up!
The Atascadero Wickershams look forward to the grand opening of our new Walmart. Walmart won’t cause small business to close. Look at Paso Robles: The downtown is thriving, and business improved after Walmart opened. Many people go to Walmart, then to a restaurant in Paso, shopping, or a movie while there. Residents will shop in…
Thanks, Blakeslee, for not being a pawn
I must commend Sen. Blakeslee for showing true leadership in negotiating with Gov. Brown. While he is not drawing support from the party brass, he is earning bouquets from moderate Republicans here in the heart of the 15th district. By stepping up and working with the governor to extend taxes that will help keep billions…
You might not really want this honor, Los Osos
Congratulations, Los Osos. You win! The Greeks had Sisyphus for eternity rolling a boulder uphill, only to see it roll down again. I attempted environmental restoration in the El Moro Elfin Forest Natural Area for many years on a volunteer basis. Meanwhile, you vandalized all restoration projects and pulled up native plants. You severely damaged…
Someone’s lost the true meaning of St. Patrick’s Day
My grandparents are from Ireland and Scotland, and having been born, educated, and working in Chicago for more than 40 years, I’ve been around St. Patrick’s Day celebrations for decades. I was also part of a team that televised about a half dozen ethnic parades each year in that city—including the St. Pat’s parade. So…
Shut down Diablo before it shuts down SLO County
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) used power, politics, money, deception, and every dirty trick in the book to build and open the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant (on an earthquake fault) over the protests of the citizens of San Luis Obispo County. Local elected officials who approved Diablo are to blame as well. Short-sighted…
Bring injustice to light
The story of the cross-burning in front of a black family’s home in Arroyo Grande in another local paper on March 19 was unbelievable. For Cmdr. Gerhart and Mayor Ferrara to call it a possible prank, that “there are a lot of things it could be right at this point” is distortion. Are they trying…
It’s not a hate crime to ignoramuses and cowards
How can our mayor not speak out and call the cross-burning on the lawn of an African-American family what it is: a hate crime? No matter what the perpetrators may say their motivation was, everyone knows cross-burning is a hate crime. No one is so ignorant that they can conceive of this vile act as…
Arroyo Grande’s mayor should apologize
Disappointment doesn’t begin to describe what we’re feeling with respect to the weak public statements by public officials following the burning of a cross on the front lawn of a family in Arroyo Grande. Mayor Tony Ferrara’s expression of concern that the incident not be portrayed as a hate crime by the press showed no…
How can this still be happening?
We began picketing against racial segregation in Oklahoma in 1958, five years before the horrors of the bridge in Selma. The atmosphere of hate was like wading through a neck-high lake of molasses. The ordinary-looking people who cursed us and threw things at us surprised me. I had naively thought that everyone else felt as…
Officers are so loud!
Anybody else’s baby woken up not by partiers next door, but by the police helicopter flying around not 50 feet above their house after 10 p.m.? Does the noise ordinance not apply to them? Police: You’re like the annoying kid in class that makes the room louder as you shush everyone.
Ravenswood 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon California
For value hunters, Ravenswood from Sonoma is a safe bet. Although labeled California, the grapes were grown in several sub-appellations within Sonoma County. It was a very good year for Cabernet, winemaker Joel Peterson admitted, which made this darkly hued wine intense. Up front, the aromas are boldly spicy and meld with blackberry, plum, and…
Dry Creek Vineyard 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon Dry Creek Valley
You’ll love this rich, concentrated Cab with its forward aromas and flavors of blackberries, currants, spice, and dark cocoa. The sweet fruit is nicely offset by a thread of herbs and earth, which make it quite food friendly. This is a Cabernet that’s as distinctive as the region in which it’s grown. Wine writer Wilfred…
Clubs & Meetings
Goin’ South … COFFEE BEAN AND TEA LEAF: 750 Five Cities Drive, Pismo Beach, 773-6420. Music every Sat., 6:30-8:30pm. ELMO’S NIPOMO SALOON: 131 South Thompson Road, Nipomo, 929-5362. Karaoke on Thurs. and Fri. at 8pm. F. MCLINTOCKS SALOON: 750 Mattie Road, Pismo Beach, 773-1892 or mclintocks.com. Live music every Fri.-Sat., 6-9pm. Tennessee Jimmy Harrell, Doc Stoltey. HARRY’S…
Bless them for Smoking!
The Smoking Popes are channeling their inner high school outsider on This is Only a Test, the band’s first concept album that chronicles the hopes and dreams, heartaches and pitfalls of an awkward adolescent. On “Wish We Were,” Josh Caterer sings, “There she stands, just like something that was made a long time ago, like…
Au revoir, squirrel!
Ed. note: For this week’s Art Bash, Glen chose to emphasize the “bash” side of the equation. Enjoy! As SLO City Maintenance Worker II Ken Herrmann prepares to deliver some serious wrath-of-god squirrel abatement at Laguna Lake Park, I can’t help but be reminded of Carl Spackler’s exchange with Scottish head greens keeper Sandy in…
Keep ’em on their toes!
During a break at an early morning rehearsal at CORE Dance Company, directors were discussing whether Stacy Estrada’s choreography of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ dance anthem “Heads Will Roll”—replete with feigned throat-slashing as Karen O belts “Off, off, off with your head!”—would be appropriate for the company’s next elementary school visit. (Pros discussed: It looks…
We are Rachel Corrie
Amid unreported daily incidents of violence in the Gaza strip, all it took was one death to make national news: Rachel Corrie, a 23-year-old activist from Olympia, Wash. A member of the International Solidarity Movement—a group generally composed of 20- and 30-something American and European protestors—Corrie was living in the Palestinian town of Rafah, near…
Is it a hate crime?
The Santa Maria/Lompoc Branch of the NAACP is deeply disturbed by the recent cross burning at the home of a teenage African American girl and her family in Arroyo Grande. While review of this incident as a hate crime is ongoing, we have concluded that if it walks like a duck and quacks like a…
Stacey King
Skate Parks located throughout the Central Coast, 781-5930 NEW TIMES What is the Monster Skateboarding Series about? KING They’re part of the California Skate Park Coalition, which helps to promote youth-to-adult skateboard parks and promotion for the sport. Skateboarding can help young kids and teenagers grow confidence in themselves, and the skate parks are a…
Is your refrigerator running?
A couple of kids adorned the tree on my front lawn with toilet paper the other day. That’s a prank. I talked to a guy whose roommate rubbed his toilet paper with habanera pepper. That’s a prank. Pranks are supposed to be playful, even if they’re obnoxious. Think of them like “you might be a…
Devil’s in the details
A New Times investigation has found that many of the emergency backup systems that may be called on to save Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant’s reactors during an earthquake have been cited for violating safety standards. And despite recent assurances, some seismic experts continue to point out the region may be capable of producing an…
Chocola-la-late!
When Willy Wonka finds out how much chocolate sold in America comes from cocoa beans harvested by workers treated as slaves, he might choke on an Everlasting Gobstopper. After months of searching for globally conscious fundraising opportunities, the Central Coast Children’s Choir partnered with two local chocolatiers who sell fair-trade certified confections—The Joycup Co. and…
Go tax yourself
Hang around government meetings enough—these days, at least—and it’s not outside the realm of possibility to hear officials hint at finding new revenue streams to shore up budget deficits. After all, with most local municipalities hunting for extra funds like a crack addict licking the inside of his last plastic baggie, anything goes—even more taxes—when…
County employees accept a tiered pension
San Luis Obispo County has notched off one its major goals in pursuing “long-term” savings through labor negotiations. On March 22, SLO County supervisors unanimously approved a two-tier pension system for the “big unit” of the SLO County General Employees Association, the county’s largest public employee union. It’s part of a three-pronged approach county officials…
Surveillance cameras are coming to Arroyo Grande
The Arroyo Grande City Council approved spending $64,817 on a surveillance system that would monitor much of the historic village and some of the neighboring parks and open spaces. Council members approved the expenditure March 22. Police officials say the system is necessary because of “ongoing criminal conduct” in the village and in the adjoining…
And then there was one
Montgomery Watson Harza, the much beleaguered whipping boy of contractors pegged for the Los Osos wastewater project, is out of the running—for now, at least. On March 15, San Luis Obispo County supervisors officially accepted the decades- old sewer project. After the project’s 4 1/2 years under county jurisdiction and $8 million in general fund…
Is a Smart Meter opt-out plan in the works?
Talk about a bad couple of weeks for Pacific Gas & Electric. On March 10, California Public Utilities Commission President Michael Peevey tasked PG&E to come up with a way for customers to opt out of its controversial Smart Meter program. In a move that surprised fellow commissioners, Peevey, the head of the state’s regulatory…
No death penalty sought for Myers defendant
One of the five defendants in the ongoing Dystiny Myers murder trial learned she won’t face the death penalty if convicted. At a March 17 preliminary hearing in San Luis Obispo Superior Court, prosecutors announced they won’t seek capital charges against Rhonda Wisto, 47, of Nipomo, who is accused of being the leader of a…
