Cover Story
Lions share
We live in cougar country, sharing the landscape with a mysterious and magnificent animal that few of us will ever see. For thousands of years, America’s lion has evoked a wide range of human emotions, from fascination to fear.  # As changes in land use increase the potential for conflicts between mountain lions and people, San…
Creston Crackdown
The San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Department announced Monday it sent two men down to Ventura to face federal drug charges after they were arrested this weekend in Creston with approximately $30,000 worth of meth. Guillermo Manzo of Creston and Alfonso Morfin of Long Beach were taken into custody, along with 23-year-old David Barragan, who…
Opponents face off in Atascadero
It is going to be one hell of a meeting. On May 30, Atascadero opponents of Wal-Mart go to battle against tax-hungry city employees and residents passionate for low prices. Â Two weeks ago, a group of Atascadero homeowners founded Oppose Wal-Mart in response to the recent announcement of a proposed Super Wal-Mart at the intersection…
FAST FACTS
Central Coast Yoga in Arroyo Grande is bringing a new style of comprehensive, spirit-balancing massage with the addition of a new massage therapist. Thomas Vass comes from Esalen institute in Big Sur, where he has been developing a style of massage called Balance in Motion for 30 years. The focus is on relieving stress with…
Designated drivers more than needed
Take four different people, all from SLO, all unrelated to each other, and all about the same age, all arrested for drunk driving by different police officers in different places in San Luis, all within an hour and 15 minutes. The odds of this happening are not very high, but it did occur in the…
Superfund super fun
After well over a century of contamination, a final resolution on a pair of abandoned mercury mines almost couldn’t taste sweeter for local environmental activists. Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency granted Superfund status to the Buena Vista and Klau mines—both just west of Paso Robles—bringing to an end the dilemma of how to bankroll…
Chamber pull
The City of Morro Bay seems to dig the role of pioneer. Early in April it became the first community in the Central Coast to welcome a # medical marijuana dispensary. Four weeks later, Morro Bay broke new ground when the local chamber of commerce offered membership to Charles C. Lynch’s Central Coast Compassionate Caregivers.…
SLO student survives run-in with train
A SLO teen is lucky to be alive, and to have all his limbs, after being hit by a train on the Johnson Avenue trestle on April 29. Â The conductor of a freight train leaving the SLO terminal sounded his horn when he spotted two young men on the trestle. An unidentified man successfully jumped…
Oh say, can you see?
San Luis Obispo is shrinking. We’ve got shrinkage. It’s like someone with cold hands came and grabbed the whole city and stuck it into an icy shower. I’m not talking about physical dimensions. As far as I can tell, everything’s still right where it was yesterday, and it’ll still be there tomorrow, as big and bad…
Corrections and clarifications:
Tres Gatos, the benevolent band that helped raise thousands of dollars for the North County Humane Society April 22 at Hoovers Live, was misspelled in our April 20 issue as Tres Gators. The name of Pet Paw co-owner John Salmeron was incorrectly spelled in our April 27 “Best ofâ€? issue as John Falmeron. Pet Paw…
A bike in every garage (and a chicken in every pot)
Since Wally’s Bicycle Shop first rolled up its metal door at 306 Higuera last November, owner Wally Ajanel has been busy just keeping up with his customers’ demands. With its polished cement floors lined with towering bicycle racks, and stacks of hanging tubes, Wally’s is unmistakably a working shop doubling as a show room. A…
Letters
Stuffing “Best ofâ€? ballots I have just finished looking through the “Best of” issue and I have to say that I am amazed. So many businesses that have been in existence less than a year are ranking in not just one, but also multiple categories. I’m puzzled. Is this some crazy coincidence, or a true representation…
Tracey demands public appeal
The public will get a rare chance to examine the intricacies of a secretive Atascadero city staff disciplinary case. During a public appeal slated for August, Marty Tracey, Atascadero’s former deputy director of redevelopment, will fight disciplinary actions implemented by City Manager Wade McKinney . Typically these appeals are conducted in closed seasons. But Tracey, now…
Killing time on the coast
For sheer entertainment (some of my law enforcement buddies have told me) nothing rivals the adrenalin rush of a good drug raid. A # “goodâ€? drug raid is when no good guy gets hurt and the bad guy gets what’s coming to him.  So the March 16 assault on a decrepit former military base perched precariously…
