Cover Story
One-twentieth of a league under the sea
When you’re dealing with anything beneath 900 feet of water, nothing is simple. That goes double when that something is a 90-year-old crumbling shipwreck, potentially holding millions of gallons of crude oil next to a marine sanctuary. When New Times last checked in on the ongoing saga of the S.S. Montebello—the World War II-era oil…
California wimps out in sentencing pedestrian-killers
How much jail time is a person’s life worth? Fifteen years for deliberately driving your vehicle in to kill an elderly couple because you were mad at your girlfriend is just 7 1/2 years per life. How about one year in county jail and five years probation for killing a woman because the young driver…
Shame’s last name is Obama
Make no mistake, and do not be deceived by the Pravda-like salivating of the mass media; Occupy Wall Street is no grassroots silent majority middle America movement. “Occupy” is a finely groomed movement in search of a message. Whereas two years ago, much to the chagrin of the administration’s hip-pocketed talking heads, the Tea Party…
Socket to me
Local author Wendelin Van Draanen collects the world around her. She picks up pieces, like a photo from a Yahoo! News article or something glimpsed in an Arizona airport, and stores them away like puzzle pieces to be assembled later. Her problem (if you can really call it a problem) is that she doesn’t always…
(Old) New Wave!
I’m a child of the ’80s, weaned on punk, new wave, and MTV back when it used to actually have music videos on it, so when I heard OPTIONS Family of Services—the nonprofit that helps local folks with disabilities and puts on that awesome summer music festival in Avila Beach—was turning its attention to a…
Public Defendaz rule the universe!
I’m chilling in the back of SLO Brew, watching Public Defendaz whip up the crowd, drawing them closer to the stage. The local hip-hop act is first up at the New Times Music Awards, and even through we’re facing off against Incubus at Avila Beach, we’ve got a respectable crowd on hand—well over 200 people.…
Come together, right now
October is a tricky month in the world of dance performance. But this year, between those barefoot, dallying dreams of summer and the winter season’s loomingly serious Nutcrackers and A Christmas Carols, the local dance scene pauses for one collective, autumnal breath. Come Together, a joint effort between neighboring studios CORE and the Academy of…
De-o, Hi-de-o
There are a lot of things Blair Baker likes. The Cal Poly alumna is a self-described geek with special emphasis on music, video games, and anime. So, when she had the opportunity to attend a Final Fantasy concert in San Francisco, you could reasonably expect some gushing about the experience. “It was crap,” she said…
Clubs
Goin’ South … BRANCH ST. DELI: 203 E. Branch St., Arroyo Grande, 489-9099. Live music Fri. from 5:30-8:30 p.m. THE CLIFFS RESORT: 2757 Shell Beach Road, 773-5000 or cliffsresort.com. F. MCLINTOCKS SALOON: Two locations: 750 Mattie Road in Pismo Beach and 133 Bridge St. in Arroyo Grande. 773-1892 or mclintocks.com. Live music at the Pismo…
Trick and treat!
Halloween is right around the corner. Soon, parents will be mercilessly picking through sleeping children’s candy sacks, leaving no Snickers bar behind, no Twix untouched. It’s a time-honored tradition, and one of the few benefits adults reap from the holiday. For kids, it’s a blood-sugar-be-damned, no-bedtime, toilet-paper-as-many-houses-as-you-can-and-egg-any-car-stupid-enough-to-be-parked-on-the-street kind of night. But that doesn’t mean parents…
C Nagy 2010 Viognier Bien Nacido Vineyard
This classic Rhone white is so pretty and elegant, no one would imagine you paid so little for it at $20 retail. It offers intriguing aromas and flavors of apricot, nectarine, and white peach, with notes of minerals, spice, and fruit blossoms. It’s made by the talented winemaker Clarissa Nagy, who’s also the consultant for…
Gruet Blanc de Noirs NV
This delightful bubbly, made in New Mexico and distributed nationally, offers a great buy for upcoming holiday parties. Made from 100 percent Pinot Noir, this dry, elegant sparkler offers delicious notes of raspberry and strawberry, highlighted with classic toasty nuances. Rich on the palate, it’s a good choice for pairing with salmon, swordfish, crab, or…
Santa Maria Valley’s new wineries
Last week I wrote about the history of Santa Maria Valley wine country after taking an in-depth tour of the wineries and vineyards, designed for the media. This week, I’ll cover some great wines from the valley’s longtime winemakers and introduce you to new brands that every wine lover should want to know about. While…
Cougars and Mustangs
Do you like roses? Do you like floats? Whether you do or not, the Cal Poly Rose Float is coming to life soon. On Oct. 22, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo will move its half of the float—the back half—to Pomona to create a unified presentation and bring the two schools’ teams together. This year’s…
Lifting the Vale
The opening of Madeline Vale’s Fine Art Gallery in downtown Paso Robles this September marked a distinct change in the makeup of the downtown scene. Located a block from City Park and just steps away from great local tasting rooms, restaurants, and shopping, Vale Fine Art offers the North County a chance to dive into…
Weather or not
A controversial rainmaking technique once used as a top-secret weapon of war is now routinely carried out in southern San Luis Obispo County by the Santa Barbara County Water Agency. Known as cloud seeding, the operation involves launching a rainmaking chemical into storm clouds, with the idea of augmenting the water supply in Twitchell Reservoir…
‘It just happened’
Rene Rosas wants you to know he’s not perfect. But he also wants you to know he wasn’t drunk when a horrifying accident claimed the life of his friend, Ronald “Tuffy” Kelsey of San Luis Obispo. Santa Maria police arrested Rosas, who lives in Santa Maria, on Aug. 24 of this year, while he was…
Homeless Project: Tell your story
When we launched The Homeless Project on July 28, we didn’t know what to expect: indifference, success, anger, solidarity, happiness. We simply knew, both from our own observation and other people’s reports, that homelessness is a serious problem that’s maybe a little too easy to overlook or ignore. It’s easy to pass by a homeless…
Corrections
• The images for the Flying Samaritans in the Oct. 13 Hot Dates should have been credited to Nancy Woodard. • In the Oct. 13 article, “The little anomaly that could,” an error was made regarding the current visibility of an anomaly on Mars as seen from Google Earth’s Mars Explorer. The anomaly is still…
SLO raises garbage rates, pays water pollution fines
San Luis Obispo residents and their city took a hit to the pocketbook. The City Council raised garbage rates, and SLO will have to fork out $57,130 in fines to pay for dumping tens of thousands of gallons of sewage into local creeks. The Central Coast Water Board fined the city for dumping 43,000 gallons…
Santa Maria cop pegged as new Atascadero chief
The Atascadero Police Department will have a new chief after nearly a year without a permanent leader. Jerel Haley, a long-serving officer for the Santa Maria Police Department, was selected following a national recruitment effort where city staff interviewed a pool of dozens of candidates,including several current police chiefs. City Manager Wade McKinney announced the…
County and CHC make up; clinics stay open
Community Health Centers of the Central Coast, a network of 25 medical clinics for poor people in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties, will not close its local clinics, as an agreement was reached between CHC administrators and county health officials. In June, tensions peaked between CHC and county officials after the County Health…
County sued over redistricting plan
Templeton resident Bill Pelfrey is suing San Luis Obispo County over a plan to redraw lines for county supervisorial districts. Just before press time on Oct. 19, Pelfrey filed the lawsuit in SLO County Superior Court challenging county supervisors’ Sept. 20 decision to adopt district lines. The vote was 3-2, with supervisors Frank Mecham and…
Sorority punished for hazing
Cal Poly suspended a sorority for five months beginning Oct. 13 because of a hazing incident that resulted in a freshman student being taken to the hospital for alcohol poisoning. According to a Cal Poly Student Life and Leadership press release, minors were allowed to consume alcohol at an Alpha Phi Sorority event on Sept.…
SLO approves signs, signs, everywhere signs
The San Luis Obispo City Council fulfilled a long-held goal at its Oct. 18 meeting and approved a program that will eventually bring a series of signs to the city that will direct passersby to the city’s major tourist sites, including a giant sign to greet drivers at Highland Drive and Santa Rosa Street. Why,…
Hill gets an earful on the First Amendment
For turning off a speaker’s microphone during public comment and having her escorted away by a sheriff’s deputy, San Luis Obispo County Supervisor Adam Hill took a verbal whipping from the public. On Oct. 11, Hill shut down comments from Linde Owen, who regularly speaks on issues about the Los Osos sewer. Owen, who had…
What’s the worst part of growing up?
Chelsea Tirone student “Just the realization that you’re growing up.” James Carey student “Paying for everything yourself and not being able to live off of your parents.” Kelsey Markley hairstylist “Managing your own money and definitely taxes. I hate having to figure out taxes.” Ericka Hansen cashier “Not being able to go trick-or-treating anymore. That’s…
Keith Duggan, tattoo artist
NEW TIMES Have you ever seen a tattooed baby? DUGGAN No, I can’t say I have. NEW TIMES What is the best part of being a tattoo artist? DUGGAN It’s great getting your art out there, and it’s always nice making a customer happy. I love what I do. NEW TIMES What…
Meet your friendly neighborhood atheists
Atheists United of San Luis Obispo (AU-SLO) is a group of thoughtful, sincere people who want to encourage independent thinking about religion and inform our community about the many positive aspects of atheism. We want to tell everyone who does not believe in God there is a community of people like them. We want to…
With apologies to Mark Twain
The hottest summer I’ve ever spent in the 5-Cities is October.
How sweet it is!
Baywood is a small community of people who care about their surroundings. We love the plants that were here before we were born, but also nature as it is today. Both are part of Baywood. Trees take many years to grow and cannot be replaced. Los Osos has a little treasure called Sweet Springs. Not…
This patent-holding government is out of touch
The controlled substance act of 1970, with its Schedule 1 classification of the cannabis plant, is factually incorrect. Marijuana does have medicinal value. The evidence is held in the U.S. patent office under patent No. 6630507. This patent is owned by the U.S. Department of Health, filed Oct 7, 2003. I think it’s absurd how…
Join us in a vigil as we work to improve psych treatment and safety
One year ago, mother and Psychiatric Technician Donna Gross was murdered on the job at Napa State Hospital. On Sunday, Oct. 23, workers at Atascadero State Hospital will hold a vigil honoring her and commemorating the first anniversary of her death. Members of the community are invited to attend this event, taking place from 1:30…
Obama isn’t corrupt enough for Wall Street
Letter writer Robert Parkhurst (“No more bailouts,” Oct. 20) makes a great case in support of the Occupy Wall Street movement—even if that wasn’t his intent. “Vote the present administration out of office so they can’t bail out Bank of America ever again,” Parkhurst writes. The bailout of the banks was, in fact, carried out…
Those ‘alien’ lights save taxpayer dollars
We should thank the city of Santa Maria and the county of Santa Barbara for the “alien microwave orange” street lights (“Turn. Out. Those. Lights.” Sept. 30). They are both using the most energy-efficient type of lamps there are. Luminous efficacy gives a relative efficiency for all kinds of lamps. The orange sodium discharge lamps…
U.S. leaders need to check their duties
Justin Ruhge of Lompoc states we need a leader, not a debater who can manage (“We need a president who’s a leader, not a debater,” Oct. 7). It is not at all dark as to who Mr. Ruhge is referring to be the choice of the Republican party. In all the hoopla of listing the…
Sometimes you feel like a nut …
I took a lot of flack this past week for my column in which I played Dear Abby to a collection of county notables. One of the groups that fell under my acid pen I labeled “Los Osos Sewer Nuts,” which drew me more ire than a Pictionary game. Does that work as a metaphor?…
