Cover Story
Debating death
Jeanne Woodford recalls with a furled brow and a slight grimace the four occasions she witnessed California’s harshest penalty carried out in front of her. As warden of California’s only prison with a death row and an operational execution chamber, Woodford saw firsthand at San Quentin State Prison what she calls the waste of both…
Indoor marijuana operation busted in SLO
It was an exciting morning for employees of neighboring businesses in an industrial complex on the outskirts of San Luis Obispo when law enforcement officers raided a discrete unit and emerged carrying stinky bundles of marijuana. Exciting, one neighbor told New Times, but not surprising. As San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s deputies and detectives…
Cougars & Mustangs
So I’m just sitting there, minding my own business, when all of a sudden the earth starts to shake. I check the calendar as best I can, but it’s swaying back and forth so I’m unsure of the date. Suddenly it hits me: STAMPEDE! A gaggle of horses is racing over the hills toward the…
The beating of a lifetime
Following more than a year of continuances, jurors began hearing arguments and testimony from the alleged victim in a brutal bar beating involving a San Luis Obispo city firefighter. John Ryan Mason faces felony counts of battery following a June 4, 2011, late-night incident at a wedding reception in a San Luis Obispo bar and…
Sewage spill: Who’s to blame?
Raw sewage pouring into the underground pump room at the South County sewage plant was already four feet deep and rising—but plant operator Jeff Appleton waded into the murky effluent to try to wrestle open a crucial discharge valve during a plant emergency two winters ago. In dramatic testimony at a lengthy hearing Sept. 7,…
Bake it your way
Cider Creek Bakery is a sweet and charming bakery in Paso Robles. Tucked into the Highlands Center, the space bursts with pleasant scents and warm smiles. Pulling open the door, guests will notice that the bakery buzzes. Ken and Susie Jevec, co-owners of Cider Creek, work at the counter, talking and laughing with the gentle…
Corrections
Last week’s cover article (‘Trash titans,’ Sept. 6) incorrectly listed two garbage company’s routes. San Luis Garbage picks up waste in the city of San Luis Obispo, and Mission Country Disposal picks up in Los Osos, Cayucos, Cambria, and San Simeon. Also, the Templeton CSD’s general manager’s name is Jeff Hodge.
Arroyo Grande PD addresses staffing, budget woes
On Sept. 11, the Arroyo Grande City Council approved a memorandum by Police Chief Steve Annibali to reorganize some of his staff’s duties. Annibali began scrutinizing the department’s workforce and finances in June when the city’s 2012-13 updated financial report recommended changes be made to the department in an effort to help balance the city’s…
Arroyo Grande lawsuit to go to trial
Nearly two years to the day after it was initially filed, a sexual discrimination and harassment lawsuit against the Arroyo Grande Police Department and its chief may finally head to trial. As of press time, a trial setting conference for Kimberly Martin’s lawsuit against the department and its chief is scheduled to go before Superior…
SLO parking forum gets heated
A public outreach effort by the city of San Luis Obispo over a possibly expanding parking ordinance seemed to go nowhere fast. For the past few weeks, the city has posted a survey on its website, asking residents what—if anything—they thought should be done about oversized vehicles and trailers parked on city streets. By oversized…
Atascadero responds with indignation to Walmart-related lawsuit
Everything in Atascadero would be peachy keen if it weren’t for four pesky citizens attempting to derail the recently approved Walmart/Annex project, according to the spectacle that was Sept. 11’s City Council meeting. With amped-up patriotism crackling through the crowd, council members, city officials, and residents spent two hours on good news. They honored Dave…
City error washes art away
After nine hours of effort the day before, Rudy Raidl found that his contribution to San Luis Obispo’s I Madonnari—an annual sidewalk painting festival that raises funds for children’s art programs—had been ruined overnight by the sprinklers at Mission Plaza. Three other paintings were also damaged, despite organizer requests that the sprinklers be shut down…
Panga operators speak to investigators
Just months after San Luis Obispo County got its first taste of maritime drug smuggling in recent memory, a second panga—a small motorized fishing skiff—beached in the area, this one north of San Simeon, near the same location as the last. The difference: The last bunch of smugglers got away with it. This batch didn’t.…
The judges have spoken!
Before we get into the goings on of the local music scene this week, I’ve got to give a shout out to all the New Times Music Awards winners who received their just rewards at last week’s live music event. The sweetheart of the rodeo was Emily Wryn, who swept into town and into our…
Soup sippers party hearty
Listen up, event organizers and nonprofits. There’s a new template in town for fundraising affairs, and it goes like this: First, hold your event at Camp Ocean Pines in Cambria. It’s mega super pretty with giant trees and views of the ocean crashing dramatically into rocky bluffs. It’s literally the best place in the county,…
Stories for peace
On Sept. 16, the groovily named Peace Love Story Fest, a celebration of the positive power of storytelling, descends on Camp Ocean Pines. Spearheaded by one Zette Harbour, peacemonger and professional storyteller, the inaugural festival will kick off a week of peace awareness, timed to coincide with the UN’s International Day of Peace on Sept.…
Bodies of work
Two embattled male figures can be seen through the glass doors of the Cambria Center for the Arts gallery. From where I stand, they appear to be cast out of steel: One man’s heavy fist has just connected with the other’s jaw, and he remains suspended in the moment of losing balance. In another second,…
Reality ahead of schedule
The present as we know it owes a serious debt to artist, designer, and visionary Syd Mead. The man who gave us the otherworldly yet strikingly plausible environments of Blade Runner, Tron, and Aliens made a career of dreaming up better, brighter futures. Whether these dreams manifested as cars, spaceships, film sets, or simply as…
Clubs: 9/13
Goin’ South … BRANCH ST. DELI: 203 E. Branch St., Arroyo Grande, 489-9099. Live music Fri. from 5:30-8:30 p.m. 9/14: Swing Shift at 5:30 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…
Fiesta!
According to Wikipedia, there’s no solid proof of who invented the margarita. Which, if you ask me, gives the drink infinitely more street cred. It’s mysterious, it’s sweet, and it’s filled with booze—really, what’s not to love? Margaritas have been a drink of lore for quite some time. Some say they got their start in…
Questions for: Drew Garrett and Lauren Willey
NEW TIMES At this point, how many views does “Hot Problems” have? WILLEY Nine million, but it’s not our channel. It belongs to our producer, Connor Abrams … he graduated in 2010 from San Luis Obispo High School. NEW TIMES Were you expecting that your video would be as well-known, if not popular, as…
Check out these ‘C’ words
Community, cooperation, compromise—three words rarely found in the extreme conservative playbook. In a conservative world, these words are a sign of weakness. The dog-eat-dog world of the radical right leaves no room for weakness; survival of the fittest is their motto. What’s so scary about community? Churches are communities. Neighborhoods, even political parties are communities.…
Here’s to the future
The remedy for homelessness is an honest money supply, owned, interest free, by we the people as described in the Constitution. We must “End the Fed” if we expect to have any kind of prosperous future; the current unconstitutional illegal money system is designed specifically to hold us down and keep us from enjoying the…
Here are the doom machines
When I read about PG&E doom machine for marine life, our fishing industry, our tourist attractions, I am moved to ask several questions: Who are the major stockholders of PG&E? And what besides dividends do they get from their suicidal course? Who really owns this company that holds us in its thrall? Also, if we…
Seize the seismic insanity
Thar she blows—an outdated, rickety nuclear waste plant precariously perched at the confluence of 13 earthquake faults, one of which is nesting beneath her vibrating, radioactive bosom. “Fire!” screamed the man in the theater. “Safety!” screamed the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Say bud, can you spare 500 nautical miles by 15 nautical miles, and throw in…
Don’t let PG&E devastate our coast
I am writing on behalf of the whales who meander through these ocean waters, gifting us with their amazing performances, and all of the sea life that has flourished here thanks to the wonderful environmental protections put in place on the Central Coast. We live in one of the most spectacularly gorgeous areas in the…
Keep it in context
You might consider why 2016: Obama’s America is being hyped just before the election. I suggest you Google “Gerald R. Molen” and “Dinesh D’Souza”—its creators—and find out who they are. Their backgrounds and affiliations may clarify their reasons for making such a film and certainly put into question their objectivity in doing so. Filmmakers know…
Some people’s heroes
The conventions are over, thank God—that is if you are allowed to mention God. Our choice is simple: Vote for a younger, charismatic, teleprompter-reading, self-admitted Marxist mentality that disrespects our allies and placates our enemies, with less experience going into office than Sarah Palin, or a Mormon business man who has made the hard choices,…
No thanks, Obama
President Obama’s speech at the DNC was filled with goals embraced in rhetoric of hope reminiscent of the statements and promises he made four years ago. Why didn’t he accomplish them during the first four years when he had both houses of the Congress during the first two years of his administration? His excessive spending…
Noisy animals are a problem
Jerry James’ cartoon (Sept. 6) could easily be of Los Osos also. When neighbors are confronted by reports of their dog barking endlessly, I have heard: “They don’t bark when I’m home.” “Hey, it’s just a dog. They bark.” “Get off my property.” And “Sorry, there’s nothing I can do about it.” First off, a…
Your cartoonist has gone to the dogs
Jerry James, in a stroke of cartoon genius, captures the limitless decibels of nuisance dog barking that redefines the name Atascadero for him (Sept. 6). The collective din of barking, howling, yipping and yapping, experienced in our relatively rural neighborhood, exceeds the norm I have experienced in any congested or more closely packed neighborhoods that…
Semantics, with a side of crap
It happened at McDonald’s on an otherwise sunny, glorious Saturday. I committed a fast food faux pas. Actually, I committed the fast food faux pas. I felt especially bad because there aren’t all that many rules to ordering at a fast food joint. When you’re deliberately cramming jumbo fried everything with a side of reconstituted…
Everyday workers need the breaks
It’s long past time to rein in large corporations and banks, as their activities are driving the U.S. economy into situations that will make the 2008 recession look mild. Today, we see corporations seriously viewed as a “person” by the U.S. Supreme Court, massive amounts of outsourcing of American jobs, banks operating with virtually no…
Dragonette 2010 Pinot Noir Sta. Rita Hills
Big, ripe notes of plums, black cherries, and blackberries meld with nuances of minerals, herbs, and spice. A tad ripe but tasty, it’s hard to resist. Best for big, juicy steaks on the barbecue, a buffalo burger, or spice-rubbed baby back ribs. Drinkable now, this one will definitely age five to 10 years. Not a…
Chalone 2010 Pinot Noir Monterey County
This bright and friendly wine from this historic Monterey County winery is a very good buy. Bright, ripe notes of cherries, blackberries, and plums are highlighted with notes of spice and earth. Easy drinking and food friendly, it’s a very good buy at $14 at Costco, where you don’t have to be a member to…
My passion for food
A foodie for decades, I was thrilled to have the once-in-a-lifetime experience of traveling through some of Europe’s renowned regions for fine dining for 21 days. From Zurich, Switzerland, to Venice, Florence, and Monte Carlo, my husband Dan and I were fortunate enough to find fabulous cuisine and pair those meals with superb wines. What…
What’s the last lie that you caught somebody telling you?
Katie Harrington mother “A co-worker told me he couldn’t work on Sundays because of his religious beliefs. I found out later that his religious beliefs were a hangover.” Lauren Grace front desk, hotel “Guests said they didn’t have pets in their room, but there was pet feces in the room and they still maintained their…
