Cover Story
2020 Year in Review: Pandemic, unrest, and general messiness
Everybody knows that the COVID-19 pandemic is the biggest story of 2020, with social and political tensions coming in a very close second—and almost certainly intertwined with the pandemic. Although California also had another record fire season in 2020, SLO County thankfully didn’t. The happiest county on the California coast made national news several times…
SLO city to host community meeting on 2021-23 budget priorities
As cities everywhere grapple with the economic fallout of COVID-19, San Luis Obispo is slated to host a virtual community meeting on Jan. 14 to hear from residents about where they think the city should focus its budget for the next two years. The 6 p.m. meeting is “intended to solicit suggestions from residents, community…
FDA charges distilleries for producing hand sanitizer, then reverses course amid backlash
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) blindsided distilleries across the nation last month when it charged the businesses more than $14,000 in fees for making hand sanitizer during 2020. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services swiftly came to distilleries’ aid, ordering the FDA to void the fee charges days later. Stephen Kroener,…
Two local performers release Christmas videos this season
If you’re like me, you’re probably planning a great big nada burger for New Year Eve. Nobody wants to close out the crappiest year in modern history with a super-spreader event. However, Craig B. Kincaid and Ynana Rose, and their respective musical cohorts, want you to squeeze the last couple drops of Christmas cheer out…
SLO County resident turns job loss into a new business venture: The Natural Toolbox in Pismo
The coronavirus has changed lives across the globe for better or worse. SLO County resident Roxi Buchanan decided to adapt to that change and turn an unfortunate job loss into a new business venture. Buchanan worked for the Cracked Crab restaurant in Pismo Beach for nearly 14 years until she was laid off in March.…
Gazebo Learning Project, a new book by Jasmine Star Horan, explores Esalen Institute’s unique early childhood education program
Experience the book Jasmine Star Horan’s new book, Gazebo Learning Project: A Legacy of Experiential and Experimental Early Childhood Education at Esalen, retails for $21.95 and is available through the Silver Peak Press website: silverpeakpress.com. What do you remember from your early childhood education? If you’re a product of public schools, it was probably how…
Amid uncertainty and changing regulations, SLO County’s food and beverage industry adapted in the way only it could during 2020
March changed everything on the Central Coast. With the influx of COVID-19 cases in SLO County came stay-at-home and shutdown orders, shuttering once lively bars and restaurants and leaving them with one option—serving up to-go food and adult beverages. Waiters/waitresses, bartenders, chefs, cooks, bussers, and hosts/hostesses lost their jobs. Restaurants and bars tried to pivot…
Boys & Girls Clubs of Mid Central Coast: Connections 2020
Boys & Girls Clubs of Mid Central Coast has been a valuable partner in helping kids succeed for over 54 years! Visit centralcoastkids.org to find out more.
Equality Mural Project holds a pop-up gallery to showcase proposed mural art in downtown Atascadero
A new pop-up gallery in Atascadero is showcasing preview renderings of 10 proposed murals to be featured throughout the city in 2021. The exhibit is scheduled to remain open to the public but by appointment only through the end of February. Z Villages donated a commercial space to serve as the location for the pop-up…
Call for separate Central Coast region quiets as COVID spreads
The once unified call for a distinct Central Coast region separate from Southern California is becoming increasingly disjointed as COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura counties continue to rise. On Dec. 29, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a three-week extension of his Dec. 6 stay-at-home order in Southern California, just…
Gallery at Marina Square commemorates Bird Month with new group show, Feathered Friends
Gallery at Marina Square in Morro Bay presents Feathered Friends, an upcoming fine art and photography exhibition, which is scheduled to open on Friday, Jan. 1, and remain on display through Friday, Jan. 29. In recognition of January as Bird Month, the gallery invited participating painters and photographers to capture local birds native to different…
COVID-19 outbreaks continue to rock SLO County
San Luis Obispo County is working to stomp out multiple COVID-19 outbreaks at various shared living facilities, as cases countywide soar to new record highs. An outbreak of more than 15 residents and staff at the 40 Prado Homeless Center in San Luis Obispo has continued to grow—forcing the 70-bed shelter to close to outsiders…
The Flight Attendant weaves a comical mystery that delves into dark places
THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT What’s it rated? TV-MA What’s it worth, Anna? Full price What’s it worth, Glen? Full price Where’s it showing? HBO Max Created by Steve Yockey (Scream: The TV Series, Supernatural), this series focuses on charismatic Cassie Bowden (Kaley Cuoco), an alcoholic international flight attendant who after a Bangkok fling with passenger Alex…
Oceano waits for coming rain to test new drainage system
The first week of 2021 is forecasted to bring some much-needed rain to San Luis Obispo County, and for residents in Oceano, the coming showers could be the first real test of a recently completed drainage project aimed at limiting flooding on Highway 1. The Oceano Drainage Improvement Project has been in the works for…
Wonder Woman 1984
What’s it rated? PG-13 When? 2020 Where’s it showing? HBO Max I had high hopes for this sequel. The 2017 original was a blast, and Gal Gadot was an amazing lead. This new one reunites director Patty Jenkins with Gadot, but the magic of the first film has dimmed considerably, I believe in large part…
SLO County grows COVID-19 vaccine capacity
More than 1,300 front-line health care workers have now received COVID-19 vaccination shots in San Luis Obispo County, according to SLO County Public Health, and the department announced on Dec. 30 that it recently tripled its vaccine supply to about 7,000 doses. The first batch of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines that arrived in SLO between…
Soul
What’s it rated? PG When? 2020 Where’s it showing? Disney Plus Pete Docter and Kemp Powers co-direct this Pixar animated adventure comedy about Joe Gardner (voiced by Jamie Foxx), a middle school band teacher who winds up dead from an accident on the very day he gets his big break to join a famous jazz…
It’s not Diablo that’s killing fisheries
I read with interest, the New Times article on Diablo Canyon sea water intake and discharge, “Changed habitat” (Dec. 17, 2020). Clearly, evidence does exist of the huge volume of planktonic sea life killed every year. However, it has apparently been forgotten that in the early days of Diablo Canyon, we still had an abalone…
Re: Diablo is a marine life killer
The Mothers for Peace representative’s letter (“Diablo is a marine life killer,” Dec. 24, 2020) is fraught with the usual misleading information. For example. The affected area is about 4 acres of an ocean comprising some 62.8 million square miles, so the negative effect of Diablo’s thermal discharge is vastly exaggerated. I suppose that the…
A workhorse failure
Regarding your cover story about Diablo Canyon (“Changed habitat,” Dec. 17), and without diminishing the marine impacts of once-through cooling, what is also being flushed “down the drain” by PG&E is nearly $100 million in ratepayer funds for their failed repair of Diablo’s Unit 2 main generator. As ratepayer advocates, the Alliance for Nuclear Responsibility…
Them and us
The other day I was attempting to assemble an item I had bought using translated directions that failed to discriminate between plural and singular nouns. The result was a lot of frustration, winging it, and do-overs. This got me to thinking about the consequences of mis-applying plural pronouns when referring to individuals instead of just…
Oceano needs the county to do its job
I completely agree with the letters by Cynthia Replogle (“A coming flood in Oceano”) and Lucia Casalinuovo (“Phony survey by State Parks OHV Division”) of Dec 17. Ignored by SLO County supervisors, Oceano deals with outrageous taxes, a blind eye to crumbling infrastructure, and choking traffic and fumes. So called “abandoned vehicles” are parked in…
What’s going on?
I really hate to complain about a place that is “suppose to help people” get off the streets and into stable housing, but why do the people in charge feel the need to strip others of their last shred of privacy? At the Motel 6 in Paso Robles, the new shelter, they have removed all…
The divisive, delusional left
In the 1850s, Abraham Lincoln reiterated Christ’s message that “a house divided cannot stand” in his famous “House Divided” speech that catapulted him to national prominence. Today, America stands more divided than any time since the Civil War. Look no further than the pages of this paper for the abyss that prevents us from listening…
RIP 2020
Remember the good old pre-pandemic days when all we had to shred was dudes like Lannen Bowers, a 58-year-old SLO transient with a weird romantic fixation on Mayor Heidi Harmon, who on Jan. 6 charged past the front desk demanding to see her and had to be subdued by City Manager Derek “The Other Rock”…
