Santa Maria Sun

12/17/2025

While Guadalupe gears up to debut its first farmers market by February, Buellton officials are eyeing March as a potential start date to begin one of their own.

While Guadalupe gets ready to debut its first farmers market by February, Buellton officials are eyeing March as a potential start date to begin one of their own. On Dec. 4, the Buellton Planning Commission granted Brenda Browning a conditional use permit that will allow vendors who participate in h...

12/16/2025

As the year comes to a close, we're inviting our community to help sustain the journalism that keeps Northern Santa Barbara County informed, curious, and connected. Every week, The Sun shows up to tell the stories that matter, always rooted in accountability and care for this place we call home. Independent local journalism doesn't happen by accident, it exists because readers believe it's worth protecting. Your contribution helps ensure these stories remain free, fearless, and deeply local.

12/14/2025

Kanok Thai Cuisine brings authentic food to Solvang.

Growing up, food was a memorable part of Preaw Chamchoi’s life. She remembered watching her dad and grandmother working in the kitchen, and when she was in school, her dad rewarded good grades with going out to eat. She said it worked. “After the semester, we get to go celebrate,” Chamchoi sai...

12/13/2025

Danny Diaz is focused on bringing Old Town Lompoc back to life.

Danny Diaz is focused on bringing Old Town Lompoc back to life. When he moved there a year and a half ago, he’d ask people what there is to do in town but got responses like, “There’s nothing to do here,” and, “Lompoc is boring.” Since then, he’s grown to love Old Town and would […]

12/12/2025

This fall, block printer Angelina LaPointe was the first official artist in residence at Jalama Canyon Ranch.

Somewhere on the 1,000-acre Jalama Canyon Ranch, there comes a point when the oak canopy clears, giving way to manzanitas. Standing on a ridgeline among vegetation and rolling hills, the vista reveals the ocean in one direction and the Santa Ynez River in the other. The scene at the Lompoc ranch is....

12/11/2025

“Mr. Mayor, let’s talk about the video everyone has seen of you, … confronting Latino street vendors like they’re the problem in a city struggling to attract any living-wage industry,” Shawna Stillwell said at the Lompoc City Council's Dec. 2 hearing. “Instead of bringing opportunity here, you’re out there flexing your power on hardworking people selling food to feed their kids."

Tensions were sky-high the night Lompoc Mayor Jim Mosby went viral on TikTok for protesting a taco stand located behind a Conserve Fuel station. “This is not legal,” Mosby told sidewalk vendors on the corner of North A and North H streets. “Where’s the refrigeration? What are your temperatur...

12/10/2025

A Sunday stroll through LeRoy Park will take on a whole new meaning once Guadalupe's first weekly farmers market comes to fruition early next year.

A Sunday stroll through LeRoy Park in Guadalupe will take on a whole new meaning once the city’s first weekly farmers market comes to fruition early next year. “We had anticipated January, but we are going to be pushing it out to February,” Guadalupe Business Association President Judy Wilson ...

12/08/2025

Last week we asked for your support, this week we're asking again! We’re in the midst of our end-of-year fundraising drive, now through Dec. 31, and kindly ask for your contribution.

Every dollar raised will pave the way for us to continue our award-winning coverage. Every contribution also allows our journalists to access the resources they need to keep holding lawmakers and elected officials accountable, from the Board of Supervisors to school boards.

Thank you for your continued support of print journalism on the central coast!

https://new-times-inc.fundjournalism.org/supportsunjournalism/

12/06/2025

Blending wine is very common, but not the way Michelle Vautier does it at CrossHatch Winery.

Blending wine is very common, but not the way Michelle Vautier does it. She owns CrossHatch Winery and uses a method called co-fermentation. Instead of blending wines after they’ve fermented, her grapes—usually two or three varieties—are picked from their separate vines on the same day and sta...

12/05/2025

The sixth show at the Indah Gallery, called Wild Weavings: Stories of Wonder, features work by fiber artist and sculptor Kellen Meyer. It'll be up through Dec. 21.

In Indonesian, indah means beautiful. Artist Max Gleason and his wife have traveled to the country multiple times, and in 2022 they lived there for six months. Having learned a little bit of the language, indah stuck with him. “The word indah I thought was—no pun intended—a very beautiful soun...

12/04/2025

Between 1999 and 2005, Garrett Huff worked for fire departments in Culver City and Paso Robles before starting with Santa Barbara County’s department as a firefighter-paramedic 20 years ago.

Memories of sitting at the bottom of a pool flow back when Templeton resident Garrett Huff reflects on practicing for water rescue missions early in his career as a paramedic and firefighter. “We had to do what they call dunker training,” Huff explained. “You’re strapped into a [simulated] h...

12/03/2025

“The state has mandated that our homes and our cars be electrified, and how do we do that if we don’t have Diablo online?” Santa Maria Mayor Alice Patino said at the California Coastal Commission's latest meeting.

Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) must return to the California Coastal Commission with new plans to mitigate Diablo Canyon Power Plant’s environmental issues if it wants permits to keep the nuclear facility running.  “We’re talking about decades of staggering and devastating environmen...