Special Issue

Cuteness ahead: Our annual pet photo contest winners are bound to ease your mind

Warning: The photos on the following pages will bring a smile to your face. They’re adorable! Readers from Santa Ynez to Lompoc to Paso Robles submitted more than 300 images of their non-human companions as part of this year’s competition. A panel of in-house judges narrowed them down to the top three in each of five categories—including Best Dressed! Contest entry fees raised more than $1,000 for the SLO Beaver Brigade, an organization advocating for and educating about the…

State approves Point Sal conservation petition

A unanimous vote from the California Fish and Game Commission granted new safeguards to roughly 9 square miles of marine habitat off the coast of Guadalupe. ā€œI understand how hard it is to lose yet another fishing area,ā€ Commissioner Jacque Hostler-Carmesin said at the hearing. ā€œHowever, the Chumash people were displaced. Their…


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Explore the history of View-Master 3D through a Santa Maria resident’s new documentary

Dave Machin’s hobby collecting View-Master 3D toys started by chance when he picked one up at an antique shop in San Luis Obispo. He clicked through travel reels of destinations like Yosemite, Chicago, and Miami. ā€œWhat occurred to me was that these are now antiques, so all these pictures of these places were like 70 or 80 years old,ā€ Machin told the Sun. ā€œIt started to get really interesting to look at what has changed from then to now…

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