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Winning Images 2026
For decades, New Times Media Group has asked local photographers to send their best shots our way as part of the annual Winning Images contest. Covering categories from Animals and Landscape/Seascape to In Motion and People, the images capture the beauty and strangeness across the Central Coast and beyond. This year, our judges sifted through 374 images to narrow them down to the top three in eight categories. Inside, you’ll find the winners.
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Solvang officials submit to new financial reporting after phone app backlash
Complaints from some Solvang officials about being blindsided by Mayor David Brown’s new side venture prompted an update to the City Council’s ethics code. While Brown informed city staff about his plans for Solvang Passport—a mobile phone app he created that promotes specific tourism destinations and businesses in town for a monthly…
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Music, Arts & Culture
A Santa Maria nonprofit adds to its 10th summer of no-cost arts courses for students
Youth Arts Alive isn’t marketed as a summer camp, but it meets similar standards for families looking for one. Kids could be entertained in classes with professional artists from 10 a.m. to 2 or 3 p.m. four days a week. Alternatively, some kids want to only take guitar lessons or crafting workshops, the nonprofit’s founder Gale McNeeley explained. Youth Arts Alive supports the community in as many ways as it can, offering five weeks of programming for kids 8…
Food & Drink
A crowd favorite at the Route One Farmers Market offers cookies, cheesecakes, pies, and more
Tamara Warren has a selectively superb memory. When it comes to her passion for baking, she has muscle memory. Anything else, and it can get a little murky. The baker…
A Guadalupe butcher cuts up quality meats for barbecuers on the Central Coast
Ernesto Valle used to be known as the guy who cuts meat in the middle of nowhere. He opened Lobo Butcher Shop in Guadalupe four and a half years ago…
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