Author: Moderator

Homeless reject SLO parking plan

Posted by Moderator | May 29, 2012 | Featured, Uncovered SLO | 0 |

Throughout the city of San Luis Obispo hundreds of homeless sleep in their vehicles risking the threat of raids by local police, heavy fines, jail time for unpaid tickets, and ultimately the loss of their only shelter.

Even so, those in need of a secure place to park at night say the terms set by management of the Prado Day Center will violate their basic constitutional rights and further erode the little control they have over their lives.

In March 2011, San Luis Obispo County supervisor and former chair of the Homeless Services Oversight Council (HSOC) Adam Hill signed a safe parking resolution that states that homeless who sleep in their cars are a threat to public safety. (Supervisor Jim Patterson is the current chair of the HSOC. Even so, Hill who stepped down from his chair position last fall, continues to claim on his website and at political forums that he is currently the HSOC chair.)

Supervisor scolded for ignoring the public

Posted by Moderator | Mar 29, 2012 | Featured, Screening Room | 0 |

As part of her public comment, Julie Tacker scolded San Luis Obispo County Supervisor Adam Hill for utilizing his electronic pad instead of focusing on public speakers during open public comment....

Homeless homes, cartoon

Posted by Moderator | Mar 23, 2012 | Discovered | 0 |

CalCoastNews is now including work by San Luis Obispo cartoonist Joseph Rankin. Check out his work at the Kranky Cartoonist.

Birth Control, cartoon

Posted by Moderator | Mar 12, 2012 | Discovered, Featured | 0 |

CalCoastNews is now including work by San Luis Obispo cartoonist Joseph Rankin. Check out his work at the Kranky Cartoonist.

Atascadero High School students shine

Posted by Moderator | Feb 27, 2012 | Screening Room | 0 |

More than a dozen acts competed at Atascadero High School’s Mock Rock competition on Feb. 18th. The students danced and sang for cash prizes and a chance to participate in Countywide Mock Rock,...

Oceano seawater intrusion deemed a scam

Posted by Moderator | Feb 13, 2012 | Featured, Uncovered SLO | 0 |

San Luis Obispo County government agencies have been using data known to be phony to secure state and federal grants.

Following a 2009 report of seawater intrusion contaminating the unincorporated community of Oceano’s groundwater supply, numerous local agencies used the information to apply for federal and state funding or to legitimize high-dollar water projects.

However, for more than a year, Oceano Community Services District board members have been saying reports of seawater intrusion are nothing but propaganda.

Paso Robles’ police protection dwindling

Posted by Moderator | Feb 4, 2012 | Featured, Uncovered SLO | 0 |

Rattled by a recent spike in violent crime, several Paso Robles police officers are questioning the impact the department’s current policy of not always responding to some criminal activities is having on public safety.

Paso Robles has been operating under a reduced police presence for the past year, with stringent new policies requiring that officers not respond to reports of drug activity, driving under the influence, and incidents of vehicular hit and run, whenever the department is operating in “safety mode.”

Police chief under fire for retaliating against her men

Posted by Moderator | Feb 2, 2012 | Featured, Uncovered SLO | 0 |

A Paso Robles police officer, who says his numerous attempts to force the chief to run the department in a legal and productive manner were rebuffed, filed a claim against the city in December and plans to follow up with a lawsuit.

Officer Jon Tatro, an officer and union steward, had complained to Chief Lisa Solomon and city management that command staff had mandated that each officer write at least 10 tickets a month, and preferably 14 or more, in order to avoid disciplinary action, according to the lawsuit and interviews with several officers.

“A ticket a day will keep the sergeant away,” several officers said was a common phrase used in the department.

SLO County dirty politics déjà vu

Posted by Moderator | Jan 17, 2012 | Featured, Uncovered SLO | 0 |

San Luis Obispo County has had its share of dirty politics including slate mailers used in a 2010 sheriff campaign and the impersonating of opponents by a 1998 assemblyman’s campaign committee, both of which led to Fair Political Practice Commission investigations.

Aside from focusing on the issues, this years District 3 supervisor race already includes allegations of an imposter phone call to a resident and letters to the editor of the local daily taking aim at a candidate from authors who may not be who they say they are.

A few weeks ago, a District 3 resident sent a letter to the editor of the San Luis Obispo Tribune. The day it ran, the resident received a voice message from a caller illicitly claiming to be District 3 supervisor candidate Ed Waage.

Waage urges council to reject dunes study

Posted by Moderator | Oct 31, 2011 | Daily Briefs, Featured | 0 |

A Pismo Beach city councilman wants his colleagues to agree on Tuesday to ask the San Luis Obispo County air-quality board to reject a proposed rule to regulate fugitive dust emissions at the Oceano...

Woman brutalized on video at SLO County Mental Health

Posted by Moderator | Sep 29, 2011 | Featured, Uncovered SLO | 0 |

If Valerie Lane had been a stray dog she would gotten better protection from San Luis Obispo County. As it is, she is still suffering from a brutal attack that occurred more than two years ago at a San Luis Obispo County Mental Health facility, Lane’s attorney James McKiernan, said.

At San Luis Obispo County Animal Services, animals arriving from different homes are housed separately to determine if they have a “propensity for violence.” Even so, most animals are caged separately for the duration of their stay, Dr. Eric Anderson, animal services’ manager, said. Lane was put in a chain link enclosure with a man who had a history of violence and who had been brought in by law enforcement officers.

Attorney General asked to weigh in on judges’ $235,000 benefits

Posted by Moderator | Sep 26, 2011 | Featured, Uncovered SLO | 0 |

California’s Attorney General is deciding whether the Commission on Judicial Performance can discipline San Luis Obispo County judges for giving themselves perks that total more than $235,000 a year, according to documents and sources familiar with the issue.

The commission says that judges have improperly padded their benefits. It wants to know if a state law protects the judges from discipline or prosecution, the request to the attorney general’s office reads.

The judges’ votes to take additional perk without oversight or legislative approval has drawn criticism from the executive director of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association.

DA’s office in secret deal to sell Pasolivo

Posted by Moderator | Sep 13, 2011 | Featured, Uncovered SLO | 0 |

The San Luis Obispo County District Attorney’s office is close to finalizing a deal to sell the Pasolivo Ranch property, which is to be used to reimburse victims of the Estate Financial investment fraud.

But Deputy District Attorney Steve von Dohlen has used a secret process that has kept potential buyers from learning about the sale or bidding up the price of the property.

It is the latest twist in the case of Karen Guth and Joshua Yaguda, principals in Estate Financial Inc., who were convicted of defrauding more than 3,000 investors of more than $300 million. In many cases, the money was the lifetime savings of the victims.

Tale of the 911 tape

Posted by Moderator | Aug 30, 2011 | Featured, Uncovered SLO | 0 |

An Atascadero woman screams, “stop, stop, please send someone,” to the 911 operator.

In the next room, caller Sarah Summers’ developmentally disabled stepson grapples with another man who has followed him to his father’s home after the stepson passed him on the road. Her 74-year-old husband James, undergoing chemotherapy, has just seen his son smash through the front storm door with a stranger.

The man wrestling with Summers’ stepson is off-duty San Luis Obispo Police Officer Scott Cramer.

Questions of safety at Diablo Canyon nuclear plant

Posted by Moderator | Jul 17, 2011 | Featured, Screening Room | 0 |

After the devastating tsunami damage to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan, seismologists in the United States are focusing on a potentially dangerous fault system near the Diablo Canyon...