Ron Fink

Back in March 2023 I wrote: “One local resident, Martin Bender, who claims in a blog post to have ‘a juris doctorate and have worked for both private practice law firms and for the County of Santa Barbara Superior Court' is seriously abusing his First Amendment rights by falsely accusing Councilwoman Gilda Cordova (a member of the Visit Lompoc board of directors) of wrongdoing in a memo to the City Attorney back in February and a Facebook posting on March 2nd.”

Anyone who lives in the city of Lompoc knows that many streets and alleys in our city are in poor shape. But when subjected to a professional review using a nationally accepted roadway standards, how bad are they?

The state of California has mandated that cities and counties find more space for “affordable” houses — but where?

The state of California is one of the leaders at killing businesses. Now it appears that one state agency is after access to space from nearby

In January of this year, the state of California raised the minimum wage to $16 per hour, but this wasn't good enough for some union leaders and the politicians they own in Sacramento. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has been trying to organize fast food workers but has failed, so they hatched a plan to save their organizing effort.

I often write about “problems” in our city, so I thought I would recognize a positive move by our city manager, and what Mayor Jenelle Osborne said in a State of the City presentation is “a bright and ambitious future” for Lompoc.

If anyone in Santa Barbara County, other than the cannabis industry, starts a business, say a cooler for processing vegetables and fruit for shipment to market; a large manufacturing operation; a housing development; or even the construction of a single-family dwelling, the developer/property owner is required as a condition of approval to provide all the infrastructure upgrades, including improvements to the electrical system for their business. It doesn't matter how much it costs.

For several years aging parks in Lompoc have needed some “tender love and care.” Maintenance crews work hard, but it's hard to keep up with all the work that needs to be done. There is little spare time with a limited staff or funding to make major improvements.

Twenty-five years ago, Santa Barbara's State Street was still a destination for retail shoppers, people who wanted to window shop, and folks who wanted a

As Santa Barbara County and the state of California continue with their efforts to save the Earth, the metrics for measuring success of the effort continue to change like the weather.