Santa Barbara CA

Sign Up to get Nick Welsh’s award-winning column, The Angry Poodle delivered straight to your inbox on Saturday mornings. EARLY BIRD BLUES: As I looked out at the ocean, the stars sparkled overhead; dawn had not yet cracked. Day had not broken. And the waves were trying to calm me.

GOLETA, CA — September 25, 2025 — What began with 911 call in the predawn hours of Sept. 22 ended with a Goleta man in. custody and an arsenal of firearms seized from his home. According to Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department Public Information Officer Raquel. Zick,...

Singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey popped on stage for a quick song at Institution Ale while walking on State Street in Santa Barbara. On Saturday, September 27, local band “The Fastest Kids in School, were performing a cover of Del Rey’s 2014 hit “West Coast” when she happened to be nearby. She then approached the band...

The International Association for Near-Death Studies (IANDS) Santa Barbara will host Hollister Rand, an internationally renowned medium, in a talk called Everything You Wanted to Know About the Afterlife, but Were Afraid to Ask, 7-9 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 8 at Unity of Santa Barbara, 227 E. Arrellaga St. Rand will...

We’re standing on a hill overlooking the ocean near the Santa Barbara County-San Luis Obispo County line. It’s a gorgeous view of the coastline. You wouldn’t know it now, but this was once a massive oil field, with hundreds of wells. "Right now, we're standing on a...

“The story is not just what you remember but how it comes to mind,” wrote Max Schott in 2014. He was in the midst of trying to recall and imagine his adolescence and his hero of that time, the cowboy and horse trainer Ralph Camarillo. Schott is a writer,...

Here are the stories we are following on Daybreak: Train crashes with fuel truck in Guadalupe: A scary scene in Guadalupe after an Amtrak train full of...

There’s never a period of calm in the Santa Barbara restaurant scene. This past week Madam Lu’s and Tondi Gelato announced they would be closing while Dom’s Taverna opened in the former Trattoria Vittoria location, Wingstop is possibly coming the Mesa neighborhood, Erewhon teases a connection to Santa Barbara, and...

Rumors spread fast in a small town, and in the age of social media, anything goes these days. Earlier this week, Santa Barbara’s social media cognoscenti lost their minds because of a single post by Erewhon, the country’s most expensive grocery store. The company posted on Instagram that...

After a surge of business during the pandemic years, the wine industry isn’t doing so hot these days. The preponderance of alcoholic and social inebriant options (such as cannabis), the rise of sobriety movements (both the wellness and temperance kinds), and the inherently high price of California wines in a...