Fraudsters rip off California’s disability insurance system
By JOSH FRIEDMAN After acknowledging mass unemployment fraud amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the state of California is now faced with tens or hundreds of thousands of fraudulent disability insurance claims. On Friday, the California Employment Development Department (EDD) announced it had frozen 345,000 disability insurance claims. The claims were associated...
Judge sentences Atascadero man to 28 years to life for sodomizing boy
By JOSH FRIEDMAN A judge sentenced an Atascadero man on Tuesday to 28 years to life in state prison for sodomizing a 6-year-old boy. Fred Raymond Knight, Jr., 46, is a repeat sex offender. In 2011, Knight was convicted of committing lewd acts on child and was sentenced to three...
SLO County’s COVID-19 surge continues, hospitals overwhelmed
By KAREN VELIE San Luis Obispo County health officials reported a record high daily number of COVID-19 cases on Tuesday, with a 14 day average of 383. The surge is overwhelming local hospitals. Health officials are asking the public not to visit emergency rooms for testing or for mild coronavirus...
San Luis Obispo’s streets and walkways are becoming more hazardous
Opinion by KEN HERRMANN Simple and safe? Not in San Luis Obispo. Have you noticed changes as you move around in SLO lately? There are a lot of them! The city has done some repaving and realigning of roadways, and parking changes that, from what I have seen and heard,...
San Luis Obispo City Council green lights large mixed-use development
By JOSH FRIEDMAN The San Luis Obispo City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to give the green light to a proposed mixed-use project near the intersection of Orcutt Road and Broad Street. The proposed Bullock Ranch project includes 88 bungalow or carriage houses, 96 townhouse apartments and another eight townhouses,...
Pregnant woman critically injured in crash near Gaviota
By KAREN VELIE Five people were injured, four critically, in a single-vehicle crash on Highway 101 near Gaviota on Monday afternoon, according to the Santa Barbara County Fire Department. Shortly after 4 p.m., the driver was headed northbound on Highway 101 in the rain when they lost control of their...
Superintendent for two SLO County school districts gets 10% raise
By JOSH FRIEDMAN The administrator who is serving as the superintendent of two North Coast school districts, and is collecting six-figure pay from each, recently received a 10 percent raise. [Tribune] Scott Smith, the superintendent of both the Cayucos Elementary and Coast Unified school districts, now makes $220,085 a year,...
