By KAREN VELIE and DANIEL BLACKBURN A San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s deputy on administrative leave drove into four parked vehicles before flipping and rolling his pickup truck in a July 19 mishap. Deputy Bryan Goossens was northbound on Traffic Way in... (Continue reading)
By DANIEL BLACKBURN and KAREN VELIE Investors wooed by Atascadero hard money lender Hurst Financial’s owner Jay Miller raised $414,000 of an apparent $485,000 loan to help fund a new North County commercial park, but learned within four months that only... (Continue reading)
By DANIEL BLACKBURN I have a recurring dream in which the local media crowd works in concert to slay the dragons of government corruption and to cultivate an environment of informed citizens. And then I open my eyes, and my... (Continue reading)
By KAREN VELIE Atascadero City Council member Tom O’Malley challenged Mayor Mike Brennler to handle a dispute regarding council procedures his way, man-to-man out in the parking lot, said numerous attendees of Thursday’s “public trust and campaign reform workshop.” During the conciliatory-turned-contentious... (Continue reading)
By KAREN VELIE and DANIEL BLACKBURN Bank loans which appear inadequately secured made to a well known North County developer -- as well as an accompanying tangled web of loan transfers -- may have created significant problems for some San Luis... (Continue reading)
Part 3: The good times are gone (Editors’ note: This is the third and final article in a series examining the high-rolling, multi-million-dollar Paso Robles financial lender, EFI, and its current problems.) By DANIEL BLACKBURN One of the down sides of divorce is... (Continue reading)
Part 2: Maybe money does grow on trees By DANIEL BLACKBURN (Editors' note: This is the second in a series examining the high-rolling, multi-million-dollar Paso Robles financial lender, EFI, and the fascinating reasons for its current critical condition.) When Karen Guth angrily ordered... (Continue reading)
By DANIEL BLACKBURN and KAREN VELIE It’s only a few second’s drive time between the weathered plywood sign on Paso Robles' Jardine Road announcing the imminent approach of “Vista del Hombre,” and its equally unimpressive, unmarked entrance, but that brief moment... (Continue reading)
By KAREN VELIE and DANIEL BLACKBURN There’s a tight clamp on information coming out of Atascadero City Hall, what with the FBI hanging out and all, so it’s been tough to get information out of those hallowed confines, stuff like this….... (Continue reading)
Two Atascadero State Hospital employees violated a patient’s Constitutional rights in 2004, a federal judge ruled in December. ... (Continue reading)