Author: KEYT

Mike Klan

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – Former Cal Poly football defensive end Elijah Ponder got some exciting news Tuesday after he found out he made it through the final round of cuts to make the New England Patriots’ 53-man roster.

Ponder, who signed with the Patriots as an undrafted free agent in April following the NFL Draft, beat out several other players who were drafted and veterans of the NFL to make the roster. At the start of training camp, there were 90 guys vying for the 53 spots that had to be announced at the 1 p.m. deadline Tuesday.

During training camp, Ponder received high praise from Patriots coaches for his athleticism, football IQ, and ability.

“Watching him coming out, because he was a guy that nobody was looking at, but if you look at his athletic ability, it’s off the charts,” Patriots outside linebackers coach Mike Smith said. “He’s a big rusher. He moves great in space. He’s not scared to go put his face right down the middle if you saw him in game. But he’s got this very rare ability of picking up things quick and look like he’s done it from Day 1. It’s just remarkable. That is another one that has an extremely bright future. Probably one of the best (undrafted) free agent pickups that I’ve ever seen.”

Ponder wrapped up a legendary Cal Poly career this past season and will go down as one of the best defensive players in Cal Poly football history. He finished his Cal Poly career this as the second Mustang to earn at least two First Team All-Big Sky Selections and was a four time All-Big Sky honoree. He ranks third in program history with 27 sacks, first in quarterback hurries with 44, and fifth in tackles for loss with 43.5.

In 2024, Ponder led the Mustangs in sacks, tackles for loss, and quarterback hurries for the second straight season and was named First Team All-Big Sky for a second straight season. His seven sacks ranked fourth in the Big Sky while his 12.5 tackles for loss were fifth most in the Big Sky.

In 2023, Ponder led the Big Sky and was fifth in the FCS in sacks with 10. He also had 52 tackles, 13 tackles for loss, and 17 quarterback hurries, which tied the program record for most in a season. All that led him to being named First Team All-Big Sky and an FCS All-American.

(Article courtesy of Cal Poly Athletics)

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Mike Klan

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – Samantha Fallon made sure San Marcos did not blow a late lead in the first set against Royal.

San Marcos reached set point at 24-19 but watched the visitors score the next four points.

But after a time out, Fallon took the set and put away one of her eight kills as San Marcos captured the first set and the next two for a sweep against the Highlanders (25-23, 25-18, 25-12).

(Charlotte Hastings shared team-high honors with 8 kills. Entenza Design).

Reese Paskin added 7 kills for the Royals who improved to 3-1 on the year.

Dos Pueblos loses at home 3-2 to Westlake

(Addie Low at 16 kills and 17 digs but DP remains winless on the season. Entenza Design).

The Chargers are 0-8 after losing 18-25, 25-23, 25-18, 17-25, 7-15.

Bishop Diego 3, Nordhoff 1

Sophie Otte had a career-high 17 kills to lead the Cardinals to a four-set home win over Nordhoff (25-14, 23-25, 25-20-, 25-17).

The Cardinals are 8-1.

Santa Ynez 3, Santa Barbara 1

Lola Heckman had 8 kills but the Dons lost a close match on the road to Santa Ynez 23-25, 21-25, 25-22, 23-25.

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Mike Klan

CARPINTERIA, Calif. – The home Warriors jumped out to a 9-3 first half lead and defeated Santa Barbara 12-7 as Carpinteria improves to 4-1 to start the season.

Ryder Shaw and Samuel Medel led the Warriors offense with three goals apiece.

Goalie Stefano Piccoletti made eight blocks to key a strong defensive effort by the Warriors.

Oliver Kelly led the Dons with three goals. Twice in the fourth quarter he pulled Santa Barbara to within four goals of the Warriors but they could not get any closer as they fall to 2-3.

San Marcos 18, Westlake 16 (Overtime)

Cole Racich scored a team-high 4 goals as San Marcos outlasted Westlake 18-16 in overtime to win their season opener.

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Andrew Gillies

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – A jet bridge that was out of service collapsed at the Santa Barbara Airport during maintenance Tuesday morning, resulting in minor injuries to two airport employees.

The two employees were transported to Cottage Hospital with minor injuries, and there were no other emergency impacts from the incident, according to the Santa Barbara City Fire Department. Airport Director Chris Hastert said the employees are expected to recover.

The collapse happened at Gate 2 while the bridge was undergoing maintenance. No passengers were on the jet bridge at the time, and flight schedules are not expected to be affected. A jet bridge, also known as a passenger boarding bridge, is the enclosed movable walkway that connects the terminal gate to the aircraft.

“This will obviously take a bridge out of service for a while, so it will be a little bit of a scramble for operations and the airlines to make it all work—and we will make it work,” Hastert said. “I’m just really very happy that our two employees are actually going to be okay, because it could have been much worse.”

The Santa Barbara Airport said the exact cause of the collapse is under internal investigation. No other bridges were slated for maintenance, but all of them have since been inspected with no problems detected.

“This is the first time something like this has happened at Santa Barbara Airport, and we are taking the steps to determine what the exact cause was,” Hastert added. “It appears to be an isolated incident, but the safety of our passengers and our staff remains our number one priority.”

Some passengers expressed surprise about the collapse. “It is not LAX, it is not a particularly busy place, doesn’t get used that much, so how can it collapse? It is odd,” said Greg Collier, who was picking up a passenger.

Others took a more measured view. “We have flown in and out of here many, many years and everything has been safe,” said Judy Gaede. “We figured they were doing maintenance work and something just went wrong, but it wasn’t what we were worried about at all.”

Passenger Sue Eisaguire also said her travel was unaffected. “I am glad I wasn’t there—everything was fine for our flight, so no problems today.”

Repairs are already underway at the airport, and while passengers may notice the work at Gate 2, delays are not expected.

The map below, courtesy of the Santa Barbara Airport, shows the location of Gate 2 in front of the passenger screening area on the second floor.

For more information about departures and arrivals from the Santa Barbara Airport, visit here or check with your airline.

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Caleb Nguyen

SANTA MARIA, Calif. – Santa Maria Police arrested a 29-year-old Santa Maria man for vandalism and possession of a loaded firearm just after midnight Tuesday.

A community member noticed the 29-year-old near a commercial business area and he was later detained at a nearby car dealership, according to the SMPD.

SMPD officers later found tools used to take gas and a nearby car with damage similar to fuel theft instances.

SMPD officers later searched the 29-year-old and found an unserialized firearm. SMPD officers also arrested and booked the man into the Santa Barbara County Jail for multiple firearm and vandalism charges.

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Caleb Nguyen

GROVER BEACH, Calif. – Grover Beach Police officers arrested a 31-year-old San Luis Obispo man on multiple charges just before 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.

A GBPD officer tried to stop a stolen vehicle at a traffic stop at Grand Ave. and 13th St. when the 31-year-old sped away and caused a police pursuit.

GBPD officers and Arroyo Grande Police attempted to find the San Luis Obispo man on foot, where they later located a loaded gun dropped by the 31-year-old.

GBPD officers also found the man at the Burger King on Oak Park and Grand after said foot pursuit.

The 31-year-old was later arrested and booked into the San Luis Obispo County Jail on the following charges:

auto theft

firearm possession

possession of stolen property

fraud (felony)

theft (felony)

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Caleb Nguyen

BUELLTON, Calif. – Buellton’s fourth district released its early ballotting numbers for its empty District 4 city council seat Tuesday.

Out of 879 total votes through mail-in only, 397 of them were counted in Monday’s early voting period, accounting for over 45% of the tally.

Carla Mead received 246 of 397 votes for a 62.12% share of the vote, Dave King received 150 of 397 votes for 37.88% of the voting share, while one other ballot of the 397 was left blank.

Both candidates are looking to fill the District 4 seat left by David Silva’s election as mayor last November.

King served as Buellton’s mayor for two years after retiring as a CHP officer and is running against Mead as the Santa Ynez Valley Humane Society’s board chairperson.

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Tracy Lehr

ISLA VISTA, Calif. – Isla Vista Community Services District Board President Spencer Brandt said visitors and students may notice Isla Vista looking better than usual this school year.

“It is an exciting time of the year for Isla Vista as we have community members moving in with city college starting up,” said Brandt.

Brandt said they are doing things differently this year.

“We have invested over $300,000 in beautification for the community and what that really comes down to is making sure that the trash on the street is cleaned up, when it comes to moving out, making sure we can take the items and use them if possible.”

They picked up 14,000 pounds of trash and collected more than 3,000 pounds of items that were either donated or stored.

Some of the items were leftover from the Give Sale in June and will be on sale at the upcoming Move In Sale.

“Right here at the Community Center on Sept. 15th and 16th it is an opportunity to purchase lightly used items that have been stored from when we collected donations during the move out period,” said Brandt, “it is a great cause to be able to purchase slightly used items that are contributing to reducing waste in our community and avoiding those things going to the landfill and also get that piece of furniture, that small appliance that you might otherwise get more expensive from a big box store.”

Some UCSB students, who locked in their living arrangements months ago, said they have noticed a difference.

Hans Kaiser noticed less trash.

Sami Hieta noticed repairs to the stairs down to the beach.

The money raised will help the IVCSD and IVRPD with community events.

For more information visit https://islavistacsd.ca.gov and https://ivparksorg

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Jarrod Zinn

SANTA MARIA, Calif. – Workers with In-Home Supportive Services, or I.H.S.S., attended the Santa Barbara county board of supervisors’ meeting in Santa Maria Tuesday morning.

They were advocating for fair wages for in-home caregivers.

In May of this year, governor Gavin Newsom proposed some deep budget cuts to Health and Human Services including the I.H.S.S. program, in order to address a projected deficit for California to the tune of $12 billion.

The majority of the governor’s proposed cuts in 2025 to I.H.S.S. were rejected, but some were approved.

Several members of I.H.S.S. flooded the Santa Barbara county board of supervisors’ meeting on Tuesday, urging the county to reject cuts in local budgeting.

“My heart goes out to the people that are doing this as a career because it’s very hard work,” says Courtney Cazenave, a 24-hour I.H.S.S. caregiver. “It’s difficult, but it’s so rewarding. And you have to have a heart of gold to be able to do this for people.”

Capping caregiver hours and eliminating services altogether for immigrants are examples of the rejected cuts.

But Medi-Cal enrollment for undocumented immigrants is frozen, and new monthly premiums have been implemented for those with any questions regarding their immigration status.

“I’m advocating for them to receive an increase in their pay so they’re able to provide, you know, better assistance for me, but also have just a more comfortable life themselves,” says I.H.S.S. recipient Edward Lamberson.

According to I.H.S.S. members, in-home caregiving is not limited to trained professionals, and many everyday individuals have to make sacrifices to take care of a loved one at home.

“My mom and my brother are providers,” says Lamberson. “They’re always doing something for me. So they can’t really, like, extend into their own lives too much because I always just end up needing something.”

Members of the program seek higher wages for trained professional caregivers, as well as some income for anyone with loved ones at home who have special needs.

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Dave Alley

SANTA MARIA, Calif. – This year’s two Day of Hope ambassadors are urging the Central Coast community to help support local cancer patients during this week’s fundraiser.

The ambassadors for this year’s 12th annual Day of Hope are Denise Villarete of Orcutt, who is representing Mission Hope Cancer Center in Santa Maria center, and Anna Sosnowski of Arroyo Grande, who is representing the Mission Hope Cancer Center in Arroyo Grande.

Both women are nurses and are cancer patients who are still receiving treatment at the centers they are each representing.

For Villarete, she’s been battling ovarian cancer since being diagnosed with the disease in spring 2024.

“My case is a little bit different with my father being a BRCA2 mutation carrier with his cancer,” said Villarete, describing her father, who died of cancer. “I did know that, so in the back of my mind, I knew I had a 50/50 chance that I would also develop cancer at some point in my life. With that knowledge, knowing in the background, when you hear you have a mass and you’re not quite sure what it is that does go through your head a little bit, which does in a sense prepare you for that kind of news versus it being blindsided out of the blue.”

Soon after she was diagnosed, Villarete began what has turned into a very long period of treatment to battle the disease.”

“It started with having surgery,” said Villarete. “And then from there, after about a month of recovery, I did start chemotherapy here at Mission Hope. It was a four month chemotherapy session. One day every three weeks, for the four month duration. After that, while during that chemo session, I was also added, another medication, Avastin and those infusions would proceed for another year and a half.”

Over the past two years, Villarete has undergone a slew of surgeries and treatment and is nearing the finish line of medication.

“I’ve been cancer free for two years, and with the treatment that I’ve received here at Mission Hope that is what’s entitled me to be able to do that and say that,” said Villarete. “The cancer free diagnosis was just amazing and obviously something that we had worked hard to achieve.”

Sosnowski is battling breast cancer, which was diagnosed last August while she was nursing the youngest of her three children.

“They ended up having to do a biopsy,” said Sosnowski. “It ended up coming back positive for breast cancer and it also had traveled to my lymph nodes as well, so I was stage two at the time of diagnosis.”

Over the past year, Sosnowski has received most of her treatment at Mission Hope in Arroyo Grande, being backed she said through the support of her family, work and crew at the cancer center.

“I kind of went through the whole gamut of everything I did chemo, radiation, I did a double mastectomy,” said Sosnowski. “I still have two surgeries pending, but it was it was a journey, that’s for sure. It was a scary experience, but being supported by that staff was just hands down the best, the best thing that could have happened because I don’t know what I would have done without them.”

Now, about a year later, Sosnowski is moving forward with a positive outlook with her recovery.

“It’s nice to have the majority of it behind me,” said Sosnowski. “Obviously, chemo is rough and radiation and surgery. I still have one to two more surgeries to do. I have to do a reconstruction and they’re going to take my ovaries out just to prevent distant recurrence. After all the medication will be done because they’ll have me on medication for about ten years, so that’s still pending, but honestly, I’m feeling great.”

As the Day of Hope ambassadors, the two women are sharing their stories to inspire community members to take part in the Day of Hope, which raises funds to directly benefit patients at Mission Hope Cancer Center.

The Day of Hope was created in 2014 and specifically raises funds for patients at Mission Hope Cancer Center in Santa Maria and Arroyo Grande.

Over the past 11 years, the Day of Hope has collected more than $2 million through generous community donations.

On Wednesday, Aug 27, starting at 7 a.m., hundreds of volunteers will be located throughout the Santa Maria Valley and in South San Luis Obispo County at dozens street corners, intersections, parking lots, schools, churches and other highly visible locations.

Participating teams members will once again be selling special edition $1 Santa Maria Times newspapers.

Proceeds specifically helps the cancer center provide patients with a myriad of complimentary programs and services.

For more information about the car show or the upcoming Day of Hope, click here to visit the official webpage.

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