As some of you know, I wrote a book in 2019 called Defamers: How Fake News Terrorized a Community & Those Who Dared to Fight It. It’s almost the four-year anniversary of a book I wrote about the online tabloid Cal Coast News, their false and deceptive reporting practices, and…

Los Osos is a beautiful place, but it’s woefully underappreciated and underrepresented. It’s time to change that. Last week, I had the opportunity to observe the devastation at Vista de Oro Estates, an area ravaged by floods and a mudslide that occurred after our most recent storm. Residents showed me…

Watching the San Luis Obispo County District 2 Supervisor race was exhilarating and exhausting at the same time. There were various twists and turns, close shaves, allegations and pointless posturing that made SLO County voters exasperatedly exclaim, “Certify the damn results already and let us move on with our lives!” …

For the November 8, 2022 General Election, I decided to focus on the elections happening in my community. Everyone and their mother had something to say about the San Luis Obispo County races. My mailbox was deluged with countless glossy mailers featuring the candidates. What was conspicuously absent from my…

It started on the evening of October 3. Out of the blue, people I didn’t know were reaching out to me on Facebook Messenger, expressing concern for my safety. My phone was buzzing with notifications from people I never knew, people I never met, tagging me in seemingly random conversations…

On August 27, Amazon informed me that someone had “flagged” my book Defamers: How Fake News Terrorized a Community & Those Who Dared to Fight It via the website’s Kindle Direct for “possible violations of our Content Guidelines.” These alleged violations were never disclosed to me and I don’t know…

For several years, Cal Coast News co-founder Karen Velie has publicly alleged that any and all criticism of her reporting is rooted in misogyny — not that she knowingly, egregiously and regularly publishes false claims. Discussing the difference between fact or fiction is a genderless construct. …

SLO County continues its rapid descent down the election rabbit hole. Shortly after revealing her nearly decade-old story of verbal assault by two county supervisors — and currently and contemporaneously failing to corroborate her account — District 5 Supervisor Debbie Arnold decided to inject herself in the news cycle once…

Elections keep getting crazier and crazier in SLO County. This week, we learned that Paso Robles resident Darcia Stebbens is requesting the recount of District 4 votes allegedly “on behalf of Lynn Compton not necessarily at the request of.” …