Santa Maria Sun
July 31, 2025
William Neill commuted from El Portal to his job as resident photographer at The Ansel Adams Gallery in Yosemite Valley five days a week for five years. During this time, from 1977 to 1984, through each changing season, the landscapes opened up to him.
Noticing the towering granite formations and breathtaking passing scenes through his windshield, he began to revisit and capture them through his camera…
By Angie Stevens
Santa Maria Sun
Stories of local foster youth in Trauma to Hope exhibit now on display in Santa Ynez
July 24, 2025
It was past midnight when a 9-year-old girl living in Santa Maria found herself crying in the back of a police car. She felt swallowed up by the dark seats; the bars made her feel small and scared. Earlier, she had escaped her abusive home, crawling on all fours to the back gate, praying, then bolting through it and pounding on the next-door neighbor’s house, knowing a detective lived there. Instead of soundly sleeping and dreaming, she was then questioned and examined by detectives and ushered to a temporary foster home.
“Do you believe in God?” the two police officers asked her, before dropping her off at her new unknown home.…
By Angie Stevens
