Greetings & Spring Things from Santa Cruz

Marimo Berk and Brad Lewis joined the Board of Directors of Sempervirens Fund, the oldest land trust in California.

Community Health Trust of Pajaro Valley was awarded a $2M by philanthropist MacKenzie Scott.

A new exhibit opening April 12 at the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History tells the story of Filipino migration and labor in Watsonville and the greater Pajaro Valley from the 1930s to the present.

Public hearings for the recently released $1.1B annual budget have been scheduled for May and June by the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors.

Supporters of the rail trail rallied in front of the Santa Cruz County building on April 3 to advocate for approval of segments 10 and 11.

The Santa Cruz County clerk officially certified the March 5 election vote count on April 2.

Feedback is being solicited by the City of Santa Cruz for a new location for the downtown farmers market, which will be displaced when the library/parking garage project begins.

Plans for an 18 story building 192 feet tall were submitted to the City of Santa Cruz planning department.

Local homeless and housing rights activist Reggie Meisler filed a challenge to the renewal of the City of Santa Cruz large-vehicle parking ban.

The official vote count for Measure N in support of Watsonville Community Hospital passed and was certified on April 4 by the Santa Cruz and Monterey county elections departments.

Following an outpouring of support, the United States Coast Guard announced it is no longer considering the removal of the Mile Buoy.

In the planning stages since 2021, a new inclusive and accessible playground opened at Skypark.

The passage of California Proposition 1 is leaving local mental health and homeless service providers with questions as to the impact in the count.

A dinner and silent auction fundraiser for the Pajaro Valley Education Foundation is set to take place on Aril 18 at Jalisco's, 618 Main Street in Watsonville.

A recent split vote by Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors stalling approval of two rail trail segments is jeopardizing future state funding for the project.

The City of Watsonville announced a partnership with a Connecticut based software company to utilize the SeeClickFix mobile app for citizens to report non-emergency issues.

Thirty years after prisoners with disabilities sued the state of California and 25 years after a federal court first ordered accommodations, a judge found that state prison and parole officials still are not doing enough to help deaf and blind prisoners.

Anti-tax groups in California have qualified a measure for the November ballot that would make raising state and local taxes much more difficult. It’s a showdown that’s been building for nearly five decades.

I thought my journalism and others’ could change policy, perhaps even inspire a New Deal-style response equal to the challenge. Such was my naiveté.

Tenants in many new privately owned, low-income units will be protected from double-digit increases. So will some in existing units, after a state committee on affordable housing imposed a rent cap.

Not filling open positions in state government, cutting a school facilities program and several climate initiatives, delaying funding for public transit — these are some of the first steps that California officials plan to take to deal with a looming multibillion-dollar budget deficit.

The move puts the fate of AB 2222 in question, but supporters insist that there is room to negotiate changes that can help tackle the state's literacy crisis.

It quickly became clear that Elon Musk’s SpaceX was responsible for the show. The lights were a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 22 new Starlink satellites into orbit. The rocket blasted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 7:30 p.m., and it’s trail was visible from Los Angeles to Joshua Tree National Park.