Fighting & Working for Democracy

No contenders have filed to run against four sitting judges whose terms expire in 2024. The incumbents are Syda Cogliati, Jordan Sheinbaum, Katherine Hansen, and Leila Sayar—three of whom were appointed to their current terms.

In the first installment in a new series, Wallace Baine focuses on Ceil Cirillo, a driving force behind rebuilding downtown Santa Cruz after the earthquake who also championed the Tannery Arts Center.

Beyond the whirring of power tools and sprawling construction of Old Kresge, new residence halls and academic centers stand among the redwoods. These are the buildings that have sprouted out of the first phase of the Kresge Renewal project.

Hartnell College Faculty Association members organized a rally at the Main Campus on Oct. 25 to protest against working conditions for part-time teachers and to ask administrators for improvements.

Three major east-west arteries—Murray Street, Highway 1 and Soquel Drive—will all see major road work and potential closures over the next few years, which could make an already crowded commute even more time-consuming.

The city of Santa Cruz and partnering consultant Farallon Strategies held a virtual public meeting to further gauge the community’s feelings about West Cliff Drive’s role in the city in the next 50 years.

A fixture on the Santa Cruz County skating scene since the 1970s, Judi Oyama is heading to the 2024 World Skate Games in Rome and is also in the spotlight in a new documentary about the lasting influence of Northern California’s pioneering skateboarders.

The vodka—shaped like a water pipe and inspired in part by the movie “Up in Smoke”—is being made in partnership with Scotts Valley spirits house UBlendIt.

Those watching the race to replace retiring Supervisor Bruce McPherson wondered whether Santa Cruz County Sheriff Jim Hart would run. Instead, Hart has endorsed Monica Martinez, giving the nonprofit CEO a leg up over fellow candidates Christopher Bradford and Theresa Bond.

Capitola leaders are expected to cap off a year-long effort to update the city’s housing element before the state-mandated deadline in December.

Assembly Bill 1096, taking effect Jan. 1, will let community colleges in the state provide courses in non-English languages, regardless if a student is also taking ESL. Previously, a student had to sign up for the latter to qualify for the former.

Longtime Rep. Barbara Lee trails fellow representative Katie Porter and former Rep. Adam Schiff in their race for U.S. Senate. Lee still expressed determination to not seek a 14th term in the House, saying she’s running for Senate.

California’s community colleges are seeing enrollment gains for the first time since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Older students—those over 50—are some of the first to return.

More than 1.5 million acres of forest have been burned or scarred in California. Climbers go high in trees to grab pine cones that could help in reforestation.

The Elmore Desert Ranch gets 22.5 billion gallons of water from the Colorado River, almost as much as is cleared for Scottsdale, Ariz. And that’s just a fraction of the 386.5 billion gallons from the river going to 19 other families in Imperial Valley.

A photographer captured a Stable Aurora Red, or SAR arc light display, on Nov. 5 in California. These displays are generally imperceptible to the human eye.

A new report by the UCLA Labor Center finds that young workers in California face a variety of challenges. These include pay barely above minimum wage, discrimination, and high rents.

Young people are stuck earning low wages, working long hours—often while going to school—and often without benefits or work protections. Their hardships may hamper the state’s economy for years to come, researchers say.

A statue of Miwok elder William J. Franklin has been installed on California State Capitol grounds. The monument replaces a statue of Father Junípero Serra, which protestors toppled in 2020.

An evaluation of 34 adult prisons in California by the Office of the Inspector General found that 11 provided inadequate medical care and 23 provided adequate care. None were deemed proficient, the top designation.

In a study published in Nature Sustainability, scientists assessed the potential for wide-scale synthetic production of dietary fats. The raw materials are the same as those used by plants: hydrogen in water and carbon dioxide in the air.

A shrubby Palmer oak tree in Riverside County is around 13,000 years old, making it California’s oldest tree and one of the longest-lived organisms on earth. Some people are concerned that a proposed development could threaten the tree.