Santa Cruz County Local News: Elections & Politics

07/29/2021
The San Lorenzo Valley encompasses several communities with their own fire departments and sheriff outposts. But Jayme Ackemann, a member of the San Lorenzo Valley Water District Board of Directors, thinks there should be a local council to create the governmental representation she says the people of SLV both want and deserve.

07/18/2021
Governor attaches earmarked monies to budget in what the Merc is calling the “largest state investment in homelessness in U.S. history.”

07/12/2021
A group of farmers, environmentalists and community leaders have kicked off a campaign to extend the life of a 2002 ballot measure that put limits on where and how the city could expand to protect the Pajaro Valley’s agricultural land and wetlands.

07/02/2021
The Santa Cruz County Elections Department approved a petition by a group seeking to recall Pajaro Valley Unified School District Trustee Georgia Acosta. The approval gives the Committee to Recall Georgia Acosta 90 days to gather signatures from a quarter of the district’s registered voters.

06/30/2021
As the region face a challenging drought, President Joe Biden and Senate Republicans and Democrats have included $5 billion for Western water projects in their infrastructure deal.

06/30/2021
Homicides in the state increased 31 percent in 2020, the same year hundreds of thousands of new guns were purchased in the Golden State, according to annual data released by the Department of Justice.

06/24/2021
Members of the LGBTQ+ community say Santa Cruz is not always the inclusive hub it wants to be. But Frankie Farr says there’s a big difference between a place that’s friendly to you and a place where you belong. That’s what gave Farr the idea for The Neighbor’s Pub.

06/23/2021
Gov. Gavin Newsom and lawmakers are still ironing out details of the budget for the fiscal year that begins on July 1, but they’ve already agreed on the rebates. Millions of Californians would receive the $600 payments, according to the plan.

06/22/2021
City Councilwoman Sandy Brown was the lone “no” vote on a resolution to place a general sales tax on the Nov. 2 ballot. But the tax measure is not dead; the mayor can call a special meeting to reconsider the item.

06/07/2021
Six weeks after Santa Cruz County Supervisor Ryan Coonerty announced that he wouldn’t seek reelection in 2022, the race to replace him has its first candidate.

06/02/2021
Assemblymember Robert Rivas announced that the Farmworker Wildfire Smoke Protections Act was unanimously passed off the Assembly floor. The legislation will equip agricultural workers with resources to reduce the harm caused by wildfire smoke.

05/23/2021
Public boards and city councils are anticipating a return to in-person meetings, but when and how those meetings will look and be conducted is still to be determined.

05/13/2021
Public affairs consultant and writer Jayme Ackemann has been appointed to the San Lorenzo Valley Water District Board of Directors, filling the seat vacated by Tina To, who resigned three months into a four-year term.

05/06/2021
The milestone followed a deadly pandemic, a long-term decline in births and former President Donald Trump’s immigration policies that drove away potential newcomers, according to the California Department of Finance.

05/04/2021
As she moves beyond the one-year mark of the COVID-19 pandemic, Yvette Brooks writes, she has been “thinking a lot about all of the people who volunteer in our community.”

04/29/2021
The sitting county supe won't seek reelection in 2022. No local pols have declared they will definitely run, but few have ruled out the possibility altogether.