Santa Cruz County Local News

Lawmakers approved two bills to allow some community colleges to provide bachelor’s degrees in nursing. That’s setting up another conflict with the California State University, which already offers these bachelor’s degrees.

In their September 3 meeting, the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission named senior transportation engineer Sarah Christensen as the new executive director.

A proposed new law proposed for the City of Santa Cruz would prohibit the unsanctioned drop-off of homeless people in Santa Cruz, as allegedly occurred recently when two San Joaquin Valley police officers dropped a homeless person off in the city.

In their August 20 meeting, the Salinas City Council approved development of three new tenent protection ordinances following years of complaints from local renters.

California has allocated more than $20 billion to alleviate the state’s homelessness crisis since Gavin Newsom became governor in 2019, but there’s precious little data on how the money was spent and what effect it’s had, other than the number of unhoused people has continued to climb.

The California School Dashboard makes it hard for the public to see how schools and districts are performing over multiple years, concludes the report's lead author.

Information about how the state’s K-12 students are performing is located on several sites and is difficult to understand, a new report finds.

Inland communities with big population booms will experience the most extreme heat days under climate change projections. The combination puts more people at risk — and many cities are unprepared.

California voters passed Proposition 22 four years ago. The ballot initiative, backed by Uber, Lyft and other gig companies, promised the state’s more than 1 million gig workers new benefits, such as guaranteed minimum earnings, health care stipends, occupational accident insurance and accidental death insurance.

Almost everyone in California has health insurance. That trend reflects about a decade and a half of policymaking designed to expand access to health care. The state’s average uninsured rate has dropped from nearly one in four Californians in 2009 to less than one in ten today.

The Times Publishing Group Q&A with the candidates running for Scotts Valley City Council.

A report on the August 22 meeting held for public feedback on the three options presented for the Scotts Valley Town Center development.

The Times Publishing Group Q&A with the candidates running for the Santa Cruz Board of Supervisors District 2 seat in November.

The Times Publishing Group Q&A with four candidates running for Capitola City Council in November.

California’s unemployment rate, 5.2% of its labor force in July, is no longer the nation’s highest after months of having that dubious distinction.

CalFire received the first of five planes promised by the federal government, a former Coast Guard C-130 Hercules air tanker.

Unable to jam through bills he says will lower California gas prices, Gov. Newsom calls the Legislature back into session.

A large apartment complex in San Rafael’s majority-Latino Canal neighborhood. Latino families in Marin County are far more likely than white families to have trouble making ends meet, a new report finds.

The Legislature is willing to guarantee $500 million annually to affordable housing developers, but with a caveat.

Early warning systems save lives during disasters, but a recent FEMA survey found that only a third of people are signed up. Use this resource to find your county’s emergency alert sign-up page.