Santa Cruz County Local News

Private company Brightline secured a $3 billion grant through the U.S. Department of Transportation toward a 218-mile high-speed rail line from Rancho Cucamonga to Las Vegas. The line would allow people to make the trip to Sin City in a little over two hours.

Christmas at Closter Park returns to Salinas for its third year with different family activities live performances, arts and crafts, real snow and raffled Christmas trees, which sponsors decorate and donate.

An Alameda County judge ruled on Nov. 22 that the city of Oakland thwarted a proposed coal export terminal. The judge will rule if the developer who sued is entitled to $159 million in damages or moving forward with the project.

The California Faculty Association is seeking a 12 percent pay increase, while university officials counter with 5 percent in each of the next three years.

With nine months’ experience in the Assembly, Liz Ortega will lead the Labor committee after a strike-filled summer and several wins for low-wage workers.

Faculty at four California State University campuses are striking this week for higher pay as part of contract negotiations. Walkouts at the first campus, Cal Poly Pomona, began Dec. 4.

A new study by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has found that approximately 3,400 kilotons of lithium are located below Imperial County in Southern California. This could produce more than $7 billion in lithium carbonate annually, helping power significant numbers of electric vehicles.

The California Department of Motor Vehicles changed its voter registration process in 2019 to put a party selection dropdown on the same page. Since then, the number of people registering as Republicans or Democrats has jumped close to 20 points.

The board of directors of Santa Cruz Community Health announced the selection of Anita Aguirre as its new CEO. Aguirre starts Jan. 8.

In 2020, the state agreed to a settlement in a lawsuit that claimed too many students were not learning to read. As part of that agreement, the state spent over $50 million on 75 schools with the lowest reading scores.

San Diego-area nonprofits and faith organizations struggle to provide for tens of thousands of migrants border agents have released on San Diego streets.

The Cabrillo College Board of Trustees will consider creating a new ad hoc committee tasked with exploring initiatives and programs in support of Indigenous students and Native American studies at the school.

Days after barring a Berkeley-based crime reporter from a news conference, the Alameda County District Attorney’s office announced that it was shifting course. The move to bar the reporter had been roundly condemned by First Amendment and press freedom groups.

The proposed “Peace Village” project—a 40-unit apartment building on the campus of Peace United Church of Christ at 900 High St. in Santa Cruz—will move forward after the Santa Cruz Planning Commission denied an appeal of the project.

Students and teachers alike are decrying the actions of the Temecula Valley Unified School District board, which became conservative in majority following the recent elections of three members. The board’s actions include banning critical race theory and mandating parental notification if their child is transgender.

One sign that a meeting between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping might have gone well: Each left handwritten messages in the guestbook where the meeting was held near San Francisco. Jinping reportedly leaves these kinds of messages only on rare occasions.

The Orange County Transportation Authority announced that work has been completed for express lanes along 16 miles of Interstate 405. The lanes, which were part of a $2.16 billion improvement project, span from Costa Mesa to the Los Angeles County line.

Hackers stole data this week from Blue Shield of California. Historically, this type of data has sometimes wound up for sale on what’s known as the dark web, the part of the internet not typically included in search engine results.

Forty-eight of California’s 52 members of the House of Representatives voted in favor of expelling George Santos. Of the other four members, all Republicans, Kevin McCarthy didn’t vote while three opposed Santos’ expulsion.

The world is heating up at an unprecedented pace, new climate data shows, and leaders gathered for the COP28 conference in Dubai must get us out of “deep trouble,” UN chief António Guterres said.