Santa Cruz County News, Traffic & Weather

Updated information, including news and Explainers, about progress in building the 32-mile stretch of the Monterey Bay Sanctuary Scenic Trail in Santa Cruz County.

In advance of Earth Day, we consider radical changes to the California Environmental Quality Act, and the surprising history of the Coastal Commission.

In which we focus on California public education.

Michael Lewis's new book celebrates the heroes of the federal bureaucracy currently under attack.

An honest call for overhauling our governments—and an intro a couple of institutions that hold governments accountable.

Civil Grand Juries are a powerful means by which ordinary citizens investigate local governments and provide recommendations for improvement.

Introducing the people who keep the food supply safe, make sure consumers get what they pay for, and protect the public from invasive pests.

California feeds the nation and the world. Not just with culture and technology, but with food.

California stands as America’s agricultural powerhouse, growing half of its fruits and vegetables. Here’s how California farming has shaped the state, from the early missions to today’s “factories in the field.”

California women have played a significant role in shaping every major industry within the U.S. and the world. Here are a few of them.

We salute the women of the world, who are still struggling with that stubborn pay gap and other vestiges of misogyny as we end the first quarter of the twenty first century.

It's almost spring—and civic engagement is in the air.

The state’s new digital deliberation platform, modeled by a Taiwanese champion of democracy, is meant to fight polarization with conversation.

California's Poet Laureate talks civic engagement, and bipartisan activists rekindle the art of political conversation.

In a time of unprecedented polarization, Braver Angels encourages citizens to do something completely revolutionary: listen to each other.

Lee Herrick explains to the Los Angeles Times why he’s always traveling California.

SC Vice Mayor Shebreh Kalantari-Johnson on centering health in policy making, and her path to politics.

For those of you who might enjoy a glimpse of the inner workings of local politics, here's a conversation with Shebreh Kalantari-Johnson, the inspired vice-mayor of Santa Cruz, California.

Not long ago, California's Legislative Black Caucus made history. Here's what they accomplished, and how it fits into California history going all the way back.

With the new year fully underway, and government officials under attack back east, we offer a defense of local public servants.