Greetings & Spring Things from Santa Cruz

An Earth Day celebration is taking place at Lake Tahoe Community College on Saturday, April 27 10AM - to 3PM.

The Firewise USA Community designation recognizes the results of the Coloma-Lotus Fire Safe Council fire resistance and defensible space programs.

The Lake Tahoe Community College (LTCC) and Lake Tahoe Unified School District (LTUSD) boards held a joint meeting at the end of March reporting on collaborative initiatives and programs.

The Tahoe Prosperity Center is calling for submissions to its Project Inventory Form of projects driving innovation in sectors such as Environmental Innovation, Health and Wellness, Outdoor/Sustainable Recreation and others.

A plan to restore Meeks Creek while continuing to support sustainable recreation opportunities has been released by the Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management and is available for public review and comment.

Nominations are open for the annual El Dorado County Senior of the Year award to be presented on May 21 by the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors.

Rising costs to access public docks and piers for passenger boarding of local fishing and boat charters are lead to requests for options before the South Lake Tahoe City Council at a recent meeting.

Thirty years after prisoners with disabilities sued the state of California and 25 years after a federal court first ordered accommodations, a judge found that state prison and parole officials still are not doing enough to help deaf and blind prisoners.

Anti-tax groups in California have qualified a measure for the November ballot that would make raising state and local taxes much more difficult. It’s a showdown that’s been building for nearly five decades.

I thought my journalism and others’ could change policy, perhaps even inspire a New Deal-style response equal to the challenge. Such was my naiveté.

Tenants in many new privately owned, low-income units will be protected from double-digit increases. So will some in existing units, after a state committee on affordable housing imposed a rent cap.

Not filling open positions in state government, cutting a school facilities program and several climate initiatives, delaying funding for public transit — these are some of the first steps that California officials plan to take to deal with a looming multibillion-dollar budget deficit.

The move puts the fate of AB 2222 in question, but supporters insist that there is room to negotiate changes that can help tackle the state's literacy crisis.

It quickly became clear that Elon Musk’s SpaceX was responsible for the show. The lights were a Falcon 9 rocket carrying 22 new Starlink satellites into orbit. The rocket blasted off from Vandenberg Space Force Base at 7:30 p.m., and it’s trail was visible from Los Angeles to Joshua Tree National Park.