News Sat, March 20, 2010
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Pogonip Rangers in Danger
Mar 16, 2010, by Curtis Cartier News
A standard-issue Santa Cruz park ranger uniform comes with a forest green shirt and slacks, hiking boots, a wide-brimmed hat and a tool belt containing a Leatherman multi-tool, a flashlight, a notepad, a two-way radio and a can of pepper spray. Nowhere in any pocket, holster or clip is a device designed to assist a ranger in a gunfight. So when Rangers Brian Watson and Gar Eidam stumbled onto an illegal campsite in the Pogonip last month and found $850 worth of heroin and a loaded .357 magnum handgun, they radioed in for help from the Santa Cruz Police Parks Unit. With slideshow.
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Police Raid Watsonville Stores for Contraband
Mar 16, 2010, by Staff NewsKhalil Rahim didn’t know there was gang violence in Watsonville, because he lives in San Jose. At least that’s what he told the police, after they raided his discount cigarette store and confiscated brass knuckles and switchblades.
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Layoffs, Furloughs on the Way for Santa Cruz County Schools
Mar 16, 2010, by Danny Wool News
Over 23,000 pink slips are being sent to everyone who works in education across California this week. Almost no one is immune, regardless of whether they’re a principal or a janitor. Though final notices will only be sent out in the middle of May, just using last year as an indicator suggests that some 60 percent of the people receiving the pink slips will end up losing their jobs.
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Norse Gets Another Day in Court
Mar 15, 2010, by Danny Wool News
Someone ought to give Robert Norse a copy of How to Win Friends and Influence People. Back in 2002, Norse was ejected from a City Council meeting for giving a Nazi salute. In 2004 he was ejected yet again for parading in City Council chambers. In both cases, Norse was advocating on behalf of the city’s homeless. He sued City Council, claiming that his right to free speech was violated, but this was dismissed in November by a three-member panel of the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Now a majority of justices on the court have agreed to reconsider his case.
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Forbes to UCSC: Hubba Hubba!
Mar 12, 2010, by Danny Wool News
Some schools, like the University of Bologna or Oxford, have traditions stretching back centuries. Their ancient buildings are the centerpiece of their cities, and those cities are recognized as international treasures. But as the Roman poet Juvenal pointed out, “Never does nature say one thing and wisdom another.” That is why a rustic setting is so ideal for an institution of higher learning. It is also probably why Forbes magazine listed UCSC as one of the most beautiful campuses in the world.
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Arana Gulch Path Back to Drawing Board
Mar 12, 2010, by Curtis Cartier News
Those that listened closely Thursday evening around 6:45pm might have heard a dull thud that echoed around the county. That was the sound of several dozen jaws hitting the ground inside the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors Chambers when the California Coastal Commission voted unanimously against the city’s Arana Gulch Master Plan and its controversial paved bicycle path, a decade and a half in the planning.
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Sober Living House Manager Goes to Clink
Mar 11, 2010, by Staff NewsDonald Carl Peter got off easy. The former manager of a sober-living house in Santa Cruz already had 26 convictions against him dating back all the way to 1980.
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County Jobless Rate Sets New Record
Mar 11, 2010, by Danny Wool NewsThe unemployment figures for January are out, and they are startling. About 15 percent of the population of Santa Cruz—almost one in every six people—is jobless. By way of comparison, the jobless rate in all of California is 13.2 percent; nationwide, it is 10.6 percent. According to the Employment Development Department, the figure is significantly higher than the past record, 14.6, back in 1993.
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Tuesday evening, the Santa Cruz City Council voted to limit the number of medical marijuana dispensaries in the city to two, effectively putting a moratorium on any new pot clubs.
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Santa Cruz Hit by Spate of Vandalism
Mar 10, 2010, by Danny Wool NewsPolice throughout Santa Cruz County are on the lookout for a group of vandals that has been smashing home windows with rocks.
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UC-Santa Cruz Students Mull Future Prospects
Mar 10, 2010, by Curtis Cartier News
Matthew Moore didn’t carry a sign at last week’s student protest at UCSC. With a walking stick in one hand and his dog’s leash in the other, he stood in a grassy field near the university entrance at High and Bay streets and watched while hundreds of his fellow students demanded the university lower its fees and restaff its departments.
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San Jose to Host International Podcar Forum
Mar 09, 2010, by Danny Wool News
Most people don’t know it yet, but San Jose is widely acclaimed as a world leader in podcar development, with Mountain View coming in at a close second. That’s why the city has been chosen to host “Podcar City: San Jose, Innovating Sustainable Communities,” an international summit on electric podcars, organized by the International Institute of Sustainable Transportation. The event will take place at City Hall, October 27-29.
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Local Schools Don’t Make the Grade
Mar 09, 2010, by Danny Wool NewsYesterday Santa Cruz.com reported that school administrators were anxiously awaiting “The List” of “persistently low-achieving schools” across the state. The list is out, pending final approval by the California Department of Education, and the Bay Area did not do so well. About 20 schools, three of them in Santa Cruz County, found themselves on the List.
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Violent Weekend in Watsonville
Mar 08, 2010, by Danny Wool NewsA 7-year-old boy was shot and a 20-year-old man was stabbed in the Cabrillo Lanes bowling alley in Watsonville on Friday. Both victims are listed in stable condition. Police arrested Jordan James Micias, 20, and Abraham Santoyo, 18, for the attack, charging them with gang-motivated attempted murder.
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School Administrators Wait for “The List”
Mar 08, 2010, by Danny Wool News
It has all the tension of Oscar night, except there is no little gold statue in the end. In fact, the results are worse than winning a Razzie. School administrators and teachers across California are waiting breathlessly today to see if they made “The List,” and are cited as the “187 worst performing schools in the state.” Superintendents and principals have already been informed, but for everyone else, the news will come at 10am this morning.
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The Rad Girls Punk Santa Cruz
Mar 05, 2010, by Curtis Cartier News
Ramona Cash is a cute, punky looking brunette you’d expect to see modeling skirts and bikinis in a skateboard fashion catalog. Over coffee in downtown Santa Cruz, she parts a section of her professionally highlighted hair to reveal an inch-wide heart-shaped bald spot from where her friends precisely ripped the hair from her scalp.
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Rally Highlights K-12 Woes
Mar 05, 2010, by Maria Grusauskas News
As a small procession made up mostly of university students made its way down Pacific Avenue yesterday, some onlookers were unimpressed.
“Seems pretty meager for a protest,” one man said, watching as a banner passed that read “We are the Budget Cuts.” What he, and perhaps many Santa Cruz residents, didn’t know is that the meager procession had broken off from a group of at least 400 students, faculty and workers who had been picketing since daybreak at the main entrance to UCSC. In a rare coalescence of solidarity between the town and the gowns, the university protest was, in the form of this small group, merging with a community demonstration to save public education. -
Students Protest Fee Hikes at UCSC
Mar 04, 2010, by Curtis Cartier News
Fed up with rising fee costs and slashed department budgets, UCSC students staged a massive protest on campus Thursday as students across the nation demonstrated against what many see as higher education becoming unaffordable. With slide show.
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Police Prepare for Student Protests
Mar 04, 2010, by Danny Wool NewsThe SCPD has issued a traffic advisory warning drivers that they could face delays getting around town today.
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School Board Approves Major Layoffs
Mar 04, 2010, by Danny Wool NewsAt a meeting yesterday, the Santa Cruz City Schools Board of Trustees agreed to lay off or reduce the hours of as many as 130 full-time and temporary teachers to make up for its $5.2 million deficit. The decision came after the teachers unions’ refused to offer any concessions on pay and furloughs. Teachers affected include 57 full-time and 23 part-time K-12 educators and 50 adult education teachers. The Board also voted to cut the hours on every adult education program in the county in a move described by Board President Rachel Dewey Thorsett as “the worst case scenario.”
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SCPD to Start Texting
Mar 03, 2010, by Staff NewsThe SCPD has signed up with Nixle, a free and secure alert notification system, which will allow officers to send text messages to registered users.
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Knives Replacing Fists in Santa Cruz
Mar 03, 2010, by Danny Wool NewsSometimes it seems like stabbings are a daily occurrence in Santa Cruz. Even the police are picking up on it now. SCPD Spokesperson Zach Friend now says that, “As we saw with the tragic death of Tyler Tonario, when you engage in a verbal altercation that you maybe think is just a verbal altercation, or could be just a simple fist fight, it’s now turning into tragic stabbings more and more.” Other police officers are pointing out that knives have become the weapon of choice among teens, replacing good old-fashioned fist-fights.
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Fight Over Arana Gulch Bike Path Comes to a Head
Mar 03, 2010, by Curtis Cartier News
On a sunlit winter’s day following a long and rainy week, Jean Brocklebank and Michael Lewis trudge through the soggy soil and tall grasses of Arana Gulch in Santa Cruz, talking about their group’s upcoming case before the California Coastal Commission on March 11. Suddenly Brocklebank stops and lays down the situation as she, and doubtless other members of the Friends of Arana Gulch, sees it. “This not a case of environmentalists versus environmentalists,” she says. With slide show.
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Santa Cruz Libraries Search Desperately for Solutions
Mar 02, 2010, by Danny Wool News
It’s no secret that Santa Cruz’s public library system is facing a deficit. Just about every public service in the county is. The real problem is that they don’t know what to do about it anymore.
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Cabrillo College Faces $3.2 Million in Cuts
Mar 02, 2010, by Danny Wool News
The school’s board met last night to discuss strategies to deal with $3.2 million in state funding cuts, with disabled and disadvantaged students among the first to suffer. Programs at the new Stroke and Disability Center and the Extended Opportunity Programs and Services assisting students facing language, social, or economic challenges will be reduced considerably. According to state law, faculty and staff to be laid off because of the budget cuts must be notified by March 15.
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UCSC Officials Shocked by Noose Image
Mar 02, 2010, by Danny Wool News
Could racial tensions be seething beneath the surface of UCSC. Some school officials are worried that they are after an image of a noose was found scrawled on a bathroom door in the Earth and Marine Sciences Building. The image was accompanied by the words “lynch” and “San Diego,” the latter a reference to racial tensions at UCSD two weeks ago.
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Cove Britton, Architect, to Challenge District 3 Supervisor Neal Coonerty
Mar 01, 2010, by Jessica Lussenhop NewsBritton, a long-time critic of county politics and planning, says he decided to throw his hat in the ring to prevent Coonerty from running unopposed.
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Lowell Darling to Run for Governor, 32 Years After First Attempt
Mar 01, 2010, by Jessica Lussenhop News
Darling House owner’s brother returns to California from overseas to tackle the two-thirds majority problem and his old opponent, Jerry Brown. With video.
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Gamers Lured to UCSC
Mar 01, 2010, by Staff NewsGamers from around the world are being lured to UCSC, not to play but to learn.
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Tsunami Hits Santa Cruz
Feb 27, 2010, by Curtis Cartier News
The 8.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Chile early Saturday prompted tsunami warnings along the entire Pacific coast of the United States. In Santa Cruz, beaches were closed as a precaution. That didn’t stop hundreds of onlookers from crowding the Municipal Wharf and West Cliff Drive in an attempt to see the oncoming waves, which began to hit shore around 1:45pm.
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Tsunami Advisory for Santa Cruz County
Feb 27, 2010, by Staff NewsBeaches throughout the county were closed Saturday following an 8.8 magnitude quake in Chile.
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Santa Cruz Council Finally Sees Homeless Census
Feb 26, 2010, by Curtis Cartier News
On a rainy January morning more than 13 months ago, teams of local government workers and volunteers tromped through the soggy corners of the county and counted homeless people as part of the 2009 Santa Cruz County Homeless Census and Survey.
On a similarly rainy afternoon just last week, the fruits of that effort were finally presented to the Santa Cruz City Council. The reason for the delay? “Time and availability.” -
Moratorium on Cussing in Statehouse
Feb 26, 2010, by Danny Wool NewsSure, the state’s budget is a mess, unemployment is skyrocketing, and Anthem Blue Shield is making its customers sick over its proposed price hike. That’s no excuse for dropping the f-bomb. Deficits be gosh-darned!
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Coastal Commission Staff Approves Bike Path
Feb 26, 2010, by Staff NewsThe controversial Arana Gulch project passed its penultimate major hurdle yesterday when it received a nod of approval in a report by the Coastal Commission.
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Prom Dress Drive Launched
Feb 26, 2010, by Danny Wool NewsSanta Cruz City Councilmember Tony Madrigal is concerned about how the current recession will have a lasting impact on teenagers. In these very formative years of their lives, many are forced to do without such basic staples as food, shelter, iPods, Wii’s, unlimited texting and clothing. That is why he has teamed up with Classic Cleaners to launch a community effort to help needy teens get to their proms in the style that they are accustomed to. They are launching the Prom Dress Drive.
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UCSC Students Receive Summons
Feb 26, 2010, by Staff NewsThe 45 UCSC students who occupied Kerr Hall in response to a 30 percent tuition hike have been summoned to appear before a council.
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Free Downtown Parking Over
Feb 25, 2010, by Staff NewsLike pull-tabs and 8-tracks, free parking will soon be a thing of the past in downtown Santa Cruz.
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Twitter Gets Spiritual
Feb 24, 2010, by Danny Wool News
“Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.” It’s a quote attributed to Tenzin Gyatso, known around the world as the 14th Dalai Lama. It’s also just 58 characters long, perfectly tweet-sized, as are so many others of the Dalai Lama’s insights. More quotes like this could soon become available from the source himself—on Twitter. It’s not just for devotees either. As the Dalai Lama said: “If you have a particular faith or religion, that is good. But you can survive without it” (88 characters).
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Grateful Dead Archive to Feature in ‘The Atlantic’
Feb 24, 2010, by Danny Wool News
UCSC’s Grateful Dead Archive hasn’t even opened for business yet and it’s already getting plenty of attention. It will be the focus of a feature article in the March edition of The Atlantic. The article spotlights the academic and scholarly impact that the archive will have on a wide range of disciplines, some of them unexpected. Sure, music historians and ethnomusicologists will be interested, and the Dead were a historical phenomenon—the voice of a generation.
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Women Ventures Project Training Women for Construction Jobs
Feb 24, 2010, by Staff NewsThe Women Ventures Project in Santa Cruz County is using federal stimulus funding to train women for careers in construction.
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Replacing Santa Cruz City Manager Dick Wilson
Feb 24, 2010, by Curtis Cartier News
In a city where constant change is the only guarantee, Santa Cruzans have been able to count on one thing for the last 28 years: that City Manager Dick Wilson would show up to work every day, a steady hand at the tiller keeping the city on course. During his tenure, the tall, soft-spoken Wilson answered to more than a dozen city councils, steering city staff through an earthquake, an expanding university and more budget crises than just the most recent one. When Wilson retires in July, he’ll be leaving the Santa Cruz City Council with what Mayor Mike Rotkin calls “the most important decision the council will make in its tenure.
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Hands-free Law Could Be Extended to Cyclists
Feb 23, 2010, by Danny Wool News
Cyclists talking or texting on their cell phones could soon face the same penalties as drivers if State Representative Joe Simitian has his way. The author of California’s hands-free law believes that cyclists “should have the same rights, laws and responsibilities” as drivers when it comes to following the rules of the road.
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15-Year-Old Arrested in Santa Cruz Stabbing
Feb 23, 2010, by Staff NewsA 15-year-old boy was arrested in a stabbing that took place on Encinal Street yesterday. Police are still investigating what happened, though they say that the boy and his victim, a 31-year-old man, were involved in a physical argument before the boy stabbed him.
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John Laird’s Run for Senate Office in Doubt
Feb 22, 2010, by Jessica Lussenhop News
After Sen. Maldonado failed to be confirmed as lieutenant governor two weeks ago, Laird’s plans to run for his seat are up in the air.
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Teen Center Fighting to Survive
Feb 22, 2010, by Staff NewsMoney is running out on the Teen Center, and unless it can raise $75,000, it may have to close its doors for good.
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UCSC Students to Admin: Non, Nyet, Nein!
Feb 22, 2010, by Staff NewsForeign language students at UCSC and the faculty who teach them are up in arms over a decision by the school to cut back on foreign language instruction.
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Too Much Booze in Santa Cruz?
Feb 19, 2010, by Danny Wool NewsYesterday news organizations reported that the recent health report for California counties noted that the prevalence of liquor stores per 10,000 people in Santa Cruz County is twice as high as in any of the neighboring counties.
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Dinner Train Project Threatened
Feb 19, 2010, by Staff NewsThe proposed dinner train between Santa Cruz and Davenport could be in trouble. The original plan was to use state funding to purchase the train tracks and add hiking and bicycle paths along the tracks. Any planned passenger service would be postponed until some future date.
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Santa Cruz County Good ‘n’ Healthy
Feb 18, 2010, by Danny Wool NewsSanta Cruz County ranked 8th in a survey of the healthiest places to live in California.
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Callers Keep Police Busy
Feb 17, 2010, by Staff NewsThe SCPD is reporting that the number of calls it received in 2009 was the most ever for a single year—85,774, or 1.5 calls for every resident.
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State Budget Woes Take Toll on Highway Improvements
Feb 17, 2010, by Staff NewsImproving existing infrastructures is listed as top priority by everyone in government, from the president to the governor to the mayor.
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Chihuahua Faces Mountain Lion … and Loses
Feb 17, 2010, by Staff NewsIt’s pretty much a no-brainer. Tough and yappy as they may be, chihuahuas have very little chance against larger predators like mountain lions.
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Watsonville’s Overtime Blues
Feb 17, 2010, by Jessica Lussenhop NewsIt may be the dead of winter, but summer is already on the minds of Watsonville city employees—specifically the June budget and the potential $5 million hole in it. At the Feb. 9 city council meeting, financial director Marc Pimentel blamed declining property taxes and the state and national budget crisis, but he also pointed out that police and fire overtime were a major stress on the city coffers.
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Hooray! Santa Cruz Is One Of The Happiest Places In America
Feb 16, 2010, by Danny Wool News
Santa Cruz is a pretty happy place. In fact, it’s happier than most major cities and towns in the U.S., ranking 14th overall. That was the finding of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, which was released yesterday.
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One Big Happy Family
Feb 16, 2010, by Danny Wool News
It turns out that Obama and Bush are cousins—umpteenth removed, but cousins nonetheless. And their extended family includes everyone from Bill Clinton to the Roosevelts to Lincoln to Jefferson to Washington, etc.
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Pipe Bomb Found On Santa Cruz Beach
Feb 16, 2010, by Staff News
A pipe bomb found on the beach yesterday was taken to Central Fire Station No. 1, where it was finally detonated. It took two hours for the local bomb squad to complete the task.
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Mammoth Waves Test Pro Surfers At Mavericks
Feb 13, 2010, by Curtis Cartier News
South African Chris Bertish won first place in the Mavericks Surf Contest after conquering huge 40-foot waves that many surfers said were the biggest ever for the contest. With slideshow.
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$16.5 Million Grant Awarded to Solar Financing Program
Feb 12, 2010, by Curtis Cartier News
The wait is over. The California Energy Commission announced Thursday that a $16.5 million grant would be awarded to the 14-county alternative energy financing program CaliforniaFIRST.
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If the new plan succeeds in expediting stalled state funding to buy the Union Pacific rail line from Davenport to Pajaro, the recreational use of the line could be operational in two years.
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United Way to Spearhead 211 Drive
Feb 12, 2010, by Staff NewsSanta Cruz County has been unable to raise enough money for the 211 service, which connects callers to health and human service assistance.
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Merchants Offer Ideas to Revitalize Downtown
Feb 12, 2010, by Staff NewsFed up with panhandlers and loiterers, downtown merchants are suggesting their own kind of vigilante justice.
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Is the Lindbergh Baby Living in Santa Cruz?
Feb 11, 2010, by Danny Wool NewsPaul Husted doesn’t go by his old name anymore. He’s had it legally changed to Charles Lindbergh, Jr. The homeless former insurance salesman, who now lives with his wife Adua in an Ocean Street motel room, claims that he is the long lost son of aviator Charles Lindbergh.
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Report: Open Primaries Offer Only Partial Fix
Feb 10, 2010, by Jessica Lussenhop NewsThe Public Policy Institute of California concluded that if passed in June, Sen. Abel Maldonado’s ballot measure would do little to increase bipartisanship.
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AMGEN Stage To End At Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk
Feb 10, 2010, by Curtis Cartier News
This year, stage three of the AMGEN Tour of California is set for Tuesday, May 18, and ends a few blocks south of our previously prime location - on Beach Street, in front of the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.
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“See How the Sacred Old Flamingoes Come…”
Feb 10, 2010, by Danny Wool NewsMysterious, tagged flamingo appears in Elkhorn Slough.
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Santa Cruz County Investors Think Local
Feb 10, 2010, by Jessica Lussenhop News
Everyone loves to hate the big banks these days. So much so that a national movement called Move Your Money, which encourages individuals to take their money out of our nation’s biggest banks and place it with community banks and credit unions, has enjoyed a groundswell of support since it came out a month ago. Even local banks have noticed.
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Two New Faces Join Santa Cruz Council Race
Feb 09, 2010, by Staff NewsBonnie Moor, a bus driver, best known as the face of the United Transportation Union Local 23 and Mark Halfmoon, a local TV personality, who hosted the Community TV show “Voices” are both running for election to the Santa Cruz City Council.
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Anna Deavere Smith to Speak at UCSC MLK Convocation
Feb 08, 2010, by Curtis Cartier News
Anna Deavere Smith, a celebrated actress, author and playwright known for using documentary approaches to art, will deliver the keynote address at Santa Cruz’s 26th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Convocation on Feb. 11.
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Jogger Finds Body Near Railroad Tracks
Feb 08, 2010, by Staff NewsA jogger running along the railroad tracks on Santa Cruz’s Westside this Saturday found the body of a UCSC student.
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UCSC Student Has Too Much Time on His Hands
Feb 08, 2010, by Danny Wool News -
New Use for Sentinel’s Old Home
Feb 08, 2010, by Staff NewsThe former offices of the Santa Cruz Sentinel are about to get new tenants. The Church Street landmark is going to be taken over by Internet service provider Cruzio Internet and the nonprofit Ecology Action. In addition, two commercial spaces totaling 13,000 square feet will be rented out to retailers or as office space.
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Arrest Made in Double Murder
Feb 05, 2010, by Staff NewsSanta Cruz police arrested Jaime Galdamez-Guevara last night for the double murder of Alejandro Nava-Gonzalez and Oscar Ventura on Jan. 23.
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Three Arrested After Liquor Store Assault
Feb 05, 2010, by Staff NewsTwo men and a woman have been arrested for assault with a deadly weapon and battery after attacking two women at a liquor store on the Westside early Thursday morning.
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The Carnivore’s Agenda
Feb 04, 2010, by Gabe Meline News
It’s another Monday night south of Market in San Francisco. As the jukebox blares Joy Division, the Bloodhound Bar is shoulder to shoulder with thirty-somethings sipping from Mason jars of bacon-infused whiskey cocktails. Beards, tattoos, bandanas and black T-shirts mingle. Suddenly, the back door flies open. Ryan Farr and Taylor Boetticher emerge, carrying giant goat and lamb carcasses high above their heads. With slideshow
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Signs Naming Creeks to Go Up Downtown
Feb 04, 2010, by Staff NewsSigns Naming Creeks to Go Up Downtown
Most people in Santa Cruz know when they’re crossing the San Lorenzo River, but water about smaller rivulets like Branciforte Creek? There are 200 00 named creeks and rivers throughout the county, but few people know the names of all of them, and only 36 are marked. -
What’s Really Happening with County Jobs?
Feb 04, 2010, by Staff NewsOn Tuesday, SantaCruz.com cited news source saying that “Officially, 150 jobs were added to Santa Cruz over 2009, with 86 of them in the final quarter.” Of course, “County officials [were] more optimistic, saying that as many as 362 jobs were either created or saved last year through the county’s departments alone.” For some reason, this doesn’t match up with a state report claiming that the county added 600 new jobs in local government in December, compared to November. The new jobs were supposedly added to county government, city government, school districts and community colleges.
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School Board Considering Drastic Cuts
Feb 04, 2010, by Staff NewsAt its meeting yesterday the board of the Pajaro Valley Unified School District debated a series of drastic cuts to overcome its $5.5 million deficit.
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SCPD Deputy Chief Patty Sapone Calls It Quits
Feb 03, 2010, by Curtis Cartier News
On Feb. 5, Patty Sapone turns in her gun and badge for retirement. She leaves as the first woman to be promoted all the way through the ranks and the longest-serving female officer in SCPD history.
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While confirmation is not yet a sure thing, contenders for his senate seat are already lining up.
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Comcast Admits to Bill Errors
Feb 03, 2010, by Staff NewsThere’s some good news for Comcast customers living outside of the city of Santa Cruz.
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Child Porn Case May Extend to Santa Cruz
Feb 03, 2010, by Staff NewsThe SCPD is looking for people who know Richard Werner Schweich.
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Santa Cruz Prosecutor Says: No Hoodia, No Diet Pills
Feb 02, 2010, by Danny Wool News
A Santa Cruz prosecutor discovered that the weight-loss supplement DEX L-10, touted for its Hoodia Gorodoni, had about as much Hoodia in it as a Coke bottle. Prosecutor Kelly Walker took the manufacturers to court to prevent Breakthrough Engineered Nutrition Inc. from selling their pill in California.
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Progressive Jewish Group Comes to Santa Cruz
Feb 01, 2010, by Curtis Cartier News
“Pro-Israel, pro-peace” may not sound like a controversial mantra for a political action committee, but in the world of Israeli-American foreign policy advocates, it’s loaded with meaning.
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Is Santa Cruz Rail Line in Limbo?
Feb 01, 2010, by Staff NewsThere was some bad news for Sierra Northern Railway, the freight train company that runs the Santa Cruz rail line.
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UCSC Postpones Cage-Free Policy
Jan 30, 2010, by Jessica Lussenhop News
After Prop. 2 passed, banning battery-cage egg production in the state, UC-Santa Cruz senior Eric Deardorff and his group Banana Slugs for Animals approached dining services about making it campus-wide policy to serve only cage-free eggs. As of this fall, it appeared that talks with Director of Dining Services Scott Berlin were going extremely well.
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Three Arrested in Pogonip Drug Sting
Jan 29, 2010, by Curtis Cartier News
Santa Cruz police arrested three suspected drug dealers in the Pogonip Thursday after a sting operation was conducted, the Santa Cruz Sentinel reports. The men, 23-year-old Alfonso Marquez, 23-year-old Rey Antonio and 31-year-old John Pitts, were charged with crimes related to heroin, methamphetamine and marijuana.
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Adult Education on the Chopping Block
Jan 29, 2010, by Staff NewsFaced with a $5.4 million deficit, schools in Santa Cruz are looking for quick cuts. Among the most vulnerable targets are adult education programs, especially those focusing on helping older students get their GEDs
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Evictions Up in Santa Cruz
Jan 29, 2010, by Staff NewsEvictions are rising in Santa Cruz County, largely because of the foreclosure crisis. There were 367 evictions in the county in 2009, compared with just 293 in 2007. More worrying perhaps is that almost one-third—114—were the result of foreclosures.
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Local Groups March to ‘Take Back the Streets’
Jan 29, 2010, by Danny Wool NewsLast night, some 70 members of women’s and neighborhood advocacy groups joined with community leaders and the local police department in a protest march against violence.
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A Cell Tax for Santa Cruz?
Jan 28, 2010, by Curtis Cartier News
With local unemployment at 13.5 percent, it doesn’t take a scientific poll to tell most people that raising city taxes might be a tough sell. But Santa Cruz city leaders are not most people.
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City Manager to Retire
Jan 28, 2010, by Staff News
Longtime Santa Cruz City Manager Dick Wilson announced that he will be retiring at the end of July. Wilson served in the position for the past 28 years. In that time, he oversaw the reconstruction of the city’s downtown after it was devastated by the Loma Prieta earthquake. More recently, he has been forced to contend with a declining municipal budget, due to dwindling tax revenues.
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Motorcycle Clubs Fight It Out Downtown
Jan 28, 2010, by Staff NewsViolence in Santa Cruz took a turn yesterday when a group of local Hell’s Angels faced off with bikers from Vagos.
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Survey: Californians Bummed About State of the State
Jan 27, 2010, by Jessica Lussenhop News
According to the latest survey by the Public Policy Institute of California, the Golden State is in an awfully foul mood going into 2010 and the upcoming election season. Two out of every three of those polled said California is headed for “bad economic times” in the next 12 months, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has a very low approval rating of 30 percent. The legislature is even worse off, earning a scant 18 percent approval, just shy of the all–time record low of 17 percent. Poll respondents were also very gloomy about the legislators’ ability to work together in 2010—65 percent say they will not.
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County Names New Planning Director
Jan 27, 2010, by Jessica Lussenhop NewsKathleen Molloy Previsich will replace outgoing director Tom Burns at the helm of the Santa Cruz County Planning Department on March 1.
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2009 Crime Statistics for Watsonville
Jan 27, 2010, by Jessica Lussenhop NewsWatsonville’s newly minted police chief, Manny Solano, presented the Watsonville city council with a statistical synopsis of crime in 2009.
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Fight over Rent Control Could Head Back to Court
Jan 27, 2010, by Staff NewsYesterday the County’s Board of Supervisors rejected a request by Paul Goldstone, owner of the Alimur Mobile Home Park, that he be allowed to sell of individual plots that are currently rent-controlled.
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There’s More Water, but Is It Enough?
Jan 27, 2010, by Staff News
It’s been raining for eight straight days, and many of the dried up riverbeds across the county have suddenly come to life again.
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Santa Cruz City Council Tackles Booze and Dope
Jan 27, 2010, by Staff News
At the Santa Cruz City Council meeting on Wednesday, city leaders vowed to crack down on problem bars and extend a limit on pot clubs.
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Santa Cruz Medi-Pot Collective Settles With Feds
Jan 26, 2010, by Jessica Lussenhop News
The morning of Friday, Jan. 22 was a long time coming for Michael Corral. As he walked up to the doors of the federal courthouse in downtown San Jose, members of the Wo/Men’s Alliance for Medical Marijuana, the collective he helped found in Santa Cruz in 1996, were slowly gathering outside the glass doors. Some leaned on canes and walkers. One member had a seeing–eye dog, another a wheelchair.
“It’s a draw. They didn’t win, we didn’t win,” Corral said. “This has gone on so long, it was time for it to end.” -
No Plane Crash in Santa Cruz Mountains
Jan 26, 2010, by Staff NewsFor two days, rescuers combed the Santa Cruz Mountains, looking for a downed plane and its pilot. On Monday, the FAA announced that the report of a crash was “not credible.”
