LosGatosObserver.com

A 2,000-gallon water leak on River Street brought traffic to a standstill yesterday at the intersection of Highway 1 and Highway 9.

Students at UCSC gathered yesterday with drums and bullhorns to protest the proposed new fee hike for students. With a decision by the UC Board of Regents looming today, tuition could be raised 32 percent—$2,500—over the next two years to help cover the system’s burgeoning deficit. As part of the protest, students blocked the campus gates for five hours yesterday to show their anger at the price hike.

There’s a new website in Santa Cruz where residents can do everything from pay their parking tickets to apply for city jobs and find the nearest public restroom downtown.

Clothing designer Noa Levin shares her thoughts on what’s important, what’s really not, and how she realized a lifelong dream by coming to Santa Cruz.

During a recent visit to New York City to spend time with my sister and her family, I discovered firsthand the considerable advances in bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure of this bustling metropolis.

A local man in his twenties is in serious condition after being stabbed in a fight in Capitola yesterday afternoon.

Efrain Toledo Martinez, 54, of the Toledo Harkins Slough Ranch pleaded no contest to animal abuse and was sentenced to pay $868 to Animal Services.

Whether it’s the recent smoking ban in public spaces or the crackdown on panhandling, the Santa Cruz Chamber of Commerce says much credit should go to the community group Santa Cruz Neighbors, which supported the various new city ordinances intended to clean up the city.

Sure, unemployment is soaring, but every so often a job pops up that anyone would want. UCSC just began advertising for one of those jobs: Grateful Dead Archivist. According to the posting, “The Archivist will be part of a dynamic, collegial, and highly motivated department dedicated to building, preserving, promoting, and providing maximum access both physically and virtually to one of the Library’s most exciting and unique collections, The Grateful Dead Archive.”

The faculty of UCSC receives the lowest salaries of any faculty in the University of California undergraduate network.

Violent crime certainly seems to be on the rise in Santa Cruz these days.

Local poet David Swanger shares his work in a series appearing the first week of each month.

All across Santa Cruz, people are trying to understand the recent wave of violent crimes that culminated with the slaying of 16-year-old Tyler Tenorio.

The most comprehensive study of evolution ever was proposed this past April at a three-day meeting at UCSC.

For nine months in 1898, the lions of Tsavo held the British Empire at bay. They preyed on workers at a construction camp in Kenya, and prevented them from building the railroad.

A new contract was finally reached on Monday with 12,000 nurses at 32 Catholic Healthcare West hospitals, representing 32 hospitals in California and Nevada. 

Now that the Obama administration has announced that it will stop cracking down on medical marijuana—sellers and users—entrepreneurs across Santa Cruz want to get a piece of the action and open their own marijuana dispensaries.

School trustees voted last night to allow Executive Chef Jamie Smith to begin preparing school lunches for Santa Cruz middle school students.

On Tuesday, 30 protesters interrupted a City Council meeting, waving signs and demanding that the city do something to address public safety.

County water officials have announced that they plan to loosen strict water rationing rules that have been in place since May.

With the 6oo-acre Loma Fire now contained, and residents returning to their homes, investigators are trying to figure out what actually caused the blaze.

Another alarming statistic about the kids of Santa Cruz: according to the Santa Cruz County Community Assessment Project, about one in five kids between the ages of 4 and 20 is overweight.

When you don’t want to hear the answer to a question, you probably shouldn’t ask it. That’s a lesson that the California Healthy Kids Survey should consider, now that it has released the finding of its new poll of 6,200 fifth, seventh, ninth, and eleventh graders.

Perhaps best known for her high-key colors, historic murals and consummate plein air pastels, Ann Thiermann is a tireless connoisseur of other people’s artwork—especially of the vibrant variety of women’s artwork.

Zombies converge on Cooper St. Saturday to celebrate Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”.

In July, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger cut $16.3 million of domestic violence shelter funding from the state budget due to California’s $26 billion deficit.

The Santa Cruz Police Department has issued a $825,000 arrest warrant in connection with the stabbing death of local teen Tyler Tenorio on Friday night.

Mardi Wormhoudt, 72, the indomitable Mayor of Santa Cruz during the Loma Prieta earthquake, died yesterday after a struggle with melanoma.

Occupy California, the student group that took over a building at UCSC in September, is continuing its activities against the university authorities.

When Doug Loisel, 47, gave up his job in LA last year to become director of Santa Cruz’s Homeless Services Center, no one on the Board thought of conducting a background check, so the Sentinel did it for them.

Residents of Eureka Canyon Road are still digging out from the mudslide that resulted from Tuesday’s storm.

Santa Cruz Police are investigating the sexual assault of a 69-year-old woman that took place in her home early Wednesday morning.

Bud Benites has trouble getting to school. The 16-year-old student at Soquel High School suffers from scoliosis and is confined to a wheelchair, so the only way for him to get to classes is a specially modified van.

Santa Cruz County’s Office of Education was awarded a $1.3 million grant to curb the incidence of teenage alcoholism.

“To be or not to be, that is the question” facing Shakespeare Santa Cruz today, as the theater company decides whether to continue its 28-year run.

For the third time in a month, a woman has been groped while walking along the street in downtown Santa Cruz.

With high winds and 3-5 inches of rain expected to batter the mountains over the next few days, officials are warning that the brunt of Typhoon Melor, the first major storm of the season, will be felt right here in Santa Cruz County.

Coined four years ago at the onset of Britain’s Transition movement, the term “reskilling” refers to learning long-forgotten basic sustainability skills to help reduce energy use and preserve our natural resources. In the words of Michael Levy of Transition Santa Cruz—which, like the British movement, endeavors to prepare for a post-oil economy—“It’s based on the idea that we have lost a lot of our basic skills. All of these skills will be relevant with energy becoming scarcer and more expensive.”

The office manager for WAMM shares his enthusiasm for hunting mushrooms and wild boars and reading Robert Anton Wilson.

When Thomas Steitz, Ada Yonath, and Venkatraman Ramakrishnan received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, the faculty of UCSC was puzzled.

While the movement to legalize marijuana in California gains momentum, the CHP is continuing to prosecute people for possession of the plant.

It’s been two and a half months since Elias Sorokin was murdered near Santa Cruz in an apparent drug deal gone bad.

After 13 years in Ben Lomond, the Scottish Games and Celtic Festival hike up their kilts and take up residence in Santa Cruz. But let’s face it—Santa Cruz is a far cry from Scotland, and we cannot help but wonder if our lazy beach town is truly ready for the downpour of bagpipes, kilts and haggis. Chieftain Jeff Simpson is ready to prove us wrong.

Picture a world where the Everglades are completely flooded and the Rockies are surrounded by a barren wasteland. All of the glaciers are gone and the grizzly bear is as distant a memory as the stegosaurus. Climate change could make this world a reality, and the nation’s parks could suffer some of the harshest consequences. 

People Power gives the Rail Trail some love this Sunday with a cleanup effort.