Hey, Santa Cruz — here’s your nightly pandemic rundown. Our Mallory Pickett and Tulsi Kamath dug into the nursing home vaccination data, and it backs up what most of us had been hearing anecdotally for awhile: Very few of our most vulnerable seniors have gotten their first dose of the vaccine. And while the positivity […]
Mark Conley
Follow Mark Conley on: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook. Mark joins Lookout after 14 years at the Mercury News and Bay Area News Group, where he served as Deputy Sports Editor on a staff that covered three World Series, three Super Bowls, five NBA Finals, a Stanley Cup Final, six Olympic Games and three U.S. Opens over that span. He led enterprise coverage and special projects, and guided the Merc’s premium NFL and MLB magazines to five straight years of top APSE honors.Mark chaired a digital innovation committee and partook in the Table Stakes program that led to the newsroom’s establishment of a digital subscription team and a product development approach to coverage. He helped build brands around Pac-12 and high schools coverage via robust newsletters, social engagement, promotional deals and targeted audience content. Both coverage areas became top digital subscription drivers in the sports department — and the newsroom as a whole.Mark has lived in Santa Cruz County — Westside, Eastside, Midtown and now Capitola — for more than 20 years and has a passion for seeing journalism restored in the place he lives and loves.“This county is such a special place, and it’s as much about the people who choose to live here as the magical geography,” he says. “I’m looking forward to helping tell the stories of Santa Cruz County.”
Posted inCOVID 2022
COVID PM: Good news for the 65+ crowd & what that positivity rate means
Howdy, Santa Cruz — welcome back to our daily pandemic roundup. If you are 65 or older, there was vaccine news that perked your ears up today. Officials are calling it a “game changer.” We’ll tell you what we know about how it will affect you or your loved ones in Santa Cruz County. There […]
Posted inHealth & Wellness
COVID PM: County numbers still up & a story to lend important perspective
Hello, my 831 friends — thanks again for reading this evening snapshot of the pandemic day that was. Reasons for COVID-19 concern locally have not abated, from the data (still a 20+% positivity rate and five new deaths, including a women in her 50s) to the people stories. Wallace Baine’s telling of what one longtime […]
Posted inCOVID 2022
COVID PM: A bittersweet day in Santa Cruz County news
Hey, Santa Cruz — we outlasted another Monday! Thanks for reading our evening look at the day’s happenings in the pandemic. This one is bittersweet. There’s hope in the higher-ed realm today, where we learned UC Santa Cruz — and the entire UC system — plans to get students back on campus in the fall. […]
Posted inHealth & Wellness
COVID PM: Stay-home order extended, Bay Area hospitals buckling
Happy Friday, folks! Welcome to our second edition of COVID PM, your evening read to help you make sense of the day’s developments with the pandemic. The quick list from our staff: Regional ICU availability at 3% paints a “long haul” picture for Santa Cruz and the Bay Area when it comes to staying home […]
Posted inCOVID 2022
COVID PM: County surpasses 100 deaths, racial inequities of virus and more
Welcome to the kickoff edition of COVID PM, part of Lookout’s COVID 2021 initiative announced today. The goal here is simple: To fill you in on the day’s most important COVID-related developments we’re writing about, or learning of via our content partners. Today our correspondent crew here in Santa Cruz County was writing about the […]
Posted inPolitics & Policy
21 for ’21: Jacob Martinez and the fine art of nest-building
If you build a solid nest at home, it’s a pretty good jumping-off point for building community nests far and wide. At least that’s how it’s played out for the innovator behind DigitalNEST, the organization seeking to establish Silicon Valley equity for underserved Latinx communities across the Bay Area.
Posted inCoast Life
We asked, you answered: Surfers offer safety solutions in response to Lookout stories
A Lookout survey asked surfers their thoughts about problems that are making paddling into Santa Cruz waters increasingly dangerous — and what solutions they think might be viable to explore in 2021.
Posted inBusiness & Technology
‘I’m upset. I’m sad. I’m nervous.’: Service industry reels as another stay-at-home order kicks in
From hair salons to the outdoor dining, small business owners are struggling. Stranded Beauty Bar in Seabright and Venus Spirits on the Westside are two examples of businesses pushed to the brink.
Posted inRecreation & Sports
‘I was dead’: How a quick-rising swell at Pleasure Point nearly cost one experienced surfer his life
Wayne Kiba was lucky to end up floating on his back in the water, he was lucky to have quick help from first responders and he was lucky to have the fortune of good karma on his side.