Quick Take
The changes Donald Trump’s second presidency is unleashing will affect almost all of us locally, and Lookout is ready to meet the moment. Offered in English and Spanish, our coverage will first focus on the impact new national policy is having on our immigrant communities and on the public budgets that drive so many local services. And we need your help: What are you seeing? Tell us.
We are now living in an unprecedented time.
Let’s make no mistake. The constitutional earthquake we’re experiencing might find its epicenter in Washington, D.C., but its rolling ripples have already crossed the country and their impacts are being and will be felt in Santa Cruz County for quite a while.
Lookout has already published a number of stories on those emerging impacts, and we’ve got several more in process this week. You’ll see these stories, noted by “The Trump presidency and Santa Cruz County,” drawing lines between what’s happening nationally and what’s happening here. As always, we know our job is to cover our hometowns for you, as deeply and broadly we can.
And, for the first time, you’ll see many of these stories in both English and Spanish, and the Spanish-language versions will be accessible for free.
We know, and hear every day, how many people now experience profound mixed feelings about reading the news in 2025, following a number of years of mounting “news fatigue” and then “news avoidance.” That’s understandable, and at the same time, we think The New York Times’ Sunday editorial summed up where we are now: “Now Is Not The Time To Tune Out.”
That also means, as always, supporting the journalists doing this work, nationally and at Lookout, and below we suggest a couple of ways to do that.
Our whole newsroom is broadly covering two major parts of this unfolding story. We are concentrating on the stories of our immigrant communities, the pressures and fears they face – and the increasing realization of how much everyone’s lives in Santa Cruz County are intertwined with that sizable population. And we are drilling down on the soon-to-come local impacts of fast-moving federal budget cuts.
Tania Ortiz has reported two stories, “‘United we can do many things’: Protesters advocate for immigrant rights in Santa Cruz and Watsonville” and “‘Everyone’s scared’: Watsonville businesses see sharp drop in customers amid Trump immigrant threat,” and Lily Belli’s “Dozens of businesses close countywide to protest Trump immigration policies” covered the recent local protest.
Christopher Neely’s and Tania Ortiz’s story published Wednesday (in Spanish here) on last week’s seizure by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) of Adolfo Gonzalez off Market Street in Santa Cruz tells one story, and a story that we are seeing occur more frequently across the county. Chris also provides that context we all need: How in a county with a “sanctuary” county government and two city sanctuaries do such seizures happen? Who knows what, when?
We’ll talk with those concerned and affected, and tackle those intertwining issues, none more fundamental than with the food we eat, from the fields to our plates and in our restaurants.
Lookout’s policy is to get our sources on the record, so you know where the news is coming from. We make exceptions when your need to know depends on giving anonymity to selected sources, and that will sometimes be the case in this run of stories.
We’ve also already begun to cover another widespread impact of Washington’s new order. While federal budget cuts of many kinds consume the headlines, the painful decision-making choices that will be placed on our local elected officials, government managers, UC Santa Cruz and Cabrillo College, K-12 school boards and superintendents now begins to come into focus. These budgets have already been at the stretching point pre-election, and now cuts – or new local or state tax proposals – will likely drive decision-making. Everything from homeless services to school lunches to the potential of county rail could well be affected.
Lookout will cover all of that. And here’s where you readers come in. Of course, you know that membership pays these journalists, the Pulitzer Prize-winning crew of 10, to root out these stories. Our membership has grown well, especially over the past year, but each and every new membership allows us to do more local journalism, local journalism now more of a necessity than ever. And members can add to their support of our journalistic impact – now collected here – with our online donation page.
But we also need you to share what you are seeing and hearing in the community, on any of the above issues, and more. Some of it will be true, other rumors, which may be unfounded. As journalists, we’ll do our best to find out facts and report them to you.
Please write to us at news@lookoutlocal.com, subject line “Trump/SCC.”
Further, you can contribute to our opinion forum, Community Voices, as community members have already done.
And, last, please send us any relevant meeting, event or local organizing activity information to news@lookoutlocal.com, subject line “Trump/SCC.”
As we span this coverage, here’s what you’ll find:
- A continuous stream of stories with the “The Trump Presidency and Santa Cruz County” sig, collected on this page. These stories will also headline our home page, as merited.
- On that page, you’ll find a blog, which will be a central place to collect our own related stories, relevant community events and meetings, links to non-Lookout stories that bear on our own experience here and more.
- We’re publishing on Lookout “Know Your Rights,” accessible to everyone, in English and Spanish.
Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here.