Lookout PM: County overdose deaths drop once again, projects on West Cliff Drive and Bay Street, and Cabrillo College students return

Welcome to Monday night’s Lookout PM.

Credit: Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz County overdose deaths are falling for third straight year

By Dieter Holger

Drug-overdose deaths in Santa Cruz County are on pace to fall for a third consecutive year, with 20 deaths recorded in the first half of 2026 compared with 36 during the same period last year. Officials and treatment providers say a broad expansion of prevention, addiction treatment, naloxone distribution and targeted law enforcement is helping reverse the county’s deadly fentanyl-era surge.

Carmageddon: Santa Cruz City Council to consider design plans for West Cliff path realignment, Bay Street improvements

By Max Chun

The Santa Cruz City Council will consider approving the design and plans for both the West Cliff Drive roadway relocation and improvements to the Bay Street corridor, including protected bike lanes and a pedestrian path.

Cabrillo College students start new school year Monday

By Hillary Ojeda

Cabrillo College students return to the Watsonville and Aptos campuses Monday for their first day of classes. Officials say they’re launching new programs and are progressing on construction of the school’s new student housing complex.

Willie Ito’s incredible journey from a WWII incarceration camp to Disney animation comes to life in ‘Hello, Maggie!’

By Mat Weir

At 92, legendary animator Willie Ito is still drawing on his childhood experience in a Japanese American incarceration camp to tell stories of hope. The former Disney, Warner Bros. and Hanna-Barbera animator will visit Santa Cruz on Wednesday for a screening of “Hello, Maggie!”, the animated short based on his childhood friend’s story of a boy who finds joy and friendship inside a World War II incarceration camp.

Credit: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention via Associated Press

OPINION: The cyclospora outbreak isn’t about lettuce. It’s about who is protecting you and your family from disease

By Jeoffry B. Gordon

The nationwide cyclospora outbreak has sickened thousands, exposing more than a problem with lettuce or one food supplier, writes retired family doctor Jeoffry B. Gordon. Santa Cruz County has had no known cases and contaminated lettuce linked to the outbreak did not come to California — but that should not lull us into complacency. The outbreak, he writes, exposes the consequences of weakened food-safety systems and delayed federal action to trace and contain contamination. He sees food safety as a public responsibility, and he urges readers to demand the resources and oversight needed to keep food safe.

California maintains school vaccine rules despite Trump order

By Diana Lambert / EdSource

Despite a new executive order from President Donald Trump regarding the childhood immunization schedule, California officials affirmed that the state will maintain its existing vaccination requirements for students.

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