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Credit: Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz

Nearly one year later, three students in UCSC bus crash file lawsuit accusing UC regents of negligence

A bus crash on the UC Santa Cruz campus in December 2023 led to the death of driver Dan Stevenson and injuries to five passengers. Three of the students recently filed a lawsuit accusing the University of California regents of negligence. Continue reading…

Credit: Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz

In the Public Interest: Concern sparks over Santa Cruz County taking over CZU permitting pipeline

Go inside Santa Cruz County politics & policy with Lookout correspondent Christopher Neely. Continue reading…

Credit: Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz teens will present ‘fog drip’ research to some of the world’s top scientists in D.C.

Santa Cruz high school students Talia and Kaia Gurdak turned their backyard into a laboratory, collecting water droplets in mesh nets to study whether fog can be a sustainable source of water. Now the sisters are preparing to present their findings this week to a gathering of 25,000 scientists at the prestigious American Geophysical Union conference in Washington, D.C. Continue reading…

Credit: Via Whitney Bull

In a town once scorched by wildfire, Albert the white peacock became a symbol of resilience — and loss

When the CZU wildfire devastated Boulder Creek in 2020, a white peacock named Albert became a beacon of hope, strutting through smoky streets and uniting a grieving community. On Nov. 23, Albert met his end after he was killed by a mountain lion. Continue reading…

Credit: Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz

The season’s final king tides will roll into the county this weekend

If you haven’t had the chance to catch any king tides recently, now would be the time. The final king tides of the season will hit the Santa Cruz County coastline this weekend from Friday through Monday. Continue reading…

Credit: Via https://www.mbosc.org/

Prescribed burn in Soquel Demonstration State Forest rescheduled for Tuesday

Cal Fire will conduct a five-acre prescribed burn in the Soquel Demonstration State Forest on Tuesday. Continue reading…

Best of Santa Cruz County events, December 9-12

Here are some events you may be interested in this week:

Monday, Dec. 9

Tuesday, Dec. 10

Wednesday, Dec. 11

Thursday, Dec. 12


Max Chun is the general-assignment correspondent at Lookout Santa Cruz. Max’s position has pulled him in many different directions, seeing him cover development, COVID, the opioid crisis, labor, courts...