A pleasant morning to you, friends and neighbors. Wednesday, June 11, is here, another summery day with an overcast morning, sun later and temperatures forecast to peak from the 60s to low 80s depending on where your day finds you in Santa Cruz County.
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County supervisors reached a compromise Tuesday to delay some layoffs proposed for the county’s health agency amid an ongoing budget crunch, and Christopher Neely has details. Among the measures, he reports, is a move to redirect more than $500,000 from road and housing initiatives to maintain the county’s lab and radiology services through September. (And stay tuned for more coverage of the budget process later.)
With another wave of nationwide protests set for Saturday amid the Trump administration’s crackdown in Los Angeles and the military parade happening in Washington, Santa Cruz County won’t be left out, Wallace Baine reports. But organizers of the downtown rally are purposely keeping it to 90 minutes out of respect for long-planned Juneteenth celebrations happening nearby a bit later in the day.
Mental health services and special education are at risk in Santa Cruz County schools, educators tell Hillary Ojeda, amid hundreds of billions in cuts to Medicaid that are part of President Donald Trump’s budget bill. “This is pretty frightening for kids that really need these services,” Live Oak School District Superintendent Pat Sánchez said.
The Wednesday headlines also include the latest in local business news from Jessica M. Pasko, including the struggles of entrepreneurs trying to launch businesses in downtown Santa Cruz – let’s take a look at it all.
‘No Kings’ and Juneteenth: Santa Cruz County’s eventful Saturday
Santa Cruz County will do its part in nationwide “No Kings” protests with rallies in Santa Cruz and Watsonville. Meanwhile, the long-planned Juneteenth celebration will go on in downtown Santa Cruz. Wallace Baine reports.
Santa Cruz County education leaders ‘fearful’ that Medicaid cuts may hurt mental health, special education
Santa Cruz County education leaders warn that proposed federal Medicaid cuts could disrupt critical school-based services for low-income and special education students. With schools relying on Medi-Cal reimbursements for counseling, health screenings and therapy, superintendents fear the funding rollback will force service reductions. More here from Hillary Ojeda.
DAILY DIGEST
As mentioned above, we’ll have more coverage of the county budget deliberations coming later from Christopher Neely, so be sure you’re keeping tabs. Sign up here for breaking news alerts and for all of our other newsletters (tomorrow, for example, brings Wallace Baine’s Weekender), and if you’re on social media, follow Lookout on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Bluesky to stay current. You can also download the Lookout Santa Cruz app in both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store to bring it all with you wherever your Wednesday meanders.
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Thank you for reading – see you next time.
Will McCahill