Hiya, folks. It’s Thursday, Jan. 15 – shaping up to be the warmest day of the week around Santa Cruz County, with highs in the mid-70s in the mountains and around 70 at our beaches.
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Nurses gathered Wednesday afternoon at Watsonville Community Hospital in support of the hospital’s intensive care unit, Tania Ortiz reports, which is facing staff shortages amid continued financial struggles. As talk swirled that the ICU could close, hospital officials said that worst-case scenario wouldn’t happen without months of discussion and public input, and that the hospital continues to pursue partnerships and funding to help make up for the loss of millions in federal funding.
Grace Chinowsky was on hand Wednesday night for another long, contentious meeting of the Pajaro Valley Unified School District governing board, which unanimously approved a voluntary early retirement incentive plan as the district faces budget woes and coming layoffs.
Cassidy Beach has a pair of stories. She reports that Santa Cruz County has made its opposition official to Trump administration plans for offshore oil drilling, urging residents to submit comments ahead of a Jan. 23 deadline. She also previews a Friday event at which Steven Haddock, an adjunct UC Santa Cruz professor and a senior scientist at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, will talk about “The Radiant Sea,” a new book that brings together a lifetime of research and photography of deep-sea creatures.
Offshore drilling is also the topic in Lookout’s Community Voices opinion section, where former UC Santa Cruz environmental studies professor Dennis Kelso writes about his own experiences with the devastating Exxon Valdez oil spill and how crucial it is that Santa Cruz County gets behind efforts to block the possibility of a repeat here.
The Thursday headlines also include $18,000 in gold jewelry stolen from a downtown Santa Cruz store – read on.
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Watsonville Community Hospital faces shortage of ICU nurses as it continues to struggle financially
Administrators at Watsonville Community Hospital say they’ll need to make difficult decisions to keep it operating, which doesn’t sit well with nurses. Meanwhile, there’s a staffing shortage in the intensive care unit, and nurses are rallying to keep it and other essential departments open. Tania Ortiz reports.
PVUSD trustees approve early retirement plan as layoffs loom
The Pajaro Valley Unified School District board unanimously voted for a voluntary early retirement plan after a six-hour meeting marked by internal discord and lingering fallout from layoffs proposed last month. Here’s the latest from Grace Chinowsky.
DAILY DIGEST
Among what Thursday has yet to offer from Lookout is the debut of the new Weekender – dining tips from Lily Belli, best bites and food events combined with top local arts and entertainment news for one weekend-focused guide. Sign up here for that and all of Lookout’s other free newsletters, plus breaking news alerts, and get all of our award-winning local coverage when you download the Lookout Santa Cruz app from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store. Bluesky, Facebook, Instagram and Threads are where you can follow Lookout on social media.
Before I go, a message from Jamie Garfield, Lookout’s director of student and community engagement:
Lookout Santa Cruz is proud to introduce the next chapter of our Lookout in the Classroom program: Lookout for Teachers, giving local middle and high school educators free, unlimited access to Lookout Santa Cruz’s independent, fact-based local journalism. Beyond full access to our reporting, teachers receive a weekly stream of curated current events paired with classroom-ready resources — quizzes, lesson guides, discussion prompts and media literacy activities aligned to real curricula. Read more here.
We have tested this program for a few years, but now, thanks to our donors and Changemaker Members, we are now able to publicly provide free memberships for 450 middle school and high school teachers. Sign-ups are first come, first served, and they are going fast. So share this information with a secondary teacher in your life.
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Have a nice Thursday, and thank you for reading.
Will McCahill