Good morning, readers. It is Tuesday, May 27, and a foggy start around Santa Cruz County is forecast to give way to sunny skies, with high temperatures ranging from the upper 60s to low 80s – and a big warmup is coming later in the week.
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After their UC Santa Cruz committees released troubling survey findings last week about faculty morale amid ongoing budget turmoil, the committee chairs talked to Hillary Ojeda about those findings. “This report also signals to me that if this continues, and all of these effects start to happen, I don’t see how we can continue to offer the same number of majors and degrees,” one said.
In his weekly Carmageddon feature on local traffic and transit, Max Chun reports that the so-called “Whale Bridge” at Chanticleer Avenue over Highway 1 is nearing completion. A ribbon-cutting ceremony is slated for July 30 but the public could be using it sooner.
Kevin Painchaud was in Monterey over the weekend for the annual Cali Roots music festival and has the vibes from one of the country’s biggest reggae and roots gatherings.
The use of monkeys in U.S. biomedical research is the topic in Lookout’s Community Voices opinion section, with wildlife veterinarian Emily Talkington and attorney Mikalah Singer calling on Congress to halt funding for primate research and support the National Institutes of Health’s new initiative promoting human-based alternatives like organoids and tissue chips.
Before we get to those Tuesday headlines and more, a dispatch from Lookout’s events team:
On Saturday, food and drink correspondent Lily Belli led 12 Lookout members on an exclusive tasting tour of Collective Santa Cruz’s annual dessert festival, Sweet Home Santa Cruz. The group enjoyed bites and sips from Dani O Bakeshop, Classy Trash Bar, Gelatin Glow, Cracked Cookies and Emozioni Pasticceria & Rosticceria. Lookout members, keep an eye out for more tasting events with Lily this summer!
‘Alarming’: UCSC budget cuts ‘affect the whole ecosystem’
Even before the rolling effects of the Trump administration’s budget cuts were fully known, UCSC faculty members describe the possible breadth of the university’s cuts on teaching and learning on campus from its pre-existing budget deficit. Hillary Ojeda reports.
Carmageddon: Chanticleer overcrossing close to completion; rail trail ribbon-cutting draws hundreds
The so-called “Whale Bridge” over Highway 1 in Live Oak is slated for a July 30 opening but could be done sooner; on Santa Cruz’s Westside, students from Bay View Elementary took the first walk on the segment of the Coastal Rail Trail that connects Bay Street to the wharf. Max Chun with the latest in local traffic and transit here.
DAILY DIGEST
Lots more coming from Lookout as we power through this last week in May, so be sure you’re hooked into our award-winning local coverage. Download the Lookout Santa Cruz app in both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, and sign up here for breaking news alerts and for all of our other newsletters. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Bluesky are where you’ll find Lookout on social media.
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Have a super Tuesday!
Will McCahill