Morning Lookout: UCSC strikers not on board with deal, analyzing midterms & Humboldt quake

Hello again, Lookout friends! It is Tuesday, Dec. 20, and we’re looking at a mix of sun and clouds around Santa Cruz County, with temps in some spots maybe just clawing into the 60s.

Want to get your own claws on the latest from Lookout? Here ya go.
JUMP TO ... Latest News | Opinion | Events | Guides | Puzzles | Obituaries

With thousands of striking University of California academic workers voting this week on whether to accept a tentative agreement with the UC system, union leaders at UC Santa Cruz are urging members to vote no. As Hillary Ojeda reports, they say base salary and child care subsidies aren’t enough, and take exception to higher wages proposed for UC Berkeley, UCLA and UC San Francisco.

After looking at Santa Cruz County’s Election 2022 results from the perspective of a pragmatic progressive, meanwhile, longtime local politico Mike Rotkin turns his lens to the national picture in our Community Voices opinion section.

And a magnitude 6.4 earthquake struck Humboldt County early Tuesday morning, and we’ll cover that plus the latest COVID-19 and flu numbers and much more in the day’s headlines.

Following tentative deal between UC and academic workers, UC Santa Cruz union leaders encourage ‘no’ vote

(Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz)

The University of California system’s 19,000 teaching assistants/tutors/graders and 17,000 graduate student researchers are voting this week on whether to accept a tentative agreement and end their strike or reject the deal and continue what’s thought to be the largest-ever labor action by U.S. university employees. Hillary Ojeda has details.

➤ LAST WEEK: UC postdocs, postgraduate researchers sign new contracts as TAs, student researchers continue strike

National midterm election results offer real reason to have a happy holiday season

(Via @ReverendWarnock / Twitter)

Mike Rotkin reviews the outcome of the national midterm elections and finds muted, but real, reasons for a happy holiday season. The midterms turned out well for Democrats — putting off what he describes as “the terrifying prospect of a House of Representatives controlled by a supermajority of election and climate change deniers, gun fanatics and anti-feminist, LGBTQ+ bashers.” But losing the House will have consequences, and the tight races in many states don’t bode well for the future, he writes. Dig into his Community Voices column here.

➤ ROTKIN’S LOCAL TAKE: Santa Cruz elections turned out well for pragmatic progressives

Still hungry for more? You. Are. In. Luck. At this very moment, Lily Belli on Food is bubbling away in the Lookout content crock pot, and you can get her Santa Cruz County food & drink newsletter right in your inbox (along with our other newsletters and breaking news alerts) in mere hours by clicking here. Lookout is also on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, so follow along there, too, to keep current.

Members are the straw that stirs the drink for us here at Lookout — we can’t do what we do without community support, so if you’re not already, please consider becoming a Lookout member. And help spread the word about what we’re doing!

Have a safe, pleasant Tuesday — catch you next time.

Will McCahill
Lookout Santa Cruz