Morning Lookout: Ceiba College Prep update, reflecting on FDR’s death and A’s heading to Vegas

Ahoy, friends. It is Thursday, April 20, and the Santa Cruz County forecast calls for copious sunshine and highs in the mid- to upper 60s, with the occasional puff-puff-passing cloud or two.

There’s much new on Lookout, whether you’re here for the tour or prefer to get to it at your own pace.
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Hillary Ojeda is first out of the chute, with an update on Watsonville’s Ceiba College Preparatory Academy. Nearly two months after the city council granted the charter school a special-use permit to remain in its current location, Ceiba’s principal says it’s making progress on fulfilling the dozens of conditions the council placed on the permit process.

In our Community Voices opinion section, retired UC Santa Cruz professor Wendy Martyna uses the recent anniversary of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s death to reflect on how the contemporary world absorbed the news and all that’s changed between there and here.

The Thursday headlines also include another Oakland sports team saying it’ll move to Las Vegas and when and how to see what could be a fiery meteor shower this weekend, so stick with me.

Ceiba College Prep chipping away at Watsonville permit mandates

(Hillary Ojeda / Lookout Santa Cruz)

In approving a special-use permit and changing zoning to allow Ceiba College Preparatory Academy to remain at its Locust Street location, the Watsonville City Council imposed 55 conditions for continued operation. Principal Josh Ripp says Ceiba has fully or partially complied with 44, including on safety and trash issues, even as a group of local residents is challenging the permit process. Hillary Ojeda has the update.

➤ PREVIOUSLY: Watsonville allows Ceiba College Prep to stay in current site after hundreds pack 6-hour city council meeting

FDR died almost 80 years ago, marking a moment in time for the nation and for my mother

(Via National Archives and Records Administration)

Retired UC Santa Cruz professor and lecturer Wendy Martyna has a packet of her mother’s World War II letters, including one written almost 80 years ago about the death of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Martyna ponders the letter, the change that has occurred over her lifetime in the news cycle and muses at how the past “inflects our present; it shadows and illuminates.” Read her Community Voices opinion piece here.

➤ MORE FROM COMMUNITY VOICES: The rude awakening of a woke Watsonville climate activist

That, friends, is Thursday morning as I know it. Wallace Baine will be along presently with Weekender, his weekly roundup of all things arts and culture around Santa Cruz County, with plenty of recommendations for things to do over the next week. Get that and all of Lookout’s newsletters delivered right to your inbox by signing up here, and take advantage of our breaking news alerts while you’re there. Give Lookout a follow on the socials, too — we’re on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

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Enjoy whatever your Thursday brings, and I’ll see ya back here Friday.

Will McCahill
Lookout Santa Cruz