Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday signed an emergency proclamation to help communities recover from three destructive wildfires that seared through structures during California’s record-breaking heat wave at the start of September. The 13,440-acre Mountain fire in Siskiyou County began Sept. 2 and destroyed two homes while threatening hundreds more and prompting major evacuations, officials said. […]
Government
Posted inPolitics & Policy
In nonpartisan race for California superintendent of public instruction, it’s all politics
Democratic incumbent Tony Thurmond and Republican challenger Lance Christensen will face off in the race for superintendent of public instruction to oversee California schools.
Posted inEnvironment
Ask Lookout: When I scrape my plate into my new food scraps bin, where does it go?
Follow the pathway of 40 tons of meat and vegetable pieces, pits, bones and coffee grounds per week — and learn the anti-warming science behind the City of Santa Cruz’s new food scraps collection program.
Posted inCoast Life
As Pleasure Point braces for change, its development issues resonate all over Santa Cruz County
With Santa Cruz County’s sustainability plan moving toward approval, one notoriously independent surf-centered neighborhood sits in the crosshairs of future change. How fast things along the Portola Drive corridor are disrupted, and how many new units of housing are involved, are among the unknowns. The issues in Pleasure Point mirror much of the housing-related controversies now happening in downtown Santa Cruz, along the city’s corridors, in Soquel, and soon, more widely across the entire county.
Posted inLatest News
California taxpayers are about to get gas refunds; here’s what you need to know
The $9.5 billion California tax refund program will provide one-time payments of up to $1,050 for some families.
Posted inLatest News
The IRS is getting a lot more money for audits. Should you be worried?
New infusion by Congress of $80 billion for the Internal Revenue Serice will allow it to add thousands more auditors and customer service representatives.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
The ‘wounded healer’ who is helping Santa Cruz County through a time of mental health crisis
Xaloc Cabanes has survived a lot — and applied it, heading Santa Cruz County’s mental health advisory board. His “lived experience” leads the way as society deals with numerous challenges, old and new.
Posted inHousing & Development
Lookout Update: Santa Cruz pushes off weighty discussions on ‘corridors,’ affordable housing and rezoning
Some 387 parcels along Mission Street, Ocean Street and Soquel Avenue that are up for rezoning and new building standards have driven lots of debate. Meanwhile, a proposed assisted living facility along West Cliff Drive has drawn opposition. Decisions on both have been postponed, with hearings scheduled for October and November.
Posted inLatest News
A new law could raise fast-food wages to $22 an hour — and opponents are trying to halt it
Almost as soon as Gov. Gavin Newsom signed California’s fast-food labor law on Labor Day, critics started trying to overturn it. Here’s what you need to know about AB 257.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
‘This is gonna mess me up’: Bobby Gray knows better than most how trauma can manifest years later
When traumatic events don’t receive some level of post-processing, they linger there until the day they don’t. For the Felton Fire chief who had lost his father, slain sheriff’s officer Michael Gray, back in 1983, the events of June 6, 2020, brought Bobby Gray “full circle.” As Steven Carrillo carried out the cop-killing rampage that left Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller dead and Alex Spencer severely injured, it became a catalyst for catharsis, pain and healing.