Some Santa Cruz County school districts, including those facing budget cuts, have added administrators since the pandemic while losing students, with officials citing new state programs and increased social services as driving factors behind the staffing changes.
Today’s Top Story
A significant story with interest across the county
Posted inFood & Drink
Slowed by immigrant crackdown, innovative home kitchens begin to serve Santa Cruz County
A new two-year pilot program in Santa Cruz County enables cooks to run microenterprise home kitchen operations (MEHKOs), leading to a wave of small food businesses like a daily coffee cart, campus Egyptian street food, and weekly supper clubs. Although off to a slower start than expected due to funding cuts and immigration concerns, the program has already issued nine permits and aims to support 30 home-based entrepreneurs by 2026.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
As Trump, Republicans toy with selling off public lands, is Santa Cruz’s own Cotoni-Coast Dairies national monument protected?
Nearly a decade after its designation, Cotoni-Coast Dairies National Monument is set to open next month — protected by deed restrictions even as threats to public lands loom in D.C.
Posted inLatest News
On Ocean Street, an abandoned phone booth found new life as a poetry project. Then it vanished.
Armed with poetry and disguised as workers, three Santa Cruz artists secretly converted a forgotten phone booth into a shrine for grief. No one noticed, until authorities quietly removed the unauthorized installation. The project raised questions about modern disconnection and the boundaries between public art and private infrastructure.
Posted inHealth & Wellness
Santa Cruz Planned Parenthood clinic abruptly shuts down amid Medicaid cuts
Santa Cruz’s downtown Planned Parenthood clinic closed suddenly Thursday, one of five locations shuttered by the organization’s Mar Monte affiliate after a federal court ruling allowed most Medicaid cuts to the health care provider to take effect across the country.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
When momentum meets politics: How Pajaro River levee funding is struggling for priority in Trump’s Washington
Despite bipartisan support and urgency following the 2023 breach of the Pajaro River levee, phase-two funding for its $600 million replacement project was omitted from federal budgets, raising concerns over delays and political interference.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Catalyst nightclub building, one of the oldest in downtown Santa Cruz, goes on the market
The property at 1009-1011 Pacific Ave. that’s been home to music venue The Catalyst since 1976 is for sale for $4.55 million, listed by the heirs of the building’s former owner, Randall Kane.
Posted inWatsonville / Pajaro
A promise of shelter, but not soon enough: Pajaro River levee residents face uncertain future even as ‘tiny village’ breaks ground
As construction finally begins this week on the 34-unit “tiny village” shelter intended to house people living along the Pajaro River levee, time is running out for residents to figure out their next move as an encampment cleanup could happen sooner than the anticipated opening of the shelter.
Posted inRecreation & Sports
At 17, Soquel High senior is taking on the ‘Mount Everest of paddling’ across Hawaii’s channel of bones
Ryder Walding, 17, will compete in the prone paddling world championships this Sunday. After a year of intense training, he aims to conquer one of the sport’s most grueling races: a 32-mile paddle from Molokai to Oahu in Hawaii.
Posted inLatest News
Santa Cruz County ranks second in California for bike, alcohol-related crashes, safety report shows
Santa Cruz County ranks among California’s most dangerous regions for cyclists and pedestrians, a decadelong traffic safety report shows. Local advocacy groups cited inadequate cycling infrastructure and population growth as key factors contributing to the high rate of serious crashes.