In California, almost 40% of the workforce is foreign-born and more than a million parents — immigrant and otherwise — rely on child care providers so they can go to work.
The Trump presidency and Santa Cruz County
News and opinion coverage of reaction in Santa Cruz County to the election of Donald Trump to a second term as president, plus news from around California via Lookout’s content partners.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Federal cuts put Watsonville Community Hospital at risk. Partnership is the way forward.
Watsonville Community Hospital reflects the growing fragility of Santa Cruz County’s health care system, strained by rising costs, workforce shortages and declining reimbursements. Despite real progress since becoming community-owned in 2022, Stephen Gray, the hospital’s CEO, writes that new federal Medicaid cuts are projected to cost the hospital up to $10 million annually, threatening local access to care. Measure N has funded critical facility upgrades, he writes, but state law prevents those dollars from covering staffing or service losses caused by federal cuts. To protect and expand health care services, the Pajaro Valley Health Care District is now actively seeking a strategic operating partner to ensure long-term stability. He insists the hospital will work to preserve local oversight.
Posted inLatest News
‘Stand in solidarity’: Moms in Aptos, nurses at Dominican join ranks of county demonstrators
Dozens of mothers with young children marched in Aptos on Friday, while about 80 nurses and supporters rallied outside Dominican Hospital in Live Oak as part of anti-ICE protests across Santa Cruz County. Organizers and participants said they took to the streets to stand in solidarity with immigrants and denounce what they described as cruelty and fear caused by federal immigration enforcement.
Posted inLatest News
More than 1,000 students throng downtown Santa Cruz in anti-ICE protest
More than 1,000 students from local schools staged a walkout and marched through downtown Santa Cruz on Friday to protest against ICE and Trump administration policies before settling in outside the county courthouse.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Panetta, local officials and nonprofit leaders working together to protect county residents from immigration enforcement impacts
Local government officials, nonprofit leaders and U.S. Rep. Jimmy Panetta say they are working together to protect Santa Cruz County’s most vulnerable residents from the impacts of immigration enforcement amid federal agents’ intensifying enforcement in Minnesota.
Posted inBusiness & Technology
More local businesses, groups announce closures for anti-ICE national shutdown Friday
More Santa Cruz County businesses and community groups are closing or taking action Friday as part of a national shutdown protesting violent immigration enforcement and the killings of anti-ICE activists in Minneapolis. Restaurants, retailers and organizations from Felton to Watsonville announced closures, donations or solidarity actions, while students and health care workers also organized rallies and demonstrations.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Immigration arrests quietly surge by 1,500% in San Diego: ‘I feel the temperature rising’
San Diego doesn’t feel like a city under siege by Border Patrol, but it’s the scene of a dramatic increase in immigration arrests during President Donald Trump’s crackdown.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
California state employees alarmed by demand to prove their citizenship
Close to 4,000 employees of the California Department of Public Health were told they must use the federal E-Verify system to keep federal funding. Unions are pushing back.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Santa Cruz nurses organize actions during anti-ICE ‘national shutdown’ Friday
Santa Cruz nurses are organizing for Friday’s national “day of no school, no work and no shopping” to protest recent killings of anti-ICE activists and others in federal immigration custody, including ICU nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
Posted inLatest News
Watsonville Community Hospital nurses hold vigil to honor life of nurse killed by federal agents in Minneapolis
Nurses at Watsonville Community Hospital gathered Wednesday evening to remember the life of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse who was killed by federal immigration agents Saturday in Minneapolis.