Federal programs offer financial aid and counseling to low-income and first-generation college students. California was allowed to include students without legal status, which the Trump administration is now ending.
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 inPolitics & Policy
Indivisible to organize Ocean Street demonstration Saturday
Looking to continue the energy of April 5 protests that brought out crowds in Santa Cruz and Watsonville, Indivisible Santa Cruz is set for another demonstration, on Ocean Street on Saturday morning.
Posted inBusiness & Technology
Rising prices ‘inevitable’ as tariffs hit home at 29-year-old cookware store in downtown Santa Cruz
Facing steep price hikes from global suppliers due to President Donald Trump’s tariffs on imported goods, downtown Santa Cruz cookware shop Toque Blanche warns customers of inevitable increases on imported kitchen staples. Owner Charles Nelson says the community’s support — sparked by his candid letter explaining the impact — is keeping his spirits high as he braces for more cost pressures by May 1.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
After 22 years in Santa Cruz, deported handyman struggles to build a life in a Mexico he barely knows
Three months ago, Adolfo González, a 62-year-old handyman in Santa Cruz, was arrested and deported to Mexico. González was forced to restart a new life in Cuautitlán, outside of Mexico City, and the journey has not been the easiest.
Posted inLatest News
Pajaro Valley nonprofits launch public forums about federal funding cuts
The Pajaro Valley Collaborative — a group of 23 nonprofits in south Santa Cruz County — is launching a series of educational public forums to inform the community about federal funding cuts and possible local impacts. The group’s first news conference will be held on Tuesday at 11 a.m. at the Watsonville city plaza.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
A DHS vehicle spotted on Mission Street caused panic on social media. Only, it wasn’t ICE.
The false alarm over the DHS vehicle reflects a heightened state of vigilance that has persisted in the county since the Trump administration announced aggressive immigration enforcement policies, making even routine sightings of federal vehicles a source of community anxiety.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Nazis tried to deport my father – let’s stop it from happening to immigrants here
As she prepares for Passover, Rabbi Shifra Weiss-Penzias is worried about the direction our country is headed. Her German-Jewish family escaped Nazi Germany in 1939, but her father always remembered the antisemitism he faced as a child and the quiet way fascism rose. She vehemently opposes the federal government’s current anti-immigrant stance and authoritarian tactics to kick people out. “Anyone who remembers life under fascism knows this is how it begins,” she writes.
Posted inEducation
‘It’s pretty devastating’: UCSC biologist’s research upended by Trump NIH funding cuts
Roughly 150 UC Santa Cruz protesters rallied against President Donald Trump’s cuts to research grants Tuesday, including biologist Alison Mills, who learned her research on cell division would lose NIH funding.
Posted inFood & Drink
Santa Cruz wineries say Trump’s tariffs will ‘wreck’ industry and stifle small businesses
Local wineries in Santa Cruz are grappling with the fallout from President Donald Trump’s tariffs, which have led to canceled international orders and rising costs for materials. Winery owners argue that the tariffs will hurt smaller businesses and fail to boost domestic wine sales, further exacerbating the industry’s already dire struggles.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Santa Cruz County election officials sound alarm over Trump voter registration overhaul
A proposed federal overhaul of voter registration rules could force all Santa Cruz County residents looking to register to vote or update their registration, to do so in person, with proof of citizenship. Local officials warn the measures risk disenfranchising voters and exposing election workers to criminal liability.