At Tuesday’s city council meeting, Watsonville Police Chief Jorge Zamora unveiled measures his department is putting in place to inform and protect the immigrant community as President-elect Donald Trump is set to begin his second term.
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
California withdraws diesel truck ban, other clean-air rules as Trump prepares to take office
Because Donald Trump’s incoming administration is unlikely to approve them, California has no choice but to abandon its groundbreaking rules for zero-emission trucks and cleaner locomotives.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
L.A. fires underscore how much California has to lose if Trump withholds disaster aid
The federal government typically covers 75% of rebuilding costs after a major disaster. President-elect Donald Trump has threatened to withhold firefighting money from California.
Posted inEducation
It’s 2025 — have pity on the poor social studies teacher
If the 2024 election finally extinguished ideas of American exceptionalism, from what framework can America’s history teachers now make their lesson plans? Wallace Baine wants Santa Cruz County educators to tell him about their approach.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Can California keep ICE away from schools? Lawmakers want to try as crackdowns loom
California legislators want to limit deportation actions at schools, but they can’t ban immigration officials.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Why Trump won revisited – let’s please not blame the media and math
Local businessperson and mom Brooke Secor responds to a recent Lookout op-ed by Tom Decker, a Republican who has strong ideas about why Donald Trump won in November. She believes it’s not about the appeal of the rallies and is still baffled how so many people can stand behind Trump’s rhetoric. She delves into the anti-intellectualism she feels is sweeping the country and the curious trend of people in cities, once bastions of liberalism and progressive thought, voting more like rural communities.
Posted inPolitics & Policy
Santa Cruz County immigrant community prepares for an uncertain future under Trump
Undocumented immigrants say they are avoiding the news and making family contingency plans as they and local advocacy groups prepare for Donald Trump’s return to the White House in January.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
The fantasy of Trump: I’m trying to figure out why people I know voted for him
Therapist Lisa Herendeen is trying to understand why people in Santa Cruz voted for Donald Trump. She sees parallels in Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale “The Little Match Girl.”
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
2024 is ending, Republicans will take over nationally in January – how do we Democrats find hope and courage locally?
Santa Cruz Vice Mayor Shebreh Kalantari-Johnson recently returned from an annual leadership conference for local Democratic leaders. She felt inspired by the energy and commitment of leaders from across the nation, particularly in the wake of the November election and the return of a Republican administration to Washington in January. Here, she offers some of what she learned and a plea for community engagement.
Posted inOpinion from Community Voices
Why Trump won (and what the media missed along the way)
Boulder Creek businessman Tom Decker does the math on Donald Trump’s election win and has a ready answer for the Republican sweep – the mainstream media failed to grasp or adequately cover Trump’s appeal. They didn’t, he says, even report on the substance of his rallies.