Runners and walkers spread out across the levee on Sunday for the third annual Jingle Bell Rock 5K race.
News
Helping Out with Pocket Change
As Christmas fast approaches, the Salvation Army is coming out in force, asking passerby to donate their pocket change to help the needy this holiday season. A penny here, a nickel there, a quarter every so often all help, but one donation topped them all. In Watsonville an anonymous donor dropped a Canadian gold dollar into the collection kettle. The coin is believed to be worth between $1,000 and $1,500 dollars.
Snow Night in Santa Cruz
It snowed last night in Santa Cruz, or more precisely, in a one-block area downtown. The annual event, used to promote the Second Harvest Food Bank, was hosted by the Downtown Association and sponsored by the Santa Cruz Dads Group. Revelers, allotted 10 minutes each in the snow-covered, haybale-enclosed section of street, were asked to bring a can of food to support the food bank’s efforts.
New Chief for SCPD
Interim police chief Kevin Vogel, 47, has been named the new chief of police for the city of Santa Cruz.
Artists Rally Around ‘Art for Art’
It seems always to be the season when artists are asked to give their work in support of good causes. Every month there’s a fundraiser for children, for schools, for victims of disaster, and there, front and center, is the auction item that represents the time, materials, education and creative juices of a local artist. Two such events take place this weekend. The “STARS” auction benefits the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History, which depends on artists to donate significant works—and every year artists do—to support MAH art programs. Local artists donate also to Monterey Museum of Art’s annual “Miniatures,” which raffles over 300 works. So it’s no surprise that the only fundraiser designed for local artists by local artists is also a gift—as much to the public as to the profession.
Police Searching for Bank Robber
The SCPD is searching for a man who robbed the Mission Street branch of the Comerica Bank on Wednesday afternoon
Another Blue Christmas
It’s hard to say who or what stole the show at last year’s sold-out An Altared Christmas concert at the Rio. Was it the reindeer union marching in, demanding better wages for Rudolf and his ilk to the tune of a famous Police song? Was it Patti Maxine as a shell-shocked psychiatric patient singing a mournful “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus,” or the angular, black-clad David Wallis as Santa singing “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” in an ominous key? Or was it Tammi Brown fronting a shimmering, jazzy “Angels We Have Heard on High”?
No Tannenbaum in Felton
Felton has a few things most little towns its size don’t: two state parks, two Chinese restaurants and one 100-foot heritage redwood tree right in the middle of town. For seven years now, Christmas lights have bedecked the big fella during the holiday season, making a mighty pretty sight for anyone driving into the valley on a cold December night. In recent years the good people at the Felton Business Association have seen to it that the lights are low-energy LED models powered by solar panels, bringing that much more joy to the world.
Dropout Rate Climbing in Santa Cruz County
Let’s face it. The U.S. is competing with China, and we’re not doing as well as we used to. The Paris-based Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development released its 2009 Program for International Student Assessment on Tuesday and the news is grim for America. While 15-year-olds in Shanghai China ranked top in the world, beating even that stalwart educational powerhouse Singapore, kids in the U.S. didn’t fare too well. They ranked 25th in math and 17th in science among 34 countries. “This should be a massive wake-up call to the entire country,” said Education Secretary Arne Duncan.
Watching Our Salt Intake
According to statistics from the city of Santa Cruz and the Soquel Creek Water District, it requires approximately 1.4 to 2.1 kilowatt hours per thousand gallons (kWh/kgal) to collect, treat and distribute the traditional water supply—that’s surface water and groundwater—for the city and the water district.
