“The greatest irony is that the County Courthouse is a place that represents the law, even as people are in flagrant violation of the law on its steps.” That’s the feeling among many courthouse employees, who have to step gingerly between sleeping bags, trash and feces on their way to work every day. Both the city and county agree that the nightly sleep-in and the daily protest by the city’s homeless are illegal, but neither is willing to take the necessary steps to break up the “Peace Camp.” Meanwhile, the protesters are talking about their “plans to resist” next time the city or county interferes with them.
News
State Senate Candidates Face Off
The Aug. 12 forum, organized by Santa Cruz Weekly and the League of Women Voters, will be televised live from Cabrillo College on KION.
Teen Receives 16 Years to Life for Motel Slaying
Jonathan Cardenas, 19, received a sentence of to 16 years to life in prison for the murder of Robbie Reynolds, 18,in a Beach Hill motel room in 2008.
Santa Cruz Approves Rental Inspections
At its meeting on Tuesday night, Santa Cruz City Council unanimously approved the first reading of an ordinance that would require all landlords to register their properties with the city so that they can be inspected.
Probable Flaws: The D-L Pot Test’s Failing Record
Raised in Montana and a resident of Alaska for 18 years, Robin Rae Brown, 48, always made time to explore in the wilderness. On March 20, 2009, she parked her pickup truck outside Weston, Florida, and hiked off the beaten path along a remote canal and into the woods to watch birds and commune with nature. “I saw a bobcat and an osprey,” she recalls. “I stopped once in a nice spot beneath a tree, sat down and gave prayers of thanksgiving to God.”
Tough Times for Otters
Let’s start with the numbers. There are only 2,711 sea otters who call the California coast their home. This is the second year in a row that the number has declined, but even more worrying to naturalists is the fact that the number of pups has dropped even more dramatically. It is down 11 percent, at just 267.
Watsonville Launching Biz Campaign
Strawberries, apples and raspberries. That’s what Watsonville is best known for today. But the city is attempting to change its image and diversify its economy. To achieve that it launched Growing Opportunities, an initiative intended to draw new businesses from outside the agricultural sector.
Shakespeare Santa Cruz’s Labor of Love
Actor Scott Wentworth returns to Shakespeare Santa Cruz this season as director of Love’s Labor’s Lost, a romantic comedy bristling with some of Shakespeare’s most pun-inflected dialogue. Busy with intellectual gab and witty wordplay in multiple languages, Love’s Labor’s Lost bids the audience attend to nuance even while feasting on the sight of four courtiers—who’ve just sworn a pact of abstinence—immediately falling in love with an entourage of royal beauties. A classic battle of the sexes waged in linguistic one-upsmanship, Love’s allows Shakespeare to mock upper-crust attitudes as well as low-brow gaffes.
Santa Cruz Pins Hopes on Pogonip Path
In Santa Cruz, city leaders are looking into whether a new 1.5-mile-long bike, pedestrian and horse trail will bring enough residents through the drug and crime nexus of the Pogonip greenbelt to drive out its heroin and meth dealers.
New Executive Director Named for Janus
Janus, which provides substance-abuse treatment to residents of Santa Cruz County, has named Rod Libbey as its new executive director. Libbey, a resident of Walnut Creek, has spent the past four years as CEO of San Francisco’s Walden House and worked in human resources for Bank of America and Charles Schwab. He will assume his position on Sept. 1 and plans on relocating to Santa Cruz.
