On Friday, June 11, former Assemblymember John Laird left his house in Aptos at 6:45am and drove three hours south to San Luis Obispo, did an editorial board meeting, stopped by his campaign office there, raced two and a half hours north to Monterey for two more editorial board meetings, stopped at the Monterey campaign office, and then spoke for an hour and a half at a live radio town hall before driving home.
Pension Tensions in Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz Police Chief Howard Skerry has worn SCPD blue for 29 years. So when he turns in his gun and badge in September to retire, he’ll take home a pension of about $170,000 per year for the rest of his life. It’s the same deal every cop and firefighter in Santa Cruz gets: stay on the job until at least age 50, then retire with 3 percent of your salary for every year spent on the force. That means an officer who retires after 20 years gets 60 percent of his income, one who retires after 25 gets 75 percent, and so on.
County Rethinks Cutting Aid to Nonprofits
Santa Cruz County supervisors are considering softening the blow to local nonprofits this year by adjusting a proposed 20 percent cut to 12 percent. The county currently gives about $3.4 million to local nonprofits, about half of what it gave in 2002.
Man Arrested for Kissing Kids
The SCPD has arrested Max Cagle for randomly kissing young children he met while walking down the street.
After 22 Years, Juvenile Murderer Up For Parole
Back in 1988, when he was only 16, Donald Schmidt was convicted of sexually assaulting and drowning a 3-year-old. He has since been under lock and key at the Stockton Youth Facility, the oldest ward of the state in a juvenile facility.
Teen Beaten on Beach
On Sunday, a local 18-year-old got into a fight on the beach near West Cliff Drive and Fair Avenue. According to reports, he was attacked by four assailants aged 15-27 who hit him, kicked him and possibly beat him with an unknown object.
Watsonville Pilot Program Provides Health Care for Infants
A new program called Baby Gateway is making sure that babies born in Watsonville get the care they need, and that parents of these babies get the support they need in those critical early years.
Though half of all babies born in Santa Cruz County qualify for MediCal, the registration process can be confusing for many parents, and infants often end up being brought to the emergency room when there is a problem. Baby Gateway hopes to alleviate the problems by assisting new parents with the MediCal enrollment process and ensuring that each family has a primary care physician to help it with its needs. New parents are also offered a crash course in how to tend to their babies, and what signs to look out for that may indicate that the child is ill. Materials are provided in English, Spanish and Korean.
Homeowners Hot For Chicks
We’re used to hearing that 60 is the new 40 and that gray is the new black. Could chickens be the new dog? Some people in Santa Cruz seem to think so. There’s a new trend in Santa Cruz—raising chickens for eggs in your own backyard. Way back in 2005, Scotts Valley Feed sold just a couple of hundred chickens. In 2009, they sold more than 3,000 to avid backyard farmers who want to raise chickens and harvest their eggs. After all, a happy chicken can produce as many as six eggs a day, meaning that just a few chickens can produce quite a bit of food for the truly cholesterol-starved. Especially popular are the heritage brands, which add color and flavor to the Food Inc.-style variety eggs we tend to find in the grocery.
Mr. Lipson Goes to Washington
Kicking the Santa Cruz Mountains soil off his boots and trading his dry-farmed acres for a government office, organic farming advocate Mark Lipson is headed to Washington next month for a two-year stint with the USDA. “We began as an exotic, invasive species,” he recently told a research group in Washington, “but now organic farming and food is becoming a full-fledged part of the native ecosystem here at USDA.”
John Laird for Senate District 15
The June 22 race for Senate District 15 is no ordinary contest. Coming two weeks after the high-profile June 8 primary, it risks falling victim to voter apathy—yet it’s arguably one of the most critical races in the state. Together with the race for Senate District 12, which includes Salinas and Modesto, the outcome could shatter Sacramento’s crippling gridlock by wresting control away from the Republican party, which has sorely abused its minority rights and put ideology above California’s welfare.
