If passed, AB 889 would grant nannies, housekeepers and attendants to the elderly and disabled the right to rest and meal breaks, limited overtime pay and workers’ compensation benefits to those who work fewer than 52 hours over a three-month period. (In-home support services workers are excluded from the bill.)
News
PLATED: A Tasty New Year
I am a big fan of Pasta Mike’s, the locally-made product line created by Mike Ruymen. Well, I’ve been tracking a change in the visual brand of these comfort food accessories, and I recognized the design signature involved. Pasta Mike’s new labels are the work of James Aschbacher, the ubiquitous muralist and painter, who designed an image last year especially to express the colorful flavors of Pasta Mike’s products. “I wanted him to have something more dynamic,” Aschbacher recalls. “So I created a painting about Mike.” Yep, that’s Mike himself on the label, beard and all.
Phase Two For Redevelopment
In its 24-year history, the Santa Cruz County Redevelopment Agency has built 1,385 affordable housing units, miles of sidewalks, the Simpkins Family Swim Center, the Live Oak library and much more. But its work—after it wraps up a slate of expensive projects green-lighted last summer by panicking county supervisors—is over. The California Supreme Court ruled Dec. 29 that the state’s redevelopment agencies are unconstitutional.
2012 Bucket Lists
It seems like only yesterday the biggest thing we had to worry about was a Gingrich-Palin ticket. Now we’re staring down the barrel of a 50-week march to the end of the world on Dec. 21, 2012, when the Mayan calendar comes to the end of its 5,000-odd-year cycle. (Or so they say.) It’s kind of depressing when you think about it in a certain light.
The End of The World As We Know It
Inside the Herb Room on Mission Street, home to holistic remedies like Sweet Bee Magic Cream, a beaming man who calls himself Word Smith (and has the business cards to prove it) is working the cash register. Word Smith is taking a special interest in this new year. Not because he’s some crackpot who thinks the world is going to burst into flames on Dec. 21; he thinks anyone predicting the end of the world is missing the most important part of the picture. But those people who think this will be a normal year? They’re wrong too, he says.
Letters to the Editor, Jan. 4-11, 2012
Our readers sound off about the meaning of true friendship and the perils of downtown dog poop.
Letters to the Editor
Our readers sound off about the meaning of true friendship and the perils of downtown dog poop.
Santa Cruz’s Year in Scientific Discoveries
The farthest galaxy yet, fish using tools and other earth-shattering discoveries of 2011, courtesy of UCSC scientists.
Santa Cruz’s Year in Anniversaries
Santa Cruz institutions’ milestones in 2011.
Santa Cruz’s Year in Lists
A list of the lists Santa Cruz made in 2011.
