Just about everyone in Santa Cruz agrees that something has to be done to counter rising gang violence. They even agree that the SCPD needs help. What they disagree on is who should be helping. Four federal agencies are now partnering with the police to fight the gangs. No one is bothered by the Drug Enforcement Administration, Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, or the FBI. What does concern many residents is the active role being played by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE.
Articles by Danny Wool
NextSpace Expanding to San Francisco, San Jose
Forget about MySpace. The next big thing is NextSpace. The company, which was founded in Santa Cruz, offers office space and services to a variety of companies on a per month or day-pass basis. Need a conference room for the start-up you started in your garage, and your living room just won’t do? You can get that at NextSpace, with all the advantages of a fully operational office. Or else you can move your entire office out of your bedroom and into a more business-like setting where you can mingle with other entrepreneurs.
Unofficial: Coonerty, Gallagher, Connolly—And District 4 Runoff
What a relief. The elections are over and the public has decided. People with a lot of money have a better chance of winning a Republican primary. So it’s Meg Whitman ($81 million spent so far) against Jerry Brown and Carly Fiorina ($5.5 million of her own money) against Barbara Boxer. That’s the news everywhere in America, where the California race was the showstopper on the nightly punditcasts.
County Investigating Safety Procedures after Watsonville Accident
County officials are investigating safety procedures in Santa Cruz after a horrifying accident in Watsonville. A 61-year-old man who had worked for the county for over forty years was pulled into a woodchipper right in front of his coworkers. The victim, who has yet to be named, was part of a crew clearing brush on Paulson Road. The county’s Mental Health Crisis Team was dispatched to the scene to comfort and provide counseling to the crew and other eyewitnesses of the incident.
Santa Cruz Parks and Rec to Bear the Brunt of Budget Cuts
Like most cities in California, Santa Cruz is struggling to cover its deficit, the result of rising costs and lower revenues. Though every department is taking a hit, one department, more than any other, is learning what it is like to survive through a recession. The Parks and Recreation Department has seen its budget cut by 60 percent and its staff cut by 50 percent since 2002.
UCSC Conservation Strategies Win Award
Acterra, a nonprofit environmental group based in Silicon Valley, awarded UCSC with its 2010 Business Environmental Award in recognition of the school and students’ efforts to promote sustainability and environmental stewardship.
No Ready Solution for Budget Gap at Hand
The new fiscal year is just three weeks away, and the Santa Cruz City Council is still trying to figure out how it will close a budget gap that could grow to $3.7 million. Negotiations with the police union and the SEIU are not getting the results that city leaders had hoped for and talks are now underway to consider increasing the sales tax or the utility user tax.
MS-13 Gang Leader Arrested in Santa Cruz
Jose Abrego-Galdamez, 30, suspected of leading the MS-13 gang, was arrested in Santa Cruz on Thursday, and now faced deportation to El Salvador. MS-13, or Mara Salvatrucha, may not be one of the largest gangs in Santa Cruz, but it is considered to be one of the most violent. Last Thanksgiving, the gang, which deals in heroin, meth, and marijuana, shot a man 12 times at point blank range at the Santa Cruz levy.
Santa Cruz Hatchery Accused of Animal Cruelty
Compassion over Killing, an animal rights group based in Washington DC, documented a series of abuses against newly hatched chicks and ducklings at the Cal-Cruz Hatchery in Santa Cruz. When the DA’s office refused to take up the case, the group released a video of the abuses on YouTube, hoping to win support for its cause.
Who’s Financing the Campaigns?
With the primaries right around the corner, MAPlight.org, a Berkeley-based nonprofit, is trying to figure out where the money is coming from to fund State Assembly and Senate candidates’ campaigns. Some of their findings are surprising.
