It’s no secret that Santa Cruz’s public library system is facing a deficit. Just about every public service in the county is. The real problem is that they don’t know what to do about it anymore.
Articles by Danny Wool
Cabrillo College Faces $3.2 Million in Cuts
The school’s board met last night to discuss strategies to deal with $3.2 million in state funding cuts, with disabled and disadvantaged students among the first to suffer. Programs at the new Stroke and Disability Center and the Extended Opportunity Programs and Services assisting students facing language, social, or economic challenges will be reduced considerably. According to state law, faculty and staff to be laid off because of the budget cuts must be notified by March 15.
UCSC Officials Shocked by Noose Image
Could racial tensions be seething beneath the surface of UCSC. Some school officials are worried that they are after an image of a noose was found scrawled on a bathroom door in the Earth and Marine Sciences Building. The image was accompanied by the words “lynch” and “San Diego,” the latter a reference to racial tensions at UCSD two weeks ago.
Moratorium on Cussing in Statehouse
Sure, the state’s budget is a mess, unemployment is skyrocketing, and Anthem Blue Shield is making its customers sick over its proposed price hike. That’s no excuse for dropping the f-bomb. Deficits be gosh-darned!
Prom Dress Drive Launched
Santa Cruz City Councilmember Tony Madrigal is concerned about how the current recession will have a lasting impact on teenagers. In these very formative years of their lives, many are forced to do without such basic staples as food, shelter, iPods, Wii’s, unlimited texting and clothing. That is why he has teamed up with Classic Cleaners to launch a community effort to help needy teens get to their proms in the style that they are accustomed to. They are launching the Prom Dress Drive.
Great Pacific Garbage Patch Bigger than Anticipated
Researchers studying the Great Pacific Garbage Patch have reached a disturbing conclusion. It’s a lot bigger than they originally anticipated. Giora Proskurowski of the Sea Education Association says that the reason scientists have miscalculated is the wind. It tends to push the plastic down from the water’s surface to the upper ocean. After studying the phenomenon he realized that there’s about as much plastic in the next 9 meters of ocean as there is in the top 1 meter that has been studied.
Twitter Gets Spiritual
“Open your arms to change, but don’t let go of your values.” It’s a quote attributed to Tenzin Gyatso, known around the world as the 14th Dalai Lama. It’s also just 58 characters long, perfectly tweet-sized, as are so many others of the Dalai Lama’s insights. More quotes like this could soon become available from the source himself—on Twitter. It’s not just for devotees either. As the Dalai Lama said: “If you have a particular faith or religion, that is good. But you can survive without it” (88 characters).
Grateful Dead Archive to Feature in ‘The Atlantic’
UCSC’s Grateful Dead Archive hasn’t even opened for business yet and it’s already getting plenty of attention. It will be the focus of a feature article in the March edition of The Atlantic. The article spotlights the academic and scholarly impact that the archive will have on a wide range of disciplines, some of them unexpected. Sure, music historians and ethnomusicologists will be interested, and the Dead were a historical phenomenon—the voice of a generation.
Santa Cruz Takes on Plastic Bags
Santa Cruz joined San Jose, San Francisco, and other cities in the Bay Area yesterday when the council endorsed a ban on single-use plastic bags and a fee on paper bags. Plastic bags, which do not decompose, are a major source of litter, filling coastal areas and rivers before they make their way to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. In the Bay Area alone, people use an estimated 3.8 billion bags every year. On average, they end up in the trash just 12 minutes after people get them.
Hands-free Law Could Be Extended to Cyclists
Cyclists talking or texting on their cell phones could soon face the same penalties as drivers if State Representative Joe Simitian has his way. The author of California’s hands-free law believes that cyclists “should have the same rights, laws and responsibilities” as drivers when it comes to following the rules of the road.
