City officials in Santa Cruz will be deciding on Tuesday whether to extend the 45-day moratorium on medical marijuana dispensaries by another 10 and a half months, to allow them more time to examine the issue. The existing rules were written over a decade ago. Some local business owners have expressed support for the moratorium. They argue that a weakening of the rules could lead to dispensaries on every city block, changing the city’s character.
Articles by Santacruz.com Staff
California Gets a Budget
Lawmakers and Gov. Schwarzenegger finally hammered out a deal last night to close the $26.3 million budget gap. The final budget more closely resembles the governor’s proposed budget than that of the Democratic lawmakers who’ve been locked in a stalemate with Schwarzenegger and legislative Republicans since February.
Animal Services on Lookout for German Pointer
Animal Services authorities in Santa Cruz are looking for a German pointer named Jack that bit a nine-year-old boy and charged the boy’s mother in Santa Cruz harbor yesterday.
UCSC Programs Get Grants Despite Budget Cuts
With California preparing to slash $3 billion from its University of California and California State University systems, the future seemed grim for UCSC. There was some good news yesterday though, when it was announced that the school won $6.3 million dollars from the UC system, to be used in four research major research projects.
Downtown Sex Shop Certified Green
Doing the nasty has never been so clean – Pure Pleasure in downtown Santa Cruz has just earned its stripes from the Department of Public Works as the only Green Certified sex toy shop in the entire Monterey Bay area.
Volunteers Support Santa Cruz Libraries
As the current budget crisis has shown, public libraries are one of the first services to take a hit when the economy is down. Just last month Santa Cruz County was forced to cut back on hours, programming, and even staff to meet the most recent cuts in funding. Their salvation came from an unexpected sources—volunteers, who have been flooding public libraries asking to help out. Countywide, volunteers have increased 75 percent, totaling 16,000 hours.
School Districts Uniting to Lobby Sacramento
Representatives of six Santa Cruz County school districts met on Thursday to form a steering committee for a proposed new Santa Cruz County School Boards Association. Like other associations throughout the state, the group plans to use their combined power to face state legislators with a unified voice, particularly in matters relating to the local education budget.
Good News for Santa Cruz Nonprofits
Faced with a 25 percent across-the-board cut in municipal funding, Santa Cruz nonprofits received some good news on Thursday. The Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County announced that it is giving almost $750,000 to a wide range of nonprofits that provide safety-net services for the local community.
Ten Questions for Becky Olvera Schultz
Artist Becky Olvera Schultz on how she got to Santa Cruz, what bugs her and what she’d be doing if she had all the time in the world.
Thousands Left Without Power
A Pacific Gas and Electric power line that fell at a Chanticleer Avenue substation yesterday knocked out the power for 12,000 customers and brought traffic to a slow crawl as people headed home on their evening commute.
