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The University of California Board of Regents approved a new housing project on the west side of the UC Santa Cruz campus, endorsing a plan to significantly expand on-campus housing for upper-division students.

Heller Student Housing South is the first phase of a two-part project that will redevelop a 13-acre site that is the current location of Family Student Housing. After the new community for students with families opens in the 2026-27 academic year, the existing buildings will be removed for the new construction. Heller Student South will provide housing for nearly 1,300 upper-division undergraduate students.

The goal is to open the new housing for fall 2029, marking a significant step in the campus’s ambitious plan to increase student housing by 40 percent within the decade. 

“This project is crucial for our campus,” Chancellor Cynthia Larive said. “Support for students begins with on-campus housing and we are looking forward to being able to provide even more students with the opportunity to live and study on campus.”

UC Santa Cruz currently provides housing for 9,300 students, about 50 percent of its undergraduate community and one of the highest percentages within the UC system. With a mix of new construction and college renewal  projects, the campus is working toward adding thousands more units in the coming years. 

Heller Student Housing South will include four buildings, ranging from five to seven stories, built south of the existing pedestrian bridge at Rachel Carson College. 

(Rendering courtesy of McCarthy / WRNS Studio)

In order to support a range of student preferences, units will be available in a mix of singles, triple studios, two- and four-bedroom apartments, and co-living suites. 

Features in the first phase include a market, multi-purpose space, mailroom, and laundry facilities. The recently expanded dining hall at Rachel Carson and Oakes colleges will provide additional dining opportunities for students. 

Consistent with the university’s commitment to sustainability and other new housing on campus, Heller is expected to earn Gold Certification or higher in Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED™). The project is fully electric, with no fossil fuels used for space or water heating, and each building will include solar panels. The campus has designed the project to capture stormwater for non-potable uses such as toilet flushing and irrigation to reduce water consumption. 

UC Santa Cruz has plans for the second phase on the north end of the site to be advanced at a later date. The north project will provide up to 1,650 beds, giving UC Santa Cruz a combined total of 2,940 beds on the Heller site.

The post More student housing on the horizon as UC Regents approve new housing complex appeared first on Lookout Santa Cruz.

This summer, the Seabright and Santa Cruz Harbor neighborhoods are leaning into what they do best: bringing people together outdoors. From vintage markets and movie nights to a family play festival, a new lineup of community-focused events aims to turn the waterfront districts into lively gathering spaces throughout the season. Help buoy the Seabright and Santa Cruz Harbor businesses by exploring the shops and restaurants, enjoying these free events all summer long.

The Saltwater Market Brings Vintage Culture to the Beach

At the center of the summer lineup is The Saltwater Market, a curated outdoor thrift and vintage market designed to attract younger shoppers and creative audiences to the district.

The market will feature local vintage resellers, clothing vendors, artists, and makers, transforming Murray Street and the Santa Cruz Harbor into an open-air shopping experience with a distinctly coastal feel. Come take a stroll through the markets, explore the neighborhood, and spend the day moving between shops, restaurants, and vendor booths.

Two markets are currently scheduled:

• Sunday, July 12 in Seabright
• Saturday, August 15 in Santa Cruz Harbor area

Thursday Nights Become a Weekly Neighborhood Tradition

Another major piece of the summer programming is the launch of Thursday Night Family Movie Nights, a six-week outdoor film series taking place on Murray Street from July 9 through August 13. Grab your spot starting at 8pm for the 8:30pm showtimes. 

Each week, families are invited to bring lawn chairs and blankets and gather outdoors for a free community movie night. Families and neighbors are encouraged to dine, grab dessert or a beverage, or shop locally before the screenings. 

The events are free to attend and centered around family-friendly programming, creating an accessible option for local residents looking for low-cost summer activities. Check out the lineup:

• July 9: The SpongeBob Movie 
• July 16: Legally Blonde  
• July 23: Minecraft Movie  
• July 30: Shrek  
• August 6: Hoppers  
• August 13: Goat  

Harbor Family Play Day Focuses on Kids and Community

Rounding out the lineup is the Santa Cruz Harbor Family Play Day, a daytime festival planned for July that will focus on hands-on activities and interactive entertainment for kids.

The event will feature simple carnival-style games, family activities, and kid-focused programming designed to create an easygoing daytime experience for local families. While details and the final July date are still being finalized, the goal of the event is to be playful neighborhood gathering centered on accessibility and community participation.

Support the Seabright and Santa Cruz Habor Businesses All Summer Long

The City of Santa Cruz recognizes that summer is an important season for Seabright and the Santa Cruz Harbor area businesses. To help mitigate impacts of the full bridge closure from June to September, the City is working to ensure the neighborhood remains a vibrant destination all summer long through events, expanded business support, and the early launch of the free summer water taxi service. 

Whether its families gathering for outdoor movies, shoppers hunting for vintage finds, or kids playing carnival games by the beach, the season’s programming is built around a simple idea: Spend your summer in Seabright and the Santa Cruz Harbor and support our local businesses during the Murray Street Bridge Seismic Retrofit project. 

The post Summer by the water: Seabright and the Santa Cruz Harbor roll out a season of community events appeared first on Lookout Santa Cruz.

This post is updated throughout the day to reflect the latest incidents. It was last updated at 8:01 a.m.

Here’s what’s happening on Santa Cruz County roads this morning…

▼︎ new incidents

Road incidents as of 8 a.m. on June 9

• A traffic hazard was reported at Daubenbiss Avenue and Soquel Drive in Soquel at 7:01 a.m. today. Several vehicles, including a white Toyota Prius, gray Ford Escape and black Dodge Ram, were parked in a way that caused a hazard. A construction crew tried to find the owners by knocking on doors in the neighborhood. If they couldn’t find the owners, authorities planned to tow the vehicles.
   
• A person was seen pretending to jump in front of a car, causing a traffic hazard at Graham Hill Road and Tanglewood Trail north of Santa Cruz. This was reported today.
   
• A traffic hazard was reported at Capitola Road Extension and Soquel Avenue in Live Oak area at 7:56 a.m. today. An object was sticking into the road, causing drivers to move into oncoming traffic.
   
• South Highway 1 at Park Avenue in Capitola is facing closures for roadwork. The closure is expected to end on Aug. 19.
   
• Highway 9 at Cascade Avenue in Brookdale has one-way traffic due to ongoing work. This closure is expected to last until Aug. 31.
   
• There will be alternating lane closures on Highway 9 at Pool Drive in Boulder Creek because of bridge work. This is scheduled to continue until April 30, 2027.
   
• A lane on westbound Highway 152 at Clifford Drive/Ohlone Parkway in Watsonville is closed for asphalt paving. The closure is expected to last until July 3.
   
• The California Highway Patrol helped Caltrans with repaving work on eastbound Highway 152 between Green Valley Rd and Ohlone Parkway in Watsonville. The #2 lane was to be closed for maintenance from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. today.
   

Disclosure: Traffic incidents are partially generated by artificial intelligence. We are constantly working to improve the accuracy and quality of our AI-generated content. However, there may still be errors or inaccuracies. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us.

The post Tuesday morning traffic: Multiple road closures, hazards and lane blocks reported appeared first on Lookout Santa Cruz.

A cult vampire movie filmed in Santa Cruz has become one of Broadway’s most unexpected hits. But can the spirit of Santa Carla survive the journey from Boardwalk to Broadway?

The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors will decide Tuesday whether to move forward with a ballot measure to make changes to an ordinance that requires voters to approve any onshore facility of over 20,000 square feet that supports offshore drilling operations.

For families in Watsonville and the Pajaro Valley, California’s pesticide air monitoring system offers the appearance of protection while leaving significant gaps in what is measured and how exposure risks are understood, writes retired nurse and healthcare activist Kathleen Kilpatrick. A single monitor is expected to represent vast agricultural regions where residents live, work and attend school near heavily sprayed fields, even though only a fraction of pesticides are tracked. She argues that the system reassures regulators more than communities, particularly as local residents face overlapping exposures from pesticides, air pollution and other environmental hazards. Real protection, she contends, requires reducing pesticide use near schools and neighborhoods — not simply expanding a monitoring network that captures only part of the problem.

Ryan Coonerty, frontrunner for Santa Cruz Mayor, could be headed to a November runoff against Ami Chen Mills. (Amaya Edwards — Santa Cruz Local/CatchLight Local file)

.scc-row:hover { background-color: #eee; } Last county update: 6/8/2026 4:00:00 PM
Santa Cruz City Council, Mayor (vote for 1)CandidateTotalAmi Chen Mills2,945 (19.73%)Ryan Coonerty7,291 (48.85%)Joy Schendledecker1,737 (11.64%)Gillian Greensite1,702 (11.40%)Chris Krohn1,165 (7.81%)Write In86 (0.58%)

 

SANTA CRUZ >> Ryan Coonerty, the frontrunner in the race for Santa Cruz Mayor, dipped below the 50% margin required to win the election outright in the latest vote tallies posted Monday afternoon. If Coonerty doesn’t secure a majority of votes he’ll face off against the next highest vote getter, likely Ami Chen Mills, in the November general election.

Coonerty had 48.85% of the vote as of 4 p.m. June 8, Ami Chen Mills had 19.73%, and three other candidates for Santa Cruz Mayor each had fewer than 12% of votes.

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In the race for District 4 Santa Cruz County Supervisor, Tony Nuñez maintained a slim majority with 50.54% of votes in updated counts. Incumbent Supervisor Felipe Hernandez dropped to 30.92% of the vote and Elias Gonzales gained a couple of percentage points to 17.82%.

In the races for Santa Cruz City Council, incumbents Renee Golder and Scott Newsome maintained their majorities. 

Thousands of ballots remain to be processed in Santa Cruz County, and final results are expected by July 2. The next update to vote tallies is expected at 4 p.m. June 9.

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The post Santa Cruz Mayor race could head to November runoff as Coonerty loses majority in latest count appeared first on Santa Cruz Local.

Many in our community are feeling insecure right now. The effects of federal policy changes under H.R.1 (One Big Beautiful Bill Act) are hitting home in very real ways. There have already been drastic funding cuts and eligibility restrictions for CalFresh and Medi-Cal. And as of July 1, dental coverage for adult Medi-Cal members with insufficient immigration status will be eliminated. Our local nonprofits are facing rising demand and deep uncertainty.

In this moment, a question keeps coming to mind: What is the opposite of insecurity?

For food insecurity, it isn’t just the absence of hunger. It’s nourishment. For lack of access to medical care, it’s not just an appointment. It’s about being cared for holistically, with dignity.

Every day, our community nourishes each other in extraordinary ways. At dawn, Grey Bears volunteers come together and pack hundreds of grocery bags with shared purpose and love. At Cabrillo College, a mom working on her nursing degree is greeted with a warm smile at the wellness center when she picks up groceries for her family. At Salud Para La Gente, a physician cares for a patient in their native language and connects them to services to support their well-being. It’s the volunteer bringing Meals on Wheels to the door of a senior and a family picking up groceries and their preschooler at an early education center. It’s the volunteer at Second Harvest supporting over 60 food pantries across our County.

We know how to nourish each other, and we know how to nourish this community. We always have.

This month, the Community Foundation invested $2.1 million in Community Grants to 103 nonprofit partners—fueling work that keeps Santa Cruz County strong, connected, and nourished. These annual grants are made possible thanks to the generosity and foresight of dozens of families from previous generations, along with locals who made recent gifts to our Greatest Needs Fund.

Community Grants provide steady, unrestricted, and flexible funding that allows nonprofits to direct resources where they are needed most, whether that means sustaining core services or adapting programs as conditions change. For safety net organizations facing steep fiscal cliffs, this support helps leaders make informed decisions, protect what’s most essential, and navigate necessary transitions.

“Funding is helping power our response to a historic shift in healthcare policy: fueling advocacy, strategic outreach to teens who will retain their Medi-Cal benefits, and direct care for the growing number of patients losing coverage,” says Laura Marcus, CEO of Dientes Community Dental. “The Foundation’s support gives us the ability to plan ahead, weather the storm, and keep our doors open to those who have nowhere else to turn.”

While Community Grants play a role in sustaining access to food, shelter, and health care, the scope of our investment is intentionally broad. Grants also support arts and culture, conservation, education and youth development, and community‑based initiatives that enrich lives and strengthen opportunities across Santa Cruz County. Community well‑being is bigger than any one sector. When we support the full ecosystem—from healthcare to the arts to the environment—we help create a community that’s more resilient and able to care for one another.

Insecurity is injustice. We should be able to rely on strong public systems to protect our neighbors, but right now those systems are falling short. What we do now is up to us. It’s up to us in how we give and how we come together. We need to make sure that that Cabrillo mom finishes her nursing degree and gets a good paying job. We need to make sure that our hardworking neighbors get the healthcare they need. And we need to make sure that our seniors are not living in hunger and isolation.

Nourishing each other is justice.

As a community, we must keep paying attention, listening to the needs of our neighbors, and showing up. That shared commitment has served us for generations and it will continue to sustain us in the years ahead.

Susan True is the CEO of Community Foundation Santa Cruz County.

Dolphins hear through their jaws and humans hear through their ears, Seymour Marine Discovery Center volunteer Cathy Novak said during a demonstration at the center’s new exhibit. 

“Do you think humans can hear through their jaws?” Novak said as she held a tuning fork and striker. “Want to see what it’s like to hear through our jaws?”

Novak then tapped the tuning fork to the striker and placed the vibrating fork on the jawbone of a curious visitor, who plugged their ears and closed their eyes as instructed, to demonstrate that humans can indeed also hear through their jaws. 

Novak and several of the center’s staff held a soft opening on Friday of the first new permanent exhibit at the center in 15 years – See More HQ. The bilingual exhibit was designed to build the center as a hub connecting local scientists, community groups and the public around coastal resilience.

With its digital focus, the exhibit presents a changing slate of local researchers and their projects and interactive games. The center will host its grand opening this weekend.

Operated by UC Santa Cruz, the marine center is a museum and education center located on the Westside at 100 McAllister Way. The new exhibit is in the first room that visitors engage with when they walk inside, and the center has three large adjacent rooms including the aquarium. The completion of the exhibit marks the first part of the center’s broader transformation. 

Seymour Marine Discovery Center Executive Director Jonathan Hicken discusses the new permanent exhibit. Credit: Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz

Jonathan Hicken, the center’s executive director, said he’s “over the moon” to see this first part of the center’s multiyear transformation come to fruition. 

“I’m so excited. This is the first step in our transformation to be this community hub for coastal resilience,” he said. “That’s really how I see us amplifying the science and the stories and the solutions happening in Santa Cruz … I’ve dreamed of this moment for years.”

Hicken said the See More HQ exhibit cost about $500,000, and that the center’s remaining renovation projects will cost about $5 million total. The project is community-funded, and Hicken said the UC Santa Cruz Center for Coastal Climate Resilience funded half of the new permanent exhibit. He said the remaining projects will begin when they reach their fundraising goal and they don’t yet have a timeline for that. 

To celebrate the new exhibit, Seymour Center is hosting two days of activities Saturday and Sunday. From 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., there will be aquarium feedings, story time and guided outdoor tours. For more information on hours and admission, visit its website. 

Have news that should be in Lookout Briefs? Send your news releases, including contact information, to news@lookoutlocal.com.

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The post Seymour Marine Discovery Center’s new permanent exhibit draws curious visitors for soft opening appeared first on Lookout Santa Cruz.

A majority of teachers at Pajaro Middle School have voted that they have no confidence in Principal Nicole Killian, alleging she failed to follow safety and disciplinary protocols and calling for her resignation or removal. Pajaro Valley Unified School District said it takes all safety reports seriously and reviews concerns through established processes.

At Lookout Santa Cruz, we’ve always believed that local journalism belongs in the classroom.

Now, that belief is helping shape conversations about the future of local news across the country.

The American Press Institute recently invited me to present at its Local News Summit on Youth Trust and Civic Resilience and asked me to write an article for journalism leaders nationwide about the lessons we’ve learned through Lookout in the Classroom.

Together, those opportunities gave me the chance to share something we’ve seen firsthand in Santa Cruz County: Local journalism can help young people become informed, engaged members of their communities.

The article, “Share local news coverage with classrooms to spark civic engagement and boost fundraising efforts,” tells the story of how Lookout in the Classroom has grown from a single-school pilot into a program serving students and educators throughout Santa Cruz County.

API also included Lookout in the Classroom in a national collection of case studies spotlighting how local news organizations are building trust with young people while creating sustainable funding models.

You can read the full article here.

Critical to the ongoing success – and growth – of our student and school programs is your support. All Lookout memberships help, but our new One-for-One Membership supports them best. Sign up for one today, or upgrade to it, and you’ll be supporting this great work in the high schools and middle schools across Santa Cruz County.

Support free teacher access with your Lookout membership

You can help Lookout expand local news access for educators by joining or upgrading your membership. For every member who joins at the One-for-One level, Lookout is able to offer free access to an additional local teacher — including when members upgrade their existing membership!

Give a teacher free local news access

The article grew out of the API’s Local News Summit on Youth Trust and Civic Resilience in West Palm Beach, Florida, where about 60 local news leaders, educators, researchers and community engagement experts gathered to explore a pressing question: How can local news organizations build trust with young people and help prepare the next generation of engaged community members?

There, I talked about Lookout’s effort to connect Santa Cruz County students and teachers with trusted local journalism, media literacy resources and opportunities to tell stories of their own.

One lesson resonated throughout the conversation: Students came to trust Lookout because their teachers did first.

When we launched our pilot several years ago, we started with one school, one community sponsor and one willing teacher. We discovered that educators were eager for reliable local news they could bring into their classrooms. As teachers began using Lookout’s reporting, students engaged with stories about housing, education, local government, the environment and other issues shaping their community.

That effort has grown into Lookout in the Classroom, which now includes free educator access, classroom resources, school visits, an educator newsletter and the Student Journalism Scholarship. This year, the scholarship received more than 130 student submissions, the most in the program’s history.

Sharing this story with media leaders was a reminder that communities everywhere are grappling with the same challenges: declining trust in institutions, growing misinformation and the need to help young people feel connected to civic life.

What makes me proud is knowing that the work of local teachers, students, donors and readers is contributing to a national conversation about youth engagement and local journalism.

Many attendees were interested not only in the program itself, but also in how it has been built through partnerships with educators, community organizations, local donors and readers who believe that supporting journalism and supporting education can go hand in hand.

The summit was deeply solutions-oriented. Rather than focusing on what local news has lost, participants explored what can be built next. I left inspired by the creativity and commitment of news organizations across the country – and even more convinced that the work we’re doing together matters.

Lookout in the Classroom has always been a team effort. Correspondents, editors and staff across our newsroom have visited classrooms, mentored students, participated in workshops and helped bring local journalism directly to young people.

The program’s impact is also extending beyond Santa Cruz County. In Eugene-Springfield, hundreds of teachers have already signed up to participate in Lookout for Teachers.

Thank you to the teachers, students, donors, sponsors and readers who have helped make Lookout in the Classroom possible. The story I shared at the summit – and in the article – is ultimately your story. This recognition belongs to all of you.

Diamond Tech Lookout awards

The post Lookout in the Classroom earns national spotlight appeared first on Lookout Santa Cruz.

Corralitos Cultural Center’s Raise the Roof! benefit brings live music, a silent auction, sausage barbecue and community spirit to The Backyard on June 6.

This post is updated throughout the day to reflect the latest incidents. It was last updated at 8:31 a.m..

Here’s what’s happening on the roads this morning…

▼︎ new incidents

Road incidents as of 8:30 a.m. on June 8

• South Highway 1 at Park Avenue in Capitola / Soquel is facing closures for roadway excavation. The closure is expected to end at 7:01 a.m. on August 19.
   
• There is one-way traffic on Highway 9 at Cascade Avenue in San Lorenzo Valley because of ongoing work. The closure is expected to end at 7:01 a.m. on August 31.
   
• There will be alternating lane closures on Highway 9 at Pool Drive in San Lorenzo Valley because of bridge work. This will continue until April 30 at 6:59 a.m.
   
• A lane on westbound SR-152 at Clifford Drive/Ohlone Parkway in Watsonville and Pajaro is closed for asphalt paving. The closure will last until July 3 at 5:59 a.m.
   
• CHP helped Caltrans with paving work and one-way traffic control on eastbound SR152 from southbound Highway 1 to Green Valley in lane 2. The work took place from 6:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. today near Highway 1 South and SR152 in the Watsonville and Pajaro area.
   
• A lane on Highway 17 at Beulah Park/La Madrona in the Eastside / Live Oak area is closed for utility work. The closure is expected to end at 2:59 p.m. today.
   

Disclosure: Traffic incidents are partially generated by artificial intelligence. We are constantly working to improve the accuracy and quality of our AI-generated content. However, there may still be errors or inaccuracies. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us.

The post Monday morning traffic: Highway 1, 9, 17, and 152 lane closures, delays appeared first on Lookout Santa Cruz.

The Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission on Thursday will consider awarding a contract for construction management services for Segment 12 of the Coastal Rail Trail. Meanwhile, the county’s annual road work is underway, with Mid-County projects set to wrap up this week.

At Glenwood Fire Center, Cal Fire hand crews prepare for the next wildfire season in Santa Cruz County.

In a letter to the editor, a nurse expresses her worry about Watsonville Community Hospital’s future amid a dire financial situation.

This story was originally published by EdSource. Sign up for its daily newsletter.

David Boyer is stuck in a waiting game. For more than 18 months, silence from the National Institutes of Health on a crucial grant decision has thrown his research developing treatments for Alzheimer’s disease into uncertain territory.

His application received a favorable impact score, the main metric used for NIH funding decisions, so the postdoctoral scholar at UCLA figured he would hear good news by spring of 2025. Instead, he has heard nothing.

Without the funding, he has less to spend on his experiments, which require thousands of dollars worth of materials, including advanced microscopes. In a worst-case scenario, it’s possible he could lose his job if the grant doesn’t come through. 

“It’s really up in the air whether I would be able to continue getting funded,” said Boyer, who is part of UCLA’s Eisenberg Lab. 

Boyer is not alone. Federal funding for scientific research, from agencies such as NIH and the National Science Foundation, has been upended under the Trump administration, with fewer grants being awarded and some existing grants being canceled altogether. Even researchers with stable funding worry that their grants could get suspended or will not be renewed. 

But now, Boyer and other researchers at California universities have some hope that they could get a reprieve — from California voters. 

The University of California is pushing to get a $12 billion state bond on the November ballot that would fund scientific research projects at California universities, research institutes and private companies. In addition to UC and California State University campuses, private universities such as Stanford and the University of Southern California would also be eligible for the bond money.

For the bond to appear on the ballot, the state Legislature first needs to approve Senate Bill 895. The bill’s sponsors include UC and UAW 4811, the union representing 48,000 academic workers at UC, including thousands of researchers.

The bill was approved last week by the Senate and now heads to the Assembly. It must be passed and signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom by June 25 to make the ballot.

State Sen. Scott Wiener speaking in 2024. Credit: Fred Greaves for CalMatters

“As the federal government cuts and destroys scientific funding, as it creates long-term instability and uncertainty, as science has now become a political football in this country, let’s make sure that California retains and expands our leadership in scientific research,” state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) said on the Senate floor just before the May 27 vote. Wiener is one of the authors of the bill. 

If passed and approved by voters, the measure would create the California Foundation for Science and Health Research, which would award the grants using “an open, competitive, scientific peer review process,” according to the bill.

The bond would not be a cure-all for research funding if federal spending continues to dwindle. UC alone gets nearly $6 billion annually in federal support for research. 

“There is nobody else who can substitute for research funding on the scale the federal government supplies,” said Simon Atkinson, vice chancellor for research at UC Davis.

Still, Atkinson and other proponents of the bond agree that it would benefit researchers in California not to rely so much on the federal government, especially under the Trump administration, which proposed a $5 billion cut to NIH for 2027. Last week, The New York Times reported that NSF had slowed funding to Harvard and other institutions targeted by the White House, though the impact on California campuses is unclear.

Having another potential funding source would be welcome news to Ximena Anleu Gil, a plant biologist at UC Davis who researches how to breed more plants in environmentally friendly ways.

There is one year remaining on the grant that funds Gil’s position in UC Davis’ Meyers Lab. The prospect of not having the funding renewed is stressful for Gil, who is the main provider for her family, which includes her partner and 7-month-old daughter. 

“I’m very scared of what could happen. If I’m laid off, we’re screwed,” Gil said. “But having another source of potential funding, that would already feel like a big relief.”

If voters approve the bond, the legislation requires that priority be given to replacing funding slashed by the federal government. 

In California, 782 grants have been terminated by the federal government since January 2025, according to the website Grant Witness, a project tracking terminations under the Trump administration. 

Most of those grants have been restored under court orders, but dozens remain canceled, including one at UC San Francisco’s Center for AIDS Research that paid for training for undergraduate students. 

Under that grant, students from nearby Hispanic-Serving Institutions, including San Francisco State University, would spend the summer at UCSF doing HIV research. At the end of the summer, the center would hold a symposium where undergraduates present their findings.

The idea was to expose those students to the field and get them interested in HIV research, said Monica Gandhi, director of the center. 

“There are fewer and fewer people going into infectious disease research at a time when infectious diseases are all over,” Gandhi said. “It really just got them excited, and we thought it would help grow our biomedical research workforce in a really important topic.”

If California’s bond goes through, Gandhi said she expects the center would immediately apply for a grant to restart that program. 

Federal funding remains intact for the rest of the AIDS research center, which organizes all HIV research across UCSF. But it’s not clear how long that will be the case. Gandhi said the center is waiting for a formal notice from NIH to apply for a grant renewal, which she said normally would have come by now. 

“There are all these little ways they are making it harder to get funding,” she said. “Having a California-based initiative that isn’t political and will have the grants be judged on their scientific merit would be amazing. And I think it will go a long way.”

Have something to say? Lookout welcomes letters to the editor, within our policies, from readers. Guidelines here.

The post University of California pushes for $12B scientific research bond to counter federal cuts appeared first on Lookout Santa Cruz.

Thousands of people lined Pacific Avenue late Sunday morning, many dressed in rainbow colors and waving flags, as they watched the annual Pride Parade.

Santa Cruz Pride is the largest LGBTQ+ event on the Central Coast and the third-oldest annual Pride festival in California.

Marching in the parade was a mix of nonprofits, social groups, individuals and performers such as dancers and cheerleaders.

This included Santa Cruz Gay Beach Volleyball, which meets on Wednesdays from 5:30pm to sunset at Main Beach in Santa Cruz.

The group set up a mobile volleyball net bedazzled with an estimated 18,000 tiny beads in rainbow colors and flanked by two tile-mosaic planters filled with colorful flowers.

“Visibility, visibility,” group member Joe Cosentino said of the group’s reason for being there. “We’re not going away, ever.”

Pride, Cosentino said, is a “family reunion.”

“People showing up for the first time, not knowing where they are in this community, they find us and they find family,” he said.

Nearby, members of the Book Truck Precision Drill Team stood ready with their book carts painted in various rainbow shades.

“We have a long history of doing this,” Santa Cruz Public Libraries Director Christopher Platt said. “We celebrate everyone in our community, and this is a great way to do it. Libraries welcome everyone. No matter who you are, all the time.”

In another staging area, the Nor Cal Pride Band waited, most members wearing rainbow-inspired clothing and practicing with their instruments.

Santa Cruz Pride Band makes its way along Pacific Avenue.

The group is an amalgamation of about 85 young musicians from schools around Northern California, most of them from Santa Cruz County.

Instructor Keegan McCoy said the group was excited to participate.

“We’re just here to be in the community and support love and support acceptance and just people loving each other,” he said. “And we’re here to spread happiness and positivity.”

Percussionist Jayden Ross, 11, who attends Mission Hill Middle School in Santa Cruz, said performing in the parade was an exciting opportunity.

“Everybody’s here today to celebrate pride,” he said. “Because some people come from families and roots that don’t really let them be themselves. So it’s kind of, like, a chance to celebrate people being free and being themselves.”

San Francisco Cheer performs for the crowd.

Emi Akioshi, who volunteers with Teen Kitchen Project, said she came with the organization to show her support for the queer community.

The spirit of the parade, she said, matches the mission of Teen Kitchen Project, which teaches young people to cook nutritious meals that are delivered to people with serious illnesses.

“It feels good to be here. I mean, I’m part of the community myself,” she said.

Margaret Murillo of Peace of Mind Dog Rescue shows off two of her charges.

Rachel Williams, who chairs the Santa Cruz County Board of Education, said she was there to support all of the county’s students.

“We really feel like there’s a place for every student with academics, but we want to make sure that we create a safe space for all students to learn, to thrive, to grow and to advance,” Williams said. “We want to be here in support of them and our entire community of individuals.”

Newly re-elected California Assemblywoman Gail Pellerin was the parade’s grand marshal.

Elaine Johnson, president of the Santa Cruz NAACP and CEO of Housing Santa Cruz County, said the celebration is important in the current political climate.

“I’m just so happy that we’re here today celebrating who we are, who we truly are,” she said. “And I get to do it with people that I love and respect. And my thing is that it doesn’t stop when the sun sets tonight. We keep on celebrating life.”

Members of Sacramento Cheer show off their moves.

Cabrillo College Trustee Adam Spickler agreed.

“We spend, as the LGBTQIA2S-plus community, most of our time since President Donald Trump’s inauguration living in shadows, fearful of the ways they’re going to take back our rights,” he said. “That we’re going to lose our access to health care, you know, all this stuff. And we get to show up visibly in our community today and put all of that aside and celebrate and unite with each other in a way that really allows us to remember what we fight for in the first place.”

Participants walk along the parade route. A man who attends the parade every year dressed in an elaborate costume poses for the camera.

A half-century after Richard Hoover co-founded Santa Cruz Guitar Company, the internationally acclaimed guitar maker is celebrating its roots with a museum exhibit, concerts and a one-of-a-kind guitar crafted from Santa Cruz redwood and sycamore.

In his provocative new book, “Founding Daughter,” novelist and longtime Santa Cruz journalist Wallace Baine imagines a different Founders story for America — one shaped by a brilliant Black teenage girl in Revolution-era Philadelphia. The book came out in April and is, Baine writes, his way of coming to terms with the soaring prose Jefferson penned about equality and the bitter reality that he owned slaves. Here, Baine discusses who gets remembered, who gets erased and whether America’s 250-year-old ideals can survive their flawed origins.