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California regulators passed a rule in January 2024 that they said would protect communities from one of the state’s most popular, and dangerous, pesticides.

For decades, they knew that 1,3-dichloropropane, or 1,3-D, causes tumors in multiple organs in laboratory animals, which led the state to flag it as a carcinogen in 1989. Yet regulators allowed growers to fumigate fields with large volumes of 1,3-D to kill anything living in the soil before planting strawberries, almonds, grapes and other billion-dollar crops.

But now, a year after regulators implemented a rule they said would reduce cancer risk by decreasing the amount of 1,3-D in the air, applications of the highly volatile compound have spiked, state records show. 

PESTICIDES IN THE PAJARO VALLEY: Read Lookout’s news and Community Voices opinion coverage here

Growers applied a million more pounds of 1,3-D last year than they did in either 2023, before regulators enacted the “residential bystander” rule, or in 2024, after they implemented it. 

Increases were highest in Kern and San Joaquin counties, where it was used mostly on almond and grape plantings. Notably, the “adjusted total pounds”—which accounts for different application methods, weather conditions and other factors that affect how much of the volatile pesticide escapes into the air—nearly doubled in both counties and increased by almost 20% statewide.

“Their new regulations are failures,” said Mark Weller, the campaign director for the statewide public-interest group coalition Californians for Pesticide Reform. “They put in new regulations and 1,3-D use went up.”

The Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) enacted new rules in 2024 to restrict the use of 1,3-D to protect residential bystanders by implementing setback distances, requiring deeper injection in soil with higher moisture content, along with new fumigation methods and tarp requirements to reduce fumigant emissions into the atmosphere, said agency spokesperson Amy MacPherson. “DPR specifically developed methods that could allow for comparable levels of use while reducing overall emissions.”

Anne Katten, pesticide and work health and safety project director for the nonprofit California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, analyzed emissions detected at an air monitor in Delhi, California, one of six monitors operated by DPR. Katten found a 30% increase in average levels of 1,3-D in the air during the first three quarters of 2025 (the most recent publicly available data) compared to the same period in 2024.

Delhi is a largely Latino town in Merced County, where the $10 billion agriculture industry employs one in five residents and farmers primarily use 1,3-D to grow almonds and sweet potatoes. Merced is also where regulators detected alarmingly high levels of 1,3-D at a junior high school in 1990 and suspended its use for five years.

Public health policy assumes that there is no safe level of exposure to a carcinogen, to account for disparities in exposure and variable susceptibility across different populations. Fumigants like 1,3-D can also produce severe short-term symptoms, including respiratory distress, chest pains, eye irritation and dizziness.

A sign at a Watsonville strawberry field warns of pesticide use. Credit: Liza Gross / Inside Climate News

In 2023, researchers in China reported what they believed to be the first death from inhaling 1.3-D, which commonly causes nausea, dizziness and headaches in exposed California farmworkers. A 50-year-old Chinese greenhouse worker died of renal failure and brain swelling more than a week after a brief encounter with 1,3-D in a poorly ventilated workspace.

1,3-D is now banned in 40 countries, according to Pesticide Action Network International.

The whole point of the regulations was not necessarily to reduce 1,3-D use but to reduce emissions, said Caroline Cox, a retired pesticide scientist and former research director at the nonprofit Center for Environmental Health. “It just doesn’t seem like the regulations are really doing what they were designed to do.”

Farmworker communities and their allies have tried lawsuits, media campaigns and die-in protests to compel pesticide regulators to protect them from 1,3-D. In February, they returned to court to seek relief from DPR’s “continued failure to meet its legal obligations to protect farmworkers and other members of the public from … a toxic, cancer-causing fumigant.”

DPR now has two separate safety levels for the same chemical, the 2024 residential bystander rule and another rule for occupational bystanders, which went into effect at the beginning of 2026. Having two different 1,3-D regulatory targets for residents and workers does not account for the fact that farmworker communities, where people live and work next to treated fields, typically face much higher exposure risks from childhood to old age. 

“Both regulations miss the mark and allow for the continued use of 1,3-D in a way that neither satisfies DPR’s mandatory legal obligations nor sufficiently protects public health,” farmworker and community advocates argued in their legal brief.

Before enacting the new rules, DPR capped the amount of 1,3-D growers could apply within a roughly 36-square-mile area called a township. DPR did not include a township cap in the 2024 regulations because agency officials expected the setbacks and other additional requirements to mitigate both acute and cancer risks. Still, the cap remained in place, due to a court order, until January, when the occupational bystander rule went into effect.

One township in Kern County already exceeded the previously required annual township cap, and several in Kern and Merced counties are approaching it, in just the first quarter of this year, state records show. As a 2024 Inside Climate News analysis found, the disproportionate burden of pesticide exposure falls on immigrants with limited English proficiency—which describes the majority of California’s farmworker population.

DPR’s MacPherson attributed increased applications of 1,3-D to “unusually high replanting of vineyards and orchards in Kern County, which only occurs about once every 10 to 20 years.”

DPR is monitoring areas with relatively high use in the first quarter, she said, but needs to see a full year of data before drawing “meaningful conclusions.”

DPR released a plan to accelerate sustainable pest management in 2024 with a top goal of eliminating the adverse human health and environmental impacts associated with pesticide use. It does not include a list of priority pesticides.

Seeing elevated emissions of 1,3-D after regulators removed the cap troubles Katten at the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation. “They were saying everything was going to be OK because things were on a downward trend, and they clearly aren’t,” Katten said. “Their sustainable pest management efforts are not bearing fruit yet.”

At a recent meeting with DPR, Weller told staff members the agency used to be committed to reducing fumigant use in California. “Are you still interested in that?” he asked.

No one answered yes, he said.

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

The post California pesticide regulators say new rules protect communities as applications of a dangerous fumigant rise appeared first on Lookout Santa Cruz.

In a letter to the editor, a Santa Cruz resident expresses doubt over the future of local passenger rail under the current leadership of the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission.

Train travellers are poorly served by the UK’s mobile networks, says Ofcom. Tests on railway lines in England, Scotland and Wales revealed disappointing signal across 24 rail segments, with results falling short in 83 percent of cases. The communications regulator is now calling for a nationwide effort to raise the standard of mobile coverage passengers can expect. On-board Wi-Fi was also tested by Ofcom and it performed well just one percent of the time. This writer can attest that on train journeys to London, the mobile network signal is often too weak to allow doom scrolling on social media - which is perhaps no bad thing. Ofcom’s report [PDF] found that even the best performing network (EE) met the Good Performance threshold less than half the time, while Three, O2 and Vodafone could only achieve this between 17 and 21 percent of journeys. For the purpose of the tests, Good Performance was defined as a download speed of at least 5 Mbit/s, an upload speed of at least 1.5 Mbit/s and a response time (latency) of 50 milliseconds or better. This level should allow a passenger to stream video or browse the web without noticeable delays. Ofcom tested cell performance on main line rail journeys, and most of these were in England, with a few in Scotland and just a solitary line along the south coast in Wales. Northern Ireland was not included in the tests. According to the results, the best performance was on the London Victoria to East Croydon line, south of the capital, or London to Bristol – but only for EE users. The problem is down to weak mobile signal strength along rail corridors, which can be further attenuated by certain types of rail carriage, Ofcom says. Rural and intercity passengers unsurprisingly experience a worse service than those in urban areas, where there are more cell base station sites. However, latency turns out to be the main reason why tests failed to meet the Good Performance threshold. Even when download and upload speeds were adequate, network delays proved to be the bottleneck, Ofcom says. One aspect of the study relates to the technologies operating across the four networks. EE has a roughly even three-way split between 4G, 5G Standalone (5G SA), and 5G Non-Standalone (NSA), which the report says “represents the most advanced 5G deployment observed in the study.” Three remains predominantly a 4G network along the rail corridors, accounting for 68 percent of samples, 32 percent as 5G NSA and no 5G SA encountered during testing. Vodafone and O2 sit somewhere between these findings. Despite Vodafone and Three sharing their networks as part of their ongoing merger, Three users were not able to use Vodafone 5G SA at the time of the survey, Ofcom found. In the case of Wi-Fi, only South Western Railway, which is testing a trackside millimeter-wave tech, delivered a meaningful service as part of their technology trial, Ofcom says. Throttling by train operators is too severe, it found, with caps of about 1 Mbit/s on some routes preventing passengers from enjoying Good Performance. The on-board service also used older standards, typically Wi-Fi 4 or 5. In-train connectivity does not yet consistently meet the expectations of modern passengers, the report concludes, with significant variation by route, operator and time of day. Improving the experience will require coordination between mobile operators, train operating companies and others, plus supportive policy and regulatory frameworks. Kester Mann, CCS Insight director for consumer and connectivity, told us: "bringing reliable mobile connectivity to trains is hugely challenging. It requires connecting to multiple masts and other network infrastructure while travelling at speeds of 100 MPH or more. Tunnels and cuttings make the job even more demanding." He said many tracks pass through rural areas where mobile coverage is weak or absent. "Poor signals on trains is a regular customer frustration that the mobile industry, Government and train operating companies have long struggled to address." The regulator wants to hear from interested parties on the issues raised in this report, and welcomes responses between now and July 29. “People rightly expect connectivity they can count on - and delivering it will require a joined‑up national effort,” said Ofcom’s Group Director for Infrastructure and Connectivity, Natalie Black. ®

ON CALL Buckle in, dear readers, for an extreme installment of On Call, The Register's reader-contributed Friday column in which we share your stories of superlative tech support scenarios. This week, meet a reader we'll Regomize as "Solomon" who sent a story from his time working for a county sheriff's office. "I usually arrived early in the morning to get my daily stuff done before the phone calls started," Solomon told On Call. "One morning I found the Major waiting for me. He told me to follow him. I said I needed to clock in. He replied that he'd already done that for me." That told Solomon time was of the essence, an impression that proved correct as the Major broke into a jog and led him to a waiting patrol car in which the officer explained that Solomon was coming along on a raid that might need someone with IT skills to mop up afterward. "We sped through streets, with no lights or sirens," Solomon wrote. "The Major didn't say anything except 'You're a good man.'" That's when Solomon noticed the Major was wearing a bulletproof vest and carrying a belt that held a few extra magazines of ammunition. At which point he became more than a little worried. His mood didn't improve when the patrol car came to a sudden halt and the Major told him to stay in the vehicle – no matter what happened. Solomon did as he was told and soon noticed several other patrol cars arrive and heard a disconcerting increase in radio chatter. So many personnel appeared he wondered if a full-blown SWAT team might be needed for the job. "Just then, two tactical vehicles came roaring down the street from behind me and sped around the corner," Solomon told On Call. Then he heard a lot of shouting, and his mind started to race. "I need a bulletproof vest and a fully automatic rifle. I haven't been to church for years." About 20 minutes later, the Major returned and told Solomon he wasn't needed. "No computers here," the Major said, explaining the situation with a cryptic "Things moved faster than expected." Some of the officers who worked on the raid invited Solomon along to lunch after. "The burger I ate that day was the best I'd ever had in my life, I was so relieved," he told On Call. What's the most dangerous situation you've encountered while delivering tech support? Be brave and click here to send On Call an email so we can help other readers partake of your peril in a future column. ®

In the current environment, remaining heads down has diminishing returns; at some point, you have to make some noise just to remind the market you exist.

The very last post-credits scene (of three!) in Travis Knight’s Masters of the Universe is actually a cheeky nod to the post-credits scene from the original MOTU film, nearly forty years ago. That tease at the end of the infamous Cannon Films movie from 1987 never received a follow-up, but maybe things will play out differently this time. But both scenes tease the return of arch-villain Skeletor in a future installment, ready to plague our hero, He-Man. Back then, that second cinematic adventure never came to be. Maybe now, things will work out for the better.

Amazon MGM Studios

In the new MOTU film, after He-Man (Nicholas Galatzine) defeats Skeletor (Jared Leto) and leaves nothing but a skull on the ground in Castle Grayskull, we cut to six months later. The final post-credits scene shows Alison Brie’s Evil-Lyn descending a staircase in the Castle, picking up Skeletor’s discarded skull head. (Hey, how did she get in there?) She smiles wickedly at him, and says to her boss “You’ve looked better,” and walks off as we hear Jared Leto’s cackle. Obviously, Evil-Lyn will use her dark sorcery to bring her master, the Lord of Snake Mountain, back to life. Maybe a trip to the afterlife of Subternia is in order in MOTU Part Two? The Kevin Smith animated series on Netflix did something similar when its Skeletor died.

RELATED ARTICLE

MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE Is a Colorful Retro Adventure (Review)

This is clearly all a nod to the way the original Masters of the Universe ended. Back in the ’80s, movies barely ever had a post-credits seen teasing a sequel. This was way before the MCU popularized them. Usually, they were joke scenes, like in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, or The Muppet Movie, before that. But Masters of the Universe actually teased Skeletor’s return in a sequel. After He-Man (Dolph Lundgren) throws Skeletor (Frank Langella) down an abyss in his final battle, the post-credits scene sees Skeletor’s head pop up out of the water and declare, “I’ll be back!” Well, sadly, Skeletor was not back, and Cannon Films didn’t last much longer as a studio. Largely because of the box office failure of Masters of the Universe.

Both Skeletor post-credits teases are pretty campy, which is fitting for such a camptastic villain. Say what you want about Frank Langella as Skeletor, but he’s the best thing about that movie. And he actually, the actor has a tremendous fondness for that role, even to this day. If Masters of the Universe 2026 gets a second chapter, it would fulfill a forty-year-old promise. We hope that Skeletor’s old boss and mentor, Hordak, is the one who brings him back to life. And then, the two can team up to take down He-Man and She-Ra. That’s the sequel we’d love to see. And if someone else plays Skeletor besides Jared Leto this time? Well, then that’s perfectly ok too. We won’t get mad about it.

Masters of the Universe is now playing in theaters everywhere.

The post Final MOTU Post-Credits Scene Is a Nod to the 1987 Movie appeared first on Nerdist.

One of the big questions Masters of the Universe fans have asked, based on all the trailers, is “Where the heck is He-Man’s loyal sidekick, Orko?” Would Amazon MGM Studios and director Travis Knight, an avowed MOTU fanboy, really leave the little floating wizard out of a live-action He-Man movie again? Well, despite not being in any advertising materials or movie merchandise, right before the credits roll, Orko does put in a brief appearance. It harkens back to his role in the original 1980s He-Man and the Masters of the Universe cartoon, where he gives a “life lesson” to the kids at the end of most episodes.

Filmation

In the scene, we see Orko at a market in Eternia, speaking directly to the camera. (IMDb says Christopher Ragland provides the voice.) He looks much like he did in the old cartoon, floating with a wizard hat that obscures his face, with his only features being two bright eyes and two blue elfin ears that stick out of his hat. Here, he gives the audience a special “So what did we learn from today’s adventure, kids?” lesson. We won’t spoil exactly what he said, but it’s very in keeping with classic Orko. It’s a fun nod to the old Filmation cartoon, and sets up Orko as existing in this universe.

Netflix

Orko is an iconic piece of the MOTU franchise, but Mattel did not create him. He was one of the first elements of the franchise that Filmation created for their syndicated TV series. Back in the ’80s, pretty much every cartoon had to have a “cute sidekick” character. It was pretty much an unwritten rule. Filmation president Lou Schiemer not only created him, but also voiced the character. He was a wizard from the dimension of Trolla, who was the court magician for King Randor on Eternia. He grew up with Prince Adam, and was one of only three people who knew he was secretly He-Man. In a way, he became the show’s unofficial mascot. Not long after, Mattel introduced him into the toyline.

The Cannon Group

The first Masters of the Universe live-action movie from 1987 famously did not include Orko, which caused much confusion among many kids. Especially as he was absolutely synonymous with the cartoon at the time. So, every child in the theater was shocked not to see him. Instead, we got a little gnome-like wizard named Gwildor, played by Billy Barty, who required prosthetic makeup for the role. But he didn’t have to float, so it was probably easier on the budget. But for years, MOTU fandom has referred to Gwildor as “discount Orko.”

Netlfix

Orko and Gwildor finally shared a screen in Kevin Smith’s Masters of the Universe: Revolution on Netflix. Although Travis Knight’s MOTU film contains several nods to the 1987 movie, Gwildor was not one of them. Maybe next time, Gwildor. If the new Masters of the Universe gets a sequel, we imagine Orko will play a bigger role. He’s just too much of a crucial piece of He-Man lore not to. But, if the live-action MOTU franchise ends here, at least the little guy made it for a fun cameo.

Masters of the Universe is now playing in theaters everywhere.

The post Does Orko Appear in MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE? appeared first on Nerdist.

There are technically three stingers at the end of Travis Knight’s Masters of the Universe film. The first is a one featuring fan-favorite character Orko. But the second is the mid-credits one, and that one will really have longtime fans in a tizzy. That’s because the mid-credits scene features the live-action debut of She-Ra, the Princess of Power, He-Man’s twin sister. For a long time, the media rights for He-Ma and She-Ra were seemingly split up, casting doubt that she could appear in Masters of the Universe. But appear she does, even if we only get her side profile. We suppose that’s so they can leave it open to cast a name for her in a potential MOTU sequel.

Amazon MGM Studios/Filmation

As the MOTU movie comes to a close, Prince Adam’s mother, Queen Marlena, looks over her kingdom of Eternos, now free from the tyranny of Skeletor. She mentions to Man-At-Arms (Idris Elba) how lucky they were to have found Prince Adam, after he was lost on Earth for fifteen years. And then she says, in a very cryptic manner, that maybe there is still a chance to find “her” too. Longtime MOTU fans probably guessed right away that the “her” in question was Adam’s twin sister Adora, better known as She-Ra. But the movie actually shows the character after the main credits rolled. And she was completely accurate to the classic cartoon and Mattel toys.

In the scene, we see She-Ra standing over a ridge, on what we assume is her home planet, Etheria. She has her signature red cape, golden headpiece, and flowing blonde hair. We only see her face briefly, when she turns to the camera, and we get a side profile. In the distance, we see the Fright Zone, the home base of the Evil Horde, She-Ra’s sworn enemies. A soldier comes up behind her, and refers to her by her birth name and rank, calling her Force Captain Adora. We see her Sword of Protection, with the powerful jewel right in the middle. We even hear the theme song playing from her 1985 cartoon series, She-Ra: Princess of Power.

Filmation

In the MOTU lore, Princess Adora was Adam’s twin sister, daughter of King Randor and Queen Marlena of Eternia. As an infant, the forces of Hordak and his Horde attacked Eternia, along with Hordak’s apprentice, Skeletor. The forces of Eternos defeated Hordak and sent him packing to his home dimension. But as a last act of revenge, he kidnapped the infant Adora from her cradle. He disappeared into Etheria, a place where the Eternians could not reach. Adora was adopted by Hordak, brainwashed into thinking the Horde were benevolent. She became Hordak’s Force Captain, leading his armies into battle against Etheria’s Great Rebellion.

Filmation

Eventually, on Eternia, the Sorceress of Grayskull had a vision, and discovered where Adora was. She informed Adam about his secret sister, and that he had to go and find her. She also told him that there was a second magic sword of Grayskull like his. While his was the Sword of Power, the other was the Sword of Protection, destined for Adora. When Adora could wield the sword and say the words “For the honor of Grayskull!” she would gain superpowers just like her brother. He-Man journeyed to Etheria, and he not only met his sister, but helped break her of her programming from the Horde. She wielded the sword and became She-Ra, the most powerful woman in the universe. She joined the Great Rebellion against her foster father Hordak, who she now knew to be evil.

Filmation

Will a potential sequel to MOTU be a live-action version of 1985’s He-Man and She-Ra: The Secret of the Sword? That was the theatrical animated film (really, an extended pilot episode) that introduced the She-Ra spinoff to kids. Later in the fall of 1985, She-Ra: Princess of Power would get her own successful cartoon series, which ran for two seasons. It seems that’s the route they are going, should MOTU be successful. If that’s the case, they will likely recast She-Ra, much as the MCU recast Thanos after his Avengers end credits teaser. We hope that MOTU does well at the box office so we can see He-Man and She-Ra fight the forces of evil together in live-action. Who doesn’t want to see that? We know MOTU director Travis Knight does. So we hope we all get our wish.

The post MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE Mid-Credits Scene Teases Major Hero appeared first on Nerdist.

Watsonville Municipal Airport is one of our community’s most unique assets. 

While many people may think of airports simply as places where aircraft take off and land, our airport has become so much more. Today, it serves as a hub for education, innovation, community engagement, and future opportunities for Watsonville residents of all ages.

I appreciate how our airport continues to connect directly with the community.

Throughout the year, the airport hosts events and partnerships that invite residents onto the airfield to experience aviation in exciting and meaningful ways. From blood drives and community events to educational programs and family-friendly open houses, the airport continues to find ways to bring people together.

One of the most exciting efforts happening at the airport right now is its investment in the next generation. Through partnerships with local schools, educators, pilots, and aviation professionals, students are gaining hands-on learning experiences that can help shape future careers and opportunities.

A great example is the partnership with Pajaro Valley Unified School District’s new aviation pathway program, part of its Career Technical Education curriculum. Students are receiving hands-on exposure to aircraft maintenance, aeronautical engineering, and flight systems while learning directly from industry professionals. Earlier this year, students even began assembling a functioning aircraft at the Watsonville Aviation Education Center. It is an incredible example of what can happen when education, industry, and community partnerships come together.

The airport’s outreach efforts also extend to younger students. This year marks the fifth consecutive year of the annual “Day at the Airport” program in partnership with PVUSD. Since 2022, more than 2,000 fourth-grade students have had the opportunity to experience aviation firsthand through interactive demonstrations and behind-the-scenes activities hosted by local aviation businesses, pilots, maintenance crews, and volunteer organizations. Students have explored law-enforcement drone operations, learned about emerging electric aircraft technology, watched parachute-packing demonstrations, and even experienced a working wind tunnel.

These programs are about much more than aviation. They are about inspiring curiosity, creating opportunities, and showing young people that exciting career paths and possibilities exist right here in Watsonville. At the same time, our airport continues looking toward the future. Watsonville Municipal Airport is helping position our community as a leader in emerging aviation technologies and clean-energy transportation. In partnership with nearby airports, Watsonville is exploring opportunities connected to Electric Vertical Take Off and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft and next-generation aviation infrastructure. These efforts have the potential to support innovation, strengthen workforce development, and create new economic opportunities for our region.

Community engagement remains at the center of everything the airport does. One of the biggest examples is the airport’s annual Fire in the Sky Open House celebration, returning Saturday, July 4, 2026. Every year, thousands of residents and visitors gather at the airport to experience everything the airport has to offer. This year’s event will feature aircraft displays, demonstrations, music, food, family activities, and a Kidz Zone, all culminating in an exciting fireworks show to close out the evening commemorating our nation’s 250th anniversary.

As City Manager Tamara Vides shared, “Our airport offers the perfect venue for the citizens and community to come together to recognize the value of our airport while celebrating our independence. The annual Fire in the Sky Open House continues to be an exciting opportunity for residents and visitors to experience Watsonville’s airport and what it has to offer.”

I am proud of the role our airport continues to play in supporting education, innovation, and community connection here in Watsonville. Whether introducing students to new career opportunities, supporting emerging technologies, or creating memorable experiences for families, our airport continues proving that it is far more than aviation infrastructure. It is an important community asset that helps shape the future of

Watsonville.

Pesticide use in the Santa Cruz county 

Pesticides are not only harming farmworkers but also us. Pesticide use is a huge problem that is especially affecting us since we are surrounded by agriculture. It is very important to find new ways to control invasive pests, a way this can be accomplished is by using natural pesticides. An article titled “A focus on agricultural pesticide applications” states that agriculture is the second highest income generator in the county, bringing in $1.5 billion in overall economic impacts. The use of harmful pesticides used near us is not a coincidence, this is a form of environmental racism. The same article states that “The director of the center for farmworker families, Ann Lopez, said ‘you would not find this in the north county of Santa Cruz, or if it was there, there would be such an uproar that you would hear about it all over the country.’” 

My grandpa worked in the fields, and he says that when he and all the other workers would be picking the strawberries there would be other people spraying chemicals just a few feet away. Due to this, my grandpa got diagnosed with cancer. 

He is not the only one. His situation is an ongoing issue among farmworkers. 

Santa Cruz County has the second highest rate of childhood cancer in California, 36% higher than the state average. It’s not surprising, because agricultural corporations like Driscoll’s and California Giant Berry Farms spray an estimated 5,060 acres of cancer-causing pesticides in the Pajaro Valley every year, including near schools and homes where children spend most of their time.

Andrea Palmerin Alfaro

Watsonville

•••

Inflammatory rhetoric is not the way

The Pajaro Valley School District and the various unions that contract with the district have reached an impasse since they have not agreed to terms. The state has a process for resolving the disputes in an attempt to avoid a strike. First is mediation, and if that fails, there is a fact finder who will sort out the facts from the hype. It seems that the unions want to avoid that impartial fact finder by staging demonstrations and disruptions at board meetings in the hopes of intimidating the board to acquiesce to their demands.  

With the process already in place, let’s see if mediation will bring the sides together.  If that does not resolve the dispute, then a neutral fact finder will determine whether the district’s proposals have merit and whether the union’s demands are reasonable.  

The public has a right to know which side is justified in their demands. Publicity stunts and political theater like we have seen are not necessary, and only serve the union leadership and not their members. PVUSD is not in good financial shape, and they need to act responsibly as do the unions. Hopefully a strike can be averted, but inflammatory rhetoric is not the way to proceed.

Gil Stein

Aptos

•••

The hard truth: Understanding and overcoming Depression 

The people who tend to struggle with depression are the ones who can be the brightest people in the room. They are the ones who find it easier to make you smile rather than themselves. 

Oftentimes, people who struggle with depression find it difficult to reach out for help. I have dealt with a lot of pressure as a student athlete, and in trying to maintain the level of expectations I have set for myself. 

Throughout my entire life, I have dealt with adversity with family and friend issues and extreme stages of grief. The absolute worst of all was the sudden passing of my older brother. That event really played a major role in my life in many ways. Being a student-athlete means there will always be people keeping their eyes on you, whether it is for the student part or the athlete part. Regardless, you will always have the added pressure. Preparing for sporting events over many years can take a lot out of athletes. It’s a fight for seconds, minutes, points, heights, the most wins, or the most successful season. 

Studies have shown that student-athletes (22.3%) were at risk for depression, anxiety (12.5%), and low self-esteem (8%). 

You are given this certain level of expectations, and you are expected to follow up because you committed to this. You, as a student-athlete, are expected to maintain good grades and attendance while trying to perform at the highest level for your sport. Since the age of 6 years old, I have been playing basketball at an extreme level. From age 6 to now, basketball has been my only passion, and it shows. I play hurt, sick, tired, and I lose sleep, skip meals, and overall destroy myself for the game I “love.” Understanding and overcoming depression is something many people struggle with doing. However it is very much possible to overcome such adversity.

Matthew Grell, 17

Watsonville High School

•••

At-large system right for Capitola

I strongly support Capitola’s transition from at-large elections to district-based elections. This important change will bring fairer and more responsive representation to our community of nearly 10,000 residents.

Under the old at-large system, neighborhood-specific issues often got overlooked. Whether you live near the beach and Wharf, along Soquel Creek, in the residential hills, or in eastern Capitola, each area has its own distinct character, needs, and challenges. District elections ensure that every part of our city will have a council member who actually lives there and understands local concerns like traffic, parking, housing, and preserving our small-town charm.

This new system promotes stronger accountability, makes it easier for regular residents to run for office, and better protects our diverse communities of interest. It also responsibly addresses legal concerns under the California Voting Rights Act, saving taxpayers from expensive lawsuits.

I urge the City Council and demographer to draw sensible, compact district lines that keep neighborhoods intact and respect natural boundaries. With careful implementation, this reform will make Capitola’s democracy more inclusive, equitable, and effective.

Capitola is a wonderful, tight-knit community. Moving to district elections is the right step forward to ensure every voice truly matters.

Mike Lelieur

Pleasure Point

•••

Trouble at Pajaro Middle School

Pajaro Middle School is flooding once again, but this time, instead of water, the campus is drowning in incompetence from the principal causing a lack of safety.

Following devastating flooding, the school reopened in 2025 with a part-time principal. After suffering trauma, relocation, and separation, this was deemed sufficient.  The school needed to rebuild more than just a few classrooms.  

Thanks to dedicated staff, the principal was moved to full-time. Unfortunately, things did not improve as hoped. Failure to maintain safety was so frequent, six teachers filed a grievance with PVUSD.  

This year the hope lasted for a month.  Poor communication and supervision and fights amongst students started the year. Since January the principal has failed to address:

• Selling drugs on campus

• Weapons and threats against a student

• Proper response during lock-down 

• Supporting students after an attack on a classmate

Staff response was a vote of no confidence, supported by 88% of them and 71 pages of documentation. 

Through grievances and complaints, the district never stepped in. The principal has chosen to stay when presented with an opportunity for a fresh start. 

Pajaro deserves a school where they feel confident sending students. However, the loss of trust between principal and staff makes this impossible.  For PMS to rebuild safety and trust a replacement is needed that will put the safety of students first.

PVMS staff

“Threads of Grief, Threads of Love” is the current show at Resource Center for Nonviolence made up of 36 handmade quilts that honor 722  infants killed in Gaza before their first birthday. 

A community gathering was held May 29 to kick off the exhibit, spearheaded by Unhae Landis, where a panel of five speakers addressed the Gaza war. 

The panelists were Palestinian writer, playwright and podcaster Mo Sati, along with Rolla Alaydi, a Monterey County educator who has lost 215 family members. Also included were Lebanese artist and educator Rami Chahine and Unhae Langis, a quilter, writer and community organizer. Multidisciplinary artist Maha Taitano Chamoru-Iraqi also joined the panel.

“My family has been displaced again and again, over and over and their homes destroyed in Gaza,” Alaydi told the sword of around 50 people. “Now they search for food and water that does not exist. [The quilts] “are lives, they are dreams, they are threads woven into the fabric of humanity, and as long as we continue to speak their names and tell their stories those threads will not be broken.”

Twenty-eight quilters pooled their skills, both locally and from around the state, to create the 36 baby quilts, each including around 20 infant names in the design. 

NAME BY NAME This quilt was made by Fatima Dias. (Tarmo Hannula/The Pajaronian)

The exhibit stems from the initial quilt project of September 2025 titled “Know their names; Babies in Gaza Who Never Made It To Their First Birthday” that was the brainchild of Elizabeth Wiliams and Sarah Ringler who were inspired by the AIDS Quilt of 1985. 

The poster for the show reads, “Each name is a whole world: a child who was held, awaited, dreamed over. Each one was killed with weapons our government helped supply. Each stitch holds grief, remorse, and recognition of our shared humanity.”

The show runs through July 31 at 612 Ocean St., Santa Cruz.

Eight bicyclists rolled into Watsonville Monday afternoon on the second stop of the annual Fire Velo bike ride. 

Their weeklong journey started in San Francisco and will wrap up in Santa Monica on June 6.

Fire Velo is a national cycling organization that promotes physical and mental wellness in the fire service and partners in emergency services through cycling and other charity events. It also fundraises to support fire service efforts of cancer awareness and cancer prevention. 

“One of the leading causes of death in the fire service is cancer,” said retired Los Angeles firefighter Jim Berklite. “And we’re trying to change the mentality about cancer and that you can go through this career healthy and protected. We’re out here to advocate and to raise money for our partner organizations.” 

While this year’s ride had eight riders, past events have had more than 40.

“Coming into a place like Watsonvilleit simply doesn’t get any better,”  Berklite said. “Watsonville is the true definition of a brotherhood.”

Watsonville firefighters threw down the red mat and welcomed the riders with a meal, shared stories and more.

Retired firefighter Marv Williams said he was the oldest rider of the pack at 76.

“The next youngest rider is 75,” he said. “It’s a great thing to be a part of. Watsonville is the best; they show off their families, the mayor often comes out, we get a warm send off. No other city does it like this.”

The debut episode, moderated by Founders Fund chief marketing officer Mike Solana, included a star-studded cast of current tech luminaries.

It would be “good for the world” to slow down the pace of AI development, according to a blog post from Anthropic, which this week began the process of going public with a confidential IPO filing. “We believe it would be good for the world to have the option to slow or temporarily pause frontier AI development to enable societal structures and alignment research to keep up with the advance of the technology,” stated a blog post written by Anthropic co-founder (and former Reg scribe) Jack Clark and researcher Marina Favaro. Executing an actual pause would take a negotiation and monitoring effort on par with nuclear accords, including the agreement from all of the frontier AI labs, as well as support from policy makers around the world. Even then, there is a possibility that some will not abide by any restrictions. “Training runs are far easier to conceal than missile silos, their inputs are general-purpose, and the incentive to defect quietly is enormous, because whoever continues while others pause could inherit the lead. A credible pause also has to specify what triggers it, what lifts it, and who adjudicates." Anthropic has been one of the more alarmist organizations when it comes to the growing capabilities of AI, as it's tried to portray itself as the more safety-concerned alternative to OpenAI, where its cofounders originated. One might dismiss this as clever marketing hype – what better way to convince enterprises to drop millions on largely unproven and sporadically reliable technology than claiming it could be so powerful that it might terminate humanity? In addition, Anthropic's recommendation is taking place the same week it beat archrival OpenAI to filing a confidential IPO as it seeks investment from public markets. Last week, the company announced that it reached a $965 billion valuation, making it one of the most valuable companies in the world. It's pretty rich for a nearly trillion-dollar company to tell everybody else to slow down just as it's about to become unstoppable. Yet the headwinds are swirling. US President Donald Trump signed an executive order this week, which in part directs the Treasury Department to establish an “AI cybersecurity clearinghouse” that works with the AI industry and critical infrastructure operators to coordinate and deconflict the use of advanced AI tools. And it comes amid growing public backlash to rapid datacenter expansion. Nonetheless, throughout the paper, Anthropic explained how the “human role is narrowing” in model development and attempted to make the case that on the current trajectory, models could soon reach a point where they can self-improve and write better versions of themselves without people in the mix. “Once human- and AI-authored code quality reach parity, humans will stop writing code entirely, and shift to only reviewing it,” the paper’s authors write. “But if they can’t review code as quickly as Claude can generate it, human review will become the bottleneck to AI development.” As of May, Claude authored more than 80 percent of the code merged into Anthropic's codebase, up from the low single digits before Claude Code launched in research preview in February 2025. Newer models are also improving on complex tasks faster than before. The length of human tasks that models can reliably complete on their own had been doubling every seven months as measured in March 2025. Now it is closer to every four months, they said. The Claude 3 Opus model released in March 2024 could reliably complete tasks that take humans four minutes to complete. Claude Opus 4.6 can reliably complete tasks that take humans 12 hours, the team wrote. “If this trend holds, tasks that take a skilled person days could come into range this year,” the paper states. The paper admits that unknown bottlenecks could emerge, which stop the progress that has been made so far, and the next generation of models could see a slowdown in improvement. The authors cite Amdahl’s Law, which states that acceleration in one part of the system leads to choke points in other parts. “Anthropic has already encountered one signature of Amdahl’s law: as we’ve begun to push more code around the organization, human code review has become a new bottleneck,” they wrote. Anthropic said one area where AI consistently underperforms is in “taste” or selecting the next step to take, when left unprompted by humans. “Without that judgment, Claude is a capable assistant, but not a system that could drive AI progress on its own,” the paper states. “It is genuinely unclear whether today’s training methods and architectures could unlock that capacity.” However, the alternative scenario is that the current trend of models getting better more rapidly may hold. “In this world, the pace of progress in AI development becomes determined entirely by the availability of compute … Humans play a substantially diminished role in their development, likely moving most of our effort towards oversight, validation, and verification of an expanding 'virtual lab' run by AI systems,” the paper states. ®

The AI giant's co-founder explained why the company may tap the public market for capital and why tokenmaxxing pushback isn't a concern.

The Airbnb CEO said last year it hasn't struck an LLM partnership because existing products weren't quite ready.

UPDATED A new extortion brand called Pink – which may be a rebrand of BlackFile – uses voice phishing and fake help-desk calls to gain initial access to organizations’ IT environments, steal their sensitive data, and threaten to leak it unless the victims pay a ransom demand. Palo Alto Networks' Unit 42 first spotted the gang, which it tracks as cluster CL-CRI-1147, and its data-leak site, which went live on May 31. “Pink uses vishing and IT impersonation to phish credentials/MFA, then exfiltrates enterprise cloud storage and productivity data to extort victims,” the threat-intelligence biz said in a LinkedIn post. Google Threat Intelligence is not so sure it's a new gang, however. "After retiring the BlackFile brand in May 2026, we assess the group launched the 'Redact' brand and has now potentially surfaced as 'Pink,," Austin Larsen, Principal Threat Analyst at Google Threat Intelligence Group, told us. "This new operation exhibits hallmarks of UNC6671, including similar credential-harvesting infrastructure, data leak site (DLS), and recurring messaging that claims to 'improve the security' of victims who pay. Additionally, we attribute the Pink (CL-CRI-1147) domains recently published by Unit42 to UNC6671." Regardless whether it's brand new or just a new coat of paint, the tactics are very familiar. Pink is one of many goon squads to use these social-engineering tactics to steal employees’ credentials and bypass multi-factor authentication, using this access to burgle companies’ cloud storage and databases. Chaotic crime crew Lapsus$, during its 2021 and 2022 extortion spree that hit Nvidia, Microsoft, and Okta, among others, popularized this style of phone-based intrusions before Scattered Spider picked up the mantle. Scattered Spider is perhaps best known for its 2023 Las Vegas casino digital heists, and reportedly bragged that all it took to break into MGM's networks was a 10-minute call with the help desk. Over the last few years, ShinyHunters has used this same playbook to steal sensitive data from Ticketmaster, AT&T, and other Salesforce customers, and thousands of schools and universities that use Canvas’ digital learning platform. Despite multiple arrests across all three gangs, they keep coming back to victimize more organizations. Most incident responders, including Google’s Mandiant and Unit 42, link many of these criminal collectives to The Com, a loosely knit group of primarily English speakers made up of several interconnected networks of hackers, SIM swappers, and extortionists, with some of its subgroups offering real-life violent crime for hire. According to Unit 42, this latest cluster of extortion activity is also “likely a Com-affiliated actor.” And after investigating “multiple” of these extortion attacks over the past few months, on Monday, they spotted something that led them to Pink’s name-and-shame website. “On June 1, 2026, an existing extortion negotiation that had never received a response, attributed to a likely Com-related cluster, received new communication from a threat actor via a free webmail account,” Unit 42 analysts Richard Emerson and Cuong Dinh said in a Wednesday threat-intel post. “The actor provided a new qTox ID and a leak site associated with the Pink brand, but referenced exfiltrating almost identical information from the original extortion notice.” Pink data thieves set a 72-hour deadline for the victim to respond before leaking the stolen goods. After gaining access to the victim’s account, the criminals snoop around for valuable corporate and customer data from platforms like SharePoint and OneDrive. After exfiltrating the stolen files, Pink attackers use compromised victim accounts and internal Teams messages to extort the company. “The actor reuses second-level domains to target multiple organizations, and the third-level domain typically thematically represents the target,” Emerson and Dinh wrote. They also listed the following phishing domains as indicators of compromise: passkeyadd[.]com passkeydeploy[.]com deploypasskey[.]com Along with these three IP addresses: 185[.]178.208[.]153 (hosted phishing domains) 172[.]93.100[.]252 (accessed compromised accounts) 96[.]232.20[.]66 (residential proxy IP responsible for extortion email creation) Plus, these user-agent strings were observed during data exfiltration: Microsoft.Graph.Client/5.62.0 python-requests/2.28.1 python-requests/2.33.1 Network defenders can use these to assist in threat-hunting efforts. And be very wary of help desk calls, both from people claiming to be employees locked out of corporate accounts and from those purporting to be support staff rolling out a mandatory MFA update or other emergency. ®

Why does the Corralitos Cultural Center (CCC) feel like a creative vortex? Could be it is what happens when musicians, artists, builders and scientists keep running into one another – Corralitos is literally a wide spot in the road. Could be it’s the back-to-the-land ethos where collaboration is the common coin. Regardless, the Corralitos Cultural […]

Julie Gill, a volunteer legal observer and school patrol coordinator with YARR, speaks to Santa Cruz Local for an interview. (Amaya Edwards — Santa Cruz Local/CatchLight Local)

LIVE OAK >> On a recent Thursday afternoon, Julie Gill stood watch from a sidewalk on Capitola Road across from Live Oak Elementary School. She wore a high-visibility yellow jacket, and a whistle hung around her neck. 

She was carefully watching for immigration agents, as she’s been trained to do as a legal observer and school patrol coordinator with local pro-immigrant rapid response group YARR, or Your Allied Rapid Response.

“ We came here because the immigrant families in this neighborhood requested it. They were afraid to walk in and walk out” of school, Gill said. The group has maintained daily patrols at Del Mar and Live Oak elementary schools and Shoreline Middle School since January. 

Gill was one of close to a dozen volunteers on call that day, monitoring the roads for immigration agents as children got dropped off and picked up from school. 

If immigration agents arrived, she would alert people nearby by blowing on the whistle, a tactic that has spread as activists respond to immigration crackdowns throughout the country. YARR also has a phone list of hundreds of trained legal observers who would be alerted and asked to show up if immigration agents were present.

YARR formed in 2017 during the first term of President Donald Trump as a hotline to call if ICE agents were seen. The group posts on its Instagram and Facebook pages whether reports of ICE are true or false, and has expanded its work to include proactive patrols like the school patrols.

As the school year ends, the group is hoping to grow its capacity over summer to maintain and expand its school patrols at Live Oak and start patrolling schools in Santa Cruz, especially Gault Elementary where many immigrant families send their children. 

A group unaffiliated with YARR had previously established school patrols in Watsonville, Gill said.

To grow its capacity, YARR is seeking more volunteers to get trained and sign up for shifts, and hopes to train parents to volunteer at their kids’ schools.

School patrols have popped up throughout the country in the wake of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on unauthorized immigrants. Under Trump, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security lifted a ban on immigration detentions and raids in schools, hospitals and churches, stoking fear amongst already vulnerable communities.

Gill said she was hardened in her resolve to step up and volunteer with YARR after seeing the federal actions in Los Angeles, Chicago and Minneapolis, including the killing of two Minneapolis residents who were protesting the immigration enforcement surge earlier this year. 

School patrols are meant to serve as an early warning system for families in the event immigration agents, such as Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, are present near schools. The fear of detention has many immigrant parents staying home, too fearful to drop their children at school, go grocery shopping or even seek medical attention. 

Volunteer patrols can lead to higher attendance at schools and improved mental health of students, school leaders across California told EdSource in a Jan. 16 article.

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YARR’s presence at the two local schools has also served to quickly extinguish false reports of ICE presence at least twice. Misinformation and fake reports on social media can quickly spread unnecessary panic among immigrant communities.

Gill said several months ago, a post on Facebook claimed that ICE was in front of Live Oak Elementary.

“ Nothing was happening. It was just completely fabricated,” she said. “ We were able to knock that rumor down, because we do have a social media and we inform the folks that are scared it’s not ICE.”

Legal observers with YARR where high-visibility vests and a whistle to alert nearby residents in case immigration agents were present. (Amaya Edwards — Santa Cruz Local/CatchLight Local)

Being able to inform people that immigration agents are not present has been as important as being ready to inform people if immigration agents were there, Gill said. 

When YARR started patrolling the Live Oak schools, some parents and staff were confused. But after several weeks of consistent presence, they began to greet the volunteer patrollers and several times brought them snacks. It took time, but eventually volunteers gained the trust of families, Gill said.

“ When we started here, we weren’t sure how it was going to go,” she said. “We had reached out to the superintendent and stuff, and they were kinda iffy about it.”

A representative of Live Oak School District didn’t respond to requests for comment by publication.

Two volunteer patrollers that Santa Cruz Local spoke with asked to be identified by their first names only, due to concerns of political repression of activists.

Janet said she started volunteering after hearing of the shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.

“This is my neighborhood. This is my community. And I’ll do whatever it takes to protect the parents and the kids,” Janet said. “ Not a lot has happened, obviously, which is a great thing. But I think it’s really great that we all stay pretty vigilant and aware.”

Janet, who asked to only be identified by her first name, patrols around Live Oak Elementary School in Live Oak on May 21. (Amaya Edwards — Santa Cruz Local/CatchLight Local)

Another volunteer, Anita, echoed the sentiment.

“It’s our neighborhood. So [we are] supporting our community and our neighborhood,” Anita said. “ YARR as it currently is, I think has to be really changeable, responsive, and be able to adapt basically to whatever’s gonna come down the line.”

Since the federal surge in Minneapolis and the departure of leadership within the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE and Customs and Border Protection, other cities haven’t seen a similar intensified crackdown. 

“I think tactics are going to start to change, and so I think we need to be really adaptive for that,” Anita said. “Long term, I think it’s building community and I hope that goes on.”

One of the next big fights for pro-immigrant groups in the area is the proposal for an immigration detention facility in Gilroy which is under construction and faces opposition from local leaders. 

In the meantime, YARR leaders hope to continue training legal observers, and maintain and expand its school patrols.

“We’re in it for the long haul,” Gill said.

To learn more about YARR and how to get involved, visit their website.

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The post Local volunteers patrol schools for ICE agents. They need more help. appeared first on Santa Cruz Local.

It is a very, very good time to be a billionaire. With the Trump administration paving the way for plutocrats to plutocrat extremely hard, it’s been a veritable orgy of wealth accumulation, with these titans of … whatever they are titans of … seeing their net worth absolutely skyrocket. So surely all these members of the Three Comma Club have gotten much more generous with their riches…

Source