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EPISODE 11 "And uh... what are you doing?" the Head of Security asks, entering the Security office as I'm making my way to the exit – with a PC under my arm. "Just taking this back to the office to archive the contents and then reset it to factory defaults," I say. "Company policy when someone has been... let go." There have been a number of changes at Security – the same number of changes as there used to be members of Security staff. Apparently, eating endless pastries and watching pirated movies isn't an industry-standard procedure for security professionals. Furthermore, the spate of alcohol thefts from the boardroom liquor cabinet seems to have ended after HR discovered several empty bottles in Security's overflowing recycling bin... HR acted swiftly (for a change) and a whole new security team was employed, headed by a keen new broom – who's currently blocking the doorway... To say that he's enthusiastic in his role would be an understatement. His first move was to isolate Security onto a completely separate internet feed, firewalled off from the rest of the Company. Move two was to implement a plan of recording the equipment people leave the building with – something that's proving rather unpopular with laptop users. "Oh, I don't think we'll need it to be erased," he says, holding out his hands to retrieve the machine from my grasp. "Really, there's no telling what's on this machine," I say. "Malware, copyright movies, porn even. We don't know. It's safer – for the Company – if we just start from a clean machine. We might even just dump it to be on the safe side." "Sure," the Head of Security says. "Though that machine looks like it's almost brand new. It's still got stickers on it! And it looks fairly... high end. I think we can take the risk. I'm pretty up-to-date with IT security and the like – so maybe you should let me worry about..." "I think this should probably be HR's call," I respond. "They may want to be sure the Company isn't exposed to any risk that the machine might present." "I can call HR if you like," the Chief Pie-eater suggests, calling my bluff and reaching for his phone. "But I doubt they'd be too concerned." "They should be. If there's malware installed on the recovery partition, you'll reinfect the machine when you restore it to factory defaults." "Thanks for your concern," he says, wresting the machine from my grasp and stepping out of the doorway. ... So that's how it's going to be. Obviously, we knew there was going to be trouble. We prepared ourselves for it. The new Security team has an enthusiasm for the job that was completely absent from the former crew, mainly because they're jockeying for the position of 2IC. The Boss is waiting for me when I get back to Mission Control. "Just had a call from Security. Apparently, you were trying to... remove... one of their machines?" "Yeah. I was going to erase it and restore it to factory settings." "Couldn't you just do that there?" "We prefer to do a reinstall on the DMZ segment – just in case there's any malware on the machine after we restore it." "Right. Well, I talked to the guy, and it certainly sounded like he had everything under control," the Boss assures me. And so there you go. The Boss can determine someone's technical competence from a two-minute phone call. It must be one of his superpowers, along with the toxic body odor and the ability to sniff out a kebab stand in a farmers' market. Two minutes later, in Mission Control… "Right," I say, entering Mission Control. "Everyone ready?" The PFY nods. The lead candidate for 2IC of Security nods. "One of the pitfalls with security types is that they often shave with Occam's razor," I say. "When seeing someone leaving the office with a PC under their arm, they immediately think 'office theft,' rather than thinking 'did this person bring the aforementioned machine into the office in the first place, wait until they heard someone approaching, then make to exit the office?'" The 2IC candidate contemplates this silently. "Another problem with security types is how to celebrate a victory. In this situation, a wise person would not simply 'upgrade' their desktop machine with this newer and shinier item – because it might have an infected operating system – AND infected recovery partition. No, a wise person would first sca-" "Ooh, we're in business!" the PFY interrupts, as his machine receives a ping. "Right," I say to Security 2IC, "I'd give it maybe half an hour – to really trash your network – before I head downstairs. Then maybe I'd ask why all the machines in your office appear to be going crazy." "And you think that would be enough to get him fired, do you?" he asks. "It will be when you discover the stash of Company laptops in the boot of his car as he leaves the parking basement," the PFY says. "And make sure you have the Head of HR with you." "Why's that?" the soon-to-be Head of Security asks. "Because one of the laptops is his..." BOFH: Previous episodes on The Register The Compleat BOFH Archives 95-99

Donald Trump’s polling just crashed to new lows. He’s hit a net approval on inflation of negative 50 points in numerous surveys, something no other president has done—ever. Trump also is at 80 percent disapproval on gas prices. And this is the first time Democrats have led Republicans on inflation since the 1970s. It’s no accident that this comes as sources around Trump tell CNN that he’s “furious” because the media didn’t make his latest Iran bombing look strong and powerful. These stories are linked: His failure to force Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz is causing the very cost spikes that are tanking his approval and his party’s chances in the midterms. We talked to Democratic strategist Christina Reynolds, who has extensive experience in midterms. She explains how Trump’s travails are translating into new pickup opportunities in surprising places, parses a new poll showing Democrats up 10 in the generic House matchup, and explains why 2026 reminds her of Democratic routs in 2006 and 2018. Listen to this episode here. A transcript is here.

BORK!BORK!BORK! Windows swings for a six but smacks the stumps instead as the baleful glow of a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) adorns Worcestershire County Cricket Club. We were worried that, with recent editions of Windows, the traditional white monospaced text on a blue background of a BSOD was becoming a thing of the past. Thankfully, Worcestershire County Cricket Club, founded in 1865, is keeping the old ways alive with a BSOD to bring a tear to many a system administrator's eye. Spotted by Register reader Rhodri Howell, Windows has been felled by a DRIVER_POWER_STATE_FAILURE, probably due to a bit of hardware not waking up when Windows asked it to, or the driver experiencing an unexpected teatime. The screens on top of the club's sign are usually there to beam messages at attendees, but in this case, it looks like at least one is a bit poorly, which might have contributed to Windows throwing in the towel or, to use cricket terminology, conceding. For the uninitiated, cricket is a team sport in which a ball is thrown at an individual called a "batter'" who defends several sticks in the ground called a "wicket." The sport is notable for a variant called a "test," which can last for several days, involve multiple games, and still end up in a draw. Windows, on the other hand, is an operating system more than capable of knocking an administrator for six and lobbing the odd googly or two at the unwary. The word "test" is also something that doesn't seem to trouble Microsoft so much these days, at least if what the company has delivered in recent months is anything to go by. No amount of shin pads or even the toughest of boxes is sufficient to ward off an eyewatering Windows update. Microsoft's current CEO, Satya Nadella, is a fan of the sport, and so the sight of Windows disgracing itself above Worcestershire County Cricket Club's signage (and the three black pears of the county's emblem) is doubly distressing. As the saying goes: "It's just not cricket." ®

COMPUTEX 2026 It’s hard enough for startups to compete with AMD and Nvidia on chip design. The rise of rack-scale architectures has only made things harder. Companies not only have to invest in chip design but also the mechanical, thermal, and power engineering necessary to pack six dozen or more AI accelerators into a single rack that functions as one enormous GPU. At Computex last week, Delos Data, a startup funded by former Intel and Barefoot Networks execs, showed off a modular server platform aimed at giving chip startups a shortcut to rack scale. One of the challenges with the move to rack scale is actually the sheer amount of networking that needs to be enabled at the box. A typical eight GPU HGX node only needs one or two ports per GPU. By comparison, a GB300 NVL72 needs 18 400 Gbps ports per GPU. Nvidia and AMD have developed custom racks with integrated backplanes, power delivery, and cooling. Delos by comparison is keeping things relatively simple by designing a chassis that, at least from the front, looks more like a switch than a GPU server. It features 36 OSFP ports, nine for each of the four OAM sockets at the heart of the system. OAM, if you’re not familiar, is an open socket commonly used by high-performance accelerators requiring more interconnect bandwidth and power delivery than standard PCIe cards can manage. Assuming 200 Gbps SerDes, that works out to 3.6 TB/s per chip of interconnect, the same as Nvidia's new Rubin GPUs. OSFP means that customers can use standard DACs or pluggable transceivers, and switches depending on how large they want their scale-up domain to be. And while OSFP is usually associated with Ethernet, you can run just about anything you want through them, whether it be UALink, Ultra Ethernet, PCIe, or something else. From a deployment standpoint, these systems would be wired up like any other hyperscale system, just a whole lot denser. Delos isn’t the only option out there for chip startups looking for scale up reference design. AWS for example appears to be repurposing Nvidia’s MGX form factor for its Trainium 3 rack systems, while AMD’s Helios rack is now an OCP standard. Both designs would, in theory, be easier to service, but Delos argues that its modular design offers greater flexibility. “It makes it a little bit more flexible in terms of, maybe you want a scale up domain of 100 or maybe you want it a scale up domain of one,” CTO Dan Daly told El Reg. “It just depends on how many cables you want to plug in. This also allows you to go plug into different types of switches… it could be simpler switches, maybe even optical circuit switches (OCS).” Using existing packet switches from Broadcom or Marvell, such a design could support 512-1,024 accelerators in a single layer fabric depending on whether you're using 200 Gbps or 100 Gbps SerDes. Using multi-layer fabrics, OCS, and/or 2D/3D toruses, the compute domain could scale even further, all while using off-the-shelf components. While OSFP keeps things simple and easy, it also means power consumption could become problematic for larger compute domains requiring pluggable optics. In fact, this is why Nvidia has taken so long to embrace optical scale-up. Copper may not have the reach, but it uses a fraction of the power. Delos CEO Ed Doe tells us the company is already exploring versions of the system that will use near package or co-packaged optics out to MPO-style connectors rather than the OSFP. The startup isn't just doing hardware. As anyone who's done large scale networking knows, the physical and logical topologies — that is, the way devices communicate with one another on the network — can look very different depending on the workload. Delos has developed a software orchestration platform designed to facilitate the configuration and monitoring of these switched fabrics or meshes in order to enable dynamic rerouting of traffic in the event of a link failure. At Computex, this software platform, which Delos has dubbed its Nonstop AI network, was on display, allowing attendees to pull links at random and see the network react and correct itself automatically. The company's ambitions don't stop at network orchestration and systems. We're told Delos has additional products in the works, and we don't know for sure what they are, but a high radix switch design built atop merchant silicon would certainly complement its Nonstop AI systems. ®

ON CALL 你好 Nǐ hǎo, dear reader, and welcome to another installment of On Call, The Register's Friday column that shares your stories of translating technical trauma while delivering transcendent tech support. This week, meet a reader we'll Regomize as "Jackson" who told us about his time providing tech support in a university's biology department. "It was sometime in the mid-2000s and our IT group at the time consisted of myself, my boss, and a part-timer," he told On Call. "We were a very casual IT group; nothing in the way of any formal policies or standards for anything at all. If someone needed a new PC, we just ordered parts and assembled them ourselves." The department's PC fleet therefore had a diverse gene pool, with no two machines possessing the same bill of materials. "This was fine by me – I enjoyed building them and it never really caused any issues that I couldn't handle," Jackson told On Call. "Until one day we got a panicked support call from one of the secretaries who claimed that her PC just rebooted and then started talking to her." Jackson and his colleagues didn't believe a word of it until the secretary stopped talking and placed her phone next to the talking PC. "I could clearly hear a muffled voice repeating a message of some sort," Jackson told On Call. There was nothing for it but to visit the PC, which he found hung in the middle of a Power-On Self-Test, flashing an alphanumeric error code and unmistakably playing a voice through its internal speaker. In Chinese! Jackson rebooted the machine and it ended up in the same state, reciting the same message. Chinese isn't a language in which Jackson is fluent, so he had no idea what the PC was trying to tell him. "After poking around in the BIOS, I found the culprit," Jackson revealed. "This particular model of motherboard had a 'talking error BIOS' whereby certain POST codes triggered the playback of a friendly, spoken error message, with Chinese set as the default language." Jackson found the relevant BIOS settings, changed the default language to English, and the next time he rebooted the machine it helpfully let him know: "Your floppy drive may not be connected properly." In his mail to On Call, Jackson hypothesized that the PC's CMOS battery died, so the BIOS was unable to access its stored settings and reverted to factory settings that assumed the presence of a nonexistent second floppy drive. "It triggered a feature I didn't even know the motherboard had!" Jackson told On Call. Have you found yourself flummoxed by a feature you didn't know about? If so, click here to send On Call an email – we'll assume that's a feature you know well – so we can tell your story on a future Friday. ®

My proposal for Renaissance High School students 

Last year in a PVUSD Board Meeting I opposed moving Renaissance High School to Pajaro Valley High School in order to move Ceiba students to the current Renaissance High School site.  After I supported Ceiba continuing to operate on their current site  In 2023, 2024, and 2025,  I have advocated  in the Board meetings of both PVUSD and Ceiba for restructuring Ceiba to help financially struggling PVUSD schools .

I was surprised when I heard  the idea  of moving the students of Renaissance High School to the site of Duncan – Holbert School and the students of the latter school to an elementary school because of  safety concerns about the water.  I thought it was too rushed.  

I would like to ask the students of Renaissance High School whether you would consider moving to the site of Lakeview Middle School temporarily until a suitable site is found. You might remember that the students of Pajaro Middle School moved to the site of Lakeview Middle School for one school year at the time of the devastating flood in 2023. 

Takashi Mizuno

Watsonville

The Establishment Clause is the first of two religion clauses in the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion.”

This clause forbids our government from establishing an official religion, and also prohibits government actions that unduly favor one religion over another, preferring religion over non-religion, or non-religion over religion. As a general matter, the Supreme Court has long recognized that the Establishment Clause’s prohibition of laws “respecting an establishment of religion” not only prevents the government from establishing an official religion, but also bars other types of support “respecting” an establishment.

The “Establishment of Religion” clause, at a minimum, means that neither a state nor the federal government can set up a church, neither can force nor influence a person to go to or to remain away from church against his will or force him to profess a belief or disbelief in any religion. (See e.g. “Everson v. Board of Education ” (1947)).

In short: the amendment appears to have been firmly cemented in constitutional law.

Enter the Trump Administration, Project 2025 and Christian Nationalism. Christian Nationalism is a political ideology which advocates for a legal and cultural fusion between Christianity and a nation’s government. In the U.S., its adherents believe the country was founded on Christian principles, that the government should actively promote these values, and that Christianity should hold a privileged place in public life. It excludes some Americans following other religious traditions, or those who are not religious at all.

The explicit aim of Project 2025, which has guided much of the early work of the Trump administration, is to infuse biblical principles across the federal government. Calls to protect Christianity, make America more Christian, and align this country with the Bible are all common phrases associated with Christian Nationalism. It is generally understood that conservative Christians behind this point of view form the bedrock of President Trump’s Republican support.

A prominent—though awkward—focus of the movement’s pursuit of its objectives has been its insistence on removing the concept of empathy, a deeply-rooted Christian value, from our government’s decision making process.

The conflict surfaced prominently during Mr. Trump’s high profile clashes with Pope Leo XIV, which centered on questions of empathy and leadership, specifically sparked by the Pontiff’s vocal opposition to the war in Iran, mass deportation and military conflict.

The debate over empathy has become a prominent focal point for many Christian Nationalists. The latter’s critique is rooted in some specific ideological, cultural and theological beliefs. Among others: The fear of moral compromise—the thought that untethered empathy can blur the lines between right and wrong, that fully identifying with someone’s pain might lead to condoning or validating actions the Bible defines as sin, i.e. LGBTQ+ rights, abortion access, etc.; Priority of objective truth – the belief that truth, defined by biblical scripture must always take precedence over feelings, which may replace scripture as the ultimate moral guide; and “Woke politics,” the thought that empathy may be weaponized as a progressive political tool.

The Trump administration has gone “all in” in support of Christian Nationalist ideology, and has actively worked to expand religious expression in public life and loosen restrictions on faith organizations. Some key policy and cultural actions include: establishing Executive branch task forces like the White House Faith Office, the Religious Liberty Commission and a task force to eradicate anti-Christian bias. Efforts also include targeting  LGBTQ+ and gender identity issues, curbing abortion access and engaging in cultural battles with universities, the Smithsonian Institution, and Public Broadcasting all the while singling out opposition to DEI programs. These moves, while celebrated by the religious right, eroded the separation of church and state.

To some the growing prevalence of Christian Nationalism in our government is innocuous, harmless. However, the movement’s objective no longer simply focuses on the defense of liberty, it targets the accumulation of power. As such, it endangers constitutional values, impregnates governmental policy, and provides a justification for the lack of empathy in our government’s pursuits. It is using its enhanced influence to impose its will on Christian organizations it identifies as “woke” or opposed to President Trump’s agenda, as exemplified by its role in defunding religious groups that have been providing life saving care to many of the most vulnerable people in the world.

If we are not careful, while we appear intent on demolishing a theocratic regime in the Middle East, we could end up gradually easing into the semblance of one right here.

Two Santa Cruz County supervisors and several local community organizations have joined a regional coalition of elected officials and advocates reaffirming support for immigrant communities as the Bay Area prepares to host matches during the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

The joint statement, released Monday, was signed by supervisors Felipe Hernandez and Monica Martinez, along with representatives from Community Action Board of Santa Cruz County, The Watsonville Law Center and YARR (Your Allied Rapid Response) of Santa Cruz County. MariaElena De La Garza of Community Action Board and Adriana Melgoza of The Watsonville Law Center were among the local signatories.

The statement said the region’s diversity is one of its strengths and acknowledged concerns among immigrant families amid ongoing immigration enforcement actions.

“As we welcome the world to the Bay Area for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, we want to send a clear message: everyone belongs here,” the statement reads.

The coalition said the international soccer tournament presents an opportunity to bring people together and urged residents to avoid spreading fear or misinformation. The statement encouraged community members to use local Rapid Response Networks for verified information and resources.

The statement was signed by supervisors and community leaders from counties throughout the Bay Area and Central Coast, including Santa Clara, Monterey, San Mateo, Alameda, Marin, Napa, Sonoma, Contra Costa and Solano counties.

Avataar AI's distilled video model is priced at $0.005 for every second of generation

Equal AI said that its AI-powered call assistant now has over a million monthly active users.

Watsonville residents will have two opportunities this month to help shape the future of public safety services in the city.

The Watsonville Police and Fire departments are hosting community town hall meetings to gather public input on priorities for emergency response, public safety services and community programs.

City officials said feedback from the meetings will help guide future planning efforts as Watsonville works to strengthen public safety and community services.

The meetings are scheduled for:

• June 24 from 5:30pm to 7pm

• June 29 from 3:30pm to 5pm

Both meetings will be held in the Community Room on the top floor of Civic Plaza, 275 Main St. in Watsonville.

The city will provide pizza, childcare and Spanish interpretation services. The first 50 attendees at each meeting will receive a free bicycle helmet for children. Participants are asked to know their child’s helmet size before attending.

Advance registration is required. Residents can register online at https://bit.ly/4vjx7AV.

According to city officials, the meetings are intended to bring community members and public safety leaders together to discuss current needs and future priorities for Watsonville’s police and fire services.

On May 8, the staff of Pajaro Middle School formally declared a vote of no confidence in Principal Nicole Killian in a letter to Pajaro Valley Unified School District (PVUSD) Superintendent Heather Contreras. 

According to the letter, the decision was reached following an affirmative majority vote of 14 out of 17 full-time certificated union members, as well as an additional anonymous affirmation from classified staff. 

The vote was primarily attributed to Killian’s alleged failure to provide a safe school environment for students and teachers, as well as to a lack of communication and transparency.  

“Pajaro Middle School has long been a school with a foundation of collaboration between the administration and both classified and certified staff,” reads the letter to Contreras. “Nicole Killian has not only ignored this foundation, but dismantled it.”

Killian has been the full-time principal at Pajaro Middle School since the fall of 2024. She previously served as the principal at Main Street Elementary for one year during the 2023-24 school year.  

“The District takes all reports related to school operations and safety seriously,” said PVUSD Public Information Officer Alejandro Chávez in a statement to the Pajaronian. “We remain confident in the site leadership’s ongoing commitment to maintaining a safe, supportive, and positive learning environment.”

Chávez maintained that the events were not newsworthy and that “there’s nothing there,” and declined to answer specific questions about the allegations against the district, principal Killian, or the events on campus. 

Killian and Superintendent Heather Contreras did not respond to requests for comment. 

Complaints about Killian’s leadership at Pajaro began to emerge only a few months after she took the role of principal, said Brandon Diniz, president of the Pajaro Valley teachers union. With teachers and staff citing a lack of student discipline and communication. 

Throughout the 2024-25 school year, the concern across the site continued to grow, said Tim Powers, one of the two PVFT site representatives and a teacher at Pajaro Middle School.

These concerns grew, especially after a notable incident in which a teacher was allegedly kept in the dark about a physical threat a student had made against them, which the district intercepted via an internal language-monitoring algorithm. 

“What the student wrote was said to have been, ‘change my grade or else.’ So pretty vague,” said Powers. “When the teacher finally got Ms. Killian to show the actual statement written by the student, the statement was ‘change my grade or else I’ll shoot you.’”

According to Ben Waite, the other PVFT site representative and a teacher at Pajaro Middle School, it wasn’t until five days after the incident that Killian finally showed the teacher the original message, and that the staff member who was threatened initially learned of it the same day from another staff member. However, this incident was not officially reported in a grievance to the district.   

According to the letter to Contreras, five staff members filed a grievance against Killian in the 2024-25 school year. 

During that time, Killian didn’t have a vice principal, said Diniz, “as a result of that first grievance, they did assign a vice principal to the school site.”  

At the beginning of the new school year, the staff were hopeful for change, explained Powers, adding that he and Waite additionally spoke with Killian and set up regular meetings with the principal for the 2025-26 school year to address on-site issues as they arose. 

However, despite these meetings, Powers and Waite felt that the concerning behavior and leadership remained unchanged. 

“We brought up several times to her like, ‘hey, we need to get better about the communication, about what’s going on with students and discipline, and follow up,’” said Powers, “and that continued to not stick.”

Throughout, the incidents on campus—along with the lack of communication and disrespect towards teachers—continued, alleged Diniz, who also described multiple incidents in which he alleges that Killian downplayed the severity and disregarded the Ed. Code procedures.

There was one such case where a student threatened another student with a kind of homemade dagger, said Diniz, “when the student brandishes a dirk, dagger, or knife Ed. Code requires the principal to recommend that student for expulsion, and she [Killian] just basically covered it up.” 

Around the fall of 2025, Powers and Waite were approached by a few staff members to conduct a vote of no confidence. 

Powers maintains that, throughout the process, staff remained willing to attempt to work with Killian.

“We were initially reluctant at that point to pursue that,” said Waite. “We probably held out the longest in terms of trying to work with her.” 

For Powers, this changed in March, referring to a lockdown mentioned in the letter to Contreras, during which Killian was allegedly unresponsive to multiple radio calls during a police chase on March 5, which had prompted the school to initiate a lockdown. 

An event that Powers referred to as “the final nail in the coffin.” 

“At this point, there was a lack of trust,” said Powers. “The breakdown causes us to kind of retreat internally and try to solve problems with students more so than we should. And so over time, it impacts our ability to even teach on a regular schedule.” 

Finally, in early May, Diniz said he informed Contreras of the plan for the vote of no confidence. 

“[Contreras] gave me the assurance on May 5 that she was going to remove her as principal,” said Diniz. “She said not to even go through with the vote [of no confidence] because she hears us and she’s willing to act. ”  

The site decided to continue to move forward with the vote regardless, said Diniz. 

It was then that PVUSD Area III Trustee Gabriel Medina learned about the vote when the resolution letter to Contreras landed in his inbox a few weeks ago. 

“It doesn’t feel like the district is doing their due diligence,” said Medina. “I’m hoping that it gets addressed. But the way that I’ve seen leadership kind of take these complaints, I’m not going to be holding my breath.”

However, according to Diniz, on May 22, following an unsuccessful meeting with district representatives, Contreras began to walk back on the promises. Following that, the union decided to make the events and the vote of no confidence public, said Diniz. 

Since then, Diniz, Waite and Powers feel that there has been no progress, instead “only doubling down by the superintendent,” according to Diniz.

“It just sort of has spiraled to the point where we feel there’s no future for that site under Principal Killian, and she’s lost her staff,” said Diniz. “Trust is lost in buckets, but earned in drops, and she has lost buckets’ worth of trust with that staff.”

Santa Cruz County plans to support a lawsuit challenging a proposed federal immigration enforcement facility near Gilroy by joining an amicus curiae brief alongside Santa Clara County and California Attorney General Rob Bonta, county officials announced Thursday.

The lawsuit seeks judicial review of a facility that public records indicate is intended to support U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations. Plaintiffs contend the project moved forward without required local review and permitting processes.

Although the proposed facility would be located in neighboring Santa Clara County, Santa Cruz County officials said its effects could extend throughout the Central Coast region.

“Santa Cruz County communities are deeply connected to those throughout the region,” Board of Supervisors Chair Monica Martinez said in a statement. “Our immigrant families deserve transparency, public accountability and compliance with established legal processes.”

Martinez said the county’s participation is consistent with ongoing efforts to understand and prepare for the impacts of federal immigration enforcement activities.

Supervisor Felipe Hernandez said many residents are experiencing uncertainty and fear related to federal immigration enforcement actions.

“We have a responsibility to understand and prepare for the impacts these actions may have on local families, schools, healthcare systems and community organizations,” Hernandez said. “Our participation reflects that commitment.”

County officials described the move as a continuation of broader efforts by the Board of Supervisors to address the local effects of federal immigration policies. In January, the board established the S.H.I.E.L.D. (Safeguarding Health, Inclusion, Essential Services and Local Defense) Ad Hoc Subcommittee, which developed an ordinance prohibiting the use of county property for immigration enforcement activities and policies intended to protect residents accessing healthcare, education, public benefits and other services.

The county said additional information about its immigration preparedness efforts is available through the County of Santa Cruz website.

Field workers harvest a strawberry crop along San Andreas Road in Watsonville in 1954.

Watsonville Fire Battalion Chief Almita Schaefer hung up her helmet June 4 on her final day as a firefighter with Watsonville Fire Department.     

The Watsonville native has spent her adult life helping others, a reflection of how her family brought her up. 

After attending the now shuttered Moss Landing Middle School and graduating from Watsonville High School in 1994, she worked for 10 years as a paramedic, and then switched over to be a firefighter in 2007. 

She said she initially hoped to be a doctor, but a stint volunteering in a hospital emergency room convinced her that being a paramedic was more fitting.

“I decided I wanted to do something as well as medical,” she said. “I found that on calls I was only able to assist in one dynamic, and I wanted to do more.”

“Since Watsonville is my hometown I pursued it here,” she added. She is the first full time woman to hold positions of firefighter/paramedic, Captain and Battalion Chief. 

“This career has been more than I could have ever asked for,” she said. “Any good recipe, anything worth enjoying has a lot of ingredients. It takes years and years for this particular moment to come to a point where I feel like it’s complete, where I feel like it’s not just something I’m doing. I started for a different reason. And I’m happy to say that I’m leaving with that accomplished.”

She added that she is leaving with “a continued sense of family. Being able to be welcomed by the fire department, the fire family at that age was really, really important to me. And through the years, that’s been the constant thread, that anytime I need something, they’re here for me. No one second guesses me here, or puts me down and it isn’t a competition.”

She says that one of the most “inspiring and special things” about being a firefighter is that no matter where you go on the fire engine or the fire truck, “someone’s always waving at you. I love to be friendly and so that was probably one of the most special things that this career gave me.”

She also noted that there have been “some really amazing women before me that were in the reserve program. Nobody signs up because they’re short or tall or gender or a certain kind of cultural background. That’s not what we sign up for: We sign up to help people and each other in that time of need. From week one, this department has always said, ‘She’s one of our family and that’s what we’ll always think of her as.”

Unlike humanoid robots designed around a fixed form — think Boston Dynamics — Theker's machines are built to be reconfigured.

The City of Watsonville invites the public to celebrate America’s 250th anniversary with a full day of community activities, and events. 

The day begins July 4 with the Spirit of Watsonville Parade at 12:30pm that runs along Main Street from Street from Patrick’s Church, 721 Main St., to First Street. This year’s parade will once again feature a flyover by the West Coast Ravens. Street Closures include Main Street between Freedom Boulevard and 1st Street, along with adjacent streets, closed from 8:30am to 4:30pm. 

The Fire in the Sky Open House at the Watsonville Municipal Airport opens at 11am.

The schedule includes: 

11am – Community Car Show with Dynometer
4:30pm – Gates Open to the Public
6:00pm – Skydive Aircraft Departures
6:20pm – Skydive Jump and National Anthem Performance
6:30pm – Flyover (tentative)
8:30pm – Fireworks Show Begins

As summer edges in, the folks at Corralitos Market & Sausage Co. and Freedom Meat Lockers are dealing with rising meat prices as the industry and customers across the nation adjust to higher costs, soaring gas prices and more.

“I feel like the prices have gone through the roof,” said Sarah Lewis, general manager at Freedom Meat Lockers. “And to top it off, I feel like there’s a big supply and demand shift happening right now. Even with skirt steak; we’re trying to get the product that we like and are really comfortable with that we want to serve our customers. And then we get a sample case from a new company and it is simply not what we want, so we send it back. It’s harder to find the level of quality that we want at a reasonable price.”

Lewis added that the price hike is “denting into what products” are out there.

“We’re fortunate enough to have wonderful suppliers, and they’re doing the best they can to get us the price we feel comfortable with,” Lewis said. “It’s challenging. We’ve been running into a lot of folks trying to get that quality that customers want with the price that they can afford,” 

Victor Silva at Freedom Meats said that ”everything’s going up.”

“Everything across the board—beef, pork products or chicken, chicken breast. For example, we’re charging 50 cents less than what we paid. Who else does that?”

In response, one adjustment the company offers, Lewis says, is the business’s ever-changing Variety Bag for $99. 

“It easily has $120 to $150 worth of products,” she said. “It’s one way to get people high quality stuff that they can use, but that won’t break the bank. And it’s easier on the customer because it means fewer trips to the store. So buying in bigger numbers saves you.” A typical bag features chicken, skirt steak, ribs, Cornish game hens, ground beef — a list that changes each month.

One big plus, Lewis added: “We won Best of Show for our Italian mozzarella basil sausage. That’s something folks are coming in and asking for. It was at the California Association of Meat Processors. It won best out of the entire convention.  Also new at the counter is our marinated butter chicken thighs. And we have a brand new marinade, mango habanero. We think it’s sensational.”

Meanwhile, at Corralitos Market & Sausage Co., owner  Dave Petersen, said he has been adjusting to spikes in meat prices.

 “My first highest cut of meat is filet mignon,” he said. “Now number two, unbelievably, is skirt steak. Number three is prime rib. It used to be vice versa. Prime rib was a cheaper cut, but now it’s supply and demand because they’re shipping it overseas.” 

READY TO GRILL Dave Petersen, owner of Corralitos Market and Sausage Co., shows a tomahawk steak and their new whiskey bourbon marinade. (Tarmo Hannula/The Pajaronian)

He explained that a butcher can only get about four pounds of skirt steak out of an 800-pound “hanging, dressed beef.” 

“And people don’t realize that,” he said. “They think there’s 20, 30, 50 pounds of skirt steak there. But there’s not. And so people are saying ‘you guys are charging so much money.’ It’s not us. That’s the way it is; it’s the whole chain.’”

He added that meat companies are also tacking on higher gasoline prices by charging a “fuel fee” just for a delivery. This is brand new. And you’re seeing that everywhere, too. Cause your cereal, spices, whatever—everything gets here by gas.” 

Petersen added that in earlier times, people would come in and “it’d be nothing to buy 20 pounds of skirt steak for a family party. Well, you can’t do that anymore. And it’s just not me. It’s everywhere.” 

Peterson said that on the upside, he’s featuring a new Harbinero pineapple sausage.

“We also had a chicken mango and we’re doing that one with a Harbinero too; it almost sounds hot, but it’s really not. It’s just got a nice kick to it.”

He said that he’s just introduced new pork riblets.

“They are so easy to grill,” he said. “And we’ve got a whiskey bourbon marinade that we came up with. It’s really, really good.”

Corralitos Market & Sausage Co. is at 569 Corralitos Road in Corralitos, and Freedom Meat Lockers is at 160 Hi Grade Lane in Watsonville.

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