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This week’s letters reflect on America’s 250th birthday, Second Harvest Food Bank’s role in nourishing the American Dream, and the debate over renaming Cesar Chavez Middle School.

On America’s 250th birthday, what is your wish for the country?

Good Times editor Brad Kava previews this week’s issue, from the 418 Project’s new director and Fourth of July events to local safety concerns, food, comedy and Street Talk.

Josie Cowden spotlights The Paring’s 2021 Red Wine from Lompoc, a crimson blend with notes of cedar, toast, coffee, tobacco and dark fruit.

James Durbin & The Lost Boys kick off the Fourth of July weekend on Friday with a free Lighthouse Field show featuring hard rock anthems, food trucks, beer, wine and holiday energy.

Elizabeth Borelli visits Glow Prescription Skincare in Capitola to learn about summer skin care, healthy aging and the Pilates Facial from aesthetician Milene Freire.

Siran Babayan profiles Joe Ortiz and his musical Escaping Queens, a story of family, food, music and survival from Queens to California.

DNA profiles comedian Beth Stelling, whose sharp stand-up, national TV credits and relentless work ethic bring her to Felton Music Hall.

Mark C. Anderson visits Bad Animal in Santa Cruz, where Chef Nick Hahn’s market-driven menu turns seasonal appetizers into bold, shareable flavor experiences.

The UK's Home Office has awarded two global consultancies contracts worth up to £350 million for data and analytics services, despite the government's commitment to spend less on consultants. Deloitte has won a four-year deal worth up to £200 million to offer "strategic multifunctional teams" for data analytics, data matching and data insight services. PA Consulting has won a contract for up to £150 million for the same services over the same period, according to procurement documents published last week. In November 2024, the UK government promised new controls on the use of consultancies across the public sector to cut unnecessary spending and save £1.2 billion by 2026. The Cabinet Office and Crown Commercial Service said the controls were expected to provide far greater oversight, with ministerial sign-off required for any consultancy spend over £600,000, or for contracts lasting more than nine months. Consultancy spending over £100,000 was to be signed off by the relevant permanent secretary. The Register has asked the Home Office whether the above contracts were subject to these controls and, if so, why they were approved. It has yet to respond. In November 2025, the National Audit Office, a spending watchdog, said His Majesty's Treasury (HMT) lacked comprehensive data on government consultancy expenditure, potentially delaying progress toward "ambitious targets" to cut costs. The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said in March that departments were not complying with Cabinet Office directives on consultancy spending, and compliance was not being monitored. The committee called for a list of departments not complying with Cabinet Office requests on consultancy procurement, and a detailed breakdown of what each department spends on individual private contractors, categorized by type of service. The Science, Innovation and Technology Committee recently published a report stating that government spending on contractors was one impediment to achieving its digital transformation goals. It said contractors in central government cost three times as much per year as civil servants, and across the public sector, contractors accounted for roughly 18 percent of headcount but 40 percent of staffing costs. It called for publication of departmental plans to reduce the proportion of their workforce made up of contractors and the associated cost in digital and technology roles. Meanwhile, the government should create a digital workforce strategy to "deliver on the Prime Minister's commitment for one in 10 civil servants to be in technology and digital roles by 2030, as well as a definition of what constitutes a technology and digital role in the civil service," the committee said. The government has long been told that lack of internal tech skills is a real problem. In 2023, the PAC reported on the barriers to achieving greater efficiency through digital transformation. Dame Meg Hillier MP, chair at the time, said the government's digital ambitions were "hobbled by staff shortages and a lack of support, accountability and focus from the top." "The government talks of its ambitions for digital transformation and efficiency, while actively cutting the very roles which could help achieve them," she said. ®

A California law going into effect Wednesday bans the use of “sell by” labels on food packaging. Manufacturers selling food in California must now use two standardized labels — a “best if used by” label for peak quality and a “use by” label for product safety.

After the Supreme Court upheld the Constitution’s guarantee of birthright citizenship, Trump and MAGA lost it. Trump threatened to get Congress to end the guarantee, which it can’t do, and he lamely claimed it was a “WIN” for China: The sheer haplessness of his response hinted at how disoriented the ruling left him. But MAGA exploded: One personality called on the masses to “use whatever force is necessary” to repel “invaders,” a clear threat of violence. Another one, flagged by Media Matters, accused the liberal justices of wanting to “burn the country to the ground” and suggested “men of action” must stop them, also a dark, veiled threat. And Stephen Miller absurdly described the ruling as “national self-obliteration,” which would seem to justify anything in response. We talked to Raul Pinto, deputy legal director of the American Immigration Council. We discuss why the ruling was too close for comfort, how that’s inviting MAGA to wage a longer war to overturn birthright citizenship, how that might unfold, and why there’s cause for cautious optimism about what’s next. Listen to this episode here.

This story was originally published by CalMatters. Sign up for its newsletters.

California librarians were stunned when a last-minute budget change stripped K-12 schools of a trove of research materials, potentially leaving thousands of students without resources to do reports, projects or homework assignments.

Without notice to schools or librarians, the Legislature last week canceled $5.5 million that pays online fees for the Encyclopedia Britannica, New York Times, PBS videos such as Ken Burns documentaries, scientific journals and thousands of other online materials used by students and teachers. The cut goes into effect on July 1, 2027.

“We had no idea this was coming,” said Greg Lucas, head of the California State Library, which helps oversee the program for California’s 10,000 public schools. “This will have a huge impact on California students.”

The program, called Compass, is an online database of research and curriculum materials that have been vetted by teachers and librarians. Compass is also available through public libraries, but the vast majority of users are at K-12 schools. Since the program launched in 2018, it’s received nearly 1 billion hits.

Students use Compass for classroom assignments as well as for recreation. Many of the materials are available in multiple languages. Among the more popular features are National Geographic Kids; Pebble Go Science, which includes hundreds of science activities for pre-kindergarten through second grade; and Alexander Street, which offers videos of cultural performances such as the Joffrey Ballet and the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Compass is especially important at a time when fewer schools have libraries — and librarians — to help students with research. Although nearly 90% of schools have physical space on campus for books, magazines and other research materials, only about a quarter of those spaces are staffed by librarians. The rest are staffed by volunteers, classified employees or not at all. California ranks 49th nationwide in school librarian staffing, with nearly 10,000 students for each librarian, according to research by the Institute of Museum and Library Services. 

Compass is available free to all schools in California. If schools were to subscribe individually to Compass materials, they’d spend more than $216 million annually, according to a State Library report. A typical medium-sized school district might pay $100,000 or more for the services, an expense lower-income districts are less likely to have money for.  

Losing the service raises concerns about internet access

Without access to Compass materials, students would likely rely on free resources online. But those materials tend to contain advertisements or track user data, a violation of state student privacy laws. They also are less likely to be vetted for accuracy, a particular danger in the age of artificial intelligence.

“Losing Compass is catastrophic for the state of California,” said Kate MacMillan, library services coordinator for Napa Valley Unified. “This service is a lifeline. I can’t believe the Legislature would let this happen.”

Funding for Compass was in earlier versions of the budget the Legislature debated over the past few months. But the final version eliminated Compass funding after July 1, 2027. Instead, it directs $5 million of the funding toward the state’s new dyslexia screener, and $60,000 for technical support of an online lesson-sharing platform called California Educators Together.

Legislators and staff members on the budget education committees contacted by CalMatters did not comment on why the money was cut. 

Meanwhile, librarians are launching an aggressive campaign to save the program. They’re emailing Newsom and the Legislature, and trying to bring attention to the issue.

Connie Williams, a retired school librarian and former head of the California School Library Association, said that losing Compass will exacerbate disparities in the state’s education system. Lower-income schools will lose crucial learning resources, while higher-income schools will be able to pay the subscription costs themselves, without state assistance.

“The disparity will be overwhelmingly glaring,” Williams said. “We’re leaving students at the mercy of whatever is free on the internet.”

It’s especially galling, she said, that this move comes as the state is promoting media and digital literacy in schools. In 2023 California enacted a law requiring schools to teach media literacy in all subjects, with a focus on teaching students to recognize fake news, determine if an information source is trustworthy and generally think critically about what they view and read online.

“We want students to think critically, put away their phones, know how to do research,” Williams said. “And we’re grabbing away some of the best learning tools we have.”

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

The post California school libraries blindsided by ‘catastrophic’ budget cut appeared first on Lookout Santa Cruz.

Restaurant kiosks are hazardous places, and not only on the side of the screen where patrons jab greasy fingers. On the other side of the glass, things can also go wrong when Windows starts working against the kiosk software. Spotted in a Portuguese restaurant chain by eagle-eyed Register reader Mário, the screen shows Windows 10 - though it could possibly be Windows 8.x - turning its nose up at a kiosk application. Either way, the sight of it would be enough to put even the most cast-iron sysadmin off their lunch.. In this instance, the WinRestKioskWPF.exe file is apparently lacking a digital signature to verify its publisher. It has therefore failed the Windows 10 sniff test, and a warning is on display. The problem is that this is a kiosk, so rather than being able to select and enjoy a Portuguese specialty (most likely something with a fried egg on it – if you know, you know), the hungry customer is presented with a baffling dialog. They could press Run (assuming the touchscreen passes input through to the desktop), or they could do the sideways shuffle of shame to a working kiosk. The software appears to be part of the WinRest suite of Point of Sale software. According [warning: this is an HTTP URL] to the company's website, its tools are "ultra-secure and affordable." The suffix, WPF, indicates it is a version written with the Windows Form replacement, the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF). WPF is an interesting choice for a modern application. It is, after all, very much Windows-only (yes, it was one of the inspirations for Avalonia), but since this kiosk is running Windows, it's not a terrible choice. Unless, of course, WPF means something different in this instance. We Prefer Frying? It's a possibility. And perhaps also why a clean-living installation of Windows 10 has rejected the application. ®

In a letter to the editor, an Aptos resident applauds a recent Community Voices op-ed about Driscoll’s and pesticides.

Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old democratic socialist, has won the high-profile primary for Colorado’s first congressional district, the Associated Press and other outlets projected Tuesday. With more than 90 percent of votes counted, Kiros leads Diana DeGette, Colorado’s longest-serving Democratic member of Congress, by a comfortable 51-42 margin.

DeGette—who has held her position since before Kiros was born—was seeking a 16th term in the House. She leads Colorado’s congressional delegation.

I covered Kiros’ outsider challenge to DeGette as part of a wave of young congressional candidates running in part to challenge the Democratic establishment on Gaza:

And in a primary taking place Tuesday in Denver, Melat Kiros, a 29-year-old democratic socialist who calls herself a “recovering lawyer,” is running against incumbent Democratic Rep. Diana DeGette, who has held her seat since 1997.

Two years ago, as a new lawyer in New York, Kiros wrote an open letter defending law students who organized for Palestine. “I myself am from the northern region of Ethiopia, where a genocide had also taken place a few years ago,” Kiros, whose parents immigrated to Colorado when she was a baby, said.

Her employer asked her to take the letter down. Kiros refused, was fired, and moved back to Colorado within a week. She took a gig as a barista (“the best job I’ve had”) to make ends meet, and is now running on a familiar progressive platform: Medicare for All, universal childcare, AI regulation, ICE abolition and an arms embargo on Israel.

The only poll in the race, by progressive firm Data For Progress, showed Kiros up by five points earlier in June.

“Every single thing that you care about, from social justice to economic justice to environmental justice, all of these things are intertwined with who has the money and the influence to wield power over our government,” Kiros said to me in an interview June 10.

In the final weeks of Kiros’ race, millions of dollars flooded in to support her DeGette. The largest outside group spending on DeGette’s behalf, Pro-Choice Majority Action, has ties to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC. The biggest spender backing Kiros has been the super PAC of the progressive group Justice Democrats, which endorsed her in December.

Kiros is also backed by the Democratic Socialists of America and high-profile supporters like Bernie Sanders and streamer Hasan Piker, who was urging voters to get to the polls in Denver minutes before they closed. (“What do you guys think about the data center that just popped up over here?” Piker told audiences. “Diana DeGette, who’s represented this district for 30 years in Congress, is saying nothing about the data centers, because she’s in the pocket of big corporations.”)

Kiros will join a group of left-wing insurgent candidates who have upset the Democratic establishment by winning decisive primary victories on unapologetically progressive platforms. Only half an hour after polls closed, with the race not yet called, Republicans were already treating Kiros as the presumptive winner. Democrats are “showing their true colors and saying we want socialism, inevitably we want communism,” said Republican Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert on Colorado’s News9. “You’re seeing this in New York—you have the Mamdani allies, who won their candidacy.”

Two politicians aligned with Mamdani—former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander and socialist Darializa Avila Chevalier—knocked out incumbents; a third, Claire Valdez, will replace retiring Democratic veteran Nydia Velázquez.

Kiros says she will work with them to push the Democratic Party leftward. “If enough of us share that commitment to Medicare for All, to ending corporate capture, to an arms embargo [on Israel], we should absolutely say: here are our conditions,” she told Axios. “If you want our votes on leadership, on appropriations, this is what it costs.”

Japan has updated its national robotics strategy with a goal to adopt 10 million robots by the year 2040, with some intended to provide medical care. Minister for the Economy, Trade and Industry Ryosei Akazawa yesterday announced the amended strategy, which envisions more robots working to provide medical care, or taking on roles in the food and beverage manufacturing sectors. To make it happen, Akazawa announced investments in models for AI-powered robots and other forms of physical AI. As is often the case in Japan, this effort will bring together a handful of industrial giants to share their expertise. That collaboration will take place within a new organization called “Noetra” that will be majority-owned by SoftBank, NEC, Sony Group, and Honda. Fujitsu and Rakuten are apparently pondering participation. The minister said Japan already has a lot of robotics expertise gained from using machines in healthcare for the elderly, disaster response, manufacturing, and even decommissioning the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant. He hopes to use that experience to turn Japan into a robotics powerhouse that serves domestic needs and creates world-leading products. One reason Japan is keen on robots is the combination of its ageing population and restrictive migration policies means it is hard to find workers. Robots therefore supplant humans in some roles – and often do so without much complaint because they’re not taking jobs but instead are filling jobs humans aren’t available or willing to perform. South Korea announced a similar plan to become a robotics powerhouse on Monday, so let battle be joined! Hopefully not giant robot battle – an aspect of robotics that’s a notable feature of Japanese popular culture. ®

An Indonesian corruption court has sentenced the nation’s former education minister Nadiem Makarim, who is also a hero of the nation’s tech startup scene, to ten years in jail for his role in buying a stack of Chromebooks. Nadiem is a co-founder of Gojek, a so-called superapp that offers ride share, food delivery, digital payments, and even logistics services. In 2021, Gojek merged with its rival Tokopedia. The combined entity became a ubiquitous part of daily life in Indonesia and other southeast Asian nations. In 2019, Gojek’s success and prominence saw then-Indonesian-president Joko Widodo ask Nadiem to become Education Minister, with a remit to improve the nation’s schools. Nadiem took the job but kept a minority stake in Gojek during his time in government. During his time as minister, Nadiem oversaw a $600 million program to acquire laptops for use in schools. Departmental officials compared Chromebooks to Windows laptops and found the latter performed better, because Google’s machines need constant internet access which isn’t available in much of the sprawling Indonesian archipelago. The Ministry nonetheless decided to order Chromebooks because they are cheaper than Windows machines. As the laptop program rolled out, observers noted that Google has invested in Gojek, and that the two companies had collaborated on various projects. Some saw that as suggesting a possibility that the decision to acquire Chromebooks might not have been motivated by technical merit and cost factors alone. Prosecutors eventually decided to pursue a case on the basis that the decision to acquire Chromebooks cost Indonesia over $100 million in avoidable costs. The matter went to trial and was decided on Tuesday, when a majority of judges found Nadiem guilty of improper conduct as minister – but not of personally profiting from the Chromebook procurement. The former minister has vowed to appeal and described the judgement as deeply flawed given that the decision to purchase Chromebooks was made at arm’s length and because he did not personally benefit from the program. Some see the affair as an example of established power brokers in Indonesia flexing their muscle against an emerging bloc of technocratic reformers. That bloc has lost influence since Widodo’s term as President ended. Under that interpretation, prosecuting the Singapore-born, Harvard-educated Nadiem is a significant exercise of old guard power. Another view is that the affair is so tawdry, it shows Indonesia remains a very difficult nation in which to do business and that if even a local hero can be brought low, foreign tech companies may struggle to make inroads. ®

Vinton Cerf, one of the creators of the protocols underlying the internet, will step down as Google's chief internet evangelist next week.

Anthropic said it would begin restoring access to the Fable on July 1.