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Corgi became embroiled in controversy when Papermark accused it of stealing its software. Corgi says it did not, raising new questions about vibe coding.

Conservative pundit and podcaster Megyn Kelly responded to the Supreme Court’s recent anti-immigrant ruling in the Mullin v. Al Otro Lado case with her latest bigoted rant. The decision in the 6-3 case, decided by the conservative majority, allows the Trump administration to deport people who have legally lived in the U.S. after seeking asylum to be deported, even after living here in peace…

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It seems like nobody wants to carry a work phone and that includes even those charged with protecting the US president. The US Secret Service’s extremely lax mobile phone security practices - including using unsecured personal devices during mission operations - put America’s leaders’ and agents’ lives at risk, according to a government-issued report. Secret Service agents routinely used personal cell phones to communicate with law enforcement and each other, including during protective operations in the US and overseas, because their government-issued devices lacked the capabilities they needed to perform their missions, according to a federal review ordered after the 2024 assassination attempt against President Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania. Even when Secret Service employees did use government-furnished equipment (GFE), these mobile devices didn’t have sufficient security to “ensure real-time, continuous protection from cyberattacks by foreign adversaries or individuals,” according to a report by the Department of Homeland Security inspector general. The inspector general’s investigation also found vulnerable apps on these GFE mobile devices. In addition to being prohibited - Homeland Security policy only allows Secret Service employees to use GFE devices for official business - using personal cell phones is especially bad from a cybersecurity perspective. As we have seen time and time again, government employees’ personal devices and private communications provide highly attractive targets for foreign spies or even homegrown criminals plotting attacks against elected leaders. Secret Service agents’ phones can also reveal mission-related details, geolocation - and, by proxy, the US president, vice president, and visiting heads of state’s geolocations - as well as photos, contacts, and other personal information such as family members and home addresses. Since these personal devices are not managed or secured by the US government, it's much easier for attackers to plant surveillanceware and other malware on them. “If a personal device is jailbroken, infected with malicious code, or not up to date on security software, an adversary could intercept device communication,” according to the report. “Outdated and vulnerable apps could enable malicious actors to conduct surveillance, track locations, or record employees’ communications. Connecting to unsecured networks may also allow cybercriminals to access data or install malware.” The inspector general reviewed call and text logs from Secret Service GFE mobile device records from October 2022 through May 2025, and found more than 15,000 instances among 4.8 million calls in which employees sent and received calls from colleagues’ personal phones while working protective events. Investigators also examined travel vouchers for Secret Service employees who travelled internationally between October 2022 and April 2025. They found 30 employees who claimed reimbursement for using personal phones for official, government business. Most of these (23 of the 24 interviewed) said they needed to use their personal cell phones during nearly every foreign assignment. Plus, they used personal mobile devices as hotspots to provide internet access for government-issued laptops, or to access websites blocked on GFE phones. Even when employees did use government-issued devices on overseas trips, these phones also lacked basic security, the investigation found. For example: the Secret Service did not begin installing mobile threat defense software on any GFE phones until August 2025. Nor did the agency consistently wipe data from GFE devices after employees returned from international missions despite Secret Service policy requiring employees to do this within 24 hours of returning to the US. Do these 5 things As a result of its findings, the inspector general made five recommendations to improve mobile device security. These include implementing a formal policy to ensure government-issued devices have all the needed capabilities to ensure mission functions can be conducted securely, and also ensure all employees complete cybersecurity awareness training, as required by the Secret Service. The report also recommends the Secret Service office of the chief information officer do a better job communicating to employees that the use of personal devices is not allowed for official business, and implement controls to wipe all mobile devices returning from international missions. Finally, the inspector general also recommends an updated vulnerability testing policy be applied to all mobile app code. The Secret Service “concurred” with all five recommendations. We reached out to the Secret Service about the report and recommended actions, and a spokesperson declined to comment beyond a letter from Secret Service Director Sean Curran included in the report. Curran said, among other things, that in response to the inspector general’s findings, the agency made “several comprehensive enhancements to Secret Service communications policies and protocols to both mitigate the potential for adversaries to intercept and exploit Secret Service information, as well as further strengthen the protective environment.”®

Longtime community leader and former journalist Tony Nuñez has defeated incumbent Felipe Hernandez in the race for the District 4 seat on the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors. 

Nuñez has maintained a nearly 20 percentage-point lead over Hernandez over the past three weeks as vote tallies were posted since the June 2 primary election. Nuñez earned 50.07 % of the vote ( 3,944 of 8,510 votes cast) while Hernandez had 30.84% and third-place Elias Gonzales received 18.41%. 

Nuñez won the race outright because he received at least a simple majority plus one (50% of votes cast + 1). If no candidate had reached that threshold, the top two vote-getters would head to a run-off election in November. 

“[I’m] just really humbled by the trust voters have placed in me,” Nuñez told Lookout Friday afternoon. “Listening to voters was an incredible experience, and they have put their trust in me. And, it was not a small amount of people who put their trust in me.”

More than anything, Nuñez said he’s excited about the opportunity to continue serving the community in this role.

Now that Nuñez has won the District 4 seat, he will be required to vacate his role as board chair of the Pajaro Health Care District, which operates Watsonville Community Hospital, at a time when the health care facility is undergoing a leadership change with the impending departure of CEO Stephen Gray. 

The focus for his last six months on the hospital board will be supporting it’s new interim CEO, Tim Moran, staff and leadership as best he can. “It’s a huge time of transition for the healthcare district and the hospital,” he said.

Throughout his campaign, Nuñez has said that he wants to increase economic development in South County — which he believes could be the key to meeting community needs. 

He told Lookout in April that he’d like to work with Watsonville city officials to figure out ways to develop tourism in the city that’s been primarily driven by agriculture and nonprofits. The county — which currently faces a $23.2 million deficit for the 2026-27 fiscal year — is struggling to bring in additional revenue to fund programs that benefit community members, Nuñez said. 

As supervisor, Nuñez said he’d like to address the impact a high cost of living has on families in Santa Cruz County — especially in South County. He previously told Lookout one of his ideas would be to create a pilot program that would ensure residents in the Pajaro Valley have access to low-cost childcare up to transitional kindergarten. 

Another initiative Nuñez would like to create is a robust down-payment assistance program for local residents, specifically in South County, to help increase homeownership. But acknowledged that those things take money and time to achieve. 

The candidates for District 4 Santa Cruz County supervisor at an April forum hosted by Lookout in Watsonville, from left, challengers Tony Nuñez and Elias Gonzales and incumbent Felipe Hernandez. Credit: Kevin Painchaud / Lookout Santa Cruz

Nuñez’s victory marks a surprising upset: the first incumbent supervisor in recent history to outright lose a reelection bid in the primary election. Hernandez’s predecessor on the board of supervisors, Greg Caput, served three terms before retiring from public office. Before that, Caput unseated Tony Campos, who was seeking a fourth term, in the November 2010 election. 

Hernandez has faced criticism from his South County constituents throughout his reelection bid over not taking a stance on a contentious proposal to build a battery storage facility outside of Watsonville, along with the county’s handling of a local ordinance meant to regulate these facilities. He also faced allegations that he removed one of his opponent’s campaign signs a week before the June 2 primary. 

Hernandez did not respond to Lookout’s request for comment.

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

The post Tony Nuñez unseats incumbent Felipe Hernandez in District 4 county supervisor race appeared first on Lookout Santa Cruz.

The Supreme Court is handing down major opinions at a rapid clip, but even with some of the biggest decisions yet to come there are signs of tension between the justices. One highly unusual exchange for the restrained and traditional atmosphere came Thursday, as the members of the nation’s highest court took the bench as usual to read a short summary of their decisions.

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Welcome to Lookout’s 2026 primary election results page. The Santa Cruz County Clerk certified the results of the June 2 primary election Friday, releasing the final vote counts in all county races just after 2 p.m. See the charts below for the final margins.

Santa Cruz County supervisor results

In District 3, encompassing Santa Cruz, Davenport and Bonny Doon, Justin Cummings secured a second term after running unopposed. In District 4, covering much of the city of Watsonville and the Pajaro Valley, challenger Tony Nuñez has unseated incumbent Felipe Hernandez, avoiding a November run-off after securing 50.07% of the vote.

Santa Cruz County Superior Court judge

Immigration attorney Alisa Thomas defeated criminal defense attorney Bryan Hackett in the race for an open seat on the Santa Cruz County Superior Court.

Santa Cruz mayor

Ryan Coonerty and Ami Chen-Mills are headed to a November run-off after securing the top two spots in the five-person field vying to succeed Mayor Fred Keeley.

Santa Cruz City Council

In District 4, covering downtown and part of the Westside bounded by High Street to the north and Bay Street to the west, incumbent Scott Newsome won a second term, defeating challenger Hector Marin. In District 6, which covers the lower Westside, the westernmost part of the upper Westside and part of the UC Santa Cruz campus, Renee Golder also secured reelection, beating Gabriella Noack.

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

The post Santa Cruz County 2026 primary election results in charts: Final tallies for all county races appeared first on Lookout Santa Cruz.

Long before today’s tech giants forced their way into co-chairing the Met Gala, Google co-founder Sergey Brin positioned himself in the front row of Diane Von Furstenberg’s 2013 spring show, sporting an early prototype of what would be known as Google Glass. Von Furstenberg herself donned a pair of the wearable smartglasses as she directed models, some also wearing Google Glass, down the runway. It seemed like a promising partnership between a powerful tech company and the woman who popularized the iconic wrap dress.

Yet despite the celebrity-packed promotions, generous Vogue spreads, and proclamations of one of the “Best Inventions of the Year,” Google Glass infamously flopped. It turns out there wasn’t much clamoring for clunky lenses that did little more than take photos and send alerts of incoming text messages. Which is to say nothing about the intense privacy concerns the technology appeared to present.

In pushing AI technology, the Meta-Jenner partnership reads like a poor misreading of our cultural moment, as well as a willful disregard of just how badly Google Glass pissed off people a decade prior.

It was around this time that the public was introduced to King Kylie, the internet persona fans bestowed upon the youngest of the Kardashian-Jenner machine as a testament to her cultural clout. In fact, Kylie Jenner was seemingly everywhere in the mid-2010’s, with a social media dominance that in 2018 commanded $1 million per sponsored Instagram post and an immensely popular cosmetics line.

So it makes sense, in a way, that Meta, which owns Instagram, is now turning to a veteran of the platform to sell its new line of AI glasses. “Cutest night with @metaglasses! My meta glasses are out now,” Jenner posted in a carousel from a party in New York, where she celebrated this week with Mark Zuckerberg. One can only imagine the regret felt by Snapchat, which Jenner also gamely used to fuel her rise and is now in the AI glasses business, upon seeing Jenner palling around with Zuck.

At the Meta Connect developer conference, Mark Zuckerberg, head of the Facebook group Meta, shows the prototype of computer glasses that can display digital objects in transparent lenses. Andrej Sokolow/dpa/Zuma

But outside Meta’s monied party on Tuesday, the reception has been scornful. “Meta glasses are cybertrucks for the face,” read a comment that has since gone viral. In fact, much of the negative feedback felt ripped straight from the criticism once aimed at Google Glass: “Mass surveillance predator glasses yesssss,” one user wrote on Jenner’s Instagram. “Legit people are putting others in danger with this technology.”

To be sure, Meta Glasses appear to avoid some of Google Glass’s pitfalls. For one, Meta’s glasses, designed in partnership with Ray-Ban parent company EssilorLuxottica, are more aesthetically pleasing than their Google forebearer. They’re also significantly cheaper, starting at $299. (Jenner’s limited Starfire edition is slightly more at $399.)

But in pushing AI technology, the Meta-Jenner partnership reads like a poor misreading of our cultural moment, as well as a willful disregard of just how badly Google Glass pissed off people a decade prior. After all, is there a bigger unifying force than our current animosity for AI? Just look at all the college graduates, perennially the demographic of cool in any given era, roasting AI en masse. When they’re forced to use it, Gen Z absolutely loathes it.

But the hostility runs far deeper than young people. People on both sides of the aisle are actively rejecting the data centers popping up in their backyards; we have near-universal agreement that the aesthetics of AI suck; and there’s outright antipathy for the billionaire overlords, Zuckerberg included, hoping to shove AI into every inch of the public sphere. It feels appropriate, then, that a company that has been stuck in cultural freefall is trying to make AI glasses happen, when the same, decades-old question—who even wants them?—still looms large.

As for Jenner, the influencer remains relevant, and a willingness to cozy up to the worst people in any given room appears to run in the family. But it’s Jenner’s ability to sell things—which is ostensibly the root goal of the Meta-Jenner partnership—that is far shakier in 2026: Kylie Cosmetics is nowhere near as popular as it once was, and Jenner’s clothing line, KHY, has yet to make an impact since launching in 2023. As for Jenner’s boyfriend, Timothée Chalamet, the actor was also at Tuesday’s event, though apparently not wanting to be seen and, even perhaps even more notably, not wearing a pair of Meta Glasses.

Former Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and his family were the victims of a false child protective services report, he wrote on his Substack Friday.

“Many times over the years, I have been denounced, yelled at, protested, threatened, and heckled. I’ve been through political attacks in office, death threats in public life, and rocket attacks in war. But this is the ugliest thing that has happened to me since my career in service began,” Buttigieg wrote.

Buttigieg said that earlier this week, a police officer and CPS worker showed up at his Traverse City, Michigan, home, where he lives with his husband, Chasten, and their twins, Joseph August and Penelope Rose. They told Buttigieg that a serious allegation had been made against him regarding his children, and that he couldn’t be alone with them until they received a forensic interview the next day, without him or any relatives present. Then they would discuss the allegations with the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor.

The officer and social worker wished to see the two 4-year-olds, so Buttigieg told them to wait until Chasten would be returning with the children from summer camp. When they arrived, the kids were fascinated by the police officer’s car, and the adults agreed that the children would stay with their grandparents overnight before their interview the next day.

“The twenty-four hours until they returned are among the darkest hours of my life. I tried to get my head around the idea that I had been accused of something so serious that I couldn’t be alone around my own children, and had consented to have them interviewed by strangers, without my knowing where the accusation had come from or even what it contained,” wrote Buttigieg.

After the children were interviewed, they went to stay with their grandparents, Buttigieg wrote, and then the police officer and CPS worker met him at his home for an interview. The officer said that an anonymous woman had contacted CPS, saying that she had met Buttigieg years ago at a conference in Alabama, who allegedly told her that he had committed “unspeakable violent crimes, and the caller believed my children were still at risk.”

The police officer asked if Buttigieg had been to a certain town in Alabama, to which he replied no, as well as “a couple of obvious questions.” After that, the officer said that he believed the accusation was politically motivated and that it would not be referred to a prosecutor. The CPS worker also said the allegation could not be substantiated, although her process would take longer to complete.

But Buttigieg was allowed to be alone with his children again, and Chasten was told the same information from the officer and CPS worker, and the two were able to pick up their children.

“For twenty-four deeply distressing hours, we had no idea what I was accused of or what was about to happen. We could not understand someone abusing the system like this in order to hurt me and my family with an absurd and easily refuted allegation of a horrific crime,” Buttigieg wrote.

“We’re used to nasty, hateful, and sometimes violent things being said about us and even about our family. But this is the first time someone managed to invade our lives like this—and drag our children into it,” Buttigieg added.

Buttigieg has been targeted by the right for his same-sex marriage and position within the Biden administration, facing false allegations of sexual assault in 2019 and, bizarrely, receiving mockery and criticism for taking paternity leave as a Cabinet secretary during the Biden administration. Making a false allegation and targeting a politician’s children is an egregious crime, and should be roundly condemned across the political spectrum. Let’s see if conservatives actually do the right thing.

It's back! After Donald Trump shuttered the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Climate.gov website in 2025, cutting off public access to its 15-year archive of climate information, former members of the site's team have brought much of it back at a new domain. “Trusted climate information should not disappear when politics change,” Climate.us managing director Rebecca Lindsey said of the new platform in a press release. Lindsey, who previously served as the Climate.gov program manager and lead editor, told The Register in an email that she and one of the web developers responsible for the site were the first to be caught up in government purges when DOGE swept through the department in late February 2025. “In May, political appointees directed that all the remaining Climate.gov editorial and GIS/data visualization staff be removed from the contract,” Lindsey added. Created in cooperation with sustainability nonprofit accelerator Multiplier, Climate.us aims to be an independent alternative to its old .gov, and many of the former NOAA crew behind the previous website have teamed up for the new initiative to “keep climate information accurate, accessible, scientifically rigorous, and useful for the people who rely on it.” Climate.gov, which now redirects to a NOAA page about climate but which hosts none of the data the shuttered site used to contain, was taken offline in July 2025 following a Trump executive order prioritizing “gold standard science.” The order decried what it called the prior administration’s politicization of science by, among other things, “encouraging agencies to incorporate diversity, equity, and inclusion considerations into all aspects of science planning, execution, and communication.” The EO called out climate change science as a particular area of concern, arguing that prior climate science models relied on worst-case scenarios, which somehow meant the public availability of 15 years of climate data and reporting ought to change. The shuttering of climate.gov followed a day after the order, leading to scientists expressing concern about the ability of governments, the public, and private organizations to combat the effects of a changing climate, whether the Trump administration believed the data was true or not. “This is evidence of serious tampering with the facts and with people’s access to information, and it actually may increase the risk of people being harmed by climate-related impacts,” University of Arizona climate scientist Kathy Jacobs told The Guardian in July 2025, following closure of the site and removal of other climate information from public repositories. Changes to the site actually began before that, Lindsey told us. Prior to her termination, the Climate.gov team was ordered to search its archives and remove any information that violated Trump’s Gulf of America order and ban on DEI programs. Guides on teaching climate change and principles of climate literacy were among documents purged from the site in that sweep. Climate.us, and Climate.gov before it, are designed to be a bridge between scientists studying the climate and the public, Lindsey told us. “Most of those functions we can perform almost as well outside of the federal domain as in it,” Lindsey said. “However, losing access to the tremendous store of knowledge and expertise possessed by federal scientists, with whom we partnered to make sure our content was accurate, is a real blow.” All of the content that was purged from the .gov is now back, along with blogs from experts, climate status reports, maps and data pathways, and national assessments of climate change as well. Lindsey told us that rapidly changing political winds have led her to believe that the government isn’t the right place for that mission to continue, and that she would have concerns about returning the site to federal management if a future administration changed its position on climate change. “I believe that fostering climate literacy is a public good, one of those things that benefit society as a whole, rather than one company or person,” the Climate.us director told us. “So I would definitely have concerns that going back to the government would just put us on a hamster wheel, where we’d face the same situation the next politics shift.” Regardless of whether that offer comes, Lindsey said that the Climate.us team will continue with the same mission it had before the Trump administration attempted to quash it: Getting climate science in front of the public in a manner that’s understandable so they can make their own decisions about how to respond. “We aren’t trying to tell people what to do about climate change,” Lindsey said. “We just think that people will come up with better strategies to confronting the world’s climate challenges if they understand what the science is telling us.” ®

Data center installations need tight standards

There are issues coming up with many of the data center installations: they need power and cooling with water. Some of these data systems are planned where there is little water and should be required to move to regions that have plentiful water such as Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan and Washington. There should be restraints placed to prohibit installations in dry states. Power demands for these installations are causing local utility rates to rise. If the installations were allowed to provide their own power then there would be no effect on local rates. In many states this is impossible because the public utilities have lobbied to prevent private power plants. This has to be reversed. Private installations need to meet the same standards as public ones and have the ability to sell their excess power to the public network. 

Bill Beecher

Aptos

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Preserve Capitola Boat & Bait

Capitola Boat & Bait has been an important part of the Capitola Wharf for generations and deserves to remain there. For decades, it has served recreational anglers, commercial fishermen, boat owners, and visitors who come to enjoy one of Capitola’s most treasured landmarks.

The business provides essential services that support boating and fishing activities in Monterey Bay, including bait, tackle, supplies, and assistance for those using the harbor’s moorings. Without these services, maintaining a vibrant boating and fishing community becomes much more difficult.

Fishing is not only a cherished recreational pastime for local families and tourists, but it also supports commercial fishermen who contribute to our local economy and coastal heritage. Capitola Boat & Bait helps sustain both.

The business also generates revenue for the City of Capitola through lease payments, visitor traffic, and the economic activity it brings to nearby restaurants and shops. Losing it would diminish the character and utility of the wharf.

Capitola should preserve this long-standing local institution and the valuable services it provides to residents, fishermen, and visitors alike.

Mike Lelieur

Pleasure Point

After successfully prosecuting anti-ICE protesters in Texas and giving them long prison sentences, the Trump administration has its next free speech targets.

The government is looking to prosecute protesters against the Cop City project in Atlanta, The Guardian reports. The $109 million police training center in Georgia has faced heavy opposition from activists against police militarization and the clearing of a forest to build the facility. Earlier this month, the Department of Justice indicted two protesters for allegedly attacking a contractor for the facility and two of its employees.

The federal indictments come despite the fact that Georgia authorities have tried and failed to bring cases against protesters. In August 2023, the state attorney general tried to RICO indictment against protesters in Fulton County against three protesters, only for that case to be dismissed more than two years later in December. In April, state prosecutors tried again in neighboring Cobb County, only for a judge to dismiss that case on Monday.

The DOJ may be emboldened by the March guilty verdicts from its Texas case, referred to as Prarieland, against protesters who were demonstrating against an ICE detention facility. On Tuesday, Texas activists received prison sentences of more than 50 years in prison based on terrorism charges, with the Trump administration claiming they were part of an “antifa cell.”

Just like in Texas, the Cop City protesters set off fireworks, giving the Trump administration the same justifications to invoke terrorism charges.

“The Cobb county protest matches the narrative of what they’re looking for. It’s similar to what they did with Prairieland—they’re crafting a certain narrative on protests and trying to indict based on the narrative,” Xavier de Janon, an attorney for one of the Georgia protesters, told The Guardian.

“Fireworks become explosives. Communities become ‘antifa cells.’ The power of language is going to become central to everything the government is doing moving forward,” said filmmaker and author Will Potter, who researches government responses to protests, to the publication.

Santa Cruz County supervisors on Tuesday postponed until June 30 a decision on proposed cuts to local arts funding after hearing from dozens of residents who urged them to preserve grants for arts organizations.

Under the proposal, funding for the Santa Cruz Museum of Art & History would be cut by 50 percent to help restore parks and recreation services. County staff also proposed redirecting $77,297 from the museum’s contract and eliminating a $170,046 contract with the Arts Council as part of a package to restore seven-day operations at Simpkins Family Swim Center, portable restroom service and park maintenance.

Supervisors directed county parks staff to identify other budget reductions that could preserve arts funding.

The proposed package would redirect $590,000 to the county’s Parks, Open Space and Cultural Services Department. Along with reductions to arts funding, it includes Measure K and Measure Q funding, risk management dollars, reductions to recreation grants and the cancellation of a software contract. The funding would restore daily operations at Simpkins Family Swim Center, restroom and maintenance contracts, and replace revenue expected from a paid parking pilot program that the county later scrapped.

Parks Director Jeff Gaffney acknowledged the proposal was difficult.

“It was a very difficult budget to propose,” he said.

The proposal drew strong opposition from dozens of speakers, many of whom argued the arts community is central to Santa Cruz County’s identity.

Arts Council Santa Cruz County Executive Director Jim Brown said the organization has already adopted a budget with a $130,000 deficit.

“We, like the county, are tapping our reserves to sustain programming, and we will not be able to sustain the proposed cut,” he said.

Tandy Beal, founder of Tandy Beal & Company, which brings dance and performance programs to schools, said the cuts would be a mistake.

“The arts beautify Santa Cruz,” she said. “They beautify the material world and people’s hearts. It would be a terrible mistake to cut the arts budget.”

MAH Executive Director Ginger Porcella said declining federal funding has already strained the museum’s finances.

“A world without art is not a world that I think any of us want to live in,” she said.

Ruby Vasquez, who leads the Watsonville-based folklórico groups Esperanza del Valle and Estrellas de Esperanza, said the cuts could damage a valuable cultural resource.

“The arts are an essential part of our community,” she said. “They are just as important as any other part of our community.”

Supervisor Justin Cummings said music had a profound impact on his life.

“Punk rock saved my life as a teenager,” he said. “We see how much the arts change people’s lives every day.”

Cummings said the arts are a vital part of the county’s culture and economy, pointing to First Fridays, art walks and art-and-wine festivals.

“Not only is it a part of our culture, but it’s a huge part of our economy,” he said.

Cummings suggested using the county’s 10.4 percent reserves to preserve arts funding, but County Executive Officer Nicole Coburn said that was not an option.

“We can definitely not take any more out of reserves,” she said, adding that many counties maintain reserves closer to 30 percent.

Supervisor Manu Koenig instead suggested using discretionary Measure K funding — generated by the county’s half-cent sales tax — and Measure Q revenue, which comes from an $87 parcel tax for land and water management and conservation programs.

“I really don’t think that we should draw down our reserves further to solve this problem, especially because it’s a one-time solution and really doesn’t solve the problem going forward,” he said. “If we all put in $100,000 from Measure K to make the parks budget whole, however that’s done, we have more than enough to do so.”

A visibly frustrated Gaffney said staff had already spent months trying to balance the budget.

“There’s not a lot left to cut,” he said. “So you’re going to be looking at dry grass at Felton Covered Bridge. You’re going to be looking at dry grass at Willowbrook Park. You’re going to be looking at no bathrooms in places. These are the tough choices we have to make. I get that, and we’ll figure it out. We went forward in good faith back in March to try to make this happen, and it’s not going to look good in nine months or 10 months where the county parks department will be.”

Trump’s Department of Justice’s inspector general has handed Senate Republicans highly-sensitive interview transcripts concerning its report on the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

In response to mounting pressure from Republican Senators Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, the DOJ’s inspector general in March began releasing transcripts regarding the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation, Bloomberg Law reported Friday.

The DOJ’s inspector general office warned senators about the “potential for a chilling effect on whistleblowing, and on the cooperation of witnesses,” should the contents of the interviews become public, but has no power to actually prevent the release of sensitive information.

The shocking disclosure comes as the Trump administration and its allies have made clear their interest in uncovering improprieties of the FBI’s original investigation into collusion.

In 2019, the DOJ’s inspector general found that the FBI’s investigation was dysfunctional and marred by serious errors—but was in no way a biased plot against Trump. Now, Republicans are hoping to pour over the raw interviews in the hopes of cherry-picking pieces to malign attorneys and agents, possibly in order to get paid from a future “anti-weaponization” slush fund.

This latest move indicates the DOJ watchdog’s startling lack of independence in the face of the Trump administration’s political objectives. It also will likely discourage government employees and whistleblowers—who can be sure that their government is not committed to safeguarding their disclosures—from participating in future investigations.

The Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees on Wednesday declined to place a $192 million school facilities bond measure on the November ballot, instead signaling they would revisit the proposal in a future election, possibly in 2026 or 2028.

The measure would not increase taxes for property owners within district boundaries. Instead, it would replace Measure J, which voters approved in 2002 and which expires in 2030, maintaining the current tax rate of $120 per $100,000 of assessed value.

Superintendent Heather Contreras said the district needs additional bond funding to address roughly $1 billion in deferred maintenance and other facility needs, adding that the district’s existing $350 million Measure M bond is insufficient to meet those demands.

“That’s how schools are funded,” she said. “When you need to make facility improvements, you have to go out for a bond.”

Dale Scott of Dale Scott & Co., which conducted a $15,000 survey of 410 voters from May 26 to June 1, said the poll found about 58 percent support for the measure.

Trustee Gabe Medina questioned whether the survey accurately reflected districtwide opinion. He noted that Monterey County accounts for about 8 percent of the district’s electorate — 4,666 voters — but only 20 survey respondents came from that area.

“How can we justify basing this districtwide $192 million bond decision on a sample size of just 20 people from my trustee area?” he asked.

“I will be opposing this, and this is going to fail, and I will be siding with the teachers union.”

Medina’s concerns were echoed by several of his colleagues, none of whom expressed support for placing the measure on the November ballot.

Trustee Misty Navarro suggested waiting until the 2028 presidential election, when more voters are likely to participate.

She noted that Measure M passed with 55.39 percent of the vote in 2024, narrowly exceeding the required 55 percent threshold.

Navarro also said voters have not yet seen the benefits of that bond.

“I think the timing on this is incredibly wrong,” she said.

Board President Carol Turley said she also had reservations, particularly because the district’s Sustainable Schools Advisory Committee has not yet completed its recommendations on possible school closures.

“I hear from a lot of community members that they feel overtaxed, and I am a little surprised by how the survey came out,” Turley said.

Watsonville may soon draw out designated “no encampment zones” which would bar unhoused individuals from setting up tents, parking RVs or using cooking supplies in certain areas. 

Signs would be posted showing a map of the zones. 

These areas would be subject to immediate cleanup, and the city would not require a 72-hour notice to remove personal items in these sections of town. Major waterways and parks would be prioritized as no encampment zones if the ordinance were to be enacted.

The updated ordinance is largely driven by current enforcement problems. When cleanup crews arrive at existing encampments along the city’s levees and sloughs, campers often simply move their belongings outside the work zone to a different location on the waterway, city officials say. This creates a new site that requires its own 72-hour notice to clear. 

The new “no encampment zones” would allow cleanup crews to immediately clear the area without that requirement. 

Police Capt. Mish Radich says the ordinance is modeled around an existing ordinance from San Jose.

“This camping order supports public health, safety, the environment, access to parks and open spaces and  public right-of-way,” he said. 

The first reading of the ordinance was approved at the Tuesday night City Council meeting, with all in attendance voting yes except Mayor Vanessa Quiroz-Carter, who vehemently opposed it, citing a lack of services for the unhoused community in Watsonville. 

“This is ridiculous. I will not be supportive of this,” Quiroz-Carter said of the ordinance. “We need to have adequate services for people. We need to have adequate shelter for people. That’s a basic human right.”

The item will return to the council for a second read and approval later this year.

Every year, nonprofits set up firework stands throughout the city of Watsonville, with the proceeds going to fund their activities. Sales rubn July 1-4. Their use is only permitted within the cities of Watsonville and Capitola. People using them outside of those places face steep fines.

Sales locations 

Fairytale Farms 

1051 South Green Valley Road 

Pajaro Valley Girls Softball

444 Airport Boulevard 

Pajaro Valley Youth Soccer

1125 South Green Valley Road

Victory Outreach of Watsonville 

1702 Freedom Boulevard

Watsonville Buddhist Temple 

423 Bridge Street

Watsonville Charter School 

2010 Freedom Boulevard

Watsonville Victory Outreach #1 

1000 Main Street

Watsonville Youth Training Center 

1424 Freedom Boulevard

Freedom Rotary Club 

1966 Main Street

Moreland Notre Dame 

634 Main Street

Pajaro Lodge 

1465 Main Street

Watsonville HS Football & Cheer 

1116 Main Street

Watsonville HS Soccer 

600 Main Street

Watsonville HS Track & Field

20 Ohlone Parkway

Watsonville HS Wrestling 

377 Hushbeck Way

Watsonville JR Wildcatz 

375 Hushbeck Avenue

Watsonville PAL 

355 Green Valley Road

President Donald Trump spoke at the Faith & Freedom Coalition policy conference in Washington, D.C. on Friday, but seemed hyperfixated on something that has nothing to do with neither faith nor freedom: New York City’s rent freeze.

“Mayor Mamdani—who came to the White House and seems like a nice guy—he said he was going to do this in his campaign. Nobody thought he was serious,” Trump said.

On Thursday, New York City’s Rent Guidelines Board passed a rent freeze, enabling Mayor Zohran Mamdani to make good on one of his key campaign promises. The freeze will go into effect in October, and will impact tenants living in the city’s nearly one million rent-stabilized apartments.

“First time ever, with a ruling, zero rent increases for landlords … despite the fact that energy, supplies, real estate taxes, and just about everything else has gone up,” Trump said. “They’re basically confiscating their property.”

Contrary to what Trump said, rent freezes in NYC have been enacted in the past, most recently for three years under Mayor Bill de Blasio. But he’s right that prices are rising, partially due to his bungled tariffs and the war in Iran.

“What the mayor doesn’t say is that these buildings will soon turn into ghettos and slums, and that everybody will continue leaving New York. And as this spreads throughout the country very much like an uncontrollable form of cancer, the country itself will be taken down,” the president said.

Trump on Mamdani Rent Freeze: What the mayor doesn't say is that these buildings will soon turn into ghettos and slums, and that everybody will continue leaving New York. And as this spreads throughout the country very much like an uncontrollable form of cancer. The country… pic.twitter.com/EJccGtPfPC

— Acyn (@Acyn) June 26, 2026

Later in the speech, Trump went on to attack Mamdani’s DSA allies who won the Democratic primary in New York this week. “They will close your churches in this country, big old communists, and they’re trying to. They will kill your people…. This is the greatest threat to our country since its founding, in my opinion, 250 years ago, what’s happening right now. It’s the greatest threat.”

“They’re animals, they’re animals. In many cases, they’re not smart, but in some cases they are.”

It’s obvious that Trump is nervous, but maybe Mamdani’s rent freeze is just hitting a little too close to home for the NYC slumlord. In the 90s, Trump worked with his father to scam tenants in rent-regulated buildings, raising their rents while funneling money to each other, as uncovered by the New York Times in 2018. And in the 1980s, he made life a living hell for his rent-regulated tenants, trying to force them out of their homes so that he could tear down the building and make condos.

These folks practice carrying clouds in preparation for an upcoming Mardi Gras event in Watsonville on Feb. 1, 1961

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Friday tried to issue a warning about what’s at stake if Democrats win control of Congress in the November midterms—an outcome that at this point is more likely than not. But his warning was inadvertently a great case for why voters should hand Democrats the reins. “If we were to lose the midterms, heaven forbid, … y’all, impeachment’s not even the biggest…

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