Category Archives: education
Santa Cruz grapples with crime, drugs and … homeless services
No issue has so divided the greater Santa Cruz community as providing day-use services at the Homeless Services Center. This issue has continued to heat up for a variety of reasons: The public’s perception that transients continue to be a … Continue reading
Dealing with drug needles
One of the confusing aspects of the intensifying local debate about providing clean needles for drug addicts in Santa Cruz is just who is overseeing the distribution. Based on public documents, it’s clear Santa Cruz County public health officials have … Continue reading
Scourge of crime hits home
In my job, I frequently write unsigned — and windy — Editorials, decrying injustice and the need for more tolerance, rehabilitation and even redemption. More gun control. I write about the plight of addiction, about the need to end chronic recidivism among … Continue reading
Consequences of “helping” drug addicts with clean needles
Common sense. That’s all it takes to realize that distributing 10,000 clean needles a month to drug addicts in Santa Cruz is going to create a whole host of problems. Such as: Discarded and dirty used needles found on beaches … Continue reading
School shooting: Evil speaks and someone is listening
A young boy is comforted outside Sandy Hook Elementary School after shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, Friday. REUTERS/Michelle McLoughlin On Friday, I wrote a Sentinel Editorial about the growing insanity of a gun culture that has a nation so heavily armed … Continue reading
Breaking camp: Santa Cruz cracks down on illegal sites
Illegal campsite/photo by Dan Coyro, Sentinel Send us your poor, your addicted, your homeless … Contrary to the opinion of many in our community, this is not a message posted on the roads and pathways leading into Santa Cruz. But … Continue reading
The Sentinel and Nov. 6 election
Off and running. With the end of the political conventions, the national campaign now moves into a phase where the three debates between President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney should be far more revealing than the pep rallies … Continue reading
Deadly gang violence never far away
Family grieves Thursday over Joey Mendoza. Sentinel photo/Shmuel Thaler Gang violence is a scourge and blight on the community. Sadly, it almost always is out of sight, out of mind for many people.Except when it involves kids. So when a … Continue reading
UC’s pension time bomb
If you read this blog regularly, you know one of our favorite topics is the high cost of public employee pensions and the astounding myopia of our state legislators to enact much-needed reforms. Another frequent subject is the soaring cost … Continue reading
Latest bankruptcy danger: California schools
It’s one thing for a California city to declare, or consider, bankruptcy. Vallejo had to do it, and now Stockton, facing declining revenues and unsustainable pension costs, is facing a similar fate. State funded school districts, however, would seem to … Continue reading
