Tom Wright

1 week ago | santacruzsentinel.com | Tom Wright

California under Gov. Gavin Newsom has made sweeping changes to its behavioral health system, pouring billions of dollars into new services and support programs. But the state’s ambitious plans face a looming threat: the proposed federal spending cuts that Congress is currently considering are seen as all but certain to impact Medicaid and could bring to a halt some of the headway the state has made in responding to its behavioral health crisis.

2 weeks ago | santacruzsentinel.com | Tom Wright

Last week, the Sentinel Editorial Board met with representatives of the Santa Cruz County Association of Realtors and then with Santa Cruz Mayor Fred Keeley about the deepening divide over two proposed Nov. 4 affordable housing ballot measures currently in the signature gathering process. Keeley’s measure, the “Workforce Housing Affordability Act,” proposes a real estate transfer tax (levied when a property is sold) starting at 0.5%, and applied to home sales over $1.8 million.

3 weeks ago | santacruzsentinel.com | Tom Wright

Amid the everyday chaos coming out of Washington, D.C., the policies of the current administration are being felt locally, and the impacts, much like the Trump tariffs, are bringing uncertainty and fear. Start with health care. The budgets for Santa Cruz County and for local health providers are uncertain, at best, as the administration and DOGE consider reducing funding for Medicaid and other programs.

1 month ago | santacruzsentinel.com | Tom Wright

"This high-end number was put out there during a March 12 online information session held by the county Regional Transportation Commission," writes the Editorial Board. "Engineering officials used that number (actually $980 million) as an estimate that could be revised later. Replacing or rebuilding the bridges (there’s 33 along the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line) would be one of the many costs of establishing passenger rail."

1 month ago | santacruzsentinel.com | Tom Wright

"Open AI and Google, having long trained their ravenous bots on the work of newsrooms like this one, now want to throw out long established copyright law by arguing, we kid you not, that the only way for the United States to defeat the Chinese Communist Party is for those tech giants to steal the content created with the sweat equity of America's human journalists," writes the Editorial Board. Subscribe to continue reading this article.