SANTA CRUZ >  Occupy Santa Cruz protests at Wells Fargo

On Wednesday, Feb. 15, around 50 demonstrators associated with Occupy Santa Cruz gathered in front of the Wells Fargo on Front Street. The group was protesting the charges against 11 activists who had been involved the 75 River St. occupation that took place late last year, as well as the city's overall treatment of homeless people.

“After being out on the streets, you definitely start to realize that we live in a police state,” said "JP," an activist holding signs condemning capitalism. “And now that the camp by the courthouse has been split up, homeless people are scattered around and business owners are starting to get upset again.”

SLUG REPORT > Famed oceanographer Sylvia Earle to speak at UC Santa Cruz

TIME magazine’s first “Hero for the Planet” is stopping by UC Santa Cruz this week. Well-known and highly regarded oceanographer and explorer Sylvia Earle will present the sixth installment of the Fred Keeley Lectures on Environmental Policy. The lecture will take place this Thursday, Feb. 16 at 7:30 p.m. at the UCSC Music Recital Hall.

Earle’s lecture, titled “Oceans, Life and Survival,” will focus on the unique role oceans play in supporting life on land, as well as issues of climate change of pollution. Nicknamed “Her Deepness” by the New Yorker and the New York Times, Earle has more than 40 years of marine accomplishments under her belt.

SANTA CRUZ > Campaign to bring desalination to voters kicks off

Close to 100 Santa Cruz residents gathered at India Joze Restaurant on Sunday, Feb. 12 for the “Right to Vote on Desalination” campaign kickoff party.

Opponents of the city’s proposed seawater desalination plant spoke to the assembled crowd about hopes for getting enough signatures to put a measure on the ballot in November that would give residents the ability to vote on the whether the plant would move forward. While the measure does not take a position on desalination, it does put the power to decide on such a project in the hands of voters. It ensures that the city would not “approve, permit, or fund a desalination plant without voter approval,” and that Santa Cruz also does not acquire any more debt for the project until it actually gets passed. According to Santa Cruz Desal Alternatives founder Rick Longinotti, the organizers will need 5,500 signatures by May in order for the measure to get on the November ballot.

SANTA CRUZ > 26th Annual Migration Festival celebrates the journey of monarchs and other creatures

One of Santa Cruz’s most beloved winter residents—the monarch butterfly—is bidding farewell to its seaside home in search of greener pastures. Each year, from October to February, about 100,000 monarchs nestle in eucalyptus trees at Natural Bridges. By the first week of March, they have moved on to sources of milkweed, which serves as their food source and breeding ground during the spring and summer.

SANTA CRUZ > The Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) is undertaking more than a few infrastructure projects. To help get the word out to the public, they're trying something a little unconventional for a government agency: a television series.

The RTC's Transportation Café series tackles a different issue that affects Santa Cruz County residents with each new episode. The series began as a quarterly event in September 2010, but a new episode now premieres every other month.

SANTA CRUZ > Local 3D modeling company, MakersFactory, wants to breed new innovators

On Wednesday, Feb. 1, MakersFactory, a new printing and modeling company that features state-of-the-art 3D technology, celebrated its ribbon cutting ceremony. The event was officiated by Santa Cruz Mayor Don Lane, Vice Mayor Hilary Bryant, and Councilmember Lynn Robinson.

Chris Yonge and Dave Britton originally founded MakersFactory back in November 2011. The company specializes in providing the Santa Cruz community with the technology necessary to laser cut card and wood, print three-dimensional objects, make vinyl graphics for windows and vehicles, create computer animation, and even build robotic devices.

SCOTTS VALLEY > Local nonprofit hosts upcoming dog adoption event

When volunteers found Rina wandering the streets of the Mexican island Cozumel in September, her paws were severely wounded, her fur was matted and dirty, and she was afflicted with an eye infection and a case of heartworm. Thanks in part to the Santa Cruz-based nonprofit Center for Animal Protection and Education (CAPE), the small dog is now happy, healthy and living with a foster mom in Santa Cruz.

Local change maker and pro surfer Kyle Thiermann has released another installment in his "Surfing for Change" short video series. In the past, he's looked at important issues like banking locally and plastic pollution (all through the lens of a well-traveled surfer). In this episode, he visits Jeffreys Bay, South Africa, a surf hub where plans for a large nuclear power plant are in the works. "The question isn't 'do poor people need access to energy,' it's whether nuclear is the best way to provide it," he says in the video, which also includes interviews with surf legend Kelly Slater, filmmaker Foster Gamble, and "Rebuild the Dream" founder Van Jones. Check out the video here, or at kylethiermann.com, and stay tuned to Good Times for more on what Thiermann is up to.

SLUG REPORT > Food activism prompts upcoming UC Santa Cruz conference

SLUG REPORT > Collaboration was key to new open sourced surgical robots

“The story about Raven is actually the story about collaboration.”

These words rang out long after my recent interview with Jacob Rosen, an associate professor of computer engineering in the Jack Baskin School of Engineering at UC Santa Cruz. Rosen and his research group have been working alongside Blake Hannaford, director of bio-robotics of the University of Washington (UW), to create Raven II, a robotic surgery system that relies upon Rosen's choice word: collaboration.