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Morning Lookout: Cruz Foam closes; taxidermy as conservation inspiration; rail trail legal setback – Lookout Santa Cruz
Oct
Lookout Santa Cruz
2024 Breaking News Pulitzer Prize winner
What’s good, Santa Cruz County? It’s Wednesday, Oct. 21, and cloudy skies look to be the order of the day, with chances of showers throughout and temperatures in the 60s and low 70s.
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Up first is Jessica M. Pasko with her Wednesday suite of business coverage, leading with news that Cruz Foam, once a heralded innovator in sustainable packaging, has closed up shop after what one former exec says were struggles to solve the full range of problems its customers needed packaging to address. Her weekly look at local business also includes a years-in-the-making move to the Nasdaq Stock Market by West Coast Community Bancorp.
A master taxidermist is coming to the stage tomorrow at The 418 Project in downtown Santa Cruz, with her goal, as she tells Alia Yee Noll, to “turn a dead bird into a tool for creating empathy.” Allis Markham will give an illustrated lecture on how taxidermy can be used for conservation education.
Lookout’s free Election 2026 coverage rolls on in our Community Voices opinion section with a pair of offerings. In one, voters get a chance to hear from candidates for the Capitola City Council in their own words via short videos; in the other, the Lookout Editorial Board offers its endorsement of two candidates for the Scotts Valley City Council.
The Wednesday headlines also include a legal setback for a section of the Coastal Rail Trail through Aptos Village, a looming strike by state workers and the latest in local food & drink from Lily Belli – let’s go.
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Santa Cruz-based Cruz Foam, which developed a biodegradable packaging made from shrimp shells and other natural materials, has closed and sold off its intellectual property, Jessica M. Pasko reports in her weekly look at local business. Meanwhile, Santa Cruz-based West Coast Community Bancorp has moved its stock listing to the Nasdaq Stock Market, a milestone executives say is more than two decades in the making. Read it all here.
After nearly 20 years in taxidermy, Allis Markham says the point isn’t realism. It’s connection. The Los Angeles-based master taxidermist will talk Thursday at The 418 Project in Santa Cruz about how salvaged animals in museums and nature centers get people to care about wildlife and the threats it faces. Here’s Alia Yee Noll’s preview.
DAILY DIGEST
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Thanks for reading – have an excellent Wednesday.
Will McCahill
Your membership has lapsed, but Santa Cruz County keeps making news. Regain your access to local coverage by joining Lookout. As a former member, you can get 20% off the introductory rate for another year of Lookout.
A veteran jack-of-all-trades journalist who is Lookout’s copy editor, writes and compiles Morning Lookout newsletter and produces Lookout’s other editorial newsletters and helps run Lookout’s social… More by Will McCahill
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