Autonomous vehicle watch: The robotaxi pure play that analysts love  Seeking Alpha
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Lookout Santa Cruz
2024 Breaking News Pulitzer Prize winner
Facing millions in budget shortfalls, Pajaro Valley and Live Oak school districts expect to make deep spending cuts as pandemic-relief funding expires and they confront the effects of declining enrollment. For PVUSD, that is likely to mean slashing expenses for mental health staff and programs.
Selene Avila’s six-year-old daughter struggled to make friends last year in her transitional kindergarten class in Calabasas Elementary School in the Pajaro Valley Unified School District until a social emotional counselor helped teach her daughter about personal boundaries. 
“They taught her simple things, like asking before you go to hug people. It’s something that my husband and I talked to her about before, right?” Avila said. “But I feel like coming from somebody else, she could take it more into consideration.” 
Avila herself works as a social emotional counselor for the Pajaro Valley Unified School District. She’s worried about what will happen to her job – and the services provided to students like her daughter – if the district follows through with proposals to cut more than $5 million from its budget for the next fiscal year. 
Among the proposals is a plan to cut nearly all of the district’s spending on mental health staff, whose positions had been funded through a federal program that helped schools address challenges related to the pandemic.
Avila, and other mental health staff in the district, said it’s “terrifying” to imagine what the cuts will mean both for them and the students who rely on their services. “It would be a great loss for the students.” she said.
Pajaro Valley Unified School District, like many school districts across the state, is facing difficult decisions this year thanks to a triple threat to their budgets: rising costs, lower state education spending because of declining enrollment and the end of pandemic-era federal funding. 
The school-budget crisis in Santa Cruz County extends beyond the Pajaro Valley district. Live Oak School District also spent one-time funding on staffing. That funding, which began in 2020, ended with the start of this academic year. Last year, the district went through a tumultuous budget crisis and cut more than $1 million from its books. 
This year, Superintendent Pat Sánchez said the district’s budget committee is looking at cutting even more than that to be fiscally solvent for the coming years, however it hasn’t yet released detailed plans for how to trim spending. “We have the committee working to identify about $2 million in impossible solutions for reduction,” he said. “But it’s painful.”
Anticipating the need for cuts, PVUSD assembled a team of community members and district staff earlier this year to craft recommendations on how to trim the budget.
This “sustainable budget team” focused on two main targets for the current academic year: cutting back programs funded by expiring federal pandemic aid, and trimming staff positions because of years of declining enrollment, which the district calls “right-sizing.”
When pandemic relief dollars flowed into PVUSD in 2020, the district turned to the community for guidance and heard about the need to invest in student mental health. It used part its share of federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief money to hire more staff. From a single mental health clinician at Renaissance High School, the staff grew to eight full-time clinicians, at a cost of nearly $1.7 million annually.
Most mental health staff work in high schools, where three partner with school resource officers at Watsonville, Aptos and Pajaro Valley campuses. One clinician serves the district’s middle school students exclusively, while another works full-time at the district’s wellness center, providing care to students of all ages.

The budget team outlined three possible options for the district’s board to consider this year, each cutting deeply into the mental health program. The plans would eliminate between $1.25 million and $1.5 million from the mental health clinician budget, effectively dismantling most of the program. 
Social emotional counseling would lose between $750,000 and $1 million from its $2.9 million budget, threatening positions added during the pandemic. The district currently has 22 full-time social emotional counselors, compared to 12 in the 2019-2020 school year. 
Each proposal also includes $750,000 in district office reductions and $1.3 million in cuts to elementary staff, due to declining enrollment. The district’s contract with Pajaro Valley Prevention & Student Assistance (PVPSA) faces reductions of either $500,000 or $1 million. PVPSA is a nonprofit that offers mental health services and health education in the Watsonville area and also partners with the district to provide services.
PVUSD Superintendent Heather Contreras said she sees this year as the first round of what will likely be a multi-year program of budget cuts. 
The district will likely have to make about $5 million in additional cuts for the 2026-27 school year, she said, possibly by slashing spending on special education. It will also have to continue to address declining enrollment by finding ways to retain students. For example, she said the district could potentially expand a school’s grade offerings from transitional kindergarten to eighth grade, rather than serving only up to sixth grade. 
Contreras said the district has started conversations with local third-party mental health service providers in the hope that they can continue providing support for students. “Now, as the funding source goes away, we have to figure out what to do,” she said.
And, she said, the district is not proposing to get rid of its entire mental health staff. “It’s not a reduction to complete zero,” she said, adding that the district will still have a number of social emotional counselors and mental health clinicians.
Matt Merrill, a mental health clinician with the district since 2019, told Lookout he’s “heartbroken” at the proposals to cut mental health staffing. He serves between 40 to 80 students annually depending on the year. 
“We’ve saved lives, so it’s really scary to think about,” he said, adding he doesn’t think contracting for mental health support through local organizations will be enough to address the students’ needs. 
PVUSD’s budget team plans to present its recommended cuts to the district’s governing board at its Jan 15 meeting. The board will likely discuss and vote on the cuts on Feb. 12. Once the board approves the budget cuts, the district’s human resources staff will figure out which employees will receive layoff notices. By state law, those notices must be delivered before March 15. 
At Live Oak Unified School District, Sánchez said the final scenarios for budget cuts will be brought to the board at a meeting on either Jan. 15 or in early February in order to meet the March 15 layoff notification deadline. 
He’s hoping that at least some budget reductions may turn out to be temporary. “Even when we make the cuts we might come back and restore those if we’re able to get to a better place before the end of the year.”
After three years of reporting on public safety in Iowa, Hillary joins Lookout Santa Cruz with a curious eye toward the county’s education beat. At the Iowa City Press-Citizen, she focused on how local… More by Hillary Ojeda
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“Seven in 10 Americans say the quality of the health care they receive is ‘excellent’ or ‘good,'” … [+] writes healthcare policy expert Sally C. Pipes. “Nearly two-thirds say the same about their health coverage.”
Are Americans truly sick and tired of their healthcare system? Social media has been alight with stories about insurance companies denying claims or limiting access to care in the wake of the assassination of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO earlier this month.
But the public’s attitude toward health care in the real world is not nearly as sour as it appears online. According to survey data published this month, most Americans are pleased with their own health care. And they should be. They’re much better off than their peers in government-run healthcare systems abroad and in our neighbor to the north, Canada.
That new survey data come from Gallup. Looking at the headline on the research outfit’s website—”View of U.S. Healthcare Quality Declines to 24-Year Low“—you’d be forgiven for thinking that things were bad.
Indeed, Americans tend to take a dim view of their healthcare system in the abstract. Only 19% of Americans say they’re satisfied with healthcare costs, and just 11% say healthcare quality is “excellent.”
These negative opinions of the healthcare system writ large are partially a matter of perspective. Zoom out, and things tend to look bad. Everyone knows someone who has had to fight with an insurance company over a denied claim. News coverage is chock full of outrageous “medical bills of the month.” America spends more on health care than its peer countries—but lags them on measures like life expectancy.
(Never mind, of course, that most of the discrepancy in life expectancy can be explained by the fact that Americans die of drug overdoses, traffic accidents, and gun violence at rates well beyond their peers. Our healthcare system has little to no impact on these causes of death—and their effect on life expectancy.)
Ask Americans about their own personal situation with the healthcare system, and their tune changes drastically. Seven in 10 Americans say the quality of the health care they receive is “excellent” or “good.” Nearly two-thirds say the same about their health coverage, according to Gallup. Almost six in ten say they are satisfied with their own healthcare costs.
All those numbers are in line with what Americans have been saying for over two decades.
They’re also in line with polling sponsored earlier this year by the organization I lead, the Pacific Research Institute. More than nine in ten likely voters told us in July that they were satisfied with their health insurance plans. That number has been on the upswing for three years running.
Americans’ views of the healthcare system are similar to their views of Congress—they generally disapprove of the body at large but tend to like their individual representative.
People upset with the American healthcare systems would be wise to take a look at the misery that befalls patients in countries with government-run systems. Our peers abroad may have public coverage. But they struggle mightily to get access to care.
The median wait for treatment from a specialist following referral by a general practitioner in Canada was 30 weeks this year, according to a study published this month by the Fraser Institute. That’s the longest wait time ever.
Things don’t look much better across the pond. The United Kingdom‘s Secretary of Health, Wes Streeting, has called the country’s National Health Service “broken.” In England, the waiting list for elective treatment reached 7.7 million this year—nearly triple what it was a decade ago. Thanks in part to the NHS’s failures, Britons are falling behind on metrics from life expectancy to infant mortality. An increasing number is seeking private care in response.
Despite a lack of universal coverage, Americans spend less out of pocket on health care than do people in other countries. According to a recent OECD study, out-of-pocket health costs accounted for just 2.8% of American household consumption in 2021. That’s less than the OECD average of 3.3%—and less than what patients pay in Germany, Canada, Switzerland, and other developed countries.
The American healthcare system is not perfect. But we shouldn’t lose sight of what the system gets right—and the fact that most people approve of their own experiences within it. If the next Congress adopts market-oriented reforms that empower doctors and patients, public satisfaction should increase.

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Dan Rhodes is a physical education teacher at Chelsea's South Meadows Elementary, as well as the high school's head freshman football coach and an assistant varsity baseball coach. Photo used with permission from Dan Rhodes.Photo used with permission from Dan Rhodes
CHELSEA, MI – Dan Rhodes always enjoyed going to school.
A Chelsea native, he graduated in 2007 before heading off to Hillsdale College. Now, Rhodes, a physical education teacher at South Meadows Elementary School, said he’s enjoying paying it forward to ensure students get a good education.
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How Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 Evolves Its Combat  IGN
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After TEA order, here’s how Austin ISD is overhauling its special education: ‘I am hopeful’  Austin American-Statesman
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XRP ranked top among the most traded altcoins in December after a period marked with mixed movements. The asset price spiked to new highs not seen in three years before dropping nearly in two weeks. Despite this trend, it ranked above major altcoins in several metrics.
Recent data shows XRP became the most traded altcoin on Binance in December. With days left to the new year, the asset’s volumes continue to soar alongside its institutional funds. On the Binance futures market, the asset’s trading volume hit a staggering high of $116.6 billion with slight periods of sideways trading.
According to Maartum, XRP has shown signs of recovery above other assets in the past 48 hours. This follows high sell pressure that plagued Bitcoin and the wider market, with some coins posting double-digit outflows.
“XRP is the most traded altcoin on the Binance Futures market, with a trading volume of 116.6B already, and the month isn’t over yet. It’s important to track the top-traded coins on Binance, as they should be your main focus when trading altcoins. In the past two days, both Bitcoin and altcoins have experienced large declines. XRP seems to be one that could recover quickly.”
Trading volumes on Binance are closely monitored to give traders a general sense of the market. Binance, the largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volumes, is a major driver due to major whale and retail activity.
The activities of traditional and large stakeholders bolstered investor confidence in crypto assets. After the United States election, investors dominated the scene, setting sights on new gains. New flows sent the price of Bitcoin above $90K before hitting higher levels. This sparked a similar momentum in altcoins, with XRP and Solana being the biggest gainers.
XRP jumped to a three-year high, temporarily outpacing Tether by market cap. Trading at $2.6, its market cap topped $130 billion alongside surging trading volumes. Institutional investors flooded XRP for two reasons; its utility in cross-border payments and anticipated clear rules in the United States.
Over the years, Ripple has tapped several central banks and organizations towards cross-border payments and Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) architecture. The company also faced headwinds after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a lawsuit against the firm for offering unregistered securities. Donald Trump’s win promises clearer rules in the U.S., driving traction back to the asset.

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Are We Rolling the Dice on Bird Flu?  New York Magazine
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The nerves on display, the backstabbing, the usual representatives seeking the spotlight, the reporters running through the narrow halls, the last-minute commitments and the more or less happy ending… Almost nothing that happened in the Capitol on Friday, a frantic day that ended with the approval of a temporary spending measure to avoid a government shutdown, was a surprise for the veteran spectators of the great theatre of Washington. And yet the negotiations between both parties to avoid the spending tap being cut off at midnight ― which would have left some 875,000 federal workers without their Christmas pay ― offered valuable clues about the difficulties that await Donald Trump and his government of billionaires to push through their agenda in a hurry with a Congress that Republicans control only by a narrow margin.
It also served as a dress rehearsal for the enormous political influence that Elon Musk, the richest man on the planet, is likely to have for at least the next four years, provided he retains the position of Trump’s First Buddy. Using nothing more than his expensive toy, the social network X, which he bought in 2022 for $44 billion, the tech tycoon was able to knock down a bipartisan agreement that had been negotiated for months. He did so with online posts, about 150 of them, and threats like this one: “Any member of the House or Senate who votes for this outrageous spending bill deserves to be voted out in 2 years!”
Not only did he cause a legislative nightmare before Christmas and ruin the quiet week that Democrats and Republicans had been counting on, expecting to go home on Thursday as usual; Musk also inaugurated an era in the not-so-new relationship between oligarchy and political power in a country where wealth is usually virtuous in principle. With evident haste to begin governing ― the cliché would say from the shadows, if it were not for the fact that he does everything in full view of his more than 200 million followers ― Musk pushed the third authority in the country, House Speaker Mike Johnson, to the edge of the abyss and managed to make even Trump dance to his tune.
The president-elect has entrusted the tycoon with the joint leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency. In what could be seen as the first item on the agenda of a job that in theory does not begin until the inauguration on January 20, Musk apparently decided that the bipartisan spending deal was another wasteful expression of what is wrong in Washington, so he forced a review… and then another. And all this, while the billionaire showed his support for the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the next elections in that country, and raised questions about whether the success of his investment of more than $260 million in the campaign that brought Trump to the White House will not in fact be the first step in a plan for world domination (and right-wingization).
The watered-down spending text was ultimately supported by 366 of the 435 representatives, and received 34 votes against, all from Republicans. Late on Friday it was approved by the Senate and signed by President Joe Biden on Saturday. It includes, in addition to the guarantee of government funding until March 14 (the day on which a new installment of this recurring drama in Washington is expected to unfurl), the updating of a law to fight poverty and encourage agriculture and a budget of $110 billion in subsidies to farmers and aid to victims of natural disasters.
Along the way, measures to reduce the cost of medicines, money to promote medical research and limits on investments in China were left out. Also, in what was a disappointment for Trump, his express request to take advantage of the opportunity to raise or suspend the debt ceiling had to be sacrificed. In an earlier vote, the unthinkable had happened: 38 Republican representatives, apparently more fanatical about cutting public spending than he was, voted against a deal supported by the president-elect, who may have the GOP at his feet, but is facing an ideologically divided party when the issue is public spending.
In a desire that may seem paradoxical for someone who campaigned on a promise to slim down government, the president-elect wants to end the spending limit by any means necessary. He needs it to carry out two of his main promises: the mass deportation of illegal immigrants and tax cuts. Extending that ceiling until 2027 is a debate that falls to the new Congress, which will be formed on January 3, but, as with everything else, Trump ―who has been in practice holding power for weeks, with Biden half gone― was in a hurry. The moment he takes office, he will do so with an expiration date; the law, unless he changes it, does not allow him to run again in 2028.
The events that transpired last week also indicate once again that there is an unbridgeable discrepancy between the elastic way in which the president-elect interprets reality and reality itself. He clearly won at the polls, in the electoral vote and in the seven decisive states, but it was not the overwhelming victory that he proclaimed on election night, long before the end of the vote count. And it was not, above all, an all-out victory in the House of Representatives, where the Republicans have gone from having 222 seats to 220 (compared to 215 for the Democrats).
Trump said in an interview with Time, in the magazine issue that crowned him “Person of the Year” for the second time, that he believes he has received “a huge mandate” from the American people. Republicans control both chambers, albeit with small margins, and in a country that, as seen again in recent days, knows nothing about party discipline, he is not guaranteed smooth governability.
Trump’s first big test, which is above all a test of Johnson’s leadership, is just around the corner. On January 3, the House will vote to elect its speaker, and the ultra-conservative congressman from Louisiana needs all the votes he can get. Thomas Massie, a libertarian from Kentucky, has already told Johnson not to count on his support. Two years ago, it took 15 rounds of voting and a good handful of concessions to the hardline wing of Trumpism to elect his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy. After going through such humiliation, McCarthy only lasted 10 months in the post, from which he was ousted by a no-confidence vote.
On Friday night, Johnson appeared before Capitol Hill reporters after saving face, unable to contain a chuckle of relief. He was proud of having passed “America First” legislation and, in further evidence of how quickly the extraordinary is normalized in Trump’s America, unabashedly acknowledged that less than an hour earlier he had spoken to Musk about the challenges of his job. “We talked about the extraordinary challenges of this job. I said, ‘Hey, you wanna be Speaker of the House? I don’t know.’ He said this may be the hardest job in the world. I think it is.”
Chaos and legislative paralysis have defined Johnson’s time leading the House Republicans. It’s hard to believe that the return of Trump, an unpredictable politician who instigated an insurrection, will change that, coupled with the disruptive element posed by Musk, who recently showed up to meet with conservative senators with his four-year-old son on his shoulders. In the spectacle society of American politics, Capitol Hill has been populated in recent years by quirky figures whose egos are fueled by social media and their presence in the endless news cycle of cable television networks. Many of them are Republicans, and many came to Washington with the mission of containing public debt, which has skyrocketed in the last decade, especially since the pandemic. Such personalities do not guarantee a smooth term, even if this time the president will be enjoying much greater support, at the polls and within his own party, than he had in 2016.
The disputes with Congress were constant during his first term in the White House. The most notorious one led to the longest government shutdown in history in 2018. It was when legislators refused to support him in his efforts to build a wall on the border with Mexico. It lasted 35 days, and ended with the declaration of a national emergency so that the president could find funds through other means. Trump is still obsessed with the wall, although the cost of that project pales in comparison to his star promise on immigration: the mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, the cost of which is not yet quantified but could amount to tens of billions of dollars. To pay that bill, he will need the support of Capitol Hill and a Republican Party whose obsession with the border may only be surpassed by the fixation with containing public spending.
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‘Beetlejuice Beetlejuice,’ ‘The Penguin,’ ‘The Substance’ and ‘The Deliverance’ Lead Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists Guild Awards Nominations  Yahoo Entertainment
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