Tarmo Hannula
I stopped by Coffeeville in the East Lake Village Shopping Center this morning and was relieved to see them running daily hours. Now they’re making clever use of their Dutch door, which enables them to offer walk-up window service. Their barista Aliyah Piñon made ordering easy and swift. Their hours are 6:30 am-2:30 pm every day. You can also order beans online with free shipping.
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I read that the Best Buy chain has furloughed 35,000 workers as a result of having to close their stores.
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The U.S. economy saw 5.2 million more people seek unemployment benefits last week, since the coronavirus outbreak, the government reported Thursday. Around 22 million people are now seeking jobless benefits, which officials say is the worst stretch of U.S. job losses on record.
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Johanna Miller
It’s been interesting to see how many community members have started to sew their own face masks, for themselves and others. I saw on Facebook that Monterey Bay Murals’ Paul DeWorken has been experimenting with his own patterns and styles. It’s a welcome difference from other companies online mass producing lesser-quality masks for ridiculously high prices.
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While Santa Cruz area beaches are slowly opening again, they are also starting to enforce parking lots. The Live Oak Parking Program will begin parking enforcement tomorrow, April 17. Any vehicle not displaying a 2020 LOPP permit will receive a citation. Click here for more information.
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The Girl Scouts are now offering cookie sales online. Enter your zip code on their website to buy cookies and have them shipped to your door—or donate them to be distributed to first responders, volunteers and others in need in your community.
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I recently visited Blume Distillation to see their new production line of hand sanitizers. The company is teaming up with local residents to send some of the sanitizer to the Navajo Nation, which is being struck hard by the COVID-19 pandemic. I will be writing up a longer story about the endeavor in the coming weeks—stay tuned!
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Streetlight Records in Santa Cruz posted a special remembrance of influential rock ’n roll fashion designer Jimmy Webb, who died Tuesday. Webb helped create the classic NYC punk look, going on to style Iggy Pop, Debbie Harry, Billy Idol and Joan Jett, plus modern stars like Billie Joe Armstrong and Beyoncé.
Side note: Streetlight is offering online sales of music, film and TV, merchandise and gift cards through their website.
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Yosemite National Park has been closed since March 20, and in the absence of tourists, nature has returned. The park is one of the nation’s most popular (4.4 million people visited in 2019). But with no foot or vehicle traffic during shelter-in-place, animals have come out of hiding.
A ranger at the park told CNN Travel that native bears are now “just literally walking down the road to get to where they need to go.”
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Quote of the day: “All that is really worth the doing is what we do for others.” —Lewis Caroll