We realize we're a little late to this delightful story, which was making the rounds late last week, but we hope it brightens your Monday nonetheless. The folks down at the Santa Cruz Animal Shelter are looking for the owners of an eight-month-old female tabby kitten who claimed a warm spot inside a van's engine compartment in Mill Valley and then rode all the way to Santa Cruz last Wednesday. The kitten survived the trip remarkably unscathed. more ›

UC Santa Cruz students and professors are taking part today in a massive protest to state education cuts. It's all part of peaceful Occupy Education rallies occurring at numerous UC and CSU schools, which will culminate in a statewide event at the Capitol on Monday. However, while blocking the front entrance of the Santa Cruz campus this morning, a car plowed through the group of protesters. more ›

Noted chef David Kinch scored GQ's annual Chef of the Year award this year. "In a world of Molto food empires and spiky-haired TV hosts," GQ scribe Charles Bowden writes, "David Kinch is an anomaly." Why? Well for starters, he's a cook who cooks in his kitchen "in a single restaurant and a single garden, quietly inventing a new kind of cooking and dazzling anyone lucky enough to sit at his table." But did you also know that Kinch is a) Wynton Marsalis' best friend and b) a bad motherfucker? more ›

Tenderloin / Baseball Bat Assault: A 72-year-old man was attacked by a man in his 20s with a baseball bat around 1:25 a.m. this morning for no apparent reason. The attacker stole nothing from the victim, who was standing on the corner of Ellis and Taylor, and fled on foot. [Examiner] more ›

Menlo Park resident Roy Kaylor, who owns a 150-acre parcel of land in Boulder Creek, north of Santa Cruz, where he keeps hundreds of rusted out vehicles, is going to be featured on tonight's episode of one of our favorite Disturbing Reality Shows, Hoarders. more ›

A 63-year-old Santa Cruz man had been living with a dead body for the last week. Which? Creepy. The Examiner's Mike Aldex reports: "Parolee John Clauer has allegedly been playing house with a deceased 30-year-old woman for at least a week. Cops found the body after responding to a call about an “unusual smell” coming from the apartment in the 1100 block of E. Cliff Drive." While it's not clear if the old man had anything to do with her death, he was arrested and booked into Santa Cruz County Jail. [Ex] more ›

Here are some videos of this morning's tsunami action shot by people along various Bay Area coastlines ranging from Santa Cruz to San Francisco to Emeryville. (Outside of Santa Cruz and Crescent City harbors, the tsunami didn't affect Bay Area cities. Harmless, really.) more ›

Prompted by the 8.9 earthquake in Japan, tsunami waves destroyed the harbor in Crescent City. The LA Times reports: more ›

The big-wave surf competition known as Mavericks (a.k.a. The Jay at Mavericks) looks like it won't be happening this year because the window of time for the contest closes February 28 and this year's La Niña weather pattern hasn't been good creating the ideal swells and wind necessary for the biggest waves. more ›

Some weather, huh!? In addition to some down trees and power outtages in various parts of the outer Bay, ABC 7 reports that snow has been spotted on Highway 9 down south, at the Highway 9 and Highway 35 intersection in Santa Cruz County. Also, SFO has been dealing with two hour delays, with air traffic cut in half. (Also, if you haven't, please see these pics from the Chron archive of the last time S.F. really saw snow, in 1976, though somebody saw something snow-like here in 2008. Damn you, sea level!) [ABC] more ›

A threat of violence, via graffiti sprayed on a bathroom wall, prompted some classes cancelations at UC Santa Cruz today. According to Santa Cruz Sentinel, here's what happened: "On Jan. 11, UCSC administration announced in a campuswide e-mail that graffiti found in a men's bathroom in the Social Sciences 2 building contained a threat of violence to be carried out today." more ›

Two UCSC alumni and The University of California at Santa Cruz have set up a scholarship in the name of Gabriel Zimmerman, the former banana slug/congressional staffer who was shot and killed in Arizona on Saturday. According to reports, The fund has had a Facebook page since about noon [on Wednesday] and has already garnered more than $3,000 through Facebook donations." more ›

Of the six people killed during Saturday's rampage in Arizona, UC Santa Cruz graduate Gabriel Zimmerman, 30, was among them. Zimmerman was Gabrielle Giffords' community outreach director. He had organized the "Congress on Your Corner" event Saturday in Tucson. more ›

Santa Cruz was on the edge of its seat yesterday during the intense hunt for escaped fugitive Maurice Lamont Ainsworth Jr., who had escaped police custody yesterday while at Dominican Hospital for an MRI. Ainsworth, who is 6 feet 7 inches and weighs 270 pounds, overpowered the one sheriff's deputy who had accompanied him to the hospital, stole her gun, and escaped to a nearby preschool. more ›

Oh dear. This fractured face here is in all sorts of trouble after allegedly trying to mow down pedestrians near the Amgen Tour of California route on Tuesday afternoon. According to BCN (via CBS 5), "police received reports of a person driving erratically in a green Mercury minivan near the bike race route. He appeared to be trying to run into pedestrians." It should come as no surprise that the incident occurred in Santa Cruz -- that adorable, wacky city that seems to have crashed into California during an acid trip -- and that the suspect, Abraham Kelly, 40, was arrested at the creepy Valero gas station at Mission Street and Miramar Avenue. more ›

A 25-year-old San Francisco man was tossed in the Santa Cruz County on Saturday morning, accused of allegedly tagging a cop car and "vandalizing property across the city and causing $8,000 worth of damage." more ›

In honor of a Day of Statewide Action for Public Education, protesters at UC Santa Cruz are trying to make sure students don't receive one. As of this morning, UCSC students and employees have blocked the school's entrance. According to the Santa Cruz Sentienel, "[a] couple hundred students have blocked both entrances to the UC Santa Cruz campus and began marching near the base of campus as the March 4 Day of Action began." more ›

Next to never flushing, anus shaving in the mirror, coded toe-taping on the floor, and other hygiene-free experiences -- daily occurrences at your SFist editor's alma mater -- another shocking incident happened inside one of the bathrooms at UC Santa Cruz. Officials at the school "say they found the image of a noose scribbled on the inside of a bathroom door" on Monday in the school's Earth and Marine Sciences building. (Funny, we would've assumed it was Stevenson College.) more ›

If you're heading down to Santa Cruz this weekend to buy and take illicit drugs -- a common practice in a city that seems to have crashed into the side of California -- remember on thing: you won't be able to smoke outdoors starting today. IN certain areas, at least. Santa Cruz's outdoor smoking ban went into effect today. According to KTVU, "[a] new ordinance, approved by the City Council on Sept. 22, prohibits smoking on Pacific Avenue, Beach Street between the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf and Third Street, and West Cliff Drive." Over the last ten years, Pacific Avenue -- once a bastion of unwashed, methed out looking for a tuppence or two -- has turned into more of a boutique street. more ›

Are you of the gay persuasion? Do you have a family? Do you like old roller coasters? Do you like Dipping Dots? Well, you're in luck. The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, a seaside attraction usually filled with vile teenagers and gang members, is having Gay Family Day this coming Saturday, 10/3. more ›

More than 2,400 residents are under a mandatory evacuation as the Bonny Doon wildfire continues to singe over 4,100 acres. So far, the blaze has torched two unidentified structures. As of 9 a.m. today, a scan 5% of the blaze has been contained. According to Cal Fire, reports the Santa Cruz Sentinel, "the blaze started [on Wednesday] near the Lehi Camp, a Mormon retreat at the top of Empire Grade, and the Lockheed Martin facility." more ›

Hundreds of residents have fled their homes after a Santa Cruz county wildfire in Bonny Doon started last night. According to CBS 5, "authorities have ordered mandatory evacuations for about 600 people on Last Chance Road, Swanton Road, Warrella Truck Trail and Rancho del Oso." (Although according to KRON 4 Morning News, said evacuations are voluntary) Evacuations center can be found at "Pacific Elementary School located at 50 Ocean St. in the community of Davenport, and the American Red Cross has established a shelter at Vintage Faith Church located at 350 Mission St. in Santa Cruz." So far, 2,300 acres have been consumed since the fire sparked a little after 7 p.m. last night. more ›

Dozens of students and staff at the University of California at Santa Cruz have gone on a hunger strike "in order to bring attention to $13 million in state funding being cut at the campus." This anti-digesting protest, it seems, was sparked by school wide cuts, which have affected the Latino Studies Department and the very-UCSC Community Studies program. Protest organizer Yvette Tran told KCBS, "“The hunger strikers will continue to not eat possibly for the week or until our demands are met." Said demands? Money. Anyway, those starving students are in for an even bigger shock. UCSC spokesman Jim Burns tells Mercury News, "We appreciate and share the frustration of students and others over continued reductions in state funding to UC. And in the wake of last week's election, we're bracing for even further cuts. In that environment, protecting every program is neither realistic nor possible." UC Santa Cruz, we should point out, is known for having a lily white vibe on campus, which only heightens the tension. more ›

Almost a year after the Santa Cruz Mountains were set ablaze, authorities arrested Channing Verden, a contractor hired to clear brush in the mountainous terrain, for arson. According to the Merc, "Verden has been charged with one felony count of unlawfully causing a fire, plus an enhancement of causing multiple structures to burn." If convicted, Verden faces a maximum of seven years in state prison. If you recall, the fire torched 4,270 acres and destroyed over 100 structures. more ›

Thousands of Santa Clara, San Benito, and Santa Cruz county residents are currently without phone service this morning. They can't even call 911 in case of an emergency. Why? Because of an old, AT&T-owned fiber optic line (leased out to Verizon) that went bust. "Verizon is completely down; other carriers are intermittent at best," said Zachary DeVine, a Santa Clara County spokesman. If residents of Morgan Hill, Gilroy, San Martin and Santa Cruz County cannot make a call to 911, officials "are urging people to go to their nearest fire or police department or local hospital or flag down an emergency vehicle." more ›

While the banana slugs are on break for the holidays, hooligans went on a vandalism spree on Wednesday night at the UCSC campus. According to reports, the unidentified misfits damaged "up to 20 university cars, breaking windows of buildings and vehicles, spraying graffiti in residence halls, and laying down road spike strips." While officials have no suspects, we can only assume it was the work of Stevenson students. Oh wait, police said the trustifarianesque graffiti scrawled on dormitory walls, sigh, "expressed opposition to the prison system, law enforcement, and campus growth." So scratch that, this was clearly the work of Porter students. more ›

Authorities are looking for, oh dear, "a bicyclist in Santa Cruz who fled after allegedly stabbing a motorist during a confrontation." It seems there was some sort of heated driver-to-cyclist confrontation today, which culminated with the guy on the bike kicking the guy's car door, hitting the driver in the face with a broom handle, and then finishing the job by stabbing the motorist. The victim, we're told, is in good condition at Stanford Medical Center. So...there you have it. (KGO) more ›