Emmanuel Yeboah brings his inspiring life journey to Inner Light Ministries

It is widely considered a curse to be born disabled in Ghana, West Africa. If you are not poisoned or left for dead, you will most likely spend your life begging on the streets. Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah was born in Ghana in 1977 with a severely deformed right leg. Lucky enough to be raised by a supportive mother, Yeboah became a national hero at age 25 when he successfully rode his bicycle, one-legged, across Ghana in 2002.

Yeboah says he was inspired to complete the ride because he wanted to change the perceptions of disabled people.

Freedom’s El Azteca has plenty of surprises on its menu, including healthy ones

We headed into the hills above Freedom Boulevard in need of some amazingly delicious honey from Pacific Crest Apiaries. Hungry as well, we noticed a stack of business cards for El Azteca, located just down the road, and asked co-owner Dana Mumm about it. She gushed about the family and the food, and suggested we try grilled shrimp soft tacos, which aren’t on the menu.

The owners of the Chevron gas station on the corner of Park Avenue and Soquel Drive have taken the notion of a quick stop to the next echelon.

A recent remodel added a car wash and a delightful Victorian-inspired building which houses AJ’s Market and Natural Foods.

Santa Cruz native subject of Sundance-winning documentary

Edmund McMillen remembers the moment when his professional ambitions became apparent. He was a freshman at Soquel High School, when a local independent artist named Clay Butler visited as a guest speaker.

“I just thought he was the coolest guy in the world,” says McMillen. “I knew that I wanted to do exactly what he did, which was whatever he wanted. Just to get paid for being creative and doing your own stuff. And I knew it wasn’t a very lucrative career because you risk a lot to do it, but I could just tell right away that if I had the ability to do that I would be very happy.”

That revelation was only the beginning of a long process of making his dreams a reality, but the payoff has been substantial. Now an independent video game developer, McMillen is a subject in the documentary Indie Game: The Movie, winner of the World Cinema Documentary Editing Award at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival, and an official selection for the SXSW Film Festival later this month. The film will be screening at The Rio Theatre on March 2, followed by a Q&A with the film’s directors, Lisanne Pajot and James Swirsky, as well as McMillen and his partner Tommy Refenes.

While billions of dollars worth of medicine and supplies go unused each year, more Americans are going without prescription drugs because of costs. Sen. Joe Simitian, whose district includes Santa Cruz, recently unveiled a new piece of legislation that would make it easier for surplus prescription drugs and supplies to be redistributed in California. “Instead of throwing out perfectly good medicine, or worse, dumping it into our water supply, this bill will allow us to get it into the hands of people who need it the most,” Simitian said in a Feb. 24 press release. The bill, Senate Bill 1329, expands upon Senate Bill 798, which was also authored by Simitian and which passed in 2005, allowing counties to spearhead redistribution efforts. “At a time when the state and counties are strapped, and many Californians are struggling, this gets drugs that would otherwise be wasted to the people who really need them,” Simitian said. “It’s a clear win-win.” 

Local fishing family hopes to bring the Fishermen’s Association into the 21st century

Exposure to the elements, manual labor, and sleepless shifts that can last for days on end make fishing a rare career aspiration in this digital day and age. In fact, Captain Joe Stoops, the newly appointed president of the Santa Cruz Commercial Fishermen’s Association (SCCFA), calls his much-loved career “a thing of the past” and says he went through 14 deck hands in 2011 alone.

“There’s not a lot of young kids getting into this,” he says. “People don’t have calluses anymore.”

Stoops, motioning with his visibly callused hands, adds that the amount of fishermen in Santa Cruz today is less than a third of the number present 20 years ago.

Name a few stores that would be great tenants in the Rittenhouse Building in Downtown Santa Cruz.

A bitchin’ hotel with a swanky restaurant and lounge.
Kati Graham
Santa Cruz | Owner, Bubble Lounge

With desal heading toward the ballot, the debate rages on

In Santa Cruz, which relies almost entirely on surface water, scarce rainfall and a warm winter have water department employees and residents, alike, worried about the year’s water supply. The recent dry spell tied in interestingly to the prevailing debate over the city’s proposed desalination plant, which they insist will be necessary to protect the city from inevitable droughts.

The proposed Westside desalination facility—a joint effort of the Santa Cruz Water Department and neighboring Soquel Creek Water District—would produce 2.5 million gallons of water per day by removing salt and other minerals from seawater and making it safe for human consumption. But many are worried about the project’s impacts on both the taxpayer’s wallet and the environment.

Varied collective of local artists come together in “Aurora’s Kiss”

A diverse cast of local artists will showcase their respective talents this Saturday night in “Aurora’s Kiss,” a multi-media theatrical production whose proceeds will benefit charitable programs in the area.

The fundraising event will take place at the recently renovated Ristorante Barolo in Aptos, and is billed as an intimate carnival-esque cabaret that will fuse theater, bluegrass, jazz, spoken word, live art, burlesque, bellydance, and a female-driven DJ lineup.