CA State Senator John Laird_20250207_KZSC Bushwhacker's_Moss Landing battery fire
Release Date: 02/11/2025
Chris Berry,Watershed Compliance Manager, City of Santa Cruz & Dana Stolzman, ED - Salmonid Restoration Federation_2025-04-11_KZSC_Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club
KZSC Santa Cruz
The Salmonid Restoration Foundation's (SRF) 42nd Annual Salmonid Restoration Conference will be in Santa Cruz at the end of April; Dana has been Executive Director for 20 years; the conference is the largest Salmonid / watershed conference in the northwest; 550 people are registered, but it's a challenging time: starting last year, there was a freeze on state employees traveling, and now Federal; Santa Cruz will host the conference at a number of venues; the Klamath Dam removal is the largest dam removal in history - it took decades! The secret? You have to have a big team, and find common...
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Gail Pellerin_California State Assemblymember_2025-06-20_KZSC_Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club
KZSC Santa Cruz
Gail Pellerin is California's 28th Distict Assemblymember. The legislature met their constitutional obligation to pass a budget by June 15, and they sent it to the governor - it's *very* different from what he sent over; there is significant uncertainty due to the federal government budget cuts and next year's budget, compounded by uncertainty over state tax income with LA having an extension; the legislature pushed back on the governor's budget - an example is the asset cap required to qualify for Medi-Cal: the governor wanted to revert to $2,000 (so if you own a car, you don't qualify),...
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Bonny June and Bonfire_singers, songwriters, storytellers Bonny June, Ken Kraft & Craig Owens_2025-06-06_KZSC_Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club
KZSC Santa Cruz
Bonny June & Bonfire (Ken Kraft & Craig Owens) are singers / songwriters / storytellers based in Santa Cruz, California. Topics covered in the interview include: songwriting as story telling: every song tells a story! Sometimes they come to Bonny fully formed in a dream; birthday bash coming up will feature 2 new covers; The Money Question? Craig: no. Club owners like paying what they paid in the 80s. Ken: yes. Has been able to support himself through production, music lessons, and performing; Bonny June: not entirely, as she's a care giver by day; Bonny June & Bonfire have their...
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Justin Cummings_Santa Cruz County Supervisor_2025-06-13_KZSC_Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club
KZSC Santa Cruz
Justin Cummings is Santa Cruz County 3rd District Supervisor Local impact of chaos in Washington? If the proposed cuts to Medicaid go through, this will impact California, and then us, with 40,000 people (out of a total county population of 250,000) losing health coverage; Justin, formerly a soft money scientist at UCSC, is now an adjunct in the Coastal Science & Policy Program; Trust: slow to build, quick to destroy; RTC = Regional Transportation Commission, which recently received the summary of the Rail-Trail feasability study, which indicates that the project will ultimate cost ~$4.2...
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John Laird_CA_State_Senator_2025-06-06_KZSC_Bushwhacker's
KZSC Santa Cruz
In Santa Cruz a bit unexpectedly, because the California Senate started the week with 300-400 bills that had to be voted on to be passed over to the Assembly ahead of today's deadline for bills to move out of their "House of Origin" - and the Senate finished a day early! Bills will now be assigned to committee(s) in the other house - if they include fiscal implications (more than $50,000) they also go to the Appropriations Committee and placed on the "suspense calendar"; Senator Laird had 17 bills on the floor, and the hardest (SB 29) extends the sunset date on the ability to get pain &...
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G-Ma's Place, a young jazz band interviewed by "Dangerous Dan" Orange & "DJ Char-Zard"
KZSC Santa Cruz
G-Ma's Place is a young Santa Cruz jazz band comprised of Otis Ragen-Andrews, bass; Ryu Cirillo, Keyboards & Trombone; Rowan Thompson, Guitar; Xander Shulman, Drums. Got together 2nd semester, 8th grade, in 2022 to form a band to compete in a talent show - now all high school juniors; inspired by local Kuumbwa Jazz Center; Ryu has perfect pitch, which he discovered in 8th grade - it's more of a blessing than a curse; they practice at one of their grandma's garages, thus "G-ma's Place", where they occasionally butt heads, with Otis usually the last to arrive; perform covers as well as...
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Rupert Wates - singers, songwriter, guitar virtuoso_20240809_KZSC_The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club
KZSC Santa Cruz
Britain to New York & Colorado via Paris, where French encouragement helped him make the leap to being a professional musician; "Guitar-based story telling", and has been called a virtuoso; "California 1" song is a love song to our iconic highway; if he sings, it's an original, but he will play some classical guitar covers; as a songwriter, antennae always up...looking for patterns; he makes a living playing music, with almost all income from plyaing live (120 shows / year - 50,000 miles / year)...CD sales cover their cost...; uses jazz form for songs; deep dive into New York City living,...
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Stephen Benson - singer, songwriter, guitar virtuoso - 20240712_LIVE in the studio_KZSC_Bushwhacker's
KZSC Santa Cruz
Born in Montana, raised in Oregon, high school in Ohio, then Connecticut; New York since 1983, starting with Manhattan School of Music; busking (playing on street)...made enough to (almost) cover rent, busing with bands, duos, trios, no one place - but musicians competed for street corners, and even sent one member early to claim space; own arrangements of other's music, with few originals; subbed on "The Lion King" on broadway, and has now been playing Broadway for decades, including own chair in the pit...55 shows in total! Union? Absolutely! "Broadway is always...
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Painted Mandolin_"AiryLarry" Graff_singer-songwriter, musician_2025-01-17_KZSC_Bushwhacker's
KZSC Santa Cruz
Celebrating 10 years of "Painted Mandolin"...and Monday is the 36th Anniversary of "The Bushwhacker's Breakfast Club"...and this year marks 40 years for "The Banana Slug String Band"; "Painted Mandolin" begins when Larry had an idea to put together an acoustic band celebrating Jerry Garcia for a show at Don Quixote's in Felton (now the Felton Music Hall)...practices for a gig that would be a "one-off"; Larry knew Matt Hartle from playing around town, and Joe Craven from the Strawberry Music Festival, where Joe had sat in with 'The Banana Slug String Band"; 10 years ago they added Dan Robbins,...
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Banana Slug String Band - 40 years!_Solar Steve_singer-songwriter, musician_2025-03-21_KZSC_Bushwhacker's_interview
KZSC Santa Cruz
All 4 founding members of the band are still together: Sun (Solar Steve), Soil (Doug Dirt), Water (Marine Mark) and Air (Airy Larry); all educators, who formed around the Pescadero Valley outdoor education program 40 years ago, and decided to take it further; now, 40 years, and 12 albums later, they have managed to make music a part of their living / life, with environmental education music for all ages; Steve is the primary songwriter; 1st song? "I'm a Tree"; "Dirt Made my Lunch" was the first album (on vinyl & casette); they now have 4 generations of fans!; songwriter process? For Steve,...
info_outlineMoss Landing's Vistra facility is the largest battery storage facility in California, which had a horrific fire last month that burned for days; Morro Bay has a planned battery storage facility, but which will use a newer technology that is less prone to failure and more powerful; battery storage in California is growing, and saved the grid during a recent heat spike, supplying more power to the grid than nuclear enery; battery technology has evolved; using Morro Bay as an example, the Energy Commission reviews and approves battery storage facilities, which have an option to go through local channels...if it's in the coastal zone, it has to go through the Coastal Commission (who take their role seriously); NIMBY? Cannot allow wealthy communities on the coast to push to lower socioeconomic communities; need to assure public that it's safe and transparent; Laird is vetting a bill on Lithium Battery Standards that would cover EVs, batteries in cars, home battery walls; bill introduction deadline is Feb. 21st - when a bill is submitted, starts a 30 day clock when the bill is "printed" before it can be amended; a bill that might end up being "Gut-and-Amend" is referred to as a Moveable Spot Bill; Special Session...LA Fires....Emergency Declaration...Homeowner's Insurance.
Interviewed by "Dangerous Dan" Orange and "Dylan-the-Mentee" Stevez