Santa Cruz Sentinel

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... A concrete pour has begun to create the parking garage floor at the corner of Water Street and North Branciforte Avenue as Walnut Creek-based Novin Development builds a four- and five-story residential project called 831 Water St. The Santa Cruz Planning Commission approved the proposal for a 100% below-market-rate building with 140 homes.

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... John D. Chace, popular former mayor of Santa Cruz. (Ross Eric Gibson collection) California was minting its own money. Here is a California $5 gold coin minted by Norris, Gregg & Norris. (Smithsonian National Museum) California Governor Leland Stanford, who employed Chace at his Gold & Silver Mining Company. (Public domain) Painters whitewash the gingerbread on Chace’s “Washington Market” at the Lower Plaza on Pacific Avenue.

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... WATSONVILLE — When the Pajaro Valley Unified School District began issuing its early retirement incentives this year, one person who took up the opportunity was Alicia Jimenez, who worked at the district for 25 years as everything from public information officer to the superintendent’s executive assistant. But even in retirement, Jimenez felt she was not done serving the district she had been a part of for a quarter century.

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... It’s been more than three years since California was in a drought. Reservoirs are above average levels. A strong El Niño is brewing in the Pacific that could bring soaking storms this winter. But there’s a new endangered species across the state: grass.

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... WATSONVILLE — A man was arrested Friday afternoon on suspicion of drunken driving that resulted in crashing his SUV into two parked cars and the window of the 98 Cents Store on Freedom Boulevard, injuring three including the driver, the Watsonville Police Department wrote in a social media post.

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... BERKELEY — What Tosh Lupoi took away from his first game as head coach at Cal was “the sting” of being tied with UCLA midway through the fourth quarter, only to lose 45-24. “I couldn’t ask for anything better as far as the sting of having a competitive loss early,” he said, striking a calm and mostly positive mood following a game that was there for the taking. “When you have a sting like this, it ignites the desire to improve.

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... MELBOURNE, Australia – Mystique lurks in this city’s narrow laneways. You can find Instagram-famous coffee spots, mesmerizing murals by graffiti artists, coveted restaurants, and, as I discovered on a Sunday stroll, the Marshall family. Brett Marshall, 45, is a lifelong 49ers fan whose mother moved here from San Francisco in the late 1970s.

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... MELBOURNE, Australia – Troy Wykes lifted his T-shirt sleeve to show a red-inked 49ers tattoo on his right biceps. He’s been a fan since 1994. Yep, that is the last season they won a Super Bowl, capping a five-ring run that began in 1981 and nourished an international fan base.

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... By JESSICA DAMIANO The hanging planter on my porch has seen better days. And by better days, I mean the summer annuals have dried to a brown crisp that likely has the neighbors wondering if the Addams Family has moved in. I like to believe the extreme heat did them in, but I know neglect has also played a role.

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... A viral outbreak is menacing Minnesota, flooding Twin Cities hospitals with patients. Swimming pools are nearly empty at the height of summer, and the State Fair has been called off. Large public gatherings are discouraged by health officials, and school districts are canceling classes. The year is 1946.