News briefs

January 2015 is Positive Parenting Awareness Month in Santa Cruz County
First 5 Santa Cruz County, which manages the Triple P — Positive Parenting Program — recently announced that January 2015 has been proclaimed Positive Parenting Awareness Month by the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors.
Santa Cruz County families can take advantage of various positive parenting programs through Triple P, which is offered at low- or no-cost, in English and Spanish, via many local organizations and individuals
According to a press release, approximately 10,000 parents and children in Santa Cruz County have benefited from services.
A series of positive-parenting workshops has been announced for the month of January throughout Santa Cruz County. For more information, including a list of workshops, visit http://triplep.first5scc.org or facebook.com/triplepscc.
 
Church sign vandalized in downtown Felton
On the morning of Tuesday, Dec. 9, the office staff of Saint Lawrence Orthodox Christian Church in Felton discovered their street sign had been vandalized overnight. According to a press release, the metal cross on top was broken off, a section dislodged, and the sign’s two floodlights smashed apart.
“Clearly, the person had to climb the sign and pry on the cross with considerable effort,” said Father Thaddaeus Hardenbrook, senior clergyman at Saint Lawrence, “the cross was welded out of half-inch solid steel bar stock.”
Father Thaddaeus has been a resident of the San Lorenzo Valley since winter of 1973. “This kind of random and disrespectful vandalism,” he observed, “has been on the rise in the last decade.”
The lower portion of the hand crafted redwood sign was wedged loose from being stood on by the perpetrator and the cross itself was bent over before finally breaking off.
The release stated that the same craftsmen form the parish community who made the cross and sign will be able to repair it.
A report to the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office was made.