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Santa Cruz County
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- 1Prosecutor Erin West Targets the Fraud Economy's Supply Chain▼The Fraud Economy Has a Supply Chain, and Erin West Is Going After It
Santa Cruz County deputy district attorney Erin West is leading efforts to disrupt the organised networks behind online fraud and crypto scams. Rather than chasing individual scammers, her approach targets the wider supply chain of the fraud economy — the money launderers, facilitators and infrastructure that enable industrial-scale scams. The story highlights how law enforcement is shifting focus from lone perpetrators to the system that sustains cybercrime profits.
- 2Big ideas floated to fix Monterey Bay housing crisis▼Status quo solutions won’t solve the Monterey Bay area’s housing crisis. But these big ideas just might.
UC Santa Cruz researchers and commentators argue that conventional approaches are failing to resolve the Monterey Bay area's severe housing shortage, which has driven up costs across Santa Cruz and Monterey counties. The piece outlines several ambitious alternative proposals aimed at expanding affordable housing supply and reshaping local policy. Local residents and policymakers are weighing whether such large-scale ideas can gain traction in a region long resistant to major development.