Highlights from this week's news roundup:
- A Santa Cruz County Rail-Trail compromise clears the way for construction on complex parts of the trail next year. But rail service is still decades away.
- Carmel makes it a misdemeanor to play pickleball at the city's only public park.
- Santa Cruz and Monterey County food banks report one-third of residents can’t consistently afford healthy food. In this rich fishing region, some of the freshest catch is helping fill those empty bellies.
- The Moss Landing battery fire in January released heavy metals into Elkhorn Slough, according to newly published research by scientists at Moss Landing Marine Labs.
Plus other stories from the week.
