Community

Barricades were recently taken down where Atkinson Lane meets Freedom Boulevard during construction of the new Tabasas Gardens homes (shown here). The lane had been closed to allow for construction for more than a year.

Editor’s note: this is the final installment of our pre-election coverage, as voters mull their mail-in ballot and make their decisions. A story on Rep. Jimmy Panetta’s  Green Party opponent ran on Feb. 8. Republican challenger Jason Michael Anderson did not respond to a...

The annual Mexican Independence Day Festival is set for Sunday in downtown Watsonville Sunday. Put on by Fiestas Patrias, the free event will feature live music, food booths, arts and crafts and information tables spread out around Watsonville Plaza and surrounding streets.  This year the...

On Aug. 14, about 400 students will return to Pajaro Middle School, more than a year after flood waters forced the campus to close. This includes seventh-graders who spent their first middle school year at a different school. On Friday, several workers were continuing to...

In the decade between 2013-23, volunteers and nonprofits picked up 439,358 cigarette butts from Santa Cruz County’s beaches and natural areas, accounting for a quarter of all litter found here. That’s according to Save Our Shores (SOS), a Santa Cruz-based nonprofit that works to support...

A portion of the Coastal Rail Trail project running through the middle part of the county will now move forward after the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved it. The supervisors also voted to withdraw an earlier vote that stalled the project, and...

Brianna Vasquez is a 13-year-old about to begin her 8th-grade year at Rolling Hills Middle School. As the days of her summer vacation wane and the academic year looms, many of her friends are enjoying their break. But on Thursday, Brianna was taking a different path....

As election results continued to roll in Tuesday night, Measure N came out swinging, with 69.9% of voters approving it. That number had dipped to 68.5% early Wednesday morning just barely making the required two-thirds supermajority. Measure N would provide $116 million for Watsonville Community Hospital...

California road trips to the desert, the State Capitol, the San Joaquin Valley, the Bay Area or the Sierra foothills have been turning up a  bounty of rewards for my wife, Sarah, and me.  This was proven on our recent drive from Watsonville to Sacramento...

A Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge ruled Tuesday that there is enough evidence that the man who raped and killed 8-year-old Madyson (Maddy) Middleton in 2015 would pose a continued danger to the public if he is released. Adrian Jerry (A.J.) Gonzalez, now 24,...