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Months after floods devastated parts of the Pajaro Valley, residents continue to rely on financial support from local organizations as they start to rebuild their lives.  While the waters have receded and a sense of normalcy has been restored, some people are still struggling to...

A man was killed in Boulder Creek after a tree crashed into his home, as winds pounded Santa Cruz County after several heavy rainstorms on Sunday. Santa Cruz County Sheriff's spokeswoman Ashley Keehn identified the man as as 45-year-old Robert Brainard III. Deputies and firefighters responded...

UPDATE, AUG. 9: Watsonville murder suspect arrested after standoff ORIGINAL ARTICLE: Watsonville Police are looking for a suspect after a man was shot to death Monday night on the 100 block of West Beach Street.    At about 8:45pm, officers responded to the area for reports of a...

The staff at Freedom Meat Lockers and Corralitos Market and Sausage Company are in high production mode as they prepare for Thanksgiving. Dave Peterson, president of Corralitos Market at 569 Corralitos Road, said he has 450 smoked turkeys on deck, on top of their in-house...

WATSONVILLE—After years of cooking lessons conducted from push-carts wheeled into its classrooms, Starlight Elementary School on Wednesday unveiled a professional, state-of-the-art teaching kitchen created to imbue a knowledge of—and possibly a passion for—the culinary arts.  The facility is located adjacent to a garden, designed to...

With a theme of “Hometown USA,” the Pajaro Valley Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture held its 61st annual Awards Dinner and Auction on Saturday at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds. This year’s honorees were Woman of the Year Trina Coffman-Gomez, Man of the Year...

In 2008, as the economic recession was ravaging communities nationwide, school districts were forced to take a close look at their budgets, and in many cases make massive cuts to preserve the meat of their programs. The first casualties of this across-the-board slashing were often...

Santa Cruz Fire Department investigators believe that a fire that broke out Tuesday inside the former Garfield Park Church was deliberately set, the department announced on Facebook. According to SCFD, firefighters responded to multiple calls of smoke and flames seen at the now-closed church—also known...

SANTA CRUZ—The Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission on Dec. 1 approved a contract with an engineering company that will conduct an initial study of a passenger rail line that could one day transport passengers along the breadth of the county. The work by Omaha,...

While she can’t quite remember what sparked her interest, Arielle Bennet has known she wanted to be a firefighter since she was a small child. Bennet, 18, has been a part of the Watsonville Fire Youth Academy since last year, and now serves as advisor...