Local News

In a special meeting Tuesday, the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors will consider declaring a state of fiscal distress and asking voters to approve a temporary half-cent sales tax that county officials say is needed to offset steep federal funding cuts and protect...

The annual Strawberry Festival drew scores of people Saturday, who browsed among merchandise sales booths, sampled from dozens of food vendors, rode rides, played games and watched live entertainment. 

More than 150 volunteers gathered Saturday at Kaiser Permanente Arena in Santa Cruz with a simple mission: make sure thousands of Santa Cruz County students are ready to begin the school year. Working assembly-line style during the 17th annual Stuff the Bus Stuff-A-Thon, volunteers filled...

Several candidates running for a seat on the Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees for the November election met July 25 at a forum hosted by the Pajaro Valley Federation of Teachers.  Roughly 30 teachers attended, alongside several candidates for school board, including...

A new art exhibit is going up at PV Arts at the Porter Building in downtown Watsonville and runs from Aug. 4 through Sept. 19.  “Body Marking: Art, Ritual & Story” explores global practice of marking the body as a form of personal expression, cultural...

Eddie Duino was 8 years old the first time his father brought him to what was then the Watsonville Country Club. Nearly eight decades later, he still walks the fairways of the same Royal Oaks course, now known as Pajaro Valley Golf Club, teaching the...

As a fifth-grader, Sofia Vasquez found math intimidating. That changed when her older sister began tutoring her. Her sister, now 15, had previously attended the Bruce W. Woolpert Algebra Academy, a free weeklong summer program that prepares students entering eighth grade for advanced math courses. This...

Christian Chavez was struggling with anxiety while attending Pajaro Valley High School and frequently refused to go. “I was just staying home,” he said. Christian, 15, was eventually placed at Sequoia High School, a smaller campus tailored for students struggling academically and emotionally. He also joined Aztecas...

A new of the long-running “Moveable Mural Project” is in the works by Santa Cruz County high school students in the Teen Artes Summer Program. Under the umbrella of Pajaro Valley Arts, 18 students from eight schools started painting the large wood panels Monday...