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The Pajaro Valley Health Care District Board of Directors on Dec. 21 approved a three-year contract with its nurses, two weeks after the nurses’ union ratified it. The approval came after six months of bargaining. Nurses say the contract helps improve patient safety by increasing...

Big changes are now underway at the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District (METRO). As of Dec. 21, METRO is implementing bus service improvements as part of Reimagine METRO, an effort to increase service, adapt to post-Covid travel patterns and create a more useful transit...

Four awarded Rydell Visual Arts Fellowships Four local visual artists have been selected by Community Foundation Santa Cruz County to receive Rydell Visual Arts Fellowship awards for 2024 and 2025.  The awardees are Christian Rex van Minnen, Louise Leong, Maria Isabel LeBlanc and Shirin Towfiq. Each fellowship...

A new 200-foot mural has gone up across the front of Hotel Paradox on Ocean Street in Santa Cruz.  Artist Jeremiah Kille, who has completed scores of large-scale murals around town, Sacramento and elsewhere, finished the work in November. The mural spans the front of the...

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...

Two suspects were detained Tuesday in Watsonville on suspicion of firing off a string of shots from a gun into a car. Watsonville Police said the incident unfolded at the corner of Bridge and Secoya streets in the Vista Montaña housing complex around 2:30pm. Multiple witnesses...

Hundreds of cars slowly filed through the annual Christmas Giveaway put on by Casa de la Cultura in Pajaro on Tuesday. In collaboration with a list of supporting groups, organizers aim to bolster low-income residents, especially farmworkers, during the holidays, with food, clothing, wrapped gifts,...

More than 100 people gathered in Santa Cruz County Superior Court on Dec. 15 to watch the swearing-in of its newest judge, Erika Ziegenhorn, who formerly served as a prosecutor in the District Attorney’s office. Attendees included prosecutors, defense attorneys, Superior Court judges, county workers...

The former owners of Watsonville Community Hospital are facing a lawsuit alleging that they took more than $3.9 million for their own use, and that their mismanagement led the hospital  to bankruptcy and to the brink of financial ruin. Halsen Healthcare was removed from its...

When Vanessa Quiroz-Carter and Maria Orozco were sworn in Tuesday as Watsonville’s mayor and vice mayor, it marked the second time in the city’s history that women held both top spots. The last time was in 2019, when Rebecca Garcia and Trina Coffman-Gomez served in...