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Heavy smoke pours out of a mushroom farm in Las Lomas Tuesday at 4:15pm where indoor equipment caught fire. Jess Mendoza, Battalion Chief with North Monterey County, said firefighters got a quick handle on the blaze at 415 Hall Road. No injuries were reported...

WATSONVILLE—Watsonville Police on Friday arrested a 17-year-old Pajaro Valley High School student after he was found to be in possession of a loaded gun. According to Watsonville Police spokeswoman Michelle Pulido, school officials called police just before 11am with a report that a student was...

Monterey County officials hosted a town hall meeting Sept. 20 to allow residents to get information and share concerns about three fires at the Moss Landing Lithium Ion Battery Energy Storage System. The two-hour meeting in Castroville included Monterey County Supervisor Glenn Church, Senator John...

WATSONVILLE—As thousands of students throughout Pajaro Valley Unified School District bid farewell to their summer and prepare for a new year, educators and school employees are readying classrooms, sharpening pencils and honing their lesson plans. Such back-to-school preparations have always been a normal part of...

WATSONVILLE—Pajaro Valley Unified School District will continue its school resource officer (SRO) program—which pairs a uniformed police officer with a mental health clinician at two comprehensive high schools—while asking Watsonville Police Department and the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office to share the cost. The Board...

A new phase of the ongoing Moveable Murals project, at the City Hall building, 250 Main St., went up on the exterior walls Tuesday.  Seven murals, ranging in size from 4-by-8-feet to 8-by-20-feet, were installed to showcase the artwork of Watsonville and Aptos High School...

WATSONVILLE—Labor, fair wages, equality at the workplace and health care for workers came into sharp focus Monday—Labor Day—for the annual Labor Day Picnic at Romo Park in downtown Watsonville. The event is put on by the Monterey Bay Central Labor Council, which consists of...

WATSONVILLE—The Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees on April 5 heard a report on the salaries of its management-level employees such as principals and cabinet-level administrators. The review was requested on March 8 by Board Vice President Georgia Acosta, during which the Trustees...

Pajaro Valley Unified School District Superintendent Michelle Rodriguez will be leaving the school district, after taking the same position with Stockton Unified School District. Rodriguez made the announcement June 2. Her last day will be June 30. “To the remarkable Pajaro Valley community that has embraced...

A census of Santa Cruz County’s homeless population taken in February shows a 21.5% decline since the last count in 2021. Still, one in every 146 Santa Cruz County residents still do not have access to housing, according to the 2023 Homeless Count and Survey,...