Local News

Owner Chip Kirchner, who in late March purchased the property from Swenson Builders for $5 million, said roof repairs alone cost roughly $110,000. He said he plans to invest about $350,000 in the property in the first year alone.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday announced that the state is “setting our eyes on fully reopening by June 15—with commonsense measures like masking.” Newsom made the announcement via Twitter, and reiterated the state’s plan to eventually forgo the current four-tiered, color-coded reopening system during...

WATSONVILLE—Current positivity rates in Santa Cruz County’s low-income and disadvantaged communities are among the worst in the state and Bay Area region, according to data reported by the California Department of Public Health. The county’s so-called “Health Equity Quartile Positivity Rate” was 22.7% on Wednesday...

A community project helped spruce up Hazelwood Park Mural on July 27 as part of the ongoing Watsonville Community Mural Paint Day.  Organized by Paul De Worken of Monterey Bay Murals, the one-day day event drew around 50 volunteers to Hazelwood Park, located at 297b...

WATSONVILLE—Cafe Ella owners Erika Conrad and Jennifer DeVault say they are hopeful that their business will persevere through the COVID-19 crisis. The twin sisters, who took over the small cafe on East Lake Avenue from Ella’s at the Airport owner Ella King last year, said...

The families braved sweltering late-summer heat and waited in line for about an hour to get their much-needed items. But many of them live their lives facing far more insidious threats: poverty, coupled with arrest and deportation by immigration officials.

There was a lot of trash talk Sunday in Santa Cruz. Not gossip. Literal trash. In the ocean and deep into the food chain. Close to 400 people gathered at the Rio Theatre on Nov. 9 to hear some of the latest research on the health...