Local News

WATSONVILLE—The local nonprofit created to purchase and run Watsonville Community Hospital has won its bid to buy the hospital’s operations, a move that canceled a planned auction and advanced the matter to a sale hearing on Wednesday. According to documents filed with the Northern District...

Pajaro Valley Unified School District would likely have enough voter support for a $315 million bond if it went on the November 2024 ballot. That was the message to the Board of Trustees Wednesday from Dale Scott, whose eponymous consultancy company conducted a straw poll...

WATSONVILLE—For years, Pajaro Valley Little League (PVLL) has used the field at E.A. Hall Middle School for its practices and games, providing an essential space for a sport that typically takes a backseat to soccer in South County. Playing fields for baseball are few and...

A crew from Bogard Construction use an excavator to demolish the Aptos Branch Library Wednesday on Soquel Drive at State Park. A new library is in the works and expected to be completed by Summer 2023. The $14 million project was funded by voter-approved...

The 12th annual Watsonville Film Festival will showcase a collection of films that organizers say challenge stereotypes while highlighting the diversity in the Latinx experience, from lowrider car culture to an indigenous soprano singer from Oaxaca, Mexico. “This Festival was created to counter Hollywood’s often...

WASHINGTON—President Joe Biden on Thursday announced a multistep strategy aimed at rapidly shifting Americans from gasoline-powered cars and trucks toward electric vehicles—a central part of his plan to reduce the pollution that is heating the planet. Biden is first restoring and slightly strengthening auto mileage...

In June, an estimated 5 million people amassed in cities across the U.S. to protest President Donald Trump, and policies such as the administration’s hard-line immigration stance. The South County event was hosted by Indivisible Pajaro Valley, which is again staging the event on Saturday...

Christopher David Ow, a member of the prominent Santa Cruz real estate family, died recently in a Southern California motorcycle crash, according to family sources. He was 54. Ow was a property manager with Ow Family Properties and was the on-site manager at King’s Village...

The United Way of Santa Cruz County is accepting applications from agencies that provide food and shelter services looking for financial assistance. The local United Way branch will have $340,041 to distribute to qualifying nonprofit, faith-based and local government agencies through its Emergency Food and...