Local News

"Try This" is a weekly column that celebrates local businesses — especially eateries, watering holes, coffee shops and the like. • Tarmo Hannula FUN: First Friday I’ve trumpeted my excitement about the monthly First Friday event in downtown Santa Cruz in this column before, but I feel a...

I walked past the former Second Street cafe on Second Street in downtown Watsonville Thursday and noticed new logo signs in the window for the Craft Bakeshop and Eatery. The folks that owned Corralitos Coffee are on the move to open the new business...

CENTRAL COAST—Dozens of volunteers counted 206 species of birds during the annual Christmas Bird Count, which despite its name took place on New Year's Day here in Monterey Bay and in locations throughout the U.S. The numbers will be fused in with the Audubon Society’s...

WATSONVILLE—Watsonville High School graduate Kayla Cabrera will be attending virtual classes at UC Berkeley when the fall semester begins on Oct. 1, where she will double major in legal and ethnic studies for a pre-law track. Inspired by social justice issues she encountered while growing...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—At the apex of last year’s crisis points—the pandemic, George Floyd’s murder and the greater countrywide calls for social justice—several Santa Cruz County leaders were brought together to try to change the system from within. The group consists of people across the gender...

A fence is draped with snow early Tuesday morning on Summit Road in the Santa Cruz Mountains as the freezing level dropped to about 2,000 feet overnight.

Editor’s note:  This is the second entry of a weekly four-part series about the Pajaro Valley’s Japanese community. The series will culminate on Aug. 14, coinciding with this year’s celebration of the Obon Festival, a cultural and religious Japanese event honoring one’s ancestors. Read...

WATSONVILLE — Watsonville Police have arrested two men who allegedly burglarized a jewelry store, minutes after the same store was burglarized by a different suspect. Jorge Garcia, 29, was arrested less than 24 hours after stealing from Fatima’s Fine Jewelry on the 300 block of Main...

SANTA CRUZ—Gabriela Cruz has been named executive director of Santa Cruz-based nonprofit Senderos, making her the first hired staff member after 20 years of being an all-volunteer-based organization.  Senderos, founded in 2001 by indigenous Oaxacan sisters Fe Silva-Robles and Dr. Nereida Robles Vasquez, was an...