Local News

WATSONVILLE—The special education program at Ohlone Elementary School is facing major changes next year after Pajaro Valley Unified School District shuffled teachers and services at the school. The school currently has three separate programs for its special ed students, the first of which is a...

SANTA CRUZ—For the purposes of this article, Maya and Sebastian Laing’s story begins on Oct. 20, when a group of strangers paid a late-night visit to their grandmother’s house where they had been staying.  After trying unsuccessfully to convince the kids to come with them...

An upbeat ribbon cutting ceremony for the new Pajaro Valley Prevention and Student Assistance headquarters at the corner of East Lake and Brewington avenues unfolded under sunny skies Thursday in Watsonville. The new facility is an expansion of PVPSA, a local nonprofit that aims...

WATSONVILLE—A massive, long-awaited project that will completely overhaul one of Watsonville’s key arterial roads is set to begin in May. The Freedom-Green Valley Water and Sewer Improvement project and the proceeding Freedom Boulevard Road Reconstruction Project were delayed because of global supply chain issues, the...

WATSONVILLE—As lunchtime drew to a close Wednesday, fourth- and fifth-grade students at Starlight Elementary School began to gradually filter into the classroom of art teacher Meredith Branan Freeman. They were there to learn about stop-motion animation and create their own movies. Some students worked individually,...

Around 50 men slipped into pairs of bright red and pink high heels Friday for a quick dash around the block in downtown Santa Cruz during the 2023 Walk a Mile in Her Shoes event. In its 11th year, the annual fun-filled gathering originated as...

Cooler temperatures continue to run the show, both along the coast and inland. Brayden Murdock, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service of Monterey, said it will be, “quite a bit windier in the next few days and drier as well.” He added that...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—With a Red Flag warning in place through Monday, possibly bringing erratic winds and dry lightning, the Santa Cruz County Emergency Operations Center (EOC) is urging all evacuees of the CZU Lightning Complex fires currently staying outdoors in tents to seek refuge...

WATSONVILLE—The Watsonville Community Redistricting Advisory Committee at its penultimate meeting on Tuesday advanced two proposed redistricting plans to its final meeting later this month. Both would keep the current seven districts mostly intact, a key goal of the committee because of a possible undercount in...