Local News

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—Watsonville and Santa Cruz County officials on Thursday lifted the evacuation orders and flood warnings issued during the dual atmospheric river storms that came on Dec. 30 and Jan. 4, allowing residents to return home and breathe a sigh of relief that...

WATSONVILLE—Former Watsonville Fire Assistant Chief Gene Friend, a household name for many in the Pajaro Valley, died March 25 at Valley Convalescent in Watsonville.  Watsonville Fire Station 1 is emblazoned with his name in large letters as the namesake of the Chief Gene Friend Watsonville...

WATSONVILLE—At their core, Veterans of Foreign Wars halls and American Legion centers are places where former military members can gather to find camaraderie and a shared bond unique to their life experiences. “It’s a big part of what they consider their mental health treatment,” said...

The former owners of Watsonville Community Hospital are facing a lawsuit alleging that they took more than $3.9 million for their own use, and that their mismanagement led the hospital  to bankruptcy and to the brink of financial ruin. Halsen Healthcare was removed from its...

Watsonville Police search for two men who jumped out of this Honda sedan late Friday on the Pajaro River levee. The incident began at 9:15pm on Locust Street when police tried to pull over the car with two men aboard. The driver failed to...

A Watsonville man was killed Sunday after a head-on collision on Highway 9, California Highway Patrol officer Julietta Trenado said.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta was in Santa Cruz County on Thursday to announce the arrest of 22 people who are facing a total of 32 felony charges stemming from multiple burglaries of marijuana dispensaries throughout the Bay Area. Dubbed “Operation Sticky Fingers,” the arrests...

The two men who were shot and killed Oct. 4 on the 700 block of Carlton Road on the outskirts of Watsonville have been identified as Jeremiah Rios Aguilera and Giovanni Aburto Lopez, both 21 and both of Watsonville. Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s detectives believe...

APTOS—Nonprofit workers in Santa Cruz County are two times more likely than the general public to require the very social services they help provide. That’s according to a recent survey conducted by the Human Care Alliance (HCA), a coalition of nonprofit agencies from around the...