Local News

The Watsonville Strawberry Festival kicked off Friday downtown for its three-day run. The annual event continues Sunday from 11am to 7pm, featuring strawberry-infused treats, live music, a carnival and more.

For 20 years the Bicycle Film Festival (BFF) has been celebrating bicycles through art, film and music. Originating in New York, it has popped up in 100 cities across the globe, from Paris and Tokyo to Istanbul and Mexico City. And now the festival is...

WATSONVILLE—Caroline’s Nonprofit Thrift Shop donated $500,000 to local community-serving organizations on Sunday in a ceremony at Martinelli’s Company Store on Harvest Drive. Some 130 people flocked to Watsonville for the annual giveaway, which Caroline’s founder and director Christy Licker calls the organization’s “best day of...

WATSONVILLE—With distance learning likely to last through the rest of 2020—and possibly extend through June—the Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees on Wednesday tentatively approved the district’s Learning Continuity Plan, a 16-page document that seeks to standardize education for the district’s 19,685...

A longtime Pajaro Valley Unified School District substitute teacher is no longer working with the district after an expletive-laden, racist rant following a fender-bender was posted to TikTok on Monday. PVUSD interim Superintendent Murry Schekman did not name the teacher, and did not confirm that...

More than 200 classic wood-bodied vehicles converged on the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf on Saturday for the 27th annual Woodies on the Wharf. Organized by the Santa Cruz Woodies Club and City of Santa Cruz, the event drew participants from across the West Coast...

The Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees late Wednesday tabled a decision to place a general revenue bond on the November ballot that would fund a list of repairs, upgrades and construction projects at every school and building in the vast district. In...

SANTA CRUZ—Five young people were rescued from giant surf Sunday after their sailboats were knocked over during a High Surf Advisory at the mouth of the Santa Cruz Harbor. The incident started when two groups of six small sailboats from the Santa Cruz Yacht Club’s...

On Thursday I drove by the new Starbucks on Lee Road which is still under construction, as is the towering Hampton Inn & Suites behind it. The new Starbucks, with a drive-thru, will mark the fifth Starbucks in Watsonville. The coffee chain started in...

WATSONVILLE—Pete Galvan, who devoted the breadth of his career in education to Watsonville High School, will retire this month. When Galvan steps off campus for the last time on Aug. 17, it will be the end of a tenure that began nearly four decades ago. More...