Local News

Fireworks stands are now popping up around Watsonville in preparation for Fourth of July celebrations. • Summer officially started Saturday with the summer solstice. I still marvel that the folks as long as 5,000 years ago knew about the solstice when they started the massive Stonehenge...

Construction work has been completed on a major sidewalk and road repair project along Main Street (Highway 152) in Watsonville, where a chunk of land collapsed at Struve Slough.  The rupture—between Clifford Avenue and Watsonville Square where Nob Hill is located—took out a length of...

A dance group, Ohtori Kinsen-Kai, prepare to perform a traditional dance from Okinawa Saturday at the 33rd annual Japanese Cultural Fair in Santa Cruz. The free event showcased live music, dance, martial arts, crafts, food and more.

It’s no secret that traffic around Ceiba College Preparatory Academy can get heavy at the beginning and end of the school day, when hundreds of parents drop off and pick up their children and scores of students brave the intersections and walkways on foot. School...

Days after Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order directing jurisdictions throughout the state to address the homeless camps within their borders—and about one month after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that laws banning sleeping in public do not constitute cruel and unusual punishment—unsanctioned...

After working as a manager at Freedom Meat Lockers for nearly three decades, William Panis was ready to set off on his own. His new butcher shop—Willie’s Meat Market—is located at 20 Mariposa off Freedom Boulevard.  He offers a wide selection of meat, sausage and bacon,...

WATSONVILLE—The Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees on Wednesday got a first look at its financial picture since Gov. Gavin Newsom released his proposed budget in January, which provides a record $100 billion for schools and community colleges. The board also revised the...

The annual Santa Cruz County Open Studios Art Tour, which showcases dozens of artists around the county in their studios, is set to welcome the public starting Oct. 4. To prime the public with a wide range of what’s on deck, the Pajaro Valley Arts...

WATSONVILLE—A teenager was arrested Thursday in the shooting death of a 19-year-old man Sept. 4 on Sudden Street. Michelle Pulido, spokeswoman for Watsonville Police, said detectives worked through the week and were able to identify a 15-year-old male suspect connected to the fatal shooting. On Thursday...

MONTEREY—Two people aboard a twin-engine propellor airplane died Tuesday morning after the small aircraft slammed into a home in Monterey off of Highway 68. Eric Gutierrez, a safety investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board, confirmed Wednesday that two people died when the Golden Eagle...