Local News

Two years ago Amy Thomas, principal at Watsonville Charter School of the Arts, noticed that her students were getting a bit restless during and in between classes. She and staff began searching for something both educational and physical to engage the kids during the...

Boats in the Santa Cruz Harbor are illuminated Sunday night after the annual Lighted Boat Parade was held the night prior. The event, put on by the Santa Cruz Yacht Club, returned after two years of being canceled due to Covid-19. The rainy evening...

APTOS—Cabrillo College’s governing board voted Monday to change the institution’s name after a two-hour discussion that included comments from dozens of community members. The trustees voted 6-1 in favor of renaming the college, with trustee Rachel Spencer dissenting.  The decision followed the Nov. 10 release of...

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday issued long-awaited guidance to Americans fully vaccinated against Covid-19, freeing them to take some liberties that the unvaccinated should not, including gathering indoors with others who are fully vaccinated without precautions while still adhering to...

A total of 533 volunteers spread out across Santa Cruz and Monterey counties Saturday to celebrate Earth Day by cleaning up a number of beaches.

Eight new dental chairs now await patients at a new Dientes Community Dental clinic following the organization’s grand opening celebration Wednesday evening.  More than 100 people attended the upbeat event that featured food and beverages, live music, clinic tours and words from Dientes officials and...

WATSONVILLE—“The Apple King,” a novel inspired by Watsonville’s Croatian community and its historic role in the region’s apple industry, recently won the Connecticut Author Project Award and will be featured in an issue of the national Library Journal publication. Author Barbara Anne King was born...

Female-dominated cast puts fresh twist on classic story WATSONVILLE—Watsonville High School drama instructor David Scott believes that author S.E. Hinton would appreciate his stage adaptation of her 1967 novel, “The Outsiders.” Under the suggestion of her publisher, Susan Eloise Hinton had used her first and middle...

WATSONVILLE—A man who tried to burglarize a Watsonville residence Wednesday is in custody after a woman living there fought him off and held him there with the help of her teen children, Watsonville Police spokeswoman Michelle Pulido said in a press release. Salvador Leonor, 48,...

SANTA CRUZ—The man who gunned down a rival gang member and killed a 4-year-old girl in the crossfire nearly six years ago was sentenced Thursday to two consecutive terms of life without parole in state prison. Michael Escobar, 36, also received more than 12 years...