Local News

A sense of normalcy returned to Santa Cruz County last week as the local high schools kicked off the cross country season. Watsonville High School squared off against Harbor High School on Feb. 18 in Santa Cruz Coast Athletic League competition, which was the...

WATSONVILLE—On Tuesday morning, author, documentary filmmaker and Portuguese National Television correspondent Nelson Ponta-Garça was busy setting up a video camera in the Watsonville City Council Chambers.  He was there to interview Watsonville Mayor Jimmy Dutra for a special segment about Portuguese communities in California. The...

NOTE: Reporters Todd Guild, Johanna Miller, Tarmo Hannula and Erik Chalhoub contributed to this article. For more than two years, people have clamored for the return to “normal” after the uncertainties of a pandemic. In 2022, we got a taste of normalcy, but it was far...

PAJARO—As Pajaro residents wait for waters to recede and for officials to lift the evacuation orders that have beset the small community since the March 11 levee breach, hundreds of Pajaro Middle School students are attending class three miles away at Lakeview Middle School. Pajaro...

In the back half of the noisy lunchtime cafeteria at MacQuiddy Elementary School Tuesday, a group of young students lined up for a brief free dental examination.

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—Though some rural counties are allowing restaurants to open for dine-in service, Santa Cruz County officials are still several days away from giving their restaurateurs the green light. That’s according to county spokesman Jason Hoppin, who on Tuesday said testing and contact tracing...

WATSONVILLE—Dec. 16 marked the final meeting for Pajaro Valley Unified School District Trustee Karen Osmundson, who served on the board since 2004. During a meeting on Dec. 9, Osmundson received resolutions from California Assemblymember Robert Rivas, as well as the Watsonville City Council and the...

The Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) on Aug. 7 had its first discussion about its Zero Emission Passenger Rail and Trail project concept report since it was released to the public on July 30. But the commissioners agreed that they wanted more information...

Yesterday I stopped by the Aptos Village Center on my way to another appointment to see the first addition to the Celebration Brick Program that my colleague, Tarmo Hannula, wrote about last week, and to get another photo for when the article runs in...

SALINAS—The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), public health and regulatory officials in several states and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are investigating a multistate outbreak of E. coli O157: H7 infections linked to romaine lettuce harvested from the Salinas Valley.  Thus far there...