Local News

WATSONVILLE—The city of Watsonville must pay attorney fees and court costs to a business at Watsonville Municipal Airport after losing in a civil case earlier this year, a Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge ruled Monday. In the Dec. 6 ruling, Judge Timothy Volkmann ordered...

WATSONVILLE—The newly constructed roundabout at the intersection of Highway 129 (Riverside Road) and Lakeview Road opened on Dec. 3 to through traffic. Final roadway striping and a variety of construction details will be completed over the next few weeks, but the roadway and roundabout are...

WATSONVILLE—Watsonville artist Augie WK for two years has dreamt of bringing a humpback whale to life at the Marinovich Community Center. It was 2019 when the upstart muralist was approached by Watsonville Environmental Science Workshop coordinator Darren Gertler and asked if he’d be interested in...

WATSONVILLE—Watsonville police arrested three people over a 10-day period on suspicion of committing sex crimes against children. Daniel Alanis, 39, was arrested Dec. 2 in Salinas and charged with committing lewd and lascivious acts against a child under 14. He was booked into Santa Cruz...

While food banks act as the safety net against hunger, CalFresh (formerly Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP) is the first line of defense. CalFresh’s goal is to improve the health and well-being of people who qualify for the program in every community. It...

WATSONVILLE—Ella’s at the Airport opened at Watsonville Municipal Airport in 2015, and since then has garnered a large following of customers. Owner Ella King, who at the time also owned the popular Cafe Ella, took the building—closed for one year after the previous restaurant was...

WATSONVILLE—The Watsonville Community Redistricting Advisory Committee at its penultimate meeting on Tuesday advanced two proposed redistricting plans to its final meeting later this month. Both would keep the current seven districts mostly intact, a key goal of the committee because of a possible undercount in...

WATSONVILLE—Watsonville native Lou Arbanas was considered by many to be a living encyclopedia for his knowledge of the history of the Pajaro Valley. A longtime fixture at the Pajaro Valley Historical Association, Arbanas died Nov. 14 after a brief illness. He was 78. “He was...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—The Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) Board of Directors on Thursday approved a spending plan for $11.2 million in state and federal funding, which will be allocated over a wide range of transportation-related projects countywide. The funding includes $4.5 million from...

WATSONVILLE—Local author Jaime Cortez always had nicknames, and now one of them has become his first book. “Gordo,” a paperback collection of stories, is quickly gathering praise after its release by a national publisher in August. And while “Gordo” is Cortez’s first widely distributed work,...