Local News

The County of Santa Cruz invites community members to take part in a countywide effort to help shape the Measure Q Vision Plan, which will guide investments in clean water protection, wildfire resilience, public access and preservation of parks, beaches, and natural areas. To support...

On Tuesday, 7-year-old Vincent Robles was playing in Callaghan Park in downtown Watsonville, clambering over the play structures and going up and down the slide. But what he really wanted, his mother Jessica said, was to go back to Ramsay Park, with its big slide.  “He...

A long-unused, aging outdoor courtyard makes up the eastern portion of Santa Cruz County’s Juvenile Hall, showing its age with a weedy yard and cracked blacktop. But a group of probation officials and youth advocates who gathered there Wednesday have big plans for the space. These...

U.S. Immigration and Customs and Enforcement (ICE) agents on May 27 arrested a longtime Watsonville resident as he walked behind the Target store near the intersection of Harkins Slough Road and Ohlone Parkway. The man’s nephew, who asked to be called Brandon, confirmed the arrest,...

When Watsonville Mayor Maria Orozco was a student at Freedom Elementary School, she remembers running around the playing field, pock-marked as it was by holes and other signs of age and wear. “I remember dreading it, because when we were done, my knees used to...

Continuing a local tradition of honoring Memorial Day, a section of Freedom Boulevard  and area cemeteries were lined with over 300 flags Monday, thanks to the effort of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1716 and of the American Legion Post 121.  Local cemeteries were also...

President Donald Trump has taken millions of dollars already allocated to blue states—and reallocated the funding to red states—impacting a wide array of ongoing critical infrastructure projects, including the Pajaro River Flood Management Project. In a press conference Thursday,  U.S. Democratic Senators Alex Padilla and...

The Tiny Village project in the parking lot of the Westview Presbyterian Church is set to break ground at the end of May or in early June, and is expected to provide shelter for 34 homeless people. Community Action Board (CAB), which will manage the...

If the Trump administration moves forward with plans to make sweeping cuts to health and human services as it hammers out its current budget, it will have far-reaching and profound impacts nationwide. This includes to Santa Cruz County, where one-third of the people who receive...