Local News

A nearly packed Mello Center saw the first graduation of the season in Pajaro Valley Unified School District Thursday evening with 173 graduates of Watsonville/Aptos/Santa Cruz Adult Education crossing the stage to collect their diplomas, degrees and certificates. In fields including high school diplomas, GEDs,...

Circus Alegria, a Las Vegas-based circus entertainment group that has been around since 1912, kicked off their 2025 performance Thursday evening in Watsonville. With their massive big top tent dominating the entrance to the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds, the shows will run Thursday through...

A man gathers information at the table for the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL) Saturday during the Santa Cruz County History Fair at the Watsonville Buddhist Temple. Over 30 tables, from Boulder Creek and Scotts Valley, to Davenport, Capitola, Santa Cruz and Watsonville, filled...

Araceli Gonzalez was at a crossroads in life looking for a new start when she went to a concert and saw a group of women dressed in vintage clothing from the 1940s and ’50s. “I said, ‘I want to try that style,’” she said. “And...

Watsonville artist Erika Rosendale (center, on ladder) paints a new large outdoor mural at El Vaquero Winery in Corralitos on Friday. The mural depicts the historical stagecoach whip, Charley Parkhurst (1812-1879), known as One-eyed Charley, who drove a stagecoach mail delivery between Watsonville and...

When a group of third-grade students at Ohlone Elementary School planted two trees on their campus earlier this year, it was the culmination of an environmental science project that began when they found a small colony of bats living under the eaves of one...

A fourth-grade student from Watsonville Charter School of the Arts (WCSA) has ranked among the top 20 fourth-grade students in the nation in the prestigious Math Kangaroo Contest, an international mathematics competition held this past March.  Sequoia Olson’s achievement marks the first-ever national recognition for...

The Artichoke Festival has been a mainstay for summer entertainment on the Central Coast for more than six decades, a time for locals to nosh on delicacies and celebrate the crop that helped put the region on the map. “With deep gratitude and heavy hearts,...

Around 300 women in agriculture and in support of the farming community attended the 17th annual Down to Earth Women’s luncheon Thursday at Driscoll's Rancho Corralitos. The event is part of Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau’s Agri-Culture, an education non-profit with 11 endowed funds,...

Pajaro Valley Unified School District Trustee Gabe Medina has threatened to file a defamation lawsuit against two fellow Board members over a recent attempt to censure him during a May 7 Board meeting. In an email to trustees Misty Navarro and Olivia Flores—who placed the...