Local News

WATSONVILLE—Edwin Rodriguez and Adrian Maldonado were hanging out with friends in their neighborhood on Arista Court one Wednesday afternoon when they saw a large column of smoke rising into the air nearby. The boys assumed at first it was a campfire, which wouldn’t be unusual....

Watsonville Police are looking for a couple that scammed a woman out of thousands of dollars after claiming to have a winning lottery ticket they couldn’t cash in. Surveillance footage shows the man and woman approaching the victim in a shopping center parking lot on...

SANTA CRUZ—Santa Cruz Police arrested a woman early Thursday morning after she allegedly set fires in several garbage cans between Ocean and Church streets. Nataliya Zubrilina, 34, has been charged with arson. She was booked into Santa Cruz County Jail and was being held Friday...

WATSONVILLE—The Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency Board of Directors on Wednesday voted unanimously to certify the Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) and approve the College Lake Integrated Resources Management Project. “This project was ranked by the Basin Management Plan (BMP) Committee as one of the...

WATSONVILLE—Alternative lenders outnumber mainstream lenders by more than 3-1 in Watsonville. That’s according to a joint report from Santa Cruz Community Ventures (SCCV) and UC Santa Cruz’s Blum Center presented to the public in Watsonville’s Civic Plaza on Tuesday. The report, called “Mamas con Mas,” identified...

WATSONVILLE—In the past two years, Pajaro Valley Unified School District students have shown growth in state assessments in English and Math, placing just below the national average. The district’s third, fourth and fifth-graders showed double-digit growth in their English language arts tests, while fourth and...

WATSONVILLE—Cesar Chavez Middle School student Regina Molina recently wrote a screenplay for “Forever Young,” about a girl who is reluctant to grow up and move on in her life.   “I think moving on is hard for a lot of people,” she said. “But sooner...

WATSONVILLE—A new large mosaic now graces the second floor of the main branch of the Watsonville Public Library. Created by Watsonville artist Kathleen Crocetti, the 10-by-12 work incorporates elements of the original library logo, the Pajaro Valley and the nearby coast. “It’s based on an aerial...

WATSONVILLE—Pajaro Valley Unified School District bus driver Barbie Gomez pulled into the transportation yard on Grimmer Road late Wednesday morning, a trip she has taken countless times in her 12 years on the job. But this day was different. She found a coterie of coworkers...

Oct. 18, 2019 Tarmo Hannula: Here comes Halloween, one of my favorite times of the year. Fall leaves, colder mornings and evenings, crazy dressed up houses and businesses. The other day I spotted T-Rex stomping through Nob Hill Foods in Capitola following customers through the...