Local News

It was a moment of sheer luck that historian and author Derek R. Whaley, while doing research for his own book, discovered the work of the late Ronald G. Powell.  Whaley owns local publishing company Zayante Publishing and is the author of the Santa Cruz...

Keep the umbrella and raincoat handy; here comes another wet storm. The National Weather Service has posted a wind advisory and flash flood watch starting this afternoon through 3 a.m. Wednesday. Rain is likely after 4 p.m. today.

Five students from Aptos and Watsonville high schools toured the historic Tor House and Hawk Tower in Carmel Saturday, a field trip designed to sharpen their interest and skills as young poets. The iconic stone home and tower, built above the rugged rocky coastline at...

Observations from the Pajaro Valley and beyond.

Four Watsonville minors, between the ages of 15 and 16, were arrested on charges of attempted murder and robbery following a brazen early morning attack at an Aptos home on May 28.

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved a four-part strategy to deal with the county’s homeless crisis, an ambitious three-year plan that has the goal of reducing by 50 percent the number of households experiencing homelessness by 2024. The...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—Santa Cruz County residents will have to stay home for at least another month. County Health Officer Dr. Gail Newel on Tuesday night extended the county’s shelter-in-place order through May 3. The order, first enacted on March 17 to slow the spread of COVID-19,...

The Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR) on Dec. 19 announced a new rule that will provide notice to the public in advance of applications of certain hazardous and drift-prone agricultural pesticides.  The move was broadly welcomed in the farmworker communities of the San Joaquin Valley...

About 80 people gathered Monday in the historic Aromas Community Grange after the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) selected the Pajaro River Watershed as one of five watersheds to pilot the Watershed Resilience Program. The initiative, which is supported by a $2 million grant...

Two weeks ago, Amelia Loftus, owner of Hidden Fortress Coffee Roasting, was on the brink of closing her cafe in Watsonville just shy of its five-year anniversary. The shop, located at the end of a sleepy business complex on Hangar Way, had been struggling to...