Local News

SANTA CRUZ—Thousands of curious folks had a one-day window Tuesday to view and smell a blooming corpse flower at the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum & Botanic Garden. The 4-foot tall flower, sheltered beneath a tent and kept warm with a space heater while being gently...

Adam Scow stood on the edge of a strawberry farm behind Pajaro Middle School Monday morning as he held a map showing similar fields adjacent to nine schools throughout the Pajaro Valley. Scow heads up the nonprofit group Campaign for Organic and Regenerative Agriculture (CORA)....

A series of First Friday art shows will kick off in Seascape Village this summer thanks to Stable Life Services (SLS), a nonprofit aiming to support individuals with special needs and their caregivers. First Friday is a monthly art tour featuring local artists in venues...

WATSONVILLE—Watsonville Community Hospital has a new owner. Halsen Healthcare announced Tuesday that the $30 million sale was finalized at midnight. “This is the first day that Halsen actually owns Watsonville Community Hospital,” Chairman and CEO Dan Brothman said. Halsen was holding a celebratory afternoon barbecue for its...

WATSONVILLE—The application process for the City of Watsonville’s small business emergency grants opened today. With help from El Pajaro Community Development Corporation, the city will offer roughly 50 grants of up to $2,000 to small businesses located within city limits with $2 million or less...

WATSONVILLE—More than 100 children in bright yellow T-shirts were at Pinto Lake County Park Friday morning, laughing, shouting and running through various soccer drills as part of the Aztecas Summer Soccer Camp. The camp, launched seven years ago to give young people a constructive “pro-social”...

WATSONVILLE—Sisters-in-law Araceli Gonzalez and Laura Espindola first had the idea to open their own business more than two years ago.  Both mothers with a passion for shopping, they wanted to open a shop full of products for young children and new (and expecting) mothers.  “We had...

The Watsonville City Council on Tuesday approved a six-year lease with Greg Bobeda and Lacey Dent for the City’s vacant 3 Second St. location at the ground level of the Civic Plaza.

Prominent farmworker activist and organizer Dolores Huerta joined several other speakers at a public meeting in Watsonville Saturday to raise awareness about the dangers of agricultural pesticide use on farmworkers, children, consumers and residents throughout Santa Cruz county.  Childhood cancer rates in Santa Cruz county...

Olive D. Wilson discovered her love for writing early in life, chronicling her thoughts, experiences and ideas the way many writers do. Over time, that practice evolved. What emerged from that reflective work, she realized, was both a story that needed to be told and...