Local News

In October, a Santa Cruz teen and her younger brother were violently taken from a relative’s house, driven to Los Angeles and forced into a family therapy program with their mother. They were then taken to Washington to live with her. Seven months later,...

WATSONVILLE—Scores of kids were treated to a free visit from Mr. and Mrs. Claus Wednesday during the first of a three-day Santa Tour. “It felt so good to see Santa,” said Maria Navarro of Watsonville who showed up with her son, Christian Ramos. “This is...

The Watsonville City Council on Tuesday honored the winners and nominees of the Queer Youth Leadership Awards.

Just beyond the veneer of traffic din and mundane get-your-coffee-and-go workaday world lies a vast network of trails, which snake through Watsonville’s slough system. Discovering them takes only a brief walk from about two-dozen entrances scattered throughout the city. But until I took a half-day,...

Volunteer Willard Schwartz (left) gets help from Matt Seuss (top) and Laurie Hill in volunteering their help to hang potted begonias around Capitola Monday to honor the Capitola Begonia Festival that ended in 2017 after 65 years.

SACRAMENTO—Gov. Gavin Newsom on April 22 announced plans to allow hospitals to resume surgeries and other procedures that were delayed while the state grapples with the novel coronavirus pandemic. These procedures include heart valve replacements, angioplasty and tumor removals, and key preventive care services, such...

Roughly $4.1 million in grants were awarded to health care centers across the Central Coast.  The grants were announced on Sept. 29 by Rep. Jimmy Panetta. The money will support healthcare for underserved communities, and funds will be funneled primarily toward efforts to expand Covid-19...

WASHINGTON—Cathay Pacific Airways, convinced that digital proof of coronavirus vaccination will bring about the return of safe international travel, asked its pilots and crew to try out a new mobile app that showed their vaccination status on a recent flight from Hong Kong to...