Local News

A group of state lawmakers and local medical providers gathered Tuesday at the Santa Cruz Community Health Center in Live Oak to sound the alarm on President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” (OBBBA). Despite its name, the bill will remove millions of people...

WATSONVILLE—The Covid-19 pandemic has not yet been as harsh on Watsonville’s economy as predicted, but Finance Department Director Cindy Czerwin at Tuesday’s City Council meeting said it is still too early to “feel totally confident” about the City’s financial future. The City’s sales tax revenues...

Amesti Elementary School fifth-grader Kevin Bonita on Thursday took home more than a free 18-pound turkey when he won the school’s annual Turkey Trot race. He also has the distinction of being the first to win the race every year he attended the school. A young...

WATSONVILLE—Tens of thousands of residents have already been displaced due to the CZU August Lightning Complex fires—and those are just the humans. Wildlife experts are calling for people to be on the lookout for animals fleeing from the fires, which are currently 13% contained. As...

APTOS—Four 160-foot flag poles that once served as radio towers and loomed over the heavily-traveled intersection of State Park Drive at Highway 1 were brought back to Earth Tuesday. A crew from the Bigge Crane and Rigging Co. used a huge crane to grab onto...

CORRALITOS—Bradley Elementary School third-grader Kylie Barnard loves animals. She has grown up around horses, goats, dogs and more—and she knows they can sometimes escape from their pens.  That is why she invented the Animal Rescue Pouch, a small pouch attached to an animal’s collar or...

Watsonville Police set up on the bridge between Watsonville and Pajaro Monday night where they investigated a body found beneath the bridge. Michelle Pulido, spokeswoman for Watsonville Police, said police found a deceased man, age 25-30, sometime after 8pm. No further information has been...

WATSONVILLE—A group of about 25 farmers, environmentalists and community leaders gathered at the Watsonville Nature Center on July 8 to officially kick off a campaign to renew a landmark Watsonville ballot measure passed in 2002. The Committee for Planned Growth and Farmland Protection recently filed...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—When the county’s first shelter-in-place order went into effect on March 16, the Santa Cruz Symphony (SCS) immediately took action. Recognizing that it was unlikely Spring performances could be held, SCS set up the Musician Relief Fund, seeded by $20,000 from its general...