Local News

Meetings to discuss proposed fire district assessment Property owners in the Pajaro Valley Fire Protection District are being asked to vote on a new assessment to maintain the Fire District’s current services and operations. According to the district, this measure will help to ensure adequate staffing...

Brianna Vasquez is a 13-year-old about to begin her 8th-grade year at Rolling Hills Middle School. As the days of her summer vacation wane and the academic year looms, many of her friends are enjoying their break. But on Thursday, Brianna was taking a different path....

About 40 people gathered outside the CineLux Green Valley Cinema in Watsonville Friday to protest new regulations by the Department of Pesticide Regulation regarding 1,3-dichloropropene, also called Telone, a pesticide widely used in California. The event, sponsored by Safe Ag Safe Schools (SASS) and Future...

Two teenagers were arrested recently by Capitola Police after officers found them with a large amount of drugs. Capitola Police said the two juveniles were stopped  for public intoxication. During a search, police found hundreds of Xanax-style pills, 30 grams of psilocybin “magic mushrooms,” several...

The 2025 Annual Fairgrounds Foundation Crab Feed is set for March 1 at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds.  The event will feature live music, a no host bar, prizes and a silent auction, with winners to be drawn and posted during the dinner.  “We also will...

Starting Monday, construction work on the College Lake Pipeline Project in Watsonville will move onto Riverside Drive for the next six months. With around five miles of the pipeline now completed, and a mile left to go, the project will provide a 30-inch water main...

The Fourth of July has long been a time of celebration in Santa Cruz County, a height-of-summer fete that draws hordes of people to local beaches to indulge in picnics, swim in the ocean, soak up the sun and, for some, trash the place. But...

A Watsonville woman was taken into custody on Nov. 1 just past noon on suspicion of stabbing a man multiple times. Watsonville Police spokeswoman Michelle Pulido said  officers responded to reports of a stabbing in the 100 block of 2nd Street shortly before 12:30pm, where they...

Santa Cruz Fire Department investigators believe that a fire that broke out Tuesday inside the former Garfield Park Church was deliberately set, the department announced on Facebook. According to SCFD, firefighters responded to multiple calls of smoke and flames seen at the now-closed church—also known...

Later this year, the US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) and the Pajaro Regional Flood Management Agency (PRFMA) will start construction of its $600 million Pajaro River Flood Risk Management Project, a long overdue effort to improve levees along the Pajaro River and Corralitos...