Local News

“Safe and sane” fireworks are now on sale in Watsonville, but the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) is reminding everyone to do their part to have a safe holiday and help prevent fires and injuries caused by fireworks.  So-called “safe and sane”...

APTOS—Nonprofit workers in Santa Cruz County are two times more likely than the general public to require the very social services they help provide. That’s according to a recent survey conducted by the Human Care Alliance (HCA), a coalition of nonprofit agencies from around the...

WATSONVILLE—The Watsonville City Council at its Tuesday meeting approved new district boundaries that feature only a handful of differences from the borders that were in place during the last decade. Every decade following the release of census data, jurisdictions must adjust their district lines to...

WATSONVILLE—Plans to build a four-story, 80-room hotel at the busy intersection of Main Street and Freedom Boulevard have once again stalled. Watsonville Community Development Department Director Suzi Merriam says that the permits granted to the developer, Kamalesh Patel, expired last fall. If the project is...

Four decades ago, Watsonville’s cannery industry was bustling, packing up the vast amount of agricultural products grown in the Pajaro Valley and preserving them for shipment around the world. The lifeblood of this industry was provided by its thousands of workers—most of them women, and...

APTOS—An exhibit at Cabrillo College’s art gallery in Aptos was only open to the public for five days in March before it had to close down due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Since then, Cabrillo Gallery staff has kept connected to art lovers by posting about...

After a countdown from 10, they launched a rocket into the sky – 856 feet, to be exact – the time the Apollo 11 spacecraft touched down on the lunar surface.

WATSONVILLE—The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Coroner has identified the three victims in a midair collision between two airplanes on Aug. 18 above Watsonville Municipal Airport.  Carl Kruppa, 75, and Nannette Plett-Kruppa, 67, both of Winton, Calif. were aboard the Cessna 340 twin-engine plane, while Stuart...