Local News

WATSONVILLE—The Watsonville City Council will hold a special meeting on Wednesday regarding the city’s search for a new chief executive. The meeting, scheduled for 5:30pm in the City Council Chambers, comes a few days after news broke that current city manager Matt Huffaker had been...

WATSONVILLE—Every day in Pajaro Valley Unified School District, thousands of kids take the bus to school—about 25% of the district’s student population—along 59 routes. It is a ritual that plays out in communities around the globe for students who live too far from their...

WATSONVILLE—With hundreds of miles behind them and thousands still ahead, bicyclists Claire and Will Stedden of Fort Bragg have been relying on a huge and free energy source to help fuel their journey—the sun. After grabbing lunch at Taqueria La Fuente in Watsonville Tuesday, they...

WATSONVILLE—A 20-year-old Salinas man died in a head-on crash on the Riverside Drive Highway 1 overcrossing in Watsonville on Nov. 20. Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Ashley Keehn identified the victim as Cesar Romero. Sam Courtney of the California Highway Patrol said Romero was driving...

WATSONVILLE—A pickup truck driver sheared a utility pole on South Green Valley Road at Main Street Wednesday, causing a major traffic jam and power outages. Watsonville Police Department Sgt. Donny Thul said the male driver of a white pickup, towing a large soil disking tool,...

The Tobera Project, a local initiative aiming to preserve, honor and celebrate the Filipino immigrant experience in the Pajaro Valley, is continuing to grow in scope. From the ongoing “Watsonville is in the Heart” exhibit and subsequent calendar chronicling the history of local Filipino-American heritage,...

WATSONVILLE—Just hours after a group of roughly 150 nurses amassed in front of Watsonville Community Hospital to drum up public support and stop its closure, they received a welcome bit of news. The Pajaro Valley Healthcare District Project (PVHDP) has reached a preliminary agreement to...

WATSONVILLE—About two dozen organizers packed into the Watsonville civic offices on Monday afternoon to turn in the signatures needed to put an extension of a landmark ballot measure before Watsonville voters next year. Measure U, approved by voters in 2002, put restrictions on where, when...

MONTEREY COUNTY—School districts across the U.S. were on alert Thursday after a challenge posted on the social media application TikTok urged followers to call in shooting and bomb threats to their schools on Friday. Students at North Monterey County High School were ordered to shelter...

WATSONVILLE—After years of playing on an ankle-twisting field pockmarked with scores of gopher holes, the students of E.A. Hall Middle School will soon have a new athletic field. The synthetic turf field—yet to be given an official name—will be ready for use when students return...