Local News

A weekly column that celebrates local businesses — especially eateries, watering holes, coffee shops and the like. Tarmo Hannula FOOD: Pizza My Heart Fresh hot pizza keeps the customers lining up at Pizza My Heart in downtown Santa Cruz. Founded in 1981 in Capitola Village by Fred...

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...

An inmate at the Santa Cruz County Main Jail died Saturday after being found in medical distress. Ashley Keehn, spokeswoman for the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office, said 42-year- old Trevor George died from asphyxia by hanging in a suicide, according to the Sheriff’s forensic pathologist. He...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—The Santa Cruz County Health Services Agency announced that there are now 13 confirmed cases of COVID-19, also known as coronavirus. The announcement comes less than two weeks after Health Officer Dr. Gail Newel announced the county’s first case on March 7. The increasing...

Emergency workers struggle to free a woman trapped in an upside-down Honda Accord sedan Tuesday after it flipped over on East Lake Avenue.

Now, Pleskunas is fighting to keep her store open after lackluster Christmas sales have made it hard to pay her suppliers. She has asked for community help via the fundraising website GoFundMe: www.gofundme.com/f/kelly039s-books

WATSONVILLE—A group of young inventors who earned accolades in local and state competitions last year visited the state capital Monday, where they met with lawmakers and showed off their winning creations. The visit to Sacramento was in advance of Kid Inventors Day on Jan. 17....

WATSONVILLE—Keeping area streets and sidewalks tidy has become more of a chore since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic.  An uptick in disposable rubber gloves and all types of masks dumped on the streets has been commonplace since early March. And they’re building up. These items,...

WATSONVILLE—The Watsonville Senior Center is in the midst of an extensive, long-needed exterior facelift. New tables, chairs and other furniture now grace the community staple. A ramp compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act is in the works. And a new paint job and...

CALIFORNIA—The U.S. Census Bureau has started its final round of hiring for the 2020 Census, which begins in March.  The agency is looking to hire census takers for temporary, five-week positions, which include a paid training period. Positions start at $21 per hour. “Basically we are...