Local News

WATSONVILLE—Work began over the weekend on a major restoration of a long-standing outdoor mural at the La Manzana center. Muralist Guillermo “Yermo” Aranda, who is the creative drive behind scores of murals around Santa Cruz County, Salinas and San Diego, said it was time to...

WATSONVILLE—The Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office released the names of the two men who were shot and killed on Saturday in Watsonville in separate shooting incidents. The first victim, who was shot near Marchant and E. Front streets around 5:30pm, has been identified as Rafael Salcedo,...

WATSONVILLE—Ella’s at the Airport opened at Watsonville Municipal Airport in 2015, and since then has garnered a large following of customers. Owner Ella King, who at the time also owned the popular Cafe Ella, took the building—closed for one year after the previous restaurant was...

EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was updated from a previous version first published on May 22. WATSONVILLE—Four ‘clusters’ of Covid-19 cases have been identified in the Watsonville area, all of them associated with large family gatherings, according to Santa Cruz County officials. There have been at least...

WATSONVILLE—Three men are facing felony vandalism charges for allegedly defacing more than a half-dozen businesses in downtown Watsonville with graffiti early Saturday. Richard Betancourt, 40, Javier Alvarado, 29, and Juan Bautista, 23, all of Watsonville, were booked into Santa Cruz County Jail on charges of...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—The loud boom that echoed over much of Santa Cruz County late Thursday evening—and the fireball streaking across the sky that accompanied it—was probably a piece of natural space debris roughly the size of a volleyball that entered the earth’s atmosphere and...

WATSONVILLE—A man and woman were found dead in a home in Pajaro Village on Christmas Eve in what police believe to be a murder-suicide. Watsonville Police Department Sgt. Mike Ridgway said officers were led to the man and woman by a relative. The Santa Cruz County...

WATSONVILLE—Scores of restaurants around Watsonville have been hit hard by the outbreak of COVID-19. With shelter-in-place orders in effect, residents are asked to stay inside and limit their time near crowds. This includes going to sit-down restaurants, coffee shops, breweries and the like. As such,...

WATSONVILLE—The Watsonville High School community is reeling from the recent loss of a much-loved mural that graced a wall in the school’s cafeteria for more than three decades. Construction workers refurbishing the cafeteria earlier this year painted over the wall after updating wiring and heating...

WATSONVILLE—Mas Hashimoto, a devout defender of civil rights whose name became synonymous with his hometown after decades of service in education, community volunteerism and historic preservation, and whose unrelenting willingness to speak, write and teach about the plight of Japanese Americans during World War...