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”...

The County of Santa Cruz has named multi-media artist Guillermo “Yermo” Aranda as the 2021 Artist of the Year. Every year the Arts Commission presents the award to a local artist for their achievements in performing, visual or literary arts, as well as their contributions...

Edward Lovell Jr. steps out of a small homeless encampment on Airport Boulevard in Watsonville one hot and sunny day with his friendly, frisky mutt Cotton on a leash. Lovell, 43, estimates he is one of about 20 people who stay in the unsanctioned encampment,...

WATSONVILLE—Watsonville Police Department officers arrested a 15-year-old who they say was seen near Watsonville High School with a loaded handgun on Monday. A Watsonville High campus supervisor notified the school’s resource officer who then relayed the call to nearby officers, WPD spokeswoman Michelle Pulido said. The...

A high-ranking administrator at Cabrillo College has been charged with embezzlement by the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office. Paul De La Cerda, the current Vice President of Instruction at Cabrillo, faces one felony count of misappropriation of government funds, and another felony count of...

WATSONVILLE—The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office is reaching out to the community for help in solving a 1995 homicide in Watsonville. Investigators say that Gloria Hassemer’s body was found along the Pajaro River Levee near the Highway 1 overcrossing on June 10, 1995. Hassemer, 41,...

The Monterey County Sheriff’s deputy who was shot in a nine-hour standoff with an armed man in Salinas last week was released from the hospital over the weekend and is now recovering at home. On May 31, Deputy Jesse Grant was shot in the arm...

Christmas came early for an Aptos couple, as they were reunited this weekend with their decorations that had been stolen on Nov. 25 at their house.

Tarmo Hannula: Genaro Garcia Luna, Mexico’s former public security secretary, the very man who brazenly took on Mexico’s chief drug traffickers, has now been arrested and charged with taking millions of dollars in bribes from the Sinaloa cartel, the New York Times reported. His...

The Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees will revisit a decision from last September not to renew a contract with an organization that helps teachers deliver ethnic studies curriculum, which now used in the district’s three comprehensive high schools. That discussion will occur...