Local News

WATSONVILLE—Total crime is down nine percent, businesses are moving in and parks are getting a facelift. Those were all highlights from Wednesday night’s fourth annual State of the City, a yearly public report on Watsonville’s progress presented by City Manager Matt Huffaker in the Civic...

WATSONVILLE—Watsonville artist Guillermo Aranda sat in his second-floor studio on West Lake Avenue last week working on a new painting of a heron. The unfinished work was spread out on a table covered with various paints, sketches and several drafts of birds in flight—one...

WATSONVILLE—Alternative lenders outnumber mainstream lenders by more than 3-1 in Watsonville. That’s according to a joint report from Santa Cruz Community Ventures (SCCV) and UC Santa Cruz’s Blum Center presented to the public in Watsonville’s Civic Plaza on Tuesday. The report, called “Mamas con Mas,” identified...

WATSONVILLE—A new book has hit the shelves, “Fruit of the Devil,” by retired Pajaro Valley Unified School District teacher Mary Flodin.  The novel unfolds between the exclusive golf courses of Pebble Beach to the world-famous surf breaks of Santa Cruz and the fertile lands of...

WATSONVILLE—A group of neighbors is again fighting the construction of a hotel in the heart of downtown, this time claiming the City of Watsonville has for years worked with a company that is currently suspended by two state agencies. AARAV Hospitality, LLC was penalized and...

Discover PCS! Please complete the online application by 3/5/20 and attend one of the following information meetings if you have not done so in the last two years. An RSVP is required to attend a meeting. Spanish translation will be available at all lottery...

WATSONVILLE—Watsonville Fire Department got its newest addition Monday, a 60-foot ladder truck that will replace an older model, and serve as the department’s “first-out” truck. The $1.3 million purchase came thanks to Measure G, the half-cent sales tax measure approved by voters in 2014 to...

CASTROVILLE—A Castroville man died in a solo vehicle crash Tuesday night when his pickup shot off the road and smashed into several poles. California Highway Patrol officer Jessica Madueño said Daniel Guyton, 26, was traveling eastbound on Highway 156 from northbound Highway 1 at a...

By WALLACE BAINE Talk about a quintessential Bay Area cultural experience. With images spanning his entire half-century career projected behind him, rock god Carlos Santana led his band in the final show of its 2019 world tour on stage at the gleaming new Chase Center,...

Tarmo Hannula: Rain, with breezy to gusty conditions are likely later this evening as a cold front edges into the Central Coast. The greatest chance of rain comes after 10 p.m. Scattered showers, light to heavy at times, are being predicted into Wednesday through...