Local News

WATSONVILLE—The Watsonville Film Festival (WFF) returns March 11-20, with virtual and in-person events to celebrate its 10th anniversary.  Consuelo Alba, executive director of WFF, said it felt “unreal” to be reaching such a milestone. “We are incredibly happy to be celebrating 10 years because when we...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—Students throughout Santa Cruz County will no longer be required to wear masks while at school after March 11. The announcement, signed by the County’s 11 school superintendents, came Monday after California Gov. Gavin Newsom, along with Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and Washington...

SANTA CRUZ—Gabriela Cruz has been named executive director of Santa Cruz-based nonprofit Senderos, making her the first hired staff member after 20 years of being an all-volunteer-based organization.  Senderos, founded in 2001 by indigenous Oaxacan sisters Fe Silva-Robles and Dr. Nereida Robles Vasquez, was an...

APTOS—A lawsuit against Pajaro Valley Unified School District by the family of a 17-year-old Aptos High School student who was stabbed to death in August is proceeding, and will likely be filed in the coming weeks. Charles “Tony” Piccuta, the attorney representing the family, declined...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—Students in Santa Cruz County are once again invited to submit entries into a regional writing contest headed by the Palo Alto Humane Society (PAHS). The Ambassadors of Compassion Story Writing Contest is open to seventh and eighth graders in Santa Cruz, Santa...

WATSONVILLE—The second edition of a literature and arts journal created by Cabrillo College English students will soon be published, and the public is invited to celebrate with students and contributors this Friday. Xinachtli Journal, or Journal X, features poetry, short stories, essays and art. It...

A crew from Bogard Construction use an excavator to demolish the Aptos Branch Library Wednesday on Soquel Drive at State Park. A new library is in the works and expected to be completed by Summer 2023. The $14 million project was funded by voter-approved...

On the steps of the dilapidated jailhouse in which Cesar Chavez was held 47 years ago, a group of pesticide activists held a rally Friday to both celebrate his birthday and to draw attention to an issue that was close to the labor leader’s heart.

The life and songs of Tom Lehrer, the maverick song writer from Harvard and current UCSC Professor Emeritus, are the subject of Viva La Lehrer IV, the fourth annual celebration of the man who made a pop music sensation out of the periodic table of element

Santa Cruz Metro's Chairman of the Board Jimmy Dutra, along with some of his fellow colleagues, recently visited Washington D.C. to lobby the current administration's Department of Transportation.