News

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—For the past six years, the annual holiday fundraising campaign Santa Cruz Gives (SCG) has helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for local nonprofits, by creating a network of donors and shining a spotlight on the organizations. And in 2021, fundraising has...

WATSONVILLE—The Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees on Wednesday unanimously approved the Safe Routes to Schools plan, a 472-page document that outlines numerous potential pedestrian and traffic safety projects at 15 Watsonville schools. Also known as the Complete Streets to School Planning Project,...

Monterey County Sheriff investigators are looking for two suspects who committed armed robbery at the Express Market in Pajaro on Saturday. The suspects, both male, are currently at large and considered to be armed and dangerous. The first suspect was wearing a white beanie cap, dark...

A painting crew has been busy adding a fresh coat of paint and a new look Thursday and Friday to the long-standing Beach Street Cafe on West Beach Street. Help is on the way for small businesses hit by sweeping closures, layoffs, and downsizing because...

Do you have a recent photo you’d like to share? Send it to us for consideration by emailing it to [email protected] or mailing it to 21 Brennan St., Suite 14, Watsonville, CA 95076. Please include a brief description of the photo as well as the...

WATSONVILLE—The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) and the City of Watsonville are on the cusp of beginning a 10-year endeavor that will completely reshape the city’s major arterial road. Caltrans has committed to a $25 million renovation of its roughly seven-mile thoroughfare of Highway 152...

WATSONVILLE—The Watsonville Film Festival (WFF) will host a gathering at Pajaro Valley Arts (PVA) tonight to celebrate the organization’s first cohort of Cine se Puede fellows.  The Cine se Puede fellowship launched last year. It offers support to local up-and-coming filmmakers through a financial stipend,...

Comedian Allan S. Manalo offers his stream of jokes in Watsonville Plaza Saturday during the inaugural Filipino American History Month festival. The free event included live music, traditional Filipino food, information booths, arts and crafts and more. Organizers The Tobera Project hope to make the...

Facing the stone archway of St. Joseph’s Salesian Youth Retreat Center outside Los Angeles, the dark wooden coffin holding the body of Juan Jiménez was wheeled next to a band of masked mariachis. The group readied themselves to play, simultaneously lifting bows to violins,...

WATSONVILLE—Watsonville Police on Thursday arrested a Salinas woman accused of embezzling more than $75,000 from a Watsonville business located on Hangar Way. Julie Brooks, 50, faces felony grand theft charges. She was booked into Santa Cruz County Jail on $100,000 bail, but was not in...