News

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—The Santa Cruz area California Highway Patrol has brought aboard a new Captain, Aron Ching.  Born and raised in the Hawaiian Islands, Ching moved to California to pursue a career with the CHP and has been with the department for 23 years.  His new...

SANTA CRUZ—The man accused of killing a Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s deputy and trying to kill three other law enforcement officials and a civilian during a June 6 crime spree made his first court appearance Friday, but put off entering a plea until July...

UPDATE (Aug. 21, 6:33am) Firefighters and law enforcement officers were pulled away for three separate rescue incidents to save residents who were trying to protect their homes from the CZU August Lightning Complex fires, which have now charred 50,000 acres, or roughly 78 square miles,...

WATSONVILLE—One person was injured and roughly 88 people were displaced in a two-alarm structure fire that broke out at the Wall Street Inn in downtown Watsonville today shortly after 1pm. Rosa Meyer, administrative analyst for the Watsonville Fire Department, said that firefighters were able to...

UPDATE (12:57am, 10/25) Watsonville police say a third man was shot before midnight Saturday on Blackbird Circle behind Ramsay Park—a short walk from the scene of the night’s second homicide. The victim was in critical condition, Watsonville Police Department spokeswoman Michelle Pulido said. It is unclear if...

WATSONVILLE—More than two dozen community members at Tuesday night’s Watsonville City Council meeting showed resounding support for the Pajaro Valley Arts Council’s planned rebuild of the historic Porter Building, a City of Watsonville-owned property at the gateway of downtown. And a competing proposal from...

WATSONVILLE—The Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees on Wednesday fired Superintendent Michelle Rodriguez after a closed-session meeting that delayed the beginning of the public session by more than two hours. The decision came after a 4-3 vote, with trustees Jennifer Holm, Maria Orozco...

WATSONVILLE—Staff of Life grocery store has for a half-century been a backbone of healthy eating and living in Santa Cruz County, selling organic food and natural products long before those concepts hit the mainstream. Founders Richard Josephson and Gary Bascou launched the business as a...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—Housing Matters (HM), a local organization that aims to resolve homelessness, announced Feb. 24 that it is teaming up with the County of Santa Cruz to house 90 of the region’s most vulnerable residents. Housing Now is a new program that hopes to...

WATSONVILLE—The Watsonville High School community last year was shaken when a beloved three-decades old mural on the wall of the school’s cafeteria was painted over during a construction project. The move, directed by site administration and the district facilities department, outraged the artists involved in...