News

Stephen Gray was officially hired as CEO of Watsonville Community Hospital on Wednesday. With a 4-1 vote, the Pajaro Valley Health Care District Board approved Gray’s contract, less than a week after the hospital corporation announced him as its selection. Board member Joe Gallagher dissented. Hospital...

As part of the 2025 Open Farm Tours  guests get a deeper understanding of the workings of the Homeless Garden Project on the west side of Santa Cruz Sunday. Open Farm Tours began 12 years ago, this year opening the doors to 16 farms...

WATSONVILLE—Watsonville’s Mansion House was built in an era when horse-drawn carriages and motor coaches shared unpaved roads, and served as a luxurious stopover for visitors to the agricultural epicenter that was Watsonville.  The Mansion House, a centerpiece of Watsonville’s historic downtown, will turn 150 this...

CENTRAL COAST—Many Monterey County farmworkers are going to work despite testing positive for the novel coronavirus, and some of those laborers are doing so because they are concerned about losing their job, their pay or because their employer told them to. That’s according to the...

I covered a fire Saturday night in Santa Cruz where flames tore through the roof of an occupied shed. By the time firefighters arrived at the home, at the corner of San Juan Avenue at Roxas Street just before 9pm, flames were gushing about...

PAJARO—Pajaro Middle School will remain closed for the rest of the school year after a flood on March 11 damaged half the classrooms, Pajaro Valley Unified School District Superintendent Michelle Rodriguez said Friday. A sizable pool of water still stands in a recessed floor in...

WATSONVILLE—April Bennett was only about 2 years old when she went up on a stage with her father, Steve Bennett for the very first time. Steve was in the house band at Roaring Camp Railroads in Felton for many years, and April would often join...

After four months of being raised by a Watsonville High School student, Stinkers the pig is ready for market. The 252-pound Hampshire cross was lazing in her pen Wednesday, soon after the Santa Cruz County Fair opened and after she waddled with a third-place ribbon...

WATSONVILLE—Watsonville Community Hospital has been up and running under its new leadership—the Pajaro Valley Healthcare District (PVHD)—since Sept. 1. It has been business as usual since then. On Monday, however, a group of state and local elected officials, along with the PVHD board and a sizable...