News

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—Santa Cruz Gives is back, and the annual countywide crowdfunding holiday campaign is bigger than ever.  Following a year that saw skyrocketing donations, Santa Cruz Gives has doubled the number of nonprofits it will raise funds for from 40 to 80. The online campaign,...

WATSONVILLE—A group of teachers from Pajaro Valley High School is planning to file a complaint with their school, citing an ongoing teacher shortage they say causes a threat to student health and safety and makes their jobs untenable. The teachers filing the Williams complaints say...

SANTA CRUZ—Santa Cruz County Health Officer Dr. Gail Newel on Friday issued a health order requiring all people to wear a face-covering when indoors in public spaces and when visiting or hosting people from outside of their households, regardless of vaccination status.  The order goes...

Last February, the Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees approved bringing the Emeril Lagasse Culinary Garden and Teaching Kitchen project to Starlight Elementary School, aiming to teach local students how to grow, prepare and cook their own food.  The project, founded by the...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—The Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District (METRO) and Toys For Tots will host METRO’s first Stuff the Bus donation site on Dec. 11 at Target in Watsonville. METRO and Toys For Tots are teaming up to collect donations of new and unwrapped toys...

MONTEREY COUNTY—A federal magistrate has declined to issue a preliminary injunction that would have temporarily stopped Monterey County from evicting a group of people from an unsanctioned campsite along the Pajaro River Levee. In her ruling, Magistrate Judge Susan van Keulen said that the plaintiffs...

WATSONVILLE—Watsonville police arrested three people over a 10-day period on suspicion of committing sex crimes against children. Daniel Alanis, 39, was arrested Dec. 2 in Salinas and charged with committing lewd and lascivious acts against a child under 14. He was booked into Santa Cruz...

WATSONVILLE—Watsonville Community Hospital (WCH) has begun Chapter 11 bankruptcy procedures, which officials say will provide the funding necessary to continue operating as the case commences and a local group prepares to purchase it. The case was filed in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern...

WATSONVILLE—Vanessa Quiroz-Carter leads Frank Barba in the race for the vacant District 2 Watsonville City Council seat. Unofficial results released by the Santa Cruz County elections department at 8:57pm on Tuesday night showed Quiroz-Carter had a 59-vote lead on Barba.  Only 339 votes had been counted...

WATSONVILLE—The Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees heard a budget report Wednesday for financial activity that has occurred from July 1-Oct. 31, which shows the district is able to meet its obligations for the next three years. This so-called positive certification is a...