News

WATSONVILLE—Two people were shot and killed in a span of just more than 48 hours in Watsonville, raising concerns about an uptick of violence in Santa Cruz County’s southernmost city. Watsonville police are investigating the shooting deaths of 19-year-old Fancisco Mora and 30-year-old Octavio Varela...

WATSONVILLE—After months of fundraising during which organizers scraped together more than $65 million, Watsonville Community Hospital will become a now publicly owned entity as of midnight on Sept. 1. The Pajaro Valley Health Care District (PVHD) signed the paperwork on Wednesday, making the sale official. State...

The 35th annual Coastal Cleanup Day is Saturday, and organizers are asking the community for help in cleaning four inland sites around Watsonville.

On Saturday morning, 48-year-old Gerardo Gutierrez was one of about a dozen men sitting in the day room at Salvation Army’s Watsonville location, quietly watching an old Vicente Fernández film playing silently on a television mounted to the ceiling. The men—most of them homeless—had stayed...

A 28-year-old Coralitos woman suffered severe leg trauma Saturday after she was pinned against her vehicle by a driver at Pinto Lake County Park, who then fled on foot, California Highway Patrol officer Sam Courtney said.

A single door was propped open, with a long table placed just inside of Santa Cruz Cider Company’s Apple City Tasting Room Monday afternoon.  A sign directed customers to the makeshift pickup window, which the owners have set up during the countywide shelter-in-place order. Natalie Henz,...

MOSS LANDING—As commercial crab fishermen prepare for the season to begin on Nov. 1, they are also grappling with a strict set of new regulations that start the same day, which some say could severely curtail their livelihood. The new rules, created by the California...

SANTA CRUZ—A graduate teaching assistant who worked at UC Santa Cruz until she was fired on Friday says that a protest for higher wages has grown since it started in December to include several more UC schools. Brenda Arjona, who is in her third-year seeking...

WATSONVILLE—A man accused of shooting at several people outside of a Watsonville home was arrested within 10 minutes of the reported Saturday afternoon incident. Watsonville Police Department spokeswoman Michelle Pulido said Stephen Vitela, 23, fired several rounds at people outside of a home on the...