News

Santa Cruz County Health Officer Dr. Gail Newel said that residents should try to move away from using single-layered cloth face masks and instead seek out medical or surgical masks that have been more effective in slowing the spread of Covid-19. This includes N95, KN95...

SANTA CRUZ—Dozens of homeless people were roused by police officers in their tents early Friday morning at Phoenix Camp, the unsanctioned encampment behind the Gateway Plaza at River Street and Highway 1 in Santa Cruz. The message was clear: the residents were trespassing on city-owned...

Observations from the Pajaro Valley and beyond.

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—Massage therapy, nail salons, tattoo parlors and other personal services can reopen in Santa Cruz County on Friday, the county announced Monday. The county said those businesses should follow state guidance released by the California Department of Public Health June 12 which requires...

SANTA CRUZ—A man hoping a new set of California laws would ease his lengthy prison sentence will have to wait a while longer while his case is appealed. Vincent Marquez, now 65, was in court on Aug. 26 for his resentencing hearing. He is one...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—California Gov. Gavin Newsom at a Thursday press conference announced that 40 percent of the state’s vaccination doses will be prioritized for disadvantaged communities, a move he said was needed to address the disproportionate impact that the novel coronavirus has had on...

Female-dominated cast puts fresh twist on classic story WATSONVILLE—Watsonville High School drama instructor David Scott believes that author S.E. Hinton would appreciate his stage adaptation of her 1967 novel, “The Outsiders.” Under the suggestion of her publisher, Susan Eloise Hinton had used her first and middle...

In 2020, the CZU fires ravaged the Santa Cruz Mountains, destroying 1,490 structures and an untold number of trees. A little more than two years later, many of those downed trees washed down streams into the ocean and, during the storms in January and February,...

A March 14 executive order by President Donald Trump targeting federal funding for libraries and museums—among other things—will leave no community untouched. But the impact will vary throughout the state. Both the Santa Cruz County Public Library and the Watsonville Public Library systems receive millions...

A wealth of road repairs and upgrades around Santa Cruz County are underway, from mud and rock slip outs and roadway washouts, to resurfacing and road surface replacements. Heavy storms and major flooding, from the start of the year into March, has forced engineers to...