News

25 years ago on June 11, 1996 The Agricultural History Project’s Farm Implement Shed was completed and ready for dedication. Located just inside the fairgrounds’ main entrance, it is now used mainly for exhibits, but will eventually display large, antique farm implements. They will include...

Asked to describe this year’s crop of graduates, Watsonville High School Principal Clara Fernandez lauded the 439 Wildcatz of the class of 2021 for their resiliency and determination to make it through more than a year of distance-learning instruction. Roughly 99% of all seniors, Fernandez...

WATSONVILLE—On Sunday Pajaro Valley Pride (PVP), a local nonprofit aiming to support and advocate for South County’s LGBTQ+ community, will hold its first in-person fundraiser since the start of the pandemic. “Raise a Pint to the Qmmunity” will feature a drag show, with local and...

WATSONVILLE—The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved a plan to purchase properties on Westridge Drive in Watsonville, and to relocate several county services there. The move, which will consolidate five separate departments into a building at 500 Westridge Drive, is expected...

WATSONVILLE—The booming explosions and aerial displays that typically ring in celebratory moments, have become a noisy plague on Watsonville residents who are calling on city government to step up its enforcement of illegal fireworks and possibly outlaw the sale of the ‘safe-and-sane’ variety. Watsonville Mayor...

WATSONVILLE—Renaissance High School brought 41 graduates to the stage at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds under mild, sunny skies on June 2. “The past 16 months has tested your tenacity—not seeing friends and teachers in person,” said Drew Singleton, a principal within the Pajaro Valley...

WATSONVILLE—Seventeen students earned their diplomas at New School in Watsonville this year. Principal Rafael Ramirez said he was “enormously proud” of his graduates, adding that the pandemic brought on extra challenges for staff and students. “But they worked hard and we got through,” Ramirez said. “We’re...

WATSONVILLE—Pajaro Valley Unified School District Trustees who miss meetings without providing notice will lose their monthly stipend under a set of new bylaws approved by the board on Wednesday. The trustees also heard a budget report that shows some positive financial news that is tempered...

APTOS—As a young man, Bapcha Murty moved from his native Chennai, India to attend UC Los Angeles and become an engineer. He went on to a career in the Silicon Valley tech industry that spanned more than two decades in several companies. But when Murty...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—Santa Cruz County’s top fire official on Tuesday warned that, because of a lackluster rainy season, the ongoing drought and low reservoirs, the upcoming fire season could be as bad or worse than last year’s. “As we look back at last year, anything...