News

WATSONVILLE—The city of Watsonville this coming fiscal year will use nearly $5 million in Measure D and Senate Bill 1 funds to move forward on several road improvement projects within city limits. The list of projects, approved 6-0 by the City Council Tuesday, includes a...

WATSONVILLE—After more than seven decades in business, Yamashita Market—Santa Cruz County’s only store dedicated to Asian cooking supplies—is set to close its doors for good, likely sometime in July. The store’s owner Goro Yamashita says that business was steadily declining even before Covid-19 forced businesses...

WATSONVILLE—Young people in South County suffering from mental health crises now have the option of a response that does not have to involve hospitalization. The South County Mobile Emergency Response Team for Youth (MERTY) was created to provide community and field-based crisis intervention services to...

WATSONVILLE—The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office is asking for help from the public in gaining information about a vehicle crash early Tuesday on the outskirts of Watsonville. Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Ashley Keehn in a Facebook post said that sometime between 4-6am there was a solo-vehicle...

WATSONVILLE—Several new businesses are in the works around Watsonville, all forging ahead despite the looming cloud of the pandemic. A new drive-thru Starbucks in Watsonville Square, a Mexican food restaurant in the historic Mansion House, a panaderia (bakery) on East Fifth Street and a taqueria...

When the pandemic first hit, many retail stores across the globe were forced to shut down their brick-and-mortar locations and transitioned to online shopping, using virtual platforms to display and sell items. For Sindy Hernandez, designer and owner of Queen’s Shoes & More in Watsonville,...

SANTA CRUZ—The man who was 15 when he kidnapped, raped and murdered 8-year-old Madyson “Maddy” Middleton in 2015 pleaded guilty to the charges on Tuesday, setting the stage for a sentencing that could see him released by the time he is 25. That is because...

On April 3, two local bands were invited to perform at a special live streamed concert at The Complex, a recording and production space in the heart of San Francisco. Bayview, a three-piece rock group made up of school friends Adam Renteria, Keith Rayburn and...

PRUNEDALE—A 35-year-old Watsonville man was injured in a butane honey oil lab explosion in Prunedale Monday. Francisco Ponce was in the area when Monterey County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrived at the 16000 block of Meridian Road around 3pm to investigate a report of an explosion. Ponce...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—Though the use of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will be delayed for an undetermined amount of time, the pause of the single-dose inoculation is not expected to significantly slow the county’s vaccination efforts. That’s according to Santa Cruz County spokesman Jason Hoppin,...