News

The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday gave the final stamp of approval for lounges attached to marijuana dispensaries, where people can legally smoke what they buy. The proposal passed 3-2, with supervisors Monica Martinez and Kim De Serpa dissenting. Supporters predict that so-called...

Pajaro Valley Unified School District hosted a meeting Monday night to garner community input on the qualities people would like to see in the next Aptos High School principal.  However, many who went expected to receive information on former principal Alison Hanks-Sloan’s controversial resignation.  “The meeting...

Ceiba College Preparatory Academy will remain at its location at 215 Locust Street, and Pajaro Valley High School will not need to make room for Renaissance High School students, who will not be displaced by Ceiba. All of that was made possible when the Pajaro...

Skeletal remains found in 1995 off of Highway 129 near Aromas have been identified as 13-year-old Laura O’Malley from Queens, New York, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office announced Tuesday. On March 22, 1995, partial skeletal remains were discovered in a riverbed off Highway 129...

A Watsonville man was shot during an altercation late Sunday night near 7th and Hyde streets in Watsonville. Watsonville Police spokeswoman Michelle Pulido said a dispute between two men quickly escalated into a shooting, and then led to the suspect’s arrest in less than 24...

When Aptos High School Principal Alison Hanks-Sloan sent a letter on March 16 to the Pajaro Valley Unified School District community announcing she would not be returning for the 2025-26 school year—and that her last day will be June 30—district officials told The Pajaronian...

Watsonville Police are asking for help in identifying a man who was caught on a security camera hurling a brick at a stained-glass window at St. Patrick’s Church March 14. WPD said the man, clad in white pants and a blue jacket, caused more than...

Monterey County District Attorney Jeannine Pacioni has begun an investigation into an officer-involved shooting on the Highway 101 northbound at Ralph Lane in Prunedale on March 15.  The California Highway Patrol was dispatched to a report of a solo vehicle collision with a guardrail on...

The Watsonville Community Band has been busy rehearsing with Judy Norton, actress, singer, writer, director for film and television, for a pair of concerts April 4 and 5. The free performances—titled “Lions, Tigers, & Marches! Oh My!”—will showcase Norton’s artistry as she sings songs...

Michael McCollum, who worked as staff photographer at the Pajaronian from1987 to 1996, died March 9 in Knoxville, Tennessee. He was 67.  Born on April 27, 1957, to Garland McCollum and Katherine Fromm-McCollum in North Battleford, Saskatchewan, Canada, Mik was 2 when the family moved...