News

WATSONVILLE—The City of Watsonville is staring at more than $100 million of much-needed improvements and additions to its water system over the next 10 years. That’s according to the Water System Master Plan, a first-of-its-kind project the Watsonville City Council approved in April 2019 and...

The Santa Cruz County District Attorney’s office will not pursue the case against five Pajaro Valley Unified School District trustees who were accused of violating open meeting laws.

Editor’s note: Evie Kinkead is a junior at Aptos High School. For years, monarch butterflies in California have been endangered.  This is influenced by harmful pesticides infiltrating milkweed, a critical plant in the butterfly's life cycle. This, in concert with rapid urbanization, has led to the...

In a weed-strewn, vacant lot on Airport Boulevard Tuesday, Bryan Hilgeman was busy around his makeshift tarp dwelling where he lives, along with about 40 people in the unsanctioned homeless camp. He says he’s been unsheltered since his wife died two years ago.  When the city...

WATSONVILLE—Willy Elliott-McCrea has been with Second Harvest Food Bank Santa Cruz County since 1978. During that time, he worked as a truck driver and a warehouse manager before becoming director in 1988. He saw the organization through a number of crises that increased the need...

On Dec. 31, heavy rains overwhelmed Corralitos and Salsipuedes creeks and sent floodwaters cascading into several neighborhoods in Watsonville and unincorporated South County. Sonia Corrales was among hundreds whose lives were upended. She says her home in the College Lake area was rendered uninhabitable, forcing her...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—For the past 19 years, the Celebrate Piano Ensemble (CPE) has provided local pianists a way to explore pieces for two pianos (four to eight hands), all the while aiming to benefit school-age music students in Santa Cruz County. CPE’s annual February concert...

Adán Ramirez died on Nov. 4 after a car struck him as he crossed Airport Boulevard three days earlier. He was 89.

Watsonville city officials gathered Friday to break ground on a major renovation and upgrade for Ramsay Park. The Ramsay Park Renaissance Project is expected  to revitalize and transform Watsonville's largest recreation site. The park now features a community center, the mammoth Soccer Central tent, soccer and...

By Jake Pierce, Good Times News Editor Gov. Gavin Newsom has announced that California’s firefighting crews are now trying to suppress 560 fires, most of them stemming from dry lightning strikes that first began Aug. 16. Statewide, 771,000 acres—an area the size of Rhode Island—have burned...