News

APTOS—Four 160-foot flag poles that once served as radio towers and loomed over the heavily-traveled intersection of State Park Drive at Highway 1 were brought back to Earth Tuesday. A crew from the Bigge Crane and Rigging Co. used a huge crane to grab onto...

It has not been an easy harvest season for California apples. When temperatures shot up into the 100s in August and September, sparking wildfires across the state and harming numerous agricultural commodities, apples were one of the hardest-hit crops. The fruit is susceptible to...

ROYAL OAKS—A 63-year-old man died Thursday after he reportedly fell into a machine at Monterey Mushrooms on Maher Road in Royal Oaks, the Monterey County Sheriff's Office said.  The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, is investigating the industrial accident. They said Jose Fierro...

PLEASURE POINT—The man found dead late Tuesday morning in a vehicle in the Santa Cruz Mountains has been identified as Tushar Atre, who was kidnapped from his Pleasure Point home about seven hours earlier. Atre, 50, was taken from his upscale oceanfront home about 3...

WATSONVILLE—The man suspected of murdering his wife in their Watsonville home last week has likely fled to Mexico, Watsonville police said Monday. Cesar Hernandez, 47, allegedly murdered 24-year-old Brenda Elizabeth Becerra and then left her body in a Ford SUV on Mission Drive in Santa...

Many of the several dozen people gathered at the Santa Cruz County Government Center Friday afternoon were in tears as Rolla Alaydi described her numerous family members who have been killed or injured in the war in Gaza. Alaydi was one of several speakers for...

WATSONVILLE—After serving for 12 years as the representative of Santa Cruz County’s 4th District, Supervisor Greg Caput says that he will not seek reelection in the upcoming June primary. With a wife, two sets of adolescent twins and a 16-year-old son, Caput, now in his...

A work crew hauls a large boring machine out of trench at Riverside Drive and Blackburn Street in Watsonville  Crews have finished the roadwork for the College Lake Integrated Resources Management Project, which will provide a 30-inch water main to transport treated water from a...

WATSONVILLE—Two people were shot and killed in a span of just more than 48 hours in Watsonville, raising concerns about an uptick of violence in Santa Cruz County’s southernmost city. Watsonville police are investigating the shooting deaths of 19-year-old Fancisco Mora and 30-year-old Octavio Varela...

Martin Rubalcava came to the U.S. in 1979 from Mexico, and before he earned his citizenship constantly worried about getting rounded up by immigration officials.  “With the papers, I could begin to feel safe,” he said through a translator. “I could invest, help my kids...