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Editor's note: This story was updated from a previous version. There were at least 56 fatalities on the highways and 709 DUI arrests across California over the New Year’s holiday, California Highway Patrol officer Sam Courtney said. The totals are a steep climb from last year’s...

PG&E officials halted activities around the planned restart of its battery storage facility in Moss Landing on June 1, the same day it initiated those restart activities. Company officials say they made the decision “out of an abundance of caution,” and did not give an...

The suspected shooter accused of killing a 23-year-old man Aug. 4 turned himself in Wednesday. Officers took the 17-year-old suspect into custody at Watsonville Police Department at 9pm, police spokeswoman Michelle Pulido said.  On Aug. 4, officers responded to the 800 block of McKenzie Avenue, near...

For years, Santa Cruz County lacked a youth crisis center, meaning that young people experiencing a mental health crisis were taken to overloaded emergency rooms, the county’s adult psychiatric facility or were shifted to out-of-county facilities, away from their families. That problem will end in...

The Department of Community Development and Infrastructure will implement stiff penalties for illegal dumping violations on July 11.

WATSONVILLE—Heavy-duty earth-moving equipment rumbled into gear at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds over the past week, reshaping a chunk of land at the Agricultural History Project to make way for the expansion of the Living History Farm. Situated near the entrance of the fairgrounds, the...

WATSONVILLE—About two dozen organizers packed into the Watsonville civic offices on Monday afternoon to turn in the signatures needed to put an extension of a landmark ballot measure before Watsonville voters next year. Measure U, approved by voters in 2002, put restrictions on where, when...

Less than two years after he was hired to run the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds, Zeke Fraser announced his resignation from the post. Fraser was hired as CEO/Fair Manager in June 2023.  The 14th District Agricultural Association/Santa Cruz County Fair Board of Directors  has accepted Fraser's...

WATSONVILLE—Longtime Watsonville resident Masako Miura celebrated her 105th birthday in June in Valley Heights Senior Community where she now resides. “I didn’t realize I was that old,” she quipped. Her advice for younger people hoping to have a similarly long life is, “don’t be an old...

California State Parks announced last week the selection of 26 local park projects that will receive grants totaling $4.1 million from the California Habitat Conservation Fund (HCF) Grant Program, including one in Watsonville and two others in Santa Cruz County.