News

Just over three decades ago, a group of people set out on a 545-mile bicycle journey from San Francisco to Los Angeles, a weeklong trek that took them along rugged coastlines, through verdant agricultural fields and along vast stretches of highway. Then called the California...

The County of Santa Cruz invites community members to take part in a countywide effort to help shape the Measure Q Vision Plan, which will guide investments in clean water protection, wildfire resilience, public access and preservation of parks, beaches, and natural areas. To support...

On Tuesday, 7-year-old Vincent Robles was playing in Callaghan Park in downtown Watsonville, clambering over the play structures and going up and down the slide. But what he really wanted, his mother Jessica said, was to go back to Ramsay Park, with its big slide.  “He...

A new exhibit highlighting the LGBTQ community has filled the walls of PV Arts on Sudden Street. Titled “Hers, His, Theirs, Ours: Queer Expression,” the show includes more than 70 artists, both local and from outside the community, and features a huge range of media,...

A long-unused, aging outdoor courtyard makes up the eastern portion of Santa Cruz County’s Juvenile Hall, showing its age with a weedy yard and cracked blacktop. But a group of probation officials and youth advocates who gathered there Wednesday have big plans for the space. These...

U.S. Immigration and Customs and Enforcement (ICE) agents on May 27 arrested a longtime Watsonville resident as he walked behind the Target store near the intersection of Harkins Slough Road and Ohlone Parkway. The man’s nephew, who asked to be called Brandon, confirmed the arrest,...

CIRCLE UP Students at Freedom School take part in their annual fiesta on May 26, 1955. The Pajaronian, photo by Sam Vestal

First-responders work to remove a vehicle rollover that occurred at 3pm on Wednesday at 41st Avenue and Clares Street. According to Capitola Police, the male driver of a Hyundai Kona was traveling north on 41st Avenue near Clares Street when the driver of a Mercedes...

When Watsonville Mayor Maria Orozco was a student at Freedom Elementary School, she remembers running around the playing field, pock-marked as it was by holes and other signs of age and wear. “I remember dreading it, because when we were done, my knees used to...

Continuing a local tradition of honoring Memorial Day, a section of Freedom Boulevard  and area cemeteries were lined with over 300 flags Monday, thanks to the effort of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1716 and of the American Legion Post 121.  Local cemeteries were also...