News

WATSONVILLE—For the first time in Pajaro Valley Unified School District history, the stadiums, athletic fields and auditoriums that traditionally fill with cheers, tears and the nostalgic strains of “Pomp and Circumstance” will stay silent this graduation season, all to be replaced by the electronic...

SCOTTS VALLEY—Santa Cruz County’s chief law enforcement official, and its District Attorney, had a message for anyone thinking about burglarizing homes in evacuated communities: if you are caught, you will be arrested and prosecuted. Law enforcement officials have increased their numbers by almost tenfold since...

WATSONVILLE—Watsonville police on Thursday arrested a man for allegedly burglarizing a business that is making hand sanitizer for the ongoing coronavirus epidemic. Dustin Dean Davis, 47, was charged with burglary, looting during a state of emergency and violating the county’s shelter-in-place order. He also faces...

On Monday I clipped my bike to the 91X Metro Express bus on Water Street in Santa Cruz and came out to Watsonville. The express bus is just that — it whistles out to south county very quickly: I climbed off the bus 35...

WATSONVILLE—Preparations have been underway in Watsonville to set the stage for the 12th annual World Wetlands Day celebration Saturday. Jonathan Pilch, Executive Director of Watsonville Wetlands Watch, said the work this past week included wetland restoration plantings along the Upper Struve Slough trail in Watsonville...

On Tuesday morning, seven days after he began his post at Pajaro Valley High School, Watsonville Police Officer Saúl Rodriguez walked through the campus, greeting a handful of students who were making their way to their next class. Rodriguez is PVHS’s new School Resource Officer...

After a career in law enforcement that spanned nearly three decades, with assignments that included the downtown walking beat, Watsonville Police Officer Kraig Kliewer hung up his hat Wednesday, with a send-off from his colleagues. Kliewer says he wanted to be a police officer for...

Aiden Niklaus attended Tierra Pacifica through middle school, graduating with a class of 18. He says it was therefore a substantial culture shock coming to Aptos High School, where his class alone boasts nearly 300 students and the sprawling campus seemed tantamount to a bustling...

SANTA CRUZ—The Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk will become the first amusement park in California to reopen after Covid-19 restrictions shuttered them statewide earlier this year, Boardwalk spokesman Kris Reyes said. Rides such as the famous Giant Dipper, which have sat dormant for months, will once...

WATSONVILLE—The city of Watsonville recently agreed to settle a lawsuit over the 2018 death of a Watsonville man. Robert Castillo, 44, died after being struck by multiple cars on Highway 1 hours after he was detained on Nov. 23, 2018 by a Watsonville Police Department...