News

WATSONVILLE—When Pajaro Valley High School opened in 2004, it was with the understanding it would soon have a playing field. But since then, legions of student-athletes have played on other schools’ facilities, and generations of graduates have received their diplomas on other school’s fields. Those...

Tarmo Hannula: Heavy rain, laced with hail and strong gusts, whipped through the Pajaro Valley before noon Thursday. A friend called me to say he was in the middle of a heavy snow shower on Highway 17 near the summit. Thunderstorm activity could come...

LIVE OAK—A 17-year-old Aptos High School student died Tuesday after he was stabbed multiple times, and two other students—14 and 17—are facing murder charges for the attack, which occurred on the school’s campus. Santa Cruz County Sheriff Jim Hart made the announcement during a press...

A woman who lost her wallet in 1962 was reunited with it 58 years later this week when construction workers found the red leather folding wallet during a refurbishing project of a movie theater. It was discovered in a framing and sheetrock cavity inside...

APTOS—Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s deputies have a new tool to help them arrest uncooperative suspects without serious injury. Dozens of sheriff’s office personnel on Wednesday were training on the use of the Bola Wrap, a handheld device that fires an 8-foot cord with barbed hooks...

WATSONVILLE—Dozens attended Tuesday night’s Watsonville City Council meeting to rebuke reported complaints lodged to the City Manager’s office about mobile food vendors. This included about a half-dozen food truck operators gathered on one device that took turns grilling the City Council and staff holding the...

WATSONVILLE—A 20-year-old Salinas man died in a head-on crash on the Riverside Drive Highway 1 overcrossing in Watsonville on Nov. 20. Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Ashley Keehn identified the victim as Cesar Romero. Sam Courtney of the California Highway Patrol said Romero was driving...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved a plan to transition cases from the current public defender’s office to the newly minted Office of the Public Defender, which is slated to officially launch on July 1. The new office...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—A group of local transportation organizers is hoping that, within the span of a decade, a passenger rail will run from Watsonville to Santa Cruz, making stops at hubs where busses will whisk passengers to further destinations.  For commuters who wish to eschew...

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...