News

WATSONVILLE—With the Covid-19 pandemic—and the restrictions on businesses that have come with it—sticking around for the foreseeable future, the City of Watsonville is hoping a new program will allow restaurants and shops to better handle the hurdles currently in front of them. The Parklet Program...

Since a series of storms ravaged Santa Cruz County earlier this year, county officials have been preparing for another potential winter of heavy rains. This includes clearing debris from creeks and rivers and repairing three damaged portions of the Pajaro River Levee system. All of this...

Hundreds of people gathered Saturday morning on beaches, in neighborhoods and along riverways to participate in the second-annual Pitch In All Santa Cruz Cleanup Day. The event is organized by the Trash Talkers, a group of elected officials, community members, nonprofits and governmental organizations, formed...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—Santa Cruz Gives, the digital giving movement founded by the Pajaronian’s sister publication Good Times and Volunteer Center of Santa Cruz County, is close to hitting its goal this holiday season. The campaign raises money for various nonprofits across the county which support...

María Olvide Lozano’s 2-year-old daughter stomps around as her mother sits in the lobby of the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program at Community Bridges in Watsonville. It's 5pm on a Tuesday and the pair are the only clients here as staff wraps up...

*Note: Erik Chalhoub contributed to this report Watsonville’s Veterans Day Celebration returns to downtown after last year’s in-person event was cancelled due to Covid-19. Veterans and others will begin gathering at 9:30am on Nov. 11 in the parking lot of St. Patrick’s Church, 721 Main St....

A Watsonville woman nearly lost thousands of dollars Wednesday by falling victim to a version of the so-called “grandparent scam.” According to the Federal Communications Commission, scammers posing as a loved one in a crisis call a relative to ask for money, telling their targets...

This story has been updated from a previous version. A cascading wave of fiscal challenges such as the election of President Donald Trump, his One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) and a cyber attack, has Watsonville Hospital’s leadership team worried that it will not have...

Nearly two years after the Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees voted to end the contract of a company providing ethnic studies training for teachers and administrators, an almost entirely new board unanimously agreed to reverse that decision Wednesday. The one-year contract with...

In a weed-strewn, vacant lot on Airport Boulevard Tuesday, Bryan Hilgeman was busy around his makeshift tarp dwelling where he lives, along with about 40 people in the unsanctioned homeless camp. He says he’s been unsheltered since his wife died two years ago.  When the city...