News

Residents in Santa Cruz County now enter the third week of the shelter-in-place order from health officials launched on March 16 in response to the COVID-19 spread. Now those officials are shifting the initial two-week plan to remain in place until at least May...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—The county’s tourist hotspots—along with its restaurants and hotels—can expect a slight uptick in business this summer from Californians seeking to hit the road for short road trips, according to a survey released Wednesday by Visit Santa Cruz County (VSCC). This prediction is...

APTOS—In her more than two decades of working with nonprofit organizations, C.J. Runyon spent eight years with Walu International, which among other things helps provide hand-washing stations to rural communities in Papua New Guinea and Nicaragua, where poor sanitation leads to a myriad of...

SANTA CRUZ—Two Santa Cruz men were arrested March 12 during a traffic stop after police found them in possession of guns, open containers of alcohol and illegal drugs. Clyde Ortega, 28, and Mauricio Morales, 22, were charged with a variety of weapons and narcotic crimes....

Nearly three decades ago, 9-year-old Jessica Cortez and her brother Jorge, 16, were gunned down by gang members as they walked to a nearby panaderia on Salinas Road for a treat. Nobody has ever been arrested, and while police do not know why the gang...

APTOS—A lawsuit against Pajaro Valley Unified School District by the family of a 17-year-old Aptos High School student who was stabbed to death in August is proceeding, and will likely be filed in the coming weeks. Charles “Tony” Piccuta, the attorney representing the family, declined...

Starting in 2020, consumers will have the power to find out what personal information companies are collecting on them, and to tell them to stop doing so, and to delete it. That’s thanks to the California Consumer Privacy Act, or CCPA, which the American Bar...

WATSONVILLE—The new playground at Muzzio Park will indeed be bigger and better—pricier too. Roughly four-dozen members of the community surrounding the park at the corner of Rodriguez and West Front streets overwhelmingly decided to completely overhaul the play structure that was burned down in early...

Four Watsonville teens were arrested Monday after allegedly burglarizing a residence on Lakeview Road, abandoning their vehicle near Watsonville High School and then fleeing across the school’s campus

The Watsonville Strawberry Festival will return Sunday to downtown, bringing with it a full day of strawberry delicacies, live entertainment, artisan vendors and more. Like most events in 2020, South County’s premier festival was canceled in response to the pandemic. And for a while, the...