News

Tents and a line of chairs have been set up outside Loaves and Fishes awaiting the normal Mon-Fri lunch for needy people on Second Street in Watsonville. • Of the 200 people tested for coronavirus at Natividad Medical Center, a 172-bed acute-care teaching hospital in Salinas,...

WATSONVILLE—The Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency Board of Directors authorized staff to advertise for bids to construct the College Lake Integrated Resources Management Project.  PVWMA officials say the project will provide much-needed water to the critically overdrafted basin of the Pajaro Valley by supplying 1,800...

WATSONVILLE—It was a homecoming celebration for the books: About 60 firefighters, police officers, professionals, retirees, friends and family assembled at Watsonville Municipal Airport Monday to welcome home one of their own. At 12:30 p.m. a private jet landed, swung down the tarmac and stopped at...

The Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District (METRO) will receive an additional $13.5 million of emergency funding through the federal Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations (CRRSA) Act. Approved by Congress in December of last year along with the $1.4 trillion spending bill, the CRRSA Act...

WATSONVILLE—After a half-century in business, Jim Barsi has sold his eponymous liquor store, and will retire in December. That’s when new owners will take over, and rename it Watsonville Fiesta Liquor. But that’s a story for the future. The story of Barsi’s Liquor Store began in...

The recreational dungeness crab season will open statewide beginning Nov. 2.  But the use of traps will be temporarily prohibited between the Sonoma/Mendocino County line and Lopez Point in Monterey County when the season opens due to presence of humpback whales and potential for entanglement...

Watsonville may soon draw out designated “no encampment zones” which would bar unhoused individuals from setting up tents, parking RVs or using cooking supplies in certain areas.  Signs would be posted showing a map of the zones.  These areas would be subject to immediate cleanup, and...

Volunteer Willard Schwartz (left) gets help from Matt Seuss (top) and Laurie Hill in volunteering their help to hang potted begonias around Capitola Monday to honor the Capitola Begonia Festival that ended in 2017 after 65 years.

Polka band to perform at Oktoberfest Oktoberfest returns to Messiah Lutheran Church, 801 High St. in Santa Cruz, on Sept. 30 from noon to 4pm. The event will feature German food, beer and wine, along with various activities for children and families. The Thirsty Nine polka band...

SANTA CRUZ—The man who shot a Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s sergeant to death—days after killing a federal building security guard in Oakland during a crime spree two years ago—pleaded guilty Monday to the local charges. Steven Carrillo, 33, a former U.S. Air Force sergeant, will...