News

The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday took a first look at this year’s finances in advance of budget hearings in June. The $1.23 billion budget proposal is $176 million less than last year’s budget, and has not yet taken into account possible...

Less than three hours after Santa Cruz County unveiled for the public the first look at this year’s budget on Friday—which among other things calls for laying off 74.40 full time equivalent positions and a budget reduction of $8.98 million to the Santa Cruz...

Prominent farmworker activist and organizer Dolores Huerta joined several other speakers at a public meeting in Watsonville Saturday to raise awareness about the dangers of agricultural pesticide use on farmworkers, children, consumers and residents throughout Santa Cruz county.  Childhood cancer rates in Santa Cruz county...

Santa Cruz County Superintendent of Schools Faris Sabbah joined two young people at the flag pole at the Office of Education headquarters on Encinal Street in Santa Cruz Friday morning, where they attached a Pride flag that will fly with the U.S. and the...

Watsonville Police on Tuesday arrested a registered sex offender after he allegedly followed and inappropriately touched a 17-year-old girl. Kenneth Wilder, 31, has been charged with assault with intent to commit rape, stalking, annoying or molesting a minor and sexual battery.  As a registered sex offender,...

A  73-year-old Santa Cruz man was struck by a car and killed early Friday morning on Highway 1 in Santa Cruz. The California Highway Patrol said the man, for unknown reasons, was walking on southbound Hwy 1, north of Soquel Avenue around 5am. CHP officers responded...

Monterey County Sheriff’s Deputies on Wednesday—with the help of a Belgian Malinois K9 officer named Rocket—arrested a Watsonville man after he was found with a large stash of illegal drugs. Rodrigo Roy Marquez, 45, was charged with possession of narcotics for sale, driving on a...

Thanks to the help of volunteers at the Pajaro Valley Arts and staff from the Pajaro Valley Unified School District, the four-story Civic Plaza Building in Watsonville has been dressed up with an exhibit of original student artwork for the next year. The effort has...

Flodberg Park lies in the center of a neighborhood at the end of Alvarado Street, a tiny place with a grassy field, a blacktop, a play structure and tables for picnics. There is also a long, colorful mural along a fence abutting the park, as...

Composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart began writing ‘Requiem in D Minor’ in 1791, but died at 35 before it was completed. Part of that composition, called ‘Lacrimosa,’ are thought to be the last notes he wrote. Perhaps it is fitting, then, that the Requiem will be...