Watsonville Hospital board approves nurses’ contract
The Pajaro Valley Health Care District Board of Directors on Dec. 21 approved a three-year contract with its nurses, two weeks after the nurses’ union ratified it.
The approval came after six months of bargaining. Nurses say the contract helps improve patient safety by increasing...
METRO bus service changes underway
Big changes are now underway at the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District (METRO). As of Dec. 21, METRO is implementing bus service improvements as part of Reimagine METRO, an effort to increase service, adapt to post-Covid travel patterns and create a more useful transit...
Briefs: Rydell arts fellowships; local equestrians in Tournament of Roses Parade
Four awarded Rydell Visual Arts Fellowships
Four local visual artists have been selected by Community Foundation Santa Cruz County to receive Rydell Visual Arts Fellowship awards for 2024 and 2025.
The awardees are Christian Rex van Minnen, Louise Leong, Maria Isabel LeBlanc and Shirin Towfiq.
Each fellowship...
New mural adorns Hotel Paradox in Santa Cruz
A new 200-foot mural has gone up across the front of Hotel Paradox on Ocean Street in Santa Cruz.
Artist Jeremiah Kille, who has completed scores of large-scale murals around town, Sacramento and elsewhere, finished the work in November.
The mural spans the front of the...
Fire at Circle Church possibly arson
Santa Cruz Fire Department investigators believe that a fire that broke out Tuesday inside the former Garfield Park Church was deliberately set, the department announced on Facebook.
According to SCFD, firefighters responded to multiple calls of smoke and flames seen at the now-closed church—also known...
Multiple shots fired into vehicle, two detained, gun recovered
Two suspects were detained Tuesday in Watsonville on suspicion of firing off a string of shots from a gun into a car.
Watsonville Police said the incident unfolded at the corner of Bridge and Secoya streets in the Vista Montaña housing complex around 2:30pm.
Multiple witnesses...
Campaign begins for Watsonville Hospital’s Measure N
The governing body that oversees Watsonville Community Hospital has brought the institution back from bankruptcy and the brink of closure since it gained control of the institution last year, and restored local control after years of corporate mismanagement.
But with a lasting $6.7 million debt...
Spreading Christmas cheer
Hundreds of cars slowly filed through the annual Christmas Giveaway put on by Casa de la Cultura in Pajaro on Tuesday.
In collaboration with a list of supporting groups, organizers aim to bolster low-income residents, especially farmworkers, during the holidays, with food, clothing, wrapped gifts,...
Honoring the homeless who died this year
About seven years ago, Marie Riggs was living in a homeless shelter and addicted to alcohol, wondering how she would survive this low point in her life.
“I was a hopeless mess,” she said. “I had no idea how to live, I didn’t know how...
Monterey County Sheriff: ‘Bomb’ was lost computer
A suspicious bag left leaning against a California Highway Patrol vehicle in Prunedale Monday—which prompted a response from the Monterey County Sheriff’s Bomb Squad...
