News

CENTRAL COAST—As the holiday season barrels ahead and gift-giving inches closer for some, the United States Post Service (USPS) has taken on extra help and expanded its hours.  In Watsonville, to brace for the uptick, postmaster Vicki Amarus said the post office has hired four...

As part of the 2025 Open Farm Tours  guests get a deeper understanding of the workings of the Homeless Garden Project on the west side of Santa Cruz Sunday. Open Farm Tours began 12 years ago, this year opening the doors to 16 farms...

A Watsonville man and a 16-year-old boy in a stolen vehicle picked up a 12-year-old girl who ran away from a group home on Monday, and were arrested when they brought her back, according to Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Sgt. Brian Cleveland.

Tarmo Hannula: I learned in the newspapers the other day that Germans are credited with starting the tradition of Christmas trees in the 1500s. • At midnight Tuesday, as Christmas Eve slipped into Christmas Day, I heard an interesting bit on my police radio from a...

If Pajaro Valley Unified School District performed all the upgrades, repairs and construction projects that are needed at its 33 schools, it would cost more than $1.2 billion. A large part of that estimate is $400 million to replace the district’s array of portable classrooms  That’s...

A man was found dead Saturday afternoon at Ramsay Park. WPD said the man was found by a passerby in a row of shrubs along Main Street. He was identified as Shandon Spotswood, 52, said Ashley Keehn of the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office. A...

The World’s Shortest Parade made its way through Aptos on Tuesday for the Fourth of July. Put on by the Aptos Chamber of Commerce, the parade started at State Park Drive and traveled a short section of Soquel Drive to Aptos Village County Park. The theme...

WATSONVILLE—The national debate over monuments of historic figures in public places has reached Watsonville.  A group of local activists has gathered more than 1,100 virtual signatures in support of removing the George Washington bust in the City Plaza. But not all Watsonville residents want the bust removed. On...

WATSONVILLE—The Watsonville Ivy League Project was launched 14 years ago with a simple idea: bringing high school students to the nation’s top universities will give them a taste of their possible options after they graduate. And the experiment has been successful. Since its inception, more...