News

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—Santa Cruz Gives, an annual holiday fundraising campaign organized by Good Times (GT) and the Volunteer Center of Santa Cruz County (VSCC), is accepting donations through midnight Dec. 31. Choose from 40 local nonprofit organizations to donate to at santacruzgives.org. Each nonprofit has...

SANTA CRUZ MOUNTAINS—Mother Nature is lending a hand in the fight against the CZU August Lightning Complex fires in the Santa Cruz mountains. Cal Fire Operations Section Chief Mark Brunton said a much welcomed marine layer wandered into the Central Coast as the weekend got...

WATSONVILLE—Efforts by a local nonprofit to purchase and run Watsonville Community Hospital have gained momentum, with several jurisdictions and organizations pledging money. Now, Driscoll’s berry company has stepped forward, offering $1.75 million to match all donations through May 1 to the Pajaro Valley Healthcare District...

WATSONVILLE—The Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees on Wednesday approved a plan to give additional space to its newest charter school. Watsonville Prep School—which already occupies seven portable classrooms at E.A. Hall Middle School—will now take another four rooms at Ann Soldo Elementary...

Poisonous death cap mushrooms have sickened people in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties, according to a statewide list of areas reporting severe illnesses. A group of California doctors warned Wednesday that foraging for wild mushrooms can be deadly, after an unusually high number of people...

A man died in a fire that engulfed a home in Aptos late Tuesday night.  Central Fire Division Chief Nigel Miller said firefighters were met with a multi-story home on the 1900 block of Seascape Boulevard fully engulfed in flames just before 11:30pm. “We got a...

WATSONVILLE—Roughly two dozen Watsonville High School students launched pumpkins into the sky with their class-made trebuchets, a large wooden catapult from a bygone era, at the school’s campus Friday morning. Two Advanced Placement (A.P.) physics classes of juniors and seniors lined up 11 trebuchets at...

Paramedics prepare to transport a person injured when a van rolled while traveling on Highway 1 Friday morning.

WATSONVILLE—Federal, state and local officials gathered at Atri Park in Watsonville Monday at a public ceremony to sign a design agreement for the Pajaro River Flood Management Project.  The long-awaited $400 million effort is designed to reduce flood risk for the “disadvantaged” communities of Pajaro...

The Watsonville Police Department has announced a growing expansion of community service programs through the incorporation of the Neighborhood Services Division.