News

Four Winds Growers, a fourth-generation, family-run business in Watsonville specializing in citrus trees, has seen major growth in sales since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.  Aaron Dillon, who runs the business with his siblings, says that the surge is likely due to people who...

WATSONVILLE—A lawsuit against the city of Watsonville and the municipal airport will move forward after a Santa Cruz County Superior Court judge on Thursday denied a motion to dismiss it. The plaintiff in the case is United Flight Services (UFS), which sued the city in...

TAHOE CITY, Calif.—When the pandemic swept through California last year, Lake Tahoe, the azure gem of the Sierra Nevada, swarmed with city dwellers fleeing to the purity of its alpine air. Now the stampede has reversed. With a fast-expanding wildfire roaring just one ridge away...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors took the first step in updating the county’s climate action strategy, a response to global warming and its effects on infrastructure and the people who live here. Updating the County’s Climate Action Plan—first adopted in 2013—is...

WATSONVILLE—Watsonville Police on Thursday arrested a Salinas woman accused of embezzling more than $75,000 from a Watsonville business located on Hangar Way. Julie Brooks, 50, faces felony grand theft charges. She was booked into Santa Cruz County Jail on $100,000 bail, but was not in...

WATSONVILLE—Watsonville artist Guillermo Aranda sat in his second-floor studio on West Lake Avenue last week working on a new painting of a heron. The unfinished work was spread out on a table covered with various paints, sketches and several drafts of birds in flight—one...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—Daniel J. Story was a second-grader living in the Midwest when the Loma Prieta Earthquake struck California on Oct. 17, 1989. He recalls it flashing on the news, and his teacher being worried about people she knew in the area. But Story admits...

WATSONVILLE—In December, the Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency (PVWMA) Board of Directors approved a $1.2 million water conservation program aimed at further bolstering the efforts already in place by farmers. PVWMA is partnering with the Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County (RCD) and the...

With most people staying close to home during the pandemic, looking for things to do and ways to stay safe, local nurseries have seen an uptick in customers. Stay-at-home orders have prompted many to find new hobbies—and gardening has been a popular choice. Sierra Azul...

WATSONVILLE—The Watsonville City Council returned from its summer recess with a heated verbal scuffle between mayor Jimmy Dutra and councilman Lowell Hurst over the former’s proposed trip to a conference in Southern California. Dutra at Tuesday’s meeting was asking his peers to approve using $1,134.05...