Opinion

My fellow property owners in portions of Watsonville, Pajaro and surrounding agricultural areas are being offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to end our region’s long, heartbreaking history of catastrophic flooding. We would be crazy to turn it down. Our area has suffered eight floods in the...

Grocery shopping is a different experience than what it was before the Covid-19 pandemic. Between long lines and being in close-quarters, navigating an indoor store can be a challenging and not altogether comfortable experience.  This is why many farmers markets across the Monterey Bay campaigned...

Elkhorn Slough, the vast natural area south of Watsonville that serves as a transition zone between land and sea and is home to myriad species of birds—as well as water and land animals—got a boost last week with a $6 million award. The money from...

Compiled by Steve Bankhead 25 years ago on  Feb. 23, 1996 A 13-member delegation from Watsonville’s sister city Kawakami, Japan began a whirlwind tour here of our lettuce industry. The lettuce industry began in Japan during the U.S. occupation after World War II when a mess...

Orin Martin says his favorite thing about the Alan Chadwick Garden at UC Santa Cruz is its diversity.

Watsonville Community Hospital is in urgent need and together we can save it! In the interest of full transparency: I am a Watsonville resident, the Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Community Health Trust of Pajaro Valley, and a personal financial donor...

When a call comes in for a medical emergency, every second counts.  While an ambulance may be on its way from other parts of the county, it is often the Watsonville Fire Department that arrives first. What many people may not know is that every...

On May 18, the Salinas Valley Fair returns to King City for four days of family-friendly events, exhibits and activities.

Now, let’s say the levees that protect your home from flooding are old and deficient. They could fail during the next big storm, causing a major flood. The federal and state government offer to pay $400 million for new and improved levees. The only...

By Denise Elerick, of the Harm Reduction Coalition of Santa Cruz County Substance use disorder is now widely recognized in the medical community as a chronic illness which responds to treatment. Similar to other chronic diseases such as diabetes or heart disease, remission and recurrence...