Opinion

For many farmers, the winter months are spent recovering from harvest season and getting ready to plant. Even in a Mediterranean climate like the Central Coast, it is common for farms to use the slower time to reassess. But at JSM Organics in Royal Oaks,...

25 years ago on July 10, 1996 Watsonville police captain Chuck Carter retires this month after 30 years of service, many of them involved in community projects with a social angle. “I’ve never seen a police officer as heavily involved as Chuck is with a...

By Frank Anderson Most everyone agrees that Santa Cruz County needs to improve its transportation. We’ve all observed large, virtually empty buses, the lack of a safe bike network, and a rail corridor that has sat unused for decades. All the while, thousands of cars...

Every year we have concerns about the Pajaro River and the stability of the levee system. The Pajaro River levee has one of the lowest levels of flood protection of any federally funded project in the United States and has been providing inadequate protection...

Compiled by Steve Bankhead 25 years ago on March 9, 1996 Pajaro has developed community spirit in efforts to clean up and rebuild after last year’s flood. A major assist came from “Together in Pajaro” (TIP) organized by Diane Young to guide the effort. One target...

Keeping up with Watsonville

By Jimmy Dutra, former Watsonville City Councilman In 1992, some of us witnessed the ugly truth of racism for the first time. We heard the outcry over the beating of Rodney King. I was a teenage student at Watsonville High School, who believed in an...

Like so many others who live on the beautiful Central Coast, I make the daily trek over the hill to my workplace in Silicon Valley. However, unlike so many of my fellow Highway 17 warriors, I am not a techie at Google or Facebook, but rather I am a teache

With great sadness and anger, I am reading in the news about a surge in violence against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) around the U.S. From the man that opened fire in Georgia on March 16, killing eight people, including six women of Asian...

The Pajaro Valley Chamber of Commerce and Agriculture has announced its annual awardees, including the man and woman of the year. Nita Gizdich was on her ranch Tuesday morning, and as usual she was working.  Although sweeping the driveway leading to her iconic pie shop was...