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Watsonville
September 18, 2025

Farm, biotech company secures more grants for education programs

In 2021, biotech company Blume Industries (BI) and Whiskey Hill Farms (WHF) became recipients of The Farmer Rancher Grant, a major grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Western Division of Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE). The grant aims to support farmers and...

Support the Pajaro River levee assessment

pajaro levee
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...

Why I support renewing Watsonville’s Measure U

Felipe Hernandez
As a longtime elected official representing the people of Watsonville and the Pajaro Valley, I know how essential and important the agricultural industry is to the region and the rest of Santa Cruz County. In two elections, the voters of Watsonville have overwhelmingly affirmed...

Hanamatsuri–The Flower Festival

Jay Shinseki Watsonville
This month Buddhist throughout the world are celebrating the birth of Shakyamuni Buddha with the celebration called Hanamatsuri the Flower Festival. The name comes from the legend of Shakyamuni’s birth in Lumbini’s Garden and the many flowers that were in bloom that day in...

Letters to the Editor, April 15

letter to the editor pajaronian
Vote no on D We need to look at all the benefits of preserving and restoring the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line, and not be swayed and misled by the anti-rail groups regarding Measure D. The train, whether it be a light rail vehicle, electric tram...

Addressing crime from all angles

Tony's Thoughts
I didn’t know Feliciano Martinez Perea but his story is not foreign to me. It’s a story that many Watsonville residents know. It’s the immigrant’s story. Martinez Perea hailed from the small town of San Martín Peras, Oaxaca, Mexico. He came to Watsonville to...

Easter: From Locked to Unleashed

Memo from Pastor Rene Schlaepfer
“On the evening of that first day of the week, the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear…” (Gospel of John 20:19a) The time: Passover week. The place: Jerusalem. The scene: An upper room. Locked doors. The stale air is thick with uncertainty about the...

Watching war crimes as we prepare for Easter

Rev. Robby Olson
As I write this, images of atrocities in the city of Bucha, a suburb of Kiev, Ukraine, are crossing our screens. Executed civilians, hands bound, lying prostrate on the road. Neighborhoods targeted and destroyed, leaving innocent Ukrainians in the wake. A cyclist, seemingly shot...

Letters to the Editor, April 8

letter to the editor pajaronian
Measure D will waste taxpayer money Supporters of Measure D always promise us that we can railbank our county rail and eventually reinstall rail at a later date. They cite Denton County, Texas as an example of this happening. Since I lived in Denton years ago,...

Letters to the Editor, April 1

letter to the editor pajaronian
A fresh look at the Pajaronian After years of visiting the Pajaro Valley, I made a conscious decision to relocate here. I moved from Southern California and have been delighted. I subscribe to your newspaper and I look forward to reading it weekly. What a wonderful...
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County unveils “transformative” youth crisis center

For years, Santa Cruz County lacked a youth crisis center, meaning that young people experiencing a mental health crisis were taken to overloaded emergency...