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Watsonville
March 1, 2026

Letter: Don’t sacrifice airport for development

letter to the editor pajaronian
Under no circumstances should the Watsonville Municipal Airport be the sacrificial lamb for low income housing or other types of development!   Watsonville Mayor Eduardo Montesino states: “A playground for rich people to have an airplane.” Not only is this a reckless, erroneous comment, it also...

Letter: RTC misses the mark on Highway 1

letter to the editor pajaronian
You can take an express bus from Watsonville to Santa Cruz without traveling a whole lot longer than it takes by car—so long as you travel after the morning peak commute hours. If you hop on a 91X bus at Main Street and Green...

Letters to the Editor, Feb. 25

letter to the editor pajaronian
Thank you, John Laird The Democratic Women’s Club (DWC) of Santa Cruz County thanks State Senator John Laird for his swift action on introducing legislation to save the Watsonville Community Hospital, recently purchased by the Pajaro Valley Healthcare District Project, a consortium of government agencies and...

How Farmworkers Outlawed ‘El Cortito’ 50 Years Ago

Monterey County Supervisor Luis Alejo
For decades in the Salinas Valley, the short-handle hoe, known as “El Cortito,” was used for weeding and thinning rows of crops that kept farmworkers stooped over for long hours each day. Workers were only able to stand and stretch when they reached the...

Woody Rehanek: Science proves pesticide’s destructive nature

For the last 18 years, I taught a special education class in the Pajaro Valley. Many of my students were farmworker children with learning disabilities: problems paying attention, reading difficulties, hyperactivity, autism, lower IQ and struggles with self-control. I was shocked to discover that one of the most widely used pesticides in the world — chlorpyrifos — has, after over 20 years of solid research at UC Davis, Berkeley, Columbia University and elsewhere, been linked to these difficulties in learning and behavior.

Fight the polarization

Memo from Pastor Rene Schlaepfer
Memo from Pastor Rene As I write this, the outcome of the presidential election is still unclear. Or should I say, the winner is unclear. What’s very clear is how deeply polarized our nation has become. The red went blood-red, the blue ice-blue, and the...

Year In Review: Highlighting the good in a challenging year

dia de los muertos pajaro valley arts
Around this time last year, I wrote that 2020 was “a year that changed the world.” And I stand by that. But in my opinion, 2021 was just as challenging, if not harder. Sure, we got to see friends and family again, maybe go...

This Week in Pajaro Valley’s Past, May 14

pajaro valley's past
25 years ago on May 14, 1996 The program “Home Independent Study” is open in the PV School District at Alianza Elementary School. The 90-plus students enrolled in it are free to explore their own learning styles, interests and ideas while keeping within state and...

Movie Review: 'Justice League’ brings up feelings of what could have been

“Justice League” is a rushed, cut-together mess through its first two acts that has no heart and continuously thuds in the comedy department so badly that I was actually cringing.

Letters to the Editor, Sept. 24

letter to the editor pajaronian
Ethic studies bill is discriminatory  On Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk is the ethnic studies bill. I must note that he doesn’t need to sign it. Surprise? The California State Board of Education already approved, in 2016, the Around the Horn & Inland Waterways content for...
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Santa Cruz County Superintendent of Schools Faris Sabbah addresses about 150 high school students at the start of the Santa Cruz Countuy Youth Civics Summit at Cabrillo College.

Students learn the power of the vote at Civics Summit

On Friday, about 150 high school juniors from across Santa Cruz County cast their first ballots on three issues that, if passed, would dramatically...