Opinion

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...

WATSONVILLE—Pajaro Valley’s agriculture businesses and the employees that keep them running are starting to feel the heat, literally. Rising temperatures and more frequent heat waves and wildfires are growing concerns for farmers in the typically cool, coastal stretch of land that overlaps Santa Cruz and...

WATSONVILLE—March is National Agriculture Month, a time meant to honor the role of the agricultural industry in the United States. National Ag Day 2022, organized by the Agriculture Council of America, will land on March 23, with activities and contests held nationwide. For the first...

After the 2023 flood, $434 million was given by the state and government under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to fund a new levee. The 100-year floodplain levee would sustain the Pajaro River, Salsipuedes Creek and Corralitos Creek with the idea that there is 1%...

Thirty-three years ago, while my family was preparing for a birthday party, I decided to arrive early. My mother was shopping for a cake for my sister’s second birthday in our small hometown of Cuerámaro, Guanajuato, Mexico—a rural town of at the time just...

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...

An eager group of fifth graders filed through fresh beds of dirt at Whisky Hill Farm (WHF) in Watsonville Sept. 13, ready to plant their very own seedlings.  Laura Arnow’s fifth grade class from Calabasas Elementary School were there to finally transplant crops they had...

Santa Cruz County residents are no stranger to powerful and dangerous natural disasters, including winter storms with lasting impacts on our community.   The Santa Cruz County Department of Community Development & Infrastructure (CDI) knows that even as we continue to pick ourselves up after last...

Acosta’s ‘No’ vote a disservice to PVUSD students Amid a national teacher shortage, last week Trustee Georgia Acosta voted to make it even more challenging to put a quality teacher in every classroom. With hard-to-staff positions in areas like special education and science, schools occasionally...

Time for a change The Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees rightfully denied a bill for legal services hired solely, against Board Policy, by Georgia Acosta. Knowing the board has its own attorney (separate from PVUSD), she hired outside attorneys without authority to...