About Town

I passed through miles of Watsonville’s agricultural fields today under gray, overcast skies. The strawberry harvest seemed to be going full blast, with loaded up flatbed trucks packing the fruit off to warehouses. Scores of workers dotted the fields on either side of San...

Today is April Fool’s Day and yes, living up to the adage: April showers bring May flowers; there are showers in the forecast. First, however, are a string of warm, sunny days predicted by meteorologists at the National Weather Service of Monterey. Showers could...

A crew from Santa Cruz Signs was busy Tuesday installing signage for the new facility of Pajaro Valley Prevention and Student Assistance on East Lake Avenue at Brewington Avenue. PVPSA is a local nonprofit that aims to improve the quality of life of students...

Tarmo Hannula: The Pajaronian debuted our lifestyle magazine, Pajaro Valley, on Friday. Give it a look. ••• Tarmo Hannula: I’ve noticed gas prices edging down over the past few weeks. Regular was $3.55 a gallon on Soquel Avenue Thursday in Santa Cruz. On Friday on 41st...

Friday was Juneteenth, a day celebrated with events around the country, including a peaceful march in Santa Cruz to commemorate the historic day. Juneteenth is the oldest known celebration commemorating the end of slavery in the United States. Senator Elizabeth Warren stacked up the right...

TARMO HANNULA: We are now in the final hours of 2019. If you’ve ever had the tremendous delight of seeing the Broadway musical “Rent," you'll remember how the characters deal with the idea of what a year is in their song, “Seasons of Love”:  “Five...

Officials in Monterey County have canceled the Monterey County Fair this year due to the coronavirus outbreak. The event was special this year in that it was designed to celebrate the 250th year of Monterey under the theme “Fiesta.” • The mayor of Salinas, Joe Gunter,...

A massive Saraha Desert dust cloud has worked its way from Africa, across the Atlantic Ocean to the United States, turning blue skies into a brown haze. Though an annual event, this storm has taken on gargantuan proportions, meteorologists said. The clouds so far...

Fireworks stands are now popping up around Watsonville in preparation for Fourth of July celebrations. • Summer officially started Saturday with the summer solstice. I still marvel that the folks as long as 5,000 years ago knew about the solstice when they started the massive Stonehenge...

The other day I saw someone had dressed up the surfer statue on the westside of Santa Cruz as a firefighter. I imagine it's some form of acknowledgement of the hard work firefighters are doing in battling our wild land blazes. • Maybe desperation has hit...