COVID-19

SANTA CRUZ— The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved an $874 million budget for the coming year that includes cuts and position reductions to every department in the county. According to County Budget Manager Christina Mowrey, the reductions include furloughs of 5-10%,...

Santa Cruz County officials are urging the public to avoid crowding the county’s beaches in an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19. With shelter-in-place orders in place throughout California, non-essential workers are staying home, schools and universities are switching to online classes and some...

WATSONVILLE—Pajaro Valley Unified School District’s budget has improved somewhat since the summer, when grim projections showed the district possibly unable to meet expenses for the next three years. The district’s Board of Trustees heard the news in a budget update on Wednesday. That situation, known as...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—The economic restrictions imposed on various Santa Cruz County businesses are not expected to be loosened this week, according to Santa Cruz County Health Services Agency spokeswoman Corinne Hyland. That’s despite the fact that the county will have spent its 14th day off...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—Watsonville Community Hospital and Dominican Hospital have restarted offering elective procedures after they were put on hold to help slow the spread of Covid-19 and to prepare for a surge of patients with the disease.  This includes procedures such as surgeries, endoscopies, cardiac...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—Every school district in Santa Cruz County will be required to begin the 2020-21 school year with distance learning, Santa Cruz County Superintendent of Schools Faris Sabbah announced Monday. The announcement came after the county on Monday met California Department of Public Health’s...

Congress is still hammering out details on a $2 trillion rescue package to help the country weather the coronavirus outbreak. Financial relief in the package is aimed at helping large corporations, the airline industry, hospitals and public transportation. In addition, around $367 billion is...

The main branch of the Watsonville Public Library has a display of literature to recognize of Women's History Month, which is March. • This evening, showers will taper off to fog around 11 p.m. The National Weather Service said more rain appears to be on the...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved a temporary ordinance that will allow law enforcement officials to issue tickets to people violating county health orders, including not wearing a face covering where it is required. Under the new county...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—When the county’s first shelter-in-place order went into effect on March 16, the Santa Cruz Symphony (SCS) immediately took action. Recognizing that it was unlikely Spring performances could be held, SCS set up the Musician Relief Fund, seeded by $20,000 from its general...