Local News

Students in the local dance class, Estrellas de Esperanza, taught by Ruby Vasquez, hosted an information session for the public Wednesday evening to learn about a Mexican holiday tradition called La Rama.  Maestro Claudio Naranjos Vega traveled from Vera Cruz, Mexico, to run the class...

APTOS—When Oscar Cisneros was a sophomore at Aptos High School he and his friends felt their school was not celebrating its large cultural diversity. “This is a diverse campus,” he said. “There are so many cultures that should be celebrated.” Together, they created the Migrant Student...

Drag show raises funds for Pajaro flood victims A Drag Queen & Burlesque benefit show to raise money for the Pajaro community affected by the recent flood will take place on April 2 from 1-7pm at Fruition Brewing, 918 East Lake Ave. in Watsonville. The event...

WATSONVILLE—Two men were shot five hours apart in reportedly unrelated incidents on the outskirts of Watsonville on June 23, and multiple suspects remain at large. Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Ashley Keehn on June 24 said deputies are searching for 47-year-old Edgar Ayala, the...

Big changes are now underway at the Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District (METRO). As of Dec. 21, METRO is implementing bus service improvements as part of Reimagine METRO, an effort to increase service, adapt to post-Covid travel patterns and create a more useful transit...

WATSONVILLE—Gerry Kall on Friday celebrated her 101st birthday in Watsonville, the town she was born in. Thanks to a gathering of relatives, friends, Katie Nuñez, Watsonville Senior Center’s older adult services supervisor, and a handful of folks who cheered out the window of the cars...

With partisan politics in Washington dividing the nation, leaders from both sides of the political spectrum will sit down and talk about the state of the country and how to move forward during the return of “Saving Democracy.”

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—As hundreds of people across Santa Cruz County set off an arsenal of fireworks over the Fourth of July weekend—both the illegal and the “safe-and-sane” variety that were allowed in the cities of Watsonville and Capitola—the county’s southernmost city saw several serious...

Two weeks ago, Amelia Loftus, owner of Hidden Fortress Coffee Roasting, was on the brink of closing her cafe in Watsonville just shy of its five-year anniversary. The shop, located at the end of a sleepy business complex on Hangar Way, had been struggling to...