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APTOS—The high school football season unofficially kicked off this past weekend with the Santa Cruz County Jamboree at Cabrillo College. St. Francis, Pajaro Valley and Watsonville high schools along with four other schools within the county scrimmaged for the first time this season at...

SCOTTS VALLEY—Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s detectives on Wednesday arrested a Live Oak man suspected of using credit and bank cards stolen from a firefighter’s truck to make thousands of dollars in purchases. Brian Lee Johnson, 34, has been charged with using stolen credit cards, receiving...

APTOS—Tomas Alejandrez was experiencing homeless and using drugs while living on the streets of Fresno when he was 39. Now 47, he is set to graduate from Cabrillo College today with three Associates degrees. He is one of 1,240 that will participate in the college’s...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—The CZU August Lightning Complex fires have so far destroyed more than 500 homes and forced 77,000 people to evacuate from their community. Those people have flooded evacuation centers throughout the county. That, coupled with the Covid-19 pandemic that has upended the economy...

WATSONVILLE—A candidate for Watsonville City Council is calling for Councilwoman Ari Parker to resign for abuse of power after she challenged his standing as a teacher on his candidate statement, and asked City officials to scrub his designation. But Parker is saying that she...

APTOS—A late turnover for the Aptos High football team led to a heart-breaking defeat in last week’s home opener against Campolindo High. For senior running back Caden Prichard, the Mariners’ 30-22 loss left a bad taste in their mouths.  “I don’t think we played a great...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—Saying that she has not yet seen reliable data that a countywide masking mandate would alter personal behavior or lower Covid-19 cases, Santa Cruz County Health Officer Dr. Gail Newel said she does not plan to issue a new order any time...

WATSONVILLE—The Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees on Aug. 24 approved a series of bonuses and supplemental payments aimed at retaining teachers and school employees. Every teacher, school worker and administrator employed since April 1—and who plans to stay with the district through...

APTOS—Plans were announced Thursday of a major renovation of Willowbrook County Park to honor the late Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller, who was gunned down in the line of duty in 2020. The project of “reimagining” the park was announced in a brief...

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%,...