Local News

The Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds Foundation is looking for volunteers to plant flowers for this year’s fair. Every year volunteers help plant more than 2,300 flower starters that will be in full bloom at fair time.  “We will be planting red, white and blue petunias...

Thousands of people lines the mainstreets of Aptos and Watsonville for their annual Fourth of July parades, some staking out their roadside seats the night before. Below is a collection of images from the events. SPIRIT OF WATSONVILLE All Watsonville photos by Tarmo Hannula APTOS WORLD'S SHORTEST...

Nine months of late nights, countless repairs and more than 100 hours spent testing an underwater robot in a swimming pool paid off in a big way for a team of Santa Cruz County high school students. Hephaestus Robotics, a 21-member team representing eight county...

The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved a revised $20.9 million budget for the Parks, Open Space and Cultural Services Department, restoring several services that had been slated for cuts while preserving most county funding for local arts organizations. The spending...

Santa Cruz County supervisors on Tuesday postponed until June 30 a decision on proposed cuts to local arts funding after hearing from dozens of residents who urged them to preserve grants for arts organizations. Under the proposal, funding for the Santa Cruz Museum of Art...

More than 150 law officials—from police and deputies to state park rangers and the Highway Patrol—were joined by 80 firefighters and paramedics over a five-day span in an annual training for active shooter scenarios. Put on by the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office at Soquel...

Santa Cruz County supervisors are set to make final decisions Wednesday on a proposed $1.3 billion county budget that would restore more than $1 million to the Public Defender's Office while cutting funding for local arts organizations, including a 50% reduction in county support...

Santa Cruz County Supervisor Monica Martinez has been selected as state Sen. John Laird’s 2026 Pride Month honoree and was recognized Tuesday at the California State Capitol during the California Legislative LGBTQ Caucus's annual Pride Month celebration. Martinez, who represents Santa Cruz County’s Fifth District...

Juneteenth celebrations of Black liberation and freedom spread out around the country over the weekend, including Monterey, Seaside and Santa Cruz.  Now in its 35th year, the six-hour event in Santa Cruz started with a march from City Hall in downtown Santa Cruz and ended...

Santa Cruz County plans to support a lawsuit challenging a proposed federal immigration enforcement facility near Gilroy by joining an amicus curiae brief alongside Santa Clara County and California Attorney General Rob Bonta, county officials announced Thursday. The lawsuit seeks judicial review of a facility...