Local News

"We are so happy that we got to participate," she said. "We are also so said that it's going to be the last one. We hope something will continue." In January, the Capitola Begonia Festival committee announced that the 2017 iteration of the festival will be the last. Golden State Bulb Growers, which grows the begonia blossoms in Marina, is retiring from the business of growing begonias, but agreed to donate the blossoms for the festival for one final time.

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—Catherine Barr, Executive Director of Monterey Bay Certified Farmers Markets, was in good spirits Tuesday. She had just received news that the Cabrillo Farmers Market in Aptos would remain open during the countywide shelter-in-place order due to COVID-19. “I am over the moon...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—A Santa Cruz-based community organization this month publicly stated its opposition to a proposal that would increase the distribution of needles to drug addicts, saying that similar efforts have led to increased numbers of used ones found in public places. The letter by...

CENTRAL COAST—The Central Coast Section, the local governing body for schools stretching from San Francisco along the coast to King City, this week unveiled its plans for the fall sports season and beyond.  The governing board on Tuesday announced in a press release that mid-December...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—The World Health Organization on Wednesday classified COVID-19 as a pandemic, as lawmakers and leaders worldwide grapple with rapidly growing numbers of cases. There are now more than 118,000 cases in 114 countries, and 4,291 people have died. Thousands more have been hospitalized,...

Four suspects have been arrested in connection with the Oct. 1 kidnapping and murder of tech executive and Pleasure Point resident Tushar Atre.  On Tuesday night Kurtis Charters, 22, Joshua Camps, 23, and Stephen Lindsay, 22, were booked into Santa Cruz County Jail charged with murder, kidnapping...

SANTA CRUZ—The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a project designed to integrate clinical, mental health and housing services to help the county’s population of homeless people with mental illness and substance use disorders The Mental Health Services Act Innovation Plan is...

SANTA CRUZ—The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office installed a new body scanner Tuesday at the intake area of the Main Jail to help snare contraband before it is brought in.  The Tek84 scanner, which is similar to those used at airports to screen travelers, provides...

In that vision, thousands of people using that trail will significantly reduce the load on Highway 1, thus improving commute times and solving a problem that has long plagued the county. That vision is different from that of the county’s rail advocates, who hope that a passenger train will one day serve more than 3,600 people daily. On Tuesday, a group of Greenway supporters handed a stack of petitions with more than 10,000 signatures to Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission’s new director Guy Preston. Supporters say the petition shows overwhelming support from county residents to convert the rail line into a pedestrian and bike trail.

WATSONVILLE—The Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees on Wednesday unanimously approved nine new courses at five high schools that will bolster the district’s newly retooled Career Technical Education program. The new courses were created as extensions of the existing ones, with the penultimate...