Local News

SANTA CRUZ—The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday declared a local emergency in response to the increasing numbers of coronavirus cases. The board also ratified a Mar. 4 declaration by Santa Cruz County Health Officer Dr. Gail Newel of a local health emergency. Health...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—Deep cleaning is now routine at Santa Cruz METRO to not only keep their fleet on the road, but to assure riders that busses are squeaky clean. Every day since early March, before the first person in Santa Cruz County was diagnosed with...

WATSONVILLE—Meri Henriques Vahl vividly remembers her first major exposure to the world of art quilts.  Vahl was born in New York in 1945, and years later, during a visit to the Frick Museum in the Upper East Side of Manhattan with a friend, she viewed...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—Santa Cruz County Health Officer Gail Newel on Wednesday issued new restrictions on the county’s beaches, restricting their use between 11am and 5 pm starting on Saturday. The new restrictions came after hordes of people crowded the beaches and ignored social distancing rules...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—The Santa Cruz County Emergency Operations Center is requesting that all tourists and visitors occupying local overnight accommodations such as hotels, motels and vacation rentals leave immediately to free up shelter capacity. Local shelters are near capacity. The Emergency Operations Center is working...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved an ordinance that prohibits so-called “discriminatory reports” to law enforcement, and allows victims to seek financial compensation when it happens to them. Discriminatory reporting was brought to public light in 2020, when...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office has released 93 people from its jail system since March 20, when county Health Officer Gail Newel imposed a series of restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the novel coronavirus. Of the 93 that were released,...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office is warning of a scam in which callers warn residents they have a warrant, and demand money. The individual has identified himself as “John Steel” with the Sheriff’s Office and requests money from the victim. The number...

Arturo Sejudo, 19, of Watsonville is shown with a robot that he and other students competed with in the Second Annual NASA Swarmathon at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Photo by Tarmo Hannula

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—Santa Cruz County Health Officer Gail Newel on Thursday indefinitely extended the shelter-in-place order issued on March 31. She also closed the county’s beaches between the hours of 11am and 5pm. Both moves are meant to further reduce the spread of COVID-19 by...