Local News

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...

The final Capitola Begonia Festival wrapped up Monday with the traditional Fishing Derby on the Capitola Wharf. The event, which peaks with the Nautical Parade on Sunday, has been a huge draw for crowds of all ages for the last 65 years.

Aptos artist Becky Olvera Schultz is showing her work at Showtime Pizzeria, 7960 Soquel Drive, Suite E, through February.

SANTA CRUZ—The Santa Cruz Metropolitan Transit District (METRO) on Friday announced it has named Michael Tree its new CEO/General Manager. Tree has nearly three decades of experience in the public transit industry and city management, most recently as Executive Director of the Livermore Amador Valley...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved a plan to require all of 2,400 County employees to either take the Covid-19 vaccine or submit to weekly testing. Employees who refuse both risk termination, or being put on leave without...

SANTA CRUZ—Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s deputies on Thursday arrested a Soquel man suspected of more than a dozen counts of sexual assault of a child. Luis Ortiz, 59, was booked into Santa Cruz County Jail in lieu of $1 million bail. According to Sheriff’s spokeswoman Ashley...

A house was fully engulfed in flames at 1250 Valencia School Road in Aptos Sunday evening. The blaze, which was first reported at around 6:45 p.m., ended up burning the structure flat to the ground. No injuries were reported. The family of five that lived at the home were reportedly not in the area at the time of the fire. The cause of the fire in still under investigation.

Investigators believe that Robert Mann, 56, shot his wife Janell Lund-Mann, 45, and then committed suicide, but what led up to the shootings is still unclear, said Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Sgt. Dee Baldwin.

SANTA CRUZ—The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on Oct. 22 approved a plan to build an automobile dealership at a busy Mid-County intersection, a project that includes demolishing several existing buildings. The Nissan dealership on the 2.5-acre parcel on the corner of 41st Avenue...

SANTA CRUZ—The man who slaughtered Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Sgt. Damon Gutzwiller during a violent crime spree two years ago was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole.  Steven Carrillo, 34, also received prison time for attempting to kill four other...