Local News

APTOS — Renovation work is moving forward on the Rancho Del Mar Shopping Center. Terramar Retail Centers, the company that owns and operates the center, began demolition work on Oct. 9. The construction work will be divided into three phases and should take about a year to complete, TRC announced Friday.

A quarter-century ago, our world changed drastically. The Sept. 11, 2001, attacks were a coordinated operation in which terrorists seized control of four commercial airliners. Two were flown into the World Trade Center towers in New York City, while a third struck the Pentagon in...

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...

WATSONVILLE—After months of being shuttered during the countywide response to Covid-19, Santa Cruz County Animal Shelter’s (SCCAS) Watsonville location has opened once again. The reopening came a few days before the Fourth of July, a holiday known to cause lost pets and disrupted wildlife from...

APTOS—On Nov. 14, the Cabrillo College Governing Board will meet to answer a question that has been vexing Santa Cruz County for two years: should the name of its community college be changed? The effort to possibly change Cabrillo College’s name began in 2020, as...

Editor's note: Story includes vulgarity. The man who says he served as the driver on May 29 when Steven Carrillo allegedly killed a federal police officer in Oakland—and wounded another one—confessed to his role in the attack after turning himself in to the FBI. But...

SANTA CRUZ—The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday unanimously approved a plan to expand the county’s Focused Intervention Team (FIT), which pairs law enforcement officials with behavioral health specialists and other supportive services to address high-frequency criminal offenders. The program launched on Jan....

Editor's note: This story was updated at 10:50am on April 10 with new information. Watsonville officials said Friday that a proposed plan to house a designated sexually violent predator at a Main Street motel has been halted after the property owner withdrew, citing community opposition. The...

On Dec. 16, Seascape Village Fitness partnered with Santa Cruz Children’s Charities to host the 10th Annual Beauty Bash Fundraiser to benefit local families in need.

The owners of the three-year-old Lito’s Lounge, housed in the historic Five Mile House in Corralitos, have always envisioned a place where people could gather, socialize and listen to live music into the evening hours.  That vision got closer to reality recently when the business...