Local News

Community members are invited to share the spirit of the holiday season by adopting a family in need.

SANTA CRUZ—Hundreds of people filled the streets of downtown Santa Cruz Monday to participate in the third-annual Martin Luther King march, an event co-sponsored by the NAACP and the Santa Cruz Police Department. “This is a business model of the Santa Cruz Police Department,” said...

WATSONVILLE—The Pajaronian this year has jumped on the growing digital giving movement Santa Cruz Gives, the first crowdsourcing website for multiple Santa Cruz County nonprofits. The campaign, which launched for its fifth holiday season Wednesday, raises funds for 37 selected nonprofits via SantaCruzGives.org, where donors...

SANTA CRUZ—The Santa Cruz County District Attorney’s Office will retry the case of a man who was shot as he allegedly broke into an Aptos residence to burglarize it. The trial of Damien Welch ended in mistrial Friday when a single juror did not agree...

Darrow, who goes by the pen name Verlin Darrow, wrote "The Santa Cruz Guru Murders" and "Shrinking the Truth" in the 1990s. He published “Blood and Wisdom” in 2018.

SOQUEL—A fire that broke out in a trailer spread into a garage and a collection of classic cars Monday evening on the 600 block of Olive Springs Road. Central and Aptos/La Selva Fire spokesman Mike DeMars said the 5:50 p.m. incident began in a Casita Travel Trailer and then spread...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—Santa Cruz METRO has increased its passenger capacity by 50% in an effort to accommodate more riders, but that decision has raised concerns within the union representing the bus operators still working during the Covid-19 pandemic. METRO CEO Alex Clifford announced on June...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday set the stage for a streamlined process for rebuilding the homes and other structures damaged in the CZU August Lightning Complex fire. The item was part of the consent agenda and therefore garnered no...

WATSONVILLE—The future of Santa Cruz County’s syringe services program was in the community’s hands this week. In two meetings held by the Santa Cruz County Health Services Agency in Santa Cruz on Nov. 14 and Watsonville on Tuesday, officials asked attendees to outline what questions...

WATSONVILLE—As a new teacher, Brogan Dahl knows how difficult it can be to live in Santa Cruz County on an educator’s salary. She also has experienced the frustration of wanting to bring creativity into her lessons while under the limiting mantle of a strict...