News

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—An unsanctioned homeless camp in Santa Cruz has reopened, this time with a new name, increased security and a set of rules designed to reduce crime and drug use. The so-called Ross Survival Camp at River Street and Highway 1 was opened on Monday...

SAN JOSE—A 29-year-old Aptos man was shot and killed Saturday by police on Highway 85 during a vehicle stop, San Jose Police Chief Eddie Garcia said Wednesday. San Jose Police say that the man, who has not been named, was the passenger during the stop...

PLEASURE POINT—The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s office on Wednesday released a video of the suspects who allegedly kidnapped a man from his Pleasure Point home last month and then killed him. Tushar Atre, 50, was kidnapped from his upscale oceanfront home on Oct. 1 around...

APTOS—Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s deputies issued misdemeanor citations at five mid-county businesses after employees allegedly sold alcohol or tobacco to minor decoys, Sheriff’s Lt. Greg Lansdowne said.  The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office Alcohol and Tobacco Compliance Unit conducted the Nov. 7 decoy operation at...

APTOS—In Santa Cruz County, one in four children are considered food insecure, a number Second Harvest Food Bank CEO Willy Elliott‑McCrea called “staggering” and “unacceptable.” The growing numbers of hungry people who struggle to feed themselves and their families was the impetus – and the...

SANTA CRUZ—Santa Cruz County Superior Court Judge Ariadne Symons on Monday announced she will retire from the bench at the conclusion of her current term in 2020. Symons issued a press release outlining her nearly four-decade career. “Serving for more than a decade on the bench...

WATSONVILLE—Cabrillo College got its start six decades ago in several condemned buildings in an unused corner of Watsonville High School.  More than 800 freshmen began classes there on Sept. 1, 1959. The community college has since evolved into a mid-county educational centerpiece, serving more than 15,000...

SANTA CRUZ—The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a proposal to sell a property in Live Oak, and a plan to develop it into an affordable housing project that will include a dental and a medical clinic. MidPen Housing, which is purchasing...

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...