News

SANTA CRUZ—Several uniformed Santa Cruz police officers were on Water Street Friday morning, along with a group of city workers, tasked with dismantling and moving a homeless encampment that has grown along the north wall of the downtown post office, and in other places...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—The World Health Organization on Wednesday classified COVID-19 as a pandemic, as lawmakers and leaders worldwide grapple with rapidly growing numbers of cases. There are now more than 118,000 cases in 114 countries, and 4,291 people have died. Thousands more have been hospitalized,...

FREEDOM—A Freedom man was arrested Saturday after a bullet he fired during a July 4 celebration ricocheted off the ground and entered a nearby residence, Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Ashley Keehn said. The bullet came within inches of a 10-year-old girl in her Miller...

SANTA CRUZ—Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s deputies on Monday arrested a Santa Cruz man on several felony sex crimes, sheriff’s spokeswoman Ashley Keehn said. Lucas Klatt, 39, was charged with lewd and lascivious acts with a child, annoying or molesting a child and burglary. Klatt is known...

The World’s Shortest Parade in Aptos lived up to its standard of drawing thousands of people, from babies to seniors, to the street — many with their dogs in tow — for a view of the action. From Little League baseball teams and realty groups, to fire engines, elected officials and modern dance troupes, the parade sent 102 different groups along Soquel Drive under cloudy skies. With nine California Highway Patrol officers lending a hand in traffic control and in shutting down a short section of Soquel Drive, the festive event proved to have a greater showing of entries than any mid-week Fourth of July parade, said Karen Hibble, co-executive director of the Aptos Chamber of Commerce.

SANTA CRUZ—A man was shot late Tuesday night in the Beach Flats area of Santa Cruz near the Beach Boardwalk. At least two shots were reported by multiple witnesses around Third Street at Kaye Street at 9:14 p.m. Joyce Blaschke of the Santa Cruz Police...

SCOTTS VALLEY—The CZU August Lightning Complex has destroyed 1,483 structures as of Tuesday morning, making it the ninth-most destructive fire ever recorded in the state. The majority of those structures are single-family homes in the Santa Cruz mountain towns of Boulder Creek and Bonny Doon,...

In October, marking National Teen Driver Safety Week, teenagers across California tallied distracted driving outside their schools during the eighth-annual Roadwatch assessment, an activity organized by the California Friday Night Live Partnership (CFNLP).

More than 600 housing units, open public spaces, “world class” retail brands, distinguished local and national restaurants and a luxury cinema have all been part of the plan during Merlone Geier’s presentations to City of Capitola officials and members of the public.

As a member of the elite Air Mobility Command 60th security forces—a unit also known as the Phoenix Raven Team—Steven Carrillo was the U.S. Air Force’s version of a Military Police officer. For a time, one of Carrillo’s jobs was to issue weapons at the...