Local News

A woman who owns a holistic horse-riding business in Felton has launched a nonprofit to spread the joy of horsemanship to people who don’t normally have access to equines. Kristin Praly established Horse Sense Education and Advocacy as a 501(c)3 charity earlier this year and...

The sweet pink frosting on the lemon cookie beckons, reflecting the midday Scotts Valley sunlight. Adina Licht, 51, takes a bite of the lemon cookie and smiles in approval. Because, as a vegan treat, made with olive oil not butter by 17-year-old Emily Leishman, it’s...

The candidate nomination period for the upcoming Nov. 8 election opened on July 18, and several potential political candidates have pulled papers to run for various offices. The Scotts Valley City Council will have two seats—those currently held by Vice-Mayor Jim Reed and City Councilman...

An educational consultant’s report has found diversity efforts at Scotts Valley Unified School District have been hampered by a “pervasive fear” of how parents would react to changes and the belief such initiatives would be “obstructed by vocal community disapproval and retaliation.” Key findings of...

One of California’s oldest environmental groups has been tapped by California’s state fire agency to help protect Felton and Scotts Valley from wildfires. The $970,000 Cal Fire grant to the Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County will fund a vegetation management project called the...

Boulder Creek is now in line for $3.5 million that could be coming from more than 2,800 miles away—Capitol Hill, in Washington, D.C.—for a couple key improvements to the historic lumber town’s infrastructure. On July 7, Congressional Representative Anna Eshoo announced $2 million for a...

SANTA CRUZ—Santa Cruz County’s new Public Defender office began operations on July 1, and the department’s roughly 60 employees celebrated the occasion with a barbecue in the backyard of its May Avenue headquarters.  The new office includes an increased number of attorneys, in addition to...

After nearly two years out of commission, Big Basin Redwoods State Park—the oldest State Park in California—is about to open to the public, once again. It was closed after being ravaged by the CZU Lightning Complex fire, (97% destroyed), but on July 22, the proverbial...

In honor of the second anniversary of the CZU Lightning Complex, Mountain Community Theater (MCT) Director Peter Gelblum did something extraordinary to commemorate the event: he wrote a film about it.  Of the movie, entitled, “The CZU Fire In Their Own Words: Fighting Fires, Losing...

They have specially-designed new ones now, but the original red-and-white-striped shirts worn by the Ben Lomond Fire Protection District firefighters are actually authentic Australian rugby sweaters. It’s what 21-year-old volunteer Mateo Corona was sporting behind the grill at their annual pancake breakfast fundraiser July 3. “I’m...