Local News

A new report from the Civil Grand Jury takes square aim at the affordable housing crisis in Santa Cruz County and demands local planners do more to tackle the problem. The document, published June 2, finds that while municipal officials have a good understanding of...

Travelers will encounter a full closure of Highway 9 at Jaye’s Slide, which started June 12 and continues through June 26, as Caltrans crews make repairs to damage from winter storms. Jaye’s Slide is located on Highway 9 in Ben Lomond, near Park Way and...

Monte Sereno has voted to appoint Kirsten Powell, Scotts Valley’s top legal official, as its new city attorney. The new post in Silicon Valley, however, doesn’t mean she’s quitting her gig with the Santa Cruz County municipality. On June 6, Monte Sereno City Council voted unanimously...

The County of Santa Cruz has released its 2023-24 Proposed Budget and interactive website, giving residents unprecedented digital access to County spending and revenue forecasts, line-item details and insight into how the budget connects to ongoing strategic priorities. The $1.1 billion Proposed Budget includes a...

Scotts Valley Police Department may not quite have enough officers yet to restart its investigations unit, but the patrol department is finally fully staffed, Chief Steve Walpole Jr. told the Scotts Valley City Council on May 17. This addition of novice law enforcers and lateral...

Scotts Valley hosted a virtual public workshop May 30 to discuss the draft Housing Element that was released May 19, but the meeting yielded few comments and was cut off after less than an hour—before all comments could be aired verbally. The all-important residential development...

A Santa Cruz County Superior Court judge threw out the California Department of Transportation’s request for a new trial in a case where a jury decided a key thoroughfare in the Santa Cruz Mountains was so dangerous it contributed to the 2019 death of...

Scotts Valley Council members remained poised, asking constructive questions, as they were told about just how bogged down some of their infrastructure improvement projects had become, during a regularly-scheduled session May 17. Staff blamed this on high turnover at City Hall and pointed to one...

Every time Jeremy Paul Shreves rides the bus past the place where he accidentally killed pedestrian Josh Howard with his SUV in 2019, he says a prayer. “‘I hope to dear God that his family is OK, and that my family will be OK,’” is...

While meeting in the scorching heat at Trinity Bible Church in Felton on Friday afternoon, a group was awaiting a tour of Fall Creek where they’d receive a history lesson about the complex interplay between tan oaks, Douglas fir and coast redwoods over the...