Local News

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...

Up until mid-December, the Bonny Doon Union Elementary School District had seen just a single case of Covid-19 in its student body this school year. And before that, it had only recorded one other case during the entire pandemic. Now, the school system currently...

The air’s a bit hazy and it smells like someone’s having a campfire. It’s 11:11am on March 8, and fire appears to snake along the underbrush, lapping at twigs, cascading upwards, alongside ponderosa pine trees. But there will be no hotdogs and marshmallows today. And this...

Are you a nonprofit worker looking to boost awareness about a civic welfare initiative or part of a group seeking to get the word out about a City-sanctioned event through the medium of street pole signage? Well, you’ll probably be relieved to hear that Scotts...

Scotts Valley has just over half-a-year to develop a Housing Element that other communities can take years to get across the finish line. But it burst out of the starting gate April 5 with a joint Planning Commission/City Council study session that found the community...

Boulder Creek’s Tyrone Clark refers to himself as a “solutions guy.” He’s been in Boulder Creek since 1991, and when the CZU August Lighting Complex fire swept through the area, he felt compelled to do more than just watch. “When the evacuation orders came down,...

During the regularly scheduled March 15 council meeting, Scotts Valley began the challenging journey toward deciding how to plan for 1,220 new housing units in the upcoming Regional Housing Needs Allocation cycle. Taylor Bateman, Scotts Valley’s community development director, introduced the item, noting Kimley-Horn and...

The Scotts Valley City Council has approved $6,000 for a tree lighting at the Walgreens parking lot in the King's Village Shopping Center next month. Traditionally the event has been funded by the Scotts Valley Parks & Recreation Advocates nonprofit, but that organization is currently...

CALIFORNIA—Every year, state lawmakers send hundreds of bills to the governor in hopes they will be signed into law. Many do not make the cut, and fall victim to the state’s lengthy legislative process. But last year 770 bills became law, and many became effective...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—The Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a new ordinance which, if given final approval on March 8, will impose a one-year “cooling off” period during which former County employees would be prohibited from engaging in lobbying activities for...