Local News

When it rains, it pours—especially in the Santa Cruz Mountains, which is designated as a temperate rainforest biome. While Southern California has dabbled in drought for years on end, the Santa Cruz region has a feast-or-famine approach to rainfall in the winter months. The...

Sen. John Laird (D-Santa Cruz) has announced the launch of his re-election campaign for the 17th District, which includes Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz counties, as well as much of San Luis Obispo County.  Laird was first elected to the California State Senate in...

Interim Zayante Fire Chief Dan Walters is a likable guy. Sitting across from him on a picnic table outside of the Zayante Fire Station, Walters is easy-going and full of pride: not for himself, but for the men and women who voluntarily serve the...

For the past three months, CZU survivors that were ineligible for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) rental assistance have been able to stay at hotels throughout the county with daily provided meals. As of Nov. 30, 41 individuals were still utilizing the County’s program....

When Zayante firefighters got the call at 7:11pm on Aug. 4 that their services were needed on the Dixie Fire, they had just hours to pack and deploy. It would be two weeks of grueling attacks, sleepless nights and ever-present danger, battling what would turn...

The California Department of Transportation (CalTrans) has begun nighttime work on a wildlife undercrossing near Laurel Curve on Highway 17, which is expected to reduce traffic to one lane in the north and southbound directions. The work began Tuesday on Highway 17, from 0.6 miles...

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY—The Santa Cruz County Public Health Department announced Tuesday that a resident has tested positive for the Delta variant of Covid-19. The patient is a man in his 50s who experienced mild symptoms. The sample was taken on June 10, county spokesman Jason...

Court documents in a lawsuit brought by a 7-year-old Brook Knoll Elementary School student against the Scotts Valley Unified School District show the superintendent considered calling Child Protective Services (CPS) on the parents of the boy, who was protesting the District’s Covid-19 control measures. They...

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...

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...