Local News

5th annual Holiday Lights brings sparkle to fairgrounds The fifth annual Holiday Lights event has returned to the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds, and it’s bigger and brighter than ever. It features light displays including a 30-foot sea serpent, huge rooster, lighted tractors with turning wheels,...

Leann Anderson was still four months away from her 18th birthday when she proudly accepted her high school diploma. The Bonny Doon girl had struggled to overcome dyslexia. But in the end, she’d triumphed.  “You f****** did it! Congratulations!” came the supportive, if profane, message—allegedly...

Scotts Valley issued an emergency order this weekend after another mudslide closed Green Hills Road and storms shut down Highway 17 and took out Glenwood Drive. This announcement followed the County of Santa Cruz proclaiming an emergency Jan. 3. “Overall, Scotts Valley fared better than so...

SCOTTS VALLEY—The Scotts Valley Water District (SVWD) has declared a Stage 2 Water Shortage and is offering customers rebates and other incentives to use water efficiently this summer. Rainfall totals in the Scotts Valley area this year are less than half of normal, and last...

In 2023, then-13-year-old Lucius Niesen from Scotts Valley was on fire on the links. Having taken first place in the Hurricane Junior Golf Tour’s 16th annual National Championship on the Panther Lake Course at Orange County National in Florida, Niesen seemed bound for greatness...

The Ben Lomond Fire Protection District (BLFPD) has been awarded a Fire Prevention and Safety (FPS) FEMA disaster grant for $269,806 by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.   The BLFPD, together with the other three San Lorenzo Valley fire districts (Boulder Creek, Felton and Zayante)...

Joining the gift boutique and taproom slated for the Hangar development—and the ice cream parlor that just opened—in Scotts Valley is a new fitness studio from Santa Cruz resident Peter Malek. The 40-year-old engineer and workout enthusiast says he’s thrilled to be able to bring...

Each year, Ben Lomond’s Little People’s Repertory Theater (LPRT) for children 8-14 hosts its annual summer theater program, culminating in a public performance that’s part campy, part sci-fi, part Marvel-ous and 100% original. In 2020, LPRT Executive Director Jannine Chadwick held her breath as she...

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...