Santa Cruz County Local News

The numbers and letters on your car can reveal more than you think.

Richmond Ranch in south San Jose may be preserved as open space if multiple government entities succeed in a quest to buy its thousands of acres, public documents show.

Though Aptos resident Anthony, or “Tony,” Crane will be in the 2nd District race, the one hopeful in particular he aims to beat is running in a different district.

This year’s eight finalists, all in their 20s, emerged from a pool of nearly 100 California-based applicants.

Fast food lives in a consumer sweet spot: demand, convenience and relative affordability. And this pay hike—equal to minimum wage increases during the past five years—will create grand economic unknowns.

A Cal State systemwide strike secured what more than half a year of negotiations and partial strikes couldn’t: a deal.

As the FAIR Plan writes more fire-insurance policies, homeowners complain about poor service, rising costs and threats of getting kicked off.

Locking up a California state prisoner for one year costs nearly twice as much as tuition at the state’s top private universities—due to inmate medical costs and pay boosts for prison guards and other workers.

Each year, California lawmakers pass temporary extensions to COVID-era rules that allow people to attend court via video conferencing services. One powerful state union has been a barrier to making the feature permanent.

The four leading U.S. Senate contenders in California tried to use 90 minutes of free air time to solidify their pitches to voters—and also to set themselves apart from their opponents.

The swing from a $100 billion surplus to a deficit somewhere between $38 and $68 billion in just two years illustrates the volatility of California’s tax system.

Five candidates are running for the 18th Congressional District, which consists of San Benito County and parts of Santa Clara, Monterey and Santa Cruz counties. Members of Congress serve a two-year term.

Nearly 100 teams of young hackers gathered at UC Santa Cruz for the 10th annual "CruzHacks" hackathon event, with teams of coders, designers and entrepreneurial types come together for a weekend-long coding bender.

At the Pacific Neuroscience Institute in Santa Monica, scientists are eager to explore whether a psychedelic chemical found in a toad could help people with depression. But research has been put on hold by the state.

Students throughout the nation have been engaging in environmental stewardship projects, as part of NOAA’s Ocean Guardian School program.

The message, laced with expletives, referred to a council-majority vote to pass a watered-down resolution calling for peace in the Middle East.

David Schwartz of Corralitos, Kristen Brown of Capitola, and Aptos’ Kim De Serpa, Bruce Jaffe, and Tony Crane have all thrown their hat into the race for the Second District seat on the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors.

CEO/General Manager Michael Tree will retire from local transit agency Santa Cruz Metro on Feb. 16, less than two years into his tenure, due to “unexpected personal reasons.”

A California judge says a nearly 65-year-old law does not give the state permission to borrow the billions of dollars it would need to build a large water project.

More than two years until the first votes are cast, Senate leader Toni Atkins becomes the fourth big-name Democrat to jump into the governor’s race. She is seeking to become the first female and openly gay chief executive.