Santa Cruz County History Articles

California bans affirmative action in college admissions, but two pending Supreme Court decisions may go further than the current state law, which was passed as Prop 209 in 1996. Here’s what that could mean for the state.

One intersection with traffic lights. No high school. No movie theater. No transit center. One big shopping center. That was Scotts Valley when I arrived as a reporter for what is now the Press Banner 50 years ago. But Scotts …

The Pajaro Valley Historical Association (PVHA) is set to open a new exhibit showcasing the wedding dresses of local women from 1890 to 1990 at PVHA’s Bockius-Orr house. PVHA Emeritus board member Virginia Avila and office administrator Jodi Frensley spent …

California is unwinding the prison-building boom of the 1980s and 1990s. The cuts are falling on small towns that banked on government jobs to anchor their communities.

by Lisa Robinson Between 1884 and 1885, Winfield Scott Rodgers, brother of Charles Campbell Rodgers who founded the Mountain Echo Newspaper, built a road from his timber claim on the headwaters of Boulder Creek, to the county road at the …

More than 4 percent of death penalty convicts have been wrongfully convicted, data shows. But courts including the U.S. Supreme Court have failed to provide protections for the innocent facing death at the hands of the state.

The death penalty remains legal in California, but Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered a moratorium on executions in 2019. Will capital punishment end in the state? Here’s what’s happening.

Looking back on the history of the multicultural community as it moves into the future

The California Supreme Court has kept the state at the forefront of legal issues surrounding abortion, the death penalty and same-sex marriage, starting in its earliest days in the Gold Rush era.

Paula Hernandez (Watsonville City Councilman Felipe’s mom) and the women of the Watsonville frozen food plants strikes encouraged thousands to stand up against unfair conditions

Comics may have been born in New York, but they came of age in California. And there’s more to the story than San Francisco comix.

Almost one million California residents are forced to drink from contaminated water supplies, or pay for bottled water. Economic inequality makes the crisis worse. What is the state doing to fix it?

The Golden State has masqueraded as everything from the Sahara Desert to the Swiss Alps. But which films best capture the real California?

By Ronnie Trubek 18 year old newspaper model, Miss Helena Farrell, displays three issues of the Mountain Echo, the Boulder Creek newspaper, published November 11, 18, and 25, 1916. After the turn-of-the-century lumber boom collapsed, Luther McQuesten, the final publisher …

The world-renowned 'Free Will Astrology' writer found his calling in a ‘Good Times’ classified ad 45 years ago

Harry and Maude Owen – Quail Hollow Ranch 1957 to 1974  By Richard James and Jim Bahn In November of 1957, Hayward, California rancher Harry Owen and his wife, Maude, purchased Quail Hollow Ranch from Sunset Magazine owner Larry Lane. …

On March 10, the Pajaro River flooded the small agricultural town on its banks. Professor Dustin Mulvaney traces the turbulent history of the Central Coast’s second largest watershed.

Shopping malls revolutionized how Americans shopped, socialized, and lived. Now, malls face an uncertain future. How did the dream of a new town square go so wrong?

America has become a mostly suburban country, and California is known for its sprawling ’burbs. But what is a suburb? It turns out California may not be as suburban as people believe.

Gayle and Joe Ortiz’s scratch-made pastries have been a hit with locals and tourists from the beginning