Santa Cruz News

Melanie and Mike Freitas have been running the Wharf to Wharf hand in hand for more than 30 years.

Announcement: Friday, July 25 at 7 p.m. at Bookshop Santa Cruz at 1520 Pacific Ave. Join Bookshop Santa Cruz and Save Our Shores for a celebration of Blue Mind , book signing with Dr. Wallace J. Nichols, an acclaimed marine biologist and conservationist.

Researchers examine a dead blue whale killed in a collision with a ship. Blue whales cluster for long periods of time in the busy Pacific Ocean shipping lanes off the California coast, raising concern about collisions between vessels and the endangered marine mammals, a new study has found.

Santa Cruz, the city reputed for its laid-back, easy-breezy style, took 12th place among "The Snobbiest Small Cities In America."

A central question in the debate over a Rutgers University-led study of the ocean floor off the coast of Long Beach Island is whether the loud sound waves used to map the sediment will harm dolphins, whales, and other animals.

You might suggest that your reader who is having trouble parking on the street in front of his or her home take a swing by Monarch Way on the Westside of Santa Cruz.

SCOTTS VALLEY >> John Geringer and Christopher Luck, accused of running a $60 million Ponzi scheme with Keith Rode, have pleaded guilty in federal court to three counts involving securities fraud, mail fraud and conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud.

SANTA CRUZ >> Santa Cruz County is weighing the most significant rewrite of affordable housing rules since local voters ushered in an era of slow growth in the 1970s.

SANTA CRUZ >> Early morning kayaker Amber Jones, who recently spotted a sea lion with netting embedded in its head, was ecstatic when she learned the ailing marine mammal had been rescued.

Santa Cruz is a few pen strokes away from installing Automated License Plate Readers in city police cruisers.

"Cabrillo has become a summer mecca for musicians and a premier musical destination for audiences."

But Latinos who live in southern Santa Cruz County have higher vaccination rates and a dramatically lower incidence of whooping cough than the more affluent white population in the northern end of the county, according to data reported by schools and the county health department.

Mackenzie Fullmer is hosting a brew night this Friday at her Second Street Cafe in downtown Watsonville, featuring beers and brewers from Seabright Brewery.

It turns out Bl'ast won't be back out east after all, as vocalist Clifford Dinsmore has come down with a nasty ear infection.

The American Red Cross Santa Cruz County Chapter has deployed additional volunteers to Washington where wildfires have forced residents from their homes.

SANTA CRUZ >> Joseph Gordon Smith, a Santa Cruz man who was shot and killed in his Capitola office in November, will be honored with a scholarship in his name at UC Santa Cruz.

SANTA CRUZ >> The Santa Cruz City Council approved plans Tuesday for Pacific Collegiate School to relocate its renown charter program to a largely empty building on the Westside, a proposal that requires special permits to operate in an industrial zone.

CAPITOLA >> A local development group has approached city officials with a proposal to buy 420 Capitola Ave., the property in Capitola Village where City Hall and the police station is located.

Addiction is one of the most bedeviling and ruinous torments of the human experience.

Hoping to "bring sanctuary" to the transients of Santa Cruz, the grassroots group , Santa Cruz Sanctuary Village , is being blasted this week by opponents of its plans to erect a homeless encampment.