YOUR LOCAL NEWSPAPER Santa Cruz County, CALIFORNIA
Santa Cruz News
Independent local news and community information for Santa Cruz and nearby coastal communities.
Coverage area: Santa Cruz and nearby coastal communities
INDEPENDENT LOCAL JOURNALISM · News, civic decisions, people and community information for Santa Cruz and Santa Cruz County
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LOCAL WEATHER · NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE
Checking local forecast…
Santa Cruz · verified reference point
LOCAL WEATHER & FIRE ALERTS
Checking official local alerts…
Alerts use one reference point; conditions vary across the coverage area.
CALIFORNIA58 CIVIC WATCH
Public Meetings & Local Government
Official meetings directory for all 58 California counties ↗
Who makes decisions for Santa Cruz? Follow government bodies with jurisdiction over this community. For places without a city council, county supervisors and relevant special districts are more appropriate than a nearby city's council.
Official government and civic information sources
Links include verified government announcements, public records and meeting calendars; not every link is a live agenda or an automated feed. Open the issuing agency's page to verify current dates, notices and changes. Last registry review: 2026-10-19.Direct government links are available above. Automatic document feeds will appear here after the issuing agency's supported source is verified; an unverified schedule will never be invented.
Official roads, weather, wildfire, earthquake & air-quality tools for Santa Cruz
For Santa Cruz (Santa Cruz County): use these real public-agency tools to select your community and check current conditions. The links are not claims that an emergency is occurring, a specific road is closed or a reading is available for every rural ZIP code.
- Weather alerts and forecasts — National Weather Service ↗Enter the town or ZIP; forecast zones do not always match county lines.
- Road closures and chain controls — Caltrans QuickMap ↗Select the relevant highway; local county roads may be managed separately.
- Wildfire incident reports — CAL FIRE Incidents ↗Verify the incident location, active status and issuing fire agency.
- Nearby earthquakes — U.S. Geological Survey ↗Select the map region and date range; initial magnitudes may be revised.
- Air quality and smoke — AirNow (U.S. EPA and partners) ↗Check monitoring coverage and the timestamp for the ZIP or area.
For evacuations, shelters, water-system outages, local school closures and public-health orders, follow the responsible county or special-district authority shown in the verified local government links above. Official instructions take priority over general newsroom summaries. Call 911 in an immediate emergency.
Find other responsible agencies
The links in “Find other responsible agencies” are searches, not vetted calendars. School and special district boundaries can differ from city and county borders. No meeting is automatically imported or treated as confirmed.YOUR COUNTY · NOVEMBER 3, 2026 ELECTION
Santa Cruz County Election Guide
Read about governor candidates, statewide contests, all 14 statewide propositions, and where to find the official address-specific local ballot for Santa Cruz County.
Read the Santa Cruz County election guide →CALIFORNIA58 · STATEWIDE ELECTION COVERAGE
California Governor Election — November 3, 2026
Two candidates are certified for the statewide gubernatorial contest. Explore both independent profiles, including their careers, policy proposals and the unresolved questions. These statewide articles are not local reporting from Santa Cruz.
Steve Hilton for California Governor in 2026: Taxes, Housing, Energy and Plans Examined
Read the candidate profile →Read the California58 58-county election directory → · Official election information ↗
Independent, nonpartisan profiles. Candidate promises are not enacted laws.STATEWIDE PUBLIC-SERVICE GUIDE · NOVEMBER 3 ELECTION
California Campaign Signs: What's Legal in Santa Cruz County?
Political yard signs, roadside billboards and campaign posters follow different rules depending on who owns the land and where the sign stands. Read California58's independently sourced 2026 guide to Caltrans restrictions, the 100-foot electioneering rule, homeowners and tenants, sponsor disclosures and post-election removal. Your city or unincorporated county may have separate deadlines.
Read California Election Sign Laws → Nonpartisan legal explainer, not candidate advertising. Applies statewide; no unsupported claim about a particular sign in Santa Cruz.LOCAL REPORTING
Latest Santa Cruz News stories
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READERSHIP · RECORDED PAGE VIEWS
Most Read in Santa Cruz News
See which local stories readers are opening most, using existing on-site view counters.
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- Santa Cruz Moved Permit Applications Online October 7: What ADU Owners and Contractors Need to Know 4 recorded views
These are cumulative recorded WordPress page views, not unique readers or people reached. Counts may include repeat visits after a 30-minute exclusion window, omit some bots and do not establish a measured last-30-day audience. Figures refresh approximately every 15 minutes. Page and story totals should not be marketed as unique visitors.
YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD. YOUR STORIES.
Help shape Santa Cruz News
Santa Cruz News is being built for people who live, work and care about Santa Cruz and nearby coastal communities. What should your newspaper investigate, explain or celebrate? Send news tips, documented local concerns, events, public records and community history.
Reader submissions go to the Santa Cruz News editorial review queue. Nothing is published automatically. Local coverage is developed as sources and reporting capacity allow.YOUR COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER
Explore Santa Cruz
HISTORY & VISITING YOUR COMMUNITY
Explore a Historic Mission Near Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz Mission: The Surviving Adobe and Ohlone–Yokuts History
Discover Mission Santa Cruz in Santa Cruz, founded 1791: history, Native communities, architectural heritage and visitor information.
Read the local history & visitor guide → See all 21 missions on the map →
This California58 historical guide is included for its relevance to this community. Published research is not automatically attributed to the individual local newsroom.FROM CALIFORNIA58 · STATEWIDE COVERAGE
Beyond Santa Cruz: Selected California Stories
A small selection from the California58 statewide newsroom for context. These are not represented as locally reported stories for Santa Cruz. Our community edition prioritizes its own reporting, public services and local history.