Month: August 2025

Mickey Adams

DAVENPORT, Calif. (KION-TV) — A new sheriff’s office service center is coming to Davenport.

Santa Cruz County says the move is meant to meet growing public safety needs following the opening of the Cotoni Coast Dairies National Monument.

It will be located at 450 Highway 1 and staffed by a community policing deputy and qualified community volunteers.

Santa Cruz County Parks will also occupy space at the site, strengthening inter-agency collaboration and resource management along the north coast.

The lease approved Tuesday and kicks in September 25, running through September 2030.

New National Monument Cotoni Coast Dairies comes to the Central Coast

SANTA CRUZ COUNTY, Calif. (KION) — The Cotoni Coast Dairies had its grand opening in Santa Cruz County Friday.

It’s opening up new scenic hiking, biking, and recreation spaces for the community to enjoy.

The area is a portion of the California Coastal National Monument, located north of Davenport and featuring nine miles of multi-use trails.

Now accessible after nearly a decade, it was added to the National Monument by President Obama just days before the end of his second term.

The Foundation for America’s Public Lands is launching a fundraising campaign to raise $1 million to support the Cotoni-Coast Dairies.

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Mickey Adams

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (KION-TV) — A World War II Prisoner of War (POW) is being laid to rest on Saturday after eighty years since his death.

Captain Ralph Rowland was identified this past year as one of the bodies recovered from the Enoura Maru attack on January 9, 1945.

Captain Rowland was a POW during world war II and was assigned to Fort Mills of Corregidor Island of the Philippines.

He was held as a prisoner of war in the Phillipines and survived an attack on the Oryoku Maru.

Rowland will be laid next to his wife Flora, who passed in 1979.

The ceremony taking place at the Oakwood Memorial Park in Santa Cruz at 1 p.m. on August 16

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Mickey Adams

MARINA, Calif. (KION-TV) — Marina-based Joby Aviation still flying through milestones.

Earlier this week, the company had their first successful electric air taxi flight between the Marina and Monterey airports.

The company says that the flight took approximately 12 minutes to fly over ten nautical miles while proving the team’s competency to conduct these test flights away from the Marina home base.

Joby plans to begin flight testing with FAA pilots early next year, hoping to launch the air taxi service in Los Angeles and New York following certification.

Joby Aviation Reaches Major Milestone

CENTRAL COAST, Calif. (KION-TV) — Marina based air taxi company Joby Aviation announced a major milestone on Tuesday, successfully transitioning from vertical to cruise flight and back again with a pilot on board.

The company says it has remotely piloted more than 40 thousand miles of test flights since 2017, but this is the first time they were able to achieve the transition flight with a pilot on board, that flight happening at the Marina Airport on April 22nd. They have tested several more times since that successful flight, with 3 different pilots. This development making Joby the first company to routinely perform inhabited testing of electric air taxis.

Joby says that their electric air taxi is designed to transport a pilot and 4 passengers at speeds of up to 200 miles per hour, with a fraction of the noise produced by helicopters and none of the emissions. Now, their next goal is working towards final testing in Dubai ahead of a rollout of passenger flights in the region.

This also marks a step towards TIA testing with FAA pilots onboard, getting closer to becoming legal to fly over American cities

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Mickey Adams

CENTRAL COAST, Calif. (KION-TV) — The California State Association of Counties has sent a letter to Governor Gavin Newsom, calling for states to receive funding for November’s special election in advance.

The association says that local cities, special districts, and schools share the costs of regularly scheduled elections, but costs for the special election would fall almost entirely on counties.

The special election in 2021 cost a total of $200 million and now the association is concerned that another special election would cost even more.

They are reiterating how important it is for all counties to have the funds needed for the special election , saying that it is critical and necessary.

Mixed opinions locally are coming in for the governor’s redistricting plan.

“Not only does this map continue to reflect the will of Californians, but it is also a responsible and responsive approach to the existential threat to democracy that Donald Trump’s actions pose,” said the National Democratic Redistricting Committee.

This, while the Monterey County Republican Party released a statement demanding to know the cost of the election to Monterey County, saying, “Residents deserve clear answers about how much of their tax dollars will be diverted to fund this partisan maneuver, which prioritizes political power over the public’s needs.”

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Mickey Adams

WATSONVILLE, Calif. (KION-TV) — A woman accused of robbing a bank in Watsonville was placed in police custody Friday evening.

Watsonville Police released a video of the arrest, saying that reports of a bank robbery on the 1400 block of Main Street came in around 2:39 p.m. Friday.

A woman wearing a black hoodie, white medical mask, and pushing a shopping cart entered a bank, gave a threatening note to the teller, and then ran from the scene with the stolen money.

As police interviewed witnesses, one detective spotted the suspect — 34-year-old Elizabeth Rojas — across the street, and arrested her.

The police recovered most of the money as well as a small kitchen knife.

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