Community

The stage lights on FOX’s hit talent show “The X Factor” may have gone out, but not for Gilroy teen and former contestant Austin Corini.

Following a year of preparation, the Boy Scout Councils of the Monterey Bay Area and Santa Clara County decided to merge the two groups.

Volunteers pitched in, picked up trimming shears, put on gloves and got to work snipping persimmons from trees on a recent Saturday morning in a rural orchard in unincorporated South County. The cold weather and muddy conditions didn't stop them from digging and gathering fruit that would go to a good cause.

Residents of California can ring in the New Year with five free crapemyrtle trees by joining the Arbor Day Foundation any time during the month of January.

The future is looking bright for 87,000 acres of majestic South County backcountry stretching east of Highway 101 between Gilroy and Morgan Hill that was recently in danger of being closed to the public.

United Food and Commercial Workers Union members recently voted in favor of a new two-year labor contract with the Sacramento-based grocery store chain Raley's, which operates two Nob Hill Foods grocery stores in Gilroy and Morgan Hill. The newly ratified contract comes more than a month after nearly 7,000 UFCW workers went on strike over wage issues and claims of unfair labor practices.

A sustainability-oriented conservation agency providing beneficial services to Santa Clara and San Benito counties recently celebrated seven decades of involvement in the agricultural community.