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The Battle of the Bands under the lights at the San Benito High School’s new Andy Hardin Stadium in Hollister Oct. 26 attracted marching bands to a competition of the Western Band Association: Independence High School 76th Cavalry Band and Color Guard, Christopher High...

Second Harvest of Silicon Valley and four other Bay Area food banks have a critical shortage of volunteers and are reaching out to the public for assistance.  Collectively, Bay Area food banks feed about one million people each month.  Second Harvest, Alameda County Community Food Bank...

Police arrested a 41-year-old man who robbed a Morgan Hill fast food restaurant and assaulted one of the employees, according to authorities.

Testimony in the trial for Sierra LaMar’s suspected killer continued this week, with more witnesses from the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office taking the stand to answer questions about the investigation that led to the arrest of Antolin Garcia Torres.On Feb. 14, sheriff’s deputies and sergeants spent hours in court at the San Jose Hall of Justice offering details of their surveillance of Garcia Torres in the days after Sierra disappeared March 16, 2012. Santa Clara County Deputy District Attorney showed numerous video clips from a security camera outside Garcia Torres’ neighborhood, Maple Leaf RV Park in south Morgan Hill, from March 16 to March 18, 2012.The videos showed Garcia Torres coming and going in his red Volkswagen Jetta, as well as arrivals and exits of his mother’s Toyota RAV4.Garcia Torres went on a ski trip with a friend all day March 18, a Saturday, defense attorney Al Lopez said.Other law enforcement officers testified about the GPS tracking device they attached to Garcia Torres’ vehicle shortly after he became a suspect in Sierra’s disappearance. Multiple agencies, including the FBI, assisted in the surveillance, which did not lead to the discovery of Sierra’s body.Sierra disappeared at the age of 15 while she was walking from her home in north Morgan Hill to her school bus stop at the intersection of Palm and Dougherty avenues. Garcia Torres is accused of kidnapping her that morning, and later killing her. He is also accused of three unrelated kidnapping attempts in 2009, in which investigators say he attacked three women in the parking lots of two Morgan Hill Safeway stores.Sierra was a sophomore at Sobrato High School when she disappeared. Her disappearance prompted hundreds of volunteers from throughout the Bay Area to spend thousands of hours searching private and public properties for her remains, which have not been found.Some of the frequent volunteer searches, including Al Perez of San Jose, have loyally attended the trial for Garcia Torres since it began Jan. 30. Perez said outside the courtroom Feb. 14 that he searched with fellow volunteers on properties not only in Santa Clara County, but also from Los Banos to Watsonville.He said he joined the search parties “for the parents” of Sierra. He and other volunteers also gained a welcome byproduct.“We got to know each other like a big family,” he said.Much of the testimony Feb. 15 centered around a handwritten message in one of Sierra’s school notebooks, recovered by investigators several days after she disappeared, according to various news reports. The message read, “I hate my life no one ever sees this I will be in San Francisco by 3/16/12.”Investigators have alleged this message was a prank by Sierra’s fellow students, who might have found the notebook after she disappeared. A handwriting expert for the DA’s office testified Feb. 15 that the handwriting is not Sierra’s, according to news reports.Other testimony Feb. 15 included an arborist who said Garcia Torres worked for him for a brief period before Sierra went missing, according to news reports. He said he gave the defendant the piece of rope later found in his trunk by police, so that he could practice tying knots.Investigators have suggested the rope contained 58 hairs, including some of Sierra’s hair, based on DNA analysis.The trial for Garcia Torres is expected to last at least until June. If convicted, he faces the death penalty or life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Following an investigation, Morgan Hill police arrested a suspect accused of stealing holiday packages from the porches of homes in north Morgan Hill, according to authorities.

City of Morgan Hill staff and elected officials are asking the community to support the family of former City Manager Steve Rymer, whose daughter died Nov. 29 due to complications from heart surgery.Michelle Kathleen Schull, 28, lived in Mankato, Minn., and was a graduate of Sobrato High School. She was married to Dustin Schull, according to an obituary posted on Mankato Mortuary’s website. The couple recently had a young daughter, Kennedy Kathleen Schull, who is now about three months old.The obituary states Schull’s family is asking for donations to the Kennedy Kathleen Education Fund, which can be made on a gofundme.com page set up for that purpose. Money donated to the fund will support the future education for the Schulls’ daughter.Alternatively, the family is asking for donations to the American Heart Association.Rymer moved to Minnesota at the end of last summer with his wife, Helene, to accept a job as City Administrator for the City of Rochester. Originally from Minnesota, Rymer cited his family there as one reason he pursued and accepted the new job. The council appointed him as city manager in 2013.At current City Manager Christina Turner’s request, the Morgan Hill City Council adjourned the Dec. 6 meeting in remembrance of Michelle Schull.Turner also informed the public about the gofundme page set up for Schull’s daughter. The campaign raised nearly $21,000 as of Dec. 11. She also asked city staff to wear red last Friday, Dec. 8, to support the AHA’s “Go Red For Women” campaign to encourage awareness of heart disease.  “My family and I thank the city and Morgan Hill community for the overwhelming support and prayers during this difficult time,” Rymer said in an email.The gofundme page, which is found at gofundme.com/kennedykathleenschull-edu, describes that at the age of 16, doctors found that Schull needed a pacemaker and defibrillator. She was told that pregnancy might not be possible in her future. But “love persisted” between her and her husband, who she met in 2009, according to the page.After their marriage in 2014, doctors “believed in Michelle’s heart, and supported her and Dustin’s desire to start a family,” according to the gofundme page.Four months into her pregnancy, doctors determined she needed surgery to replace the wires in her heart device, the gofundme page says.Kennedy was born Aug. 30, and the replacement surgery was scheduled for Nov. 21. “The outcome of the surgery was unfathomable, even understanding the possibilities of complications, and Michelle’s family let her go to be with the Lord on Wednesday, November 29, 2017,” reads the fundraising page. Her organs were donated to other patients in need.“Michelle’s impact was felt daily as she worked in schools with families with children diagnosed with exceptional learning abilities,” the gofundme page adds.Michelle Schull was born in Minnesota. After graduating from Sobrato, she moved back to Minnesota for college, where she received undergraduate and graduate degrees from Minnesota State Mankato.Rymer added that Schull was a “great ambassador” for the American Heart Association, and she often called national Go Red Day (Feb. 3) her birthday because she “loved what it meant for her and others.”

As cities like Morgan Hill and Gilroy struggle to slow the construction of new housing with self-imposed slow-growth measures, they fear that the new Housing Crisis Act of 2019 could reverse their efforts. The new state law signed this month by Gov. Gavin Newsom redefines...

Local restaurant known for housing apparitions, employees

When Valley Water announces new wholesale water rates this spring, the new rate structure will include new fees for non-water-district wells. This could boost water rates in July for municipal system customers in Morgan Hill and Gilroy, and for hundreds of mostly residences with...