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Local winners qualify for state bee Four local students will advance to the State Spelling Bee on May 14, following their successful performance in the San Benito County competition. The San Benito County spelling bee returned to local schools on March 22, following a one-year hiatus...

Like most of his San Benito High teammates, Breyon Chavez played in Hollister Little League and attended Haybalers games well before he got to high school.  “I grew up going to Baler baseball games with my dad and remember thinking, ‘That’s going to be me...

Seven years ago April 1, during the height of the last drought, California Gov. Jerry Brown stood on the barren slopes of the Sierra Nevada, watching as engineers measured the worst snowpack in state history. Friday’s snow measurements aren’t quite so bleak, but they remain...

A single gunman acted on a case of “mistaken identity” when he shot and killed Jaime Jesus Gomez and Daniel Eli Gonzalez and injured three other people at a home on the edge of the city’s downtown March 26, according to police. Hollister Police Chief...

Juliet Landau’s feature directorial debut, “A Place Among the Dead,” has been “striking an artery, not just a nerve,” she noted. Perhaps it’s the film’s focus on narcissism that’s been resonating with viewers. Described as a “genre-bending art film,” “‘A Place Among the Dead’ explores...

With more than 700 people attending the opening weekend of San Benito High School’s “The Addams Family,” the production has already demonstrated how excited the local community is for live theater to return, the show’s director noted. “The crowds had so much energy, they laughed...

Two days before the Avis Kelley Invitational at Gilroy High on March 26, San Benito High junior Jocelyn Alexander threw the shot put 35 feet in her warm-up attempts during a league dual meet against Salinas High.  Alexander was hopeful—almost expecting—to repeat 35 feet when...

More than 60 dance organizations from across the Greater Bay Area will gather April 23-24 at Eastridge Center Mall, 2200 Eastridge Loop in San Jose, for the Spring Dance Festival. Flying Colors Dance & Fitness of Hollister will be presenting a new work by choreographers...

Special to the Free Lance The Hollister City Council came to a split decision March 21 that there were not enough public safety personnel to support the traditional Independence Day Rally in the city that is known to be “The Birthplace of the American Biker.” Councilmembers...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a second Covid-19 booster vaccine dose Tuesday for some immunocompromised people as well as all adults over the age of 50.  A second booster dose of either mRNA vaccine will be available for eligible people at least four...