News

The gunman in the mass shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival took his own life during a shootout with police, the Santa Clara County coroner revealed late Friday afternoon, Aug. 2. Dr. Michelle A. Jorden, responding to requests from the Gilroy Dispatch and other local...

Eric Cryar, Hugo Del Moral and Robert Basuino are the Gilroy police officers hailed as heroes for shooting and killing the gunman who murdered three people and injured more than a dozen others at the Gilroy Garlic Festival July 28. Police Chief Scot Smithee named...

Gilroy Police Chief Scot Smithee stopped by the Garlic Festival law enforcement tent at “Gate 3” on Miller Avenue on his way home with his family about 5:20pm July 28. He was on US 101 just south of Gilroy about 20 minutes later when...

As the 41st annual Garlic Festival was in full swing, Christopher Ranch’s executive vice president Ken Christopher told the Hollister Free Lance that this year could potentially change the festival forever. With bigger-name celebrities than ever before, Christopher’s most pressing concern on the festival’s second...

The 2018 Farm Bill made it legal to grow commercial hemp in the U.S. for the first time in half a century, but fewer than half of California’s counties allow the crop. San Benito is one of them. Growers are now storming San Benito and...

Nearly two months after the Hollister City Council voted June 3 to uphold a planning commission decision to approve key pieces of the 400 block project, Mayor Ignacio Velazquez told the Free Lance he is still considering challenging the vote. Velazquez had filed an initial...

After holding a pair of parent meetings regarding middle school cell phone use, Hollister School District leaders will introduce a new “Away for the Day” cell phone policy for the 2019-20 school year. HSD’s school board approved an updated Board Policy 5131 on July 23,...

Hollister police and fire responders revived a man who was found not breathing due to a possible drug overdose, according to authorities.

San Benito County emergency services and health officials are preparing for a potential worst-case scenario, widespread power shutoff for the rest of this summer after PG&E announced such measures might be necessary to prevent wildfires in California.

Hollister School District’s governing body took a key step in beginning the process of changing the way its trustees are elected to office. At the July 23 meeting, the school board approved a resolution “initiating (the) process of establishing trustee areas and elections by trustee...