Guest Columnist

Sign your business up today to be a part of our 34th annual Business Showcase, to be held at Seascape Beach Resort on Feb. 20. This Showcase is a great way for businesses and community groups to network with each other and with our residents. This is the original business showcase in Santa Cruz County. Call the Aptos Chamber today at 688-1467 to find out more information, mark your calendars for Feb. 20, and be a part of this great community event.

Throughout California there are discussions about how to address the significant affordable housing crisis. Recent academic and industry studies done on home affordability have shown that in some coastal communities less than a quarter of people earn enough income to be able to purchase a home in their community and many can’t afford rising rents. Seniors are struggling to stay in the homes they own with an overall rising cost of living. Santa Cruz County is no exception.

Dear Nicole, I want my kids to learn the value of money. My partner and I both work two jobs to make ends meet, and we live on a tight budget.

The first owners of Aptos were the King and Queen of Spain. The Catholic Church and the Army administered their holdings.

Santa Cruz County Supervisor Zach Friend holds his son Elliott while speaking at the Aptos Chamber of Commerce's monthly breakfast meeting on Jan. 11. Friend touched on topics such as transportation, traffic and housing, mentioning that residents have to earn $70,000 a year to afford a two-bedroom apartment in Santa Cruz County. He encouraged residents to get involved and "choose the type of community you want," rather than pass on responsibility to future generations. "You may feel like, individually, you cannot make a significant difference on the way the community's trajectory will go," Friend said. "But I also know that if each one of us even did something small, the sum of all of those things will be more change than any of us would ever have been able to envision." Friend was also recently appointed chair of the Board of Supervisors. Photo by Jeanie Johnson

Nicole Young is the mother of two children, ages 14 and 18, who also manages Santa Cruz County's Triple P - Positive Parenting Program, the world's leading positive parenting program. Scientifically proven, Triple P is made available locally by First 5 Santa Cruz County, the Santa Cruz County Health Services Agency (Mental Health Services Act) and the Santa Cruz County Human Services Department. To find a Triple P parenting class or practitioner, visit triplep.first5scc.org, www.facebook.com/triplepscc or contact First 5 Santa Cruz County at 465-2217 or [email protected].

The word "whisky" comes from Scottish and Irish Gaelic, "uisge beatha," or "usquebaugh," meaning "water of life." Many other countries give the same name to their distilled spirits including "eau de vie" in France, "acquavite" in Italy, and "akvavit" in Scandinavia. Why would anyone want to take away something as essential as the "water of life"?

Sept. 15 marked 10 years since the collapse of Lehman Brothers. The Financial Crisis of 2008 wiped out about 8.8 million jobs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and caused about $19 trillion in household wealth to evaporate. While the recession officially started in December 2007, we wanted to review a timeline of some key events and also look forward to the future.

By John Hibble, of the Aptos History Museum One of the many gems that make Aptos different than anywhere else is Redwood Village, hidden in a redwood grove across Highway One from Deer Park Shopping Center. Today it is a small commercial center but...

Over the last few years the County has experienced significant flood events and damage that we are still working to repair. With climate change, severe events like these storm sets are expected to become more common as are the severity and length of droughts....