Guest Columnist

You walk into your local mortgage office (keep it local!) with that smirk on your face that only you and your wife recognize. Right off the bat you announce you have the down payment money and right off the bat you get asked, “you also have the closing cost, I presume…?” Closing cost? What!? You mean everyone in this process doesn’t work for free? Let me tell you, not only do they not work for free, some work for more than others! There are two sections of cost when referring to the closing cost of a home loan. One is recurring closing cost; the second is non-recurring closing cost. The first includes items like your pre-paid property taxes, hazard insurance and that first payment that you don’t send, you know, the one that everyone thinks is free, it’s not.

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].

There are a lot of colorful names to describe suppliers of illegal booze: Rum runners (self-explanatory), moonshiners, bootleggers. What is a bootlegger? In the late 1800s, it was illegal to give Native American Indians whiskey, so traders would conceal flasks of liquor in their boot tops. Previously, we learned how prohibition helped to fund organized crime, and how otherwise law-abiding people developed a thirst for "medicinal" Scotch whiskey. But, Scotch alone does not make a well stocked bar, and not all alcohol was smuggled into the county. Gin was actually the most common liquor consumed during prohibition and much of it was produced locally.

A couple of months ago we wrote about some of the major changes taking place with the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act last December. However, this month we wanted to focus on two aspects in particular and how you may be able to utilize some of the changes for your benefit.

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.

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"?

Over the last four years the Board of Supervisors has been working on policies around the dispensing and cultivation of medical cannabis. While work around cannabis in general will be evolving for quite some time, the Board is poised to adopt a commercial cultivation ordinance in early May. Creating a framework for medicinal sales (through local dispensaries) was the first thing addressed by the ordinance a few years ago. While there have been updates to that ordinance, overall the framework for medicinal sales has been established. Creating a framework for commercial cultivation — both on the medicinal side and now, through state law change, the recreational side, has proved more difficult.

My parents are ready to buy a home, but my mother wants to buy the land and build their home. Are there programs that can help buy her land to build her home? Is there a possibility for a first time home buyer to buy land to build or is it easier just to buy a home that is already built? 

2017 was a boring year for the financial markets. It seemed like every day last year the S&P 500 and NASDAQ creeped higher and higher. In fact, 2017 was one of the calmest year for the markets in decades. 2018 has started off a different story. After blasting off in January with the S&P 500 rising almost 6 percent, February and March have been met with large swings up and down, ending down 0.8 percent on a total return basis at the end of March. With this recent volatility, now is a good time to understand what is going on and how you might be affected.

Where did the word "museum" come from? The word is from ancient Greece and describes a building or temple dedicated to the Muses. OK, who were the Muses? In mythology, they were the daughters of Zeus, the king of the many gods and goddesses, and Mnemosyne (nee-moss-ih-nee), the goddess of memory. The nine Muses were goddesses of the literary arts, music, visual arts, culture and science. The Muse, Clio, was the goddess of history. The Muses spark creativity in mortal people. Museums collect, preserve, interpret and display items of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance for the education of the public and for future generations. Above all, museums are storehouses of knowledge.