Guest Columnist

Across Santa Cruz County, inventory and sales volume is down from a year ago.

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....

The late 1960s and 1970s were a tumultuous time in America. The Vietnam War, serial killers, Civil Rights marches and the Black Power Movement were plastered across the nightly television news. Aptos was to get our own, very up-close-and-personal incident with the Black Power movement.

The title is supposedly an acronym for where the name “golf” came from. I don’t like to be politically incorrect but, this is what is called an “old wives’ tale.” Women have been very involved in golf on the Monterey Bay. Marion Hollins, a championship golfer, developed the Cypress Point Club and Pasatiempo Golf Club.

Before Rancho Del Mar and Safeway came to Aptos, that property was used for growing sugar beets and cauliflower. State Park Drive was lined on both sides with huge cypress trees. Highway 1 was a four-lane highway with no overpass or on-and-off ramps. Aptos was a small town but was getting ready for a growth spurt and the Cabrillo College Aptos campus was just being planned.

According to reports from the Huffington Post, the number one New Year's Resolution is to lose weight. That's not surprising as they also report that about one in every three adults in this country is obese.

I’m not sure who to blame for just how fast consumer services are rendered. I think with the advent and revelation of the seven-minute abs work out video companies have pushed for faster is better. I think faster is sometimes better … I mean, I go fast in my car and that’s kind of cool and getting information off my blazing fast internet is useful, but closing a mortgage loan in 10 days sounds … not right! If you’re a seasoned home buyer or a seasoned refinancer then this article might not be for you.

We mentioned in our January article that many people were likely to be surprised that come tax filing time the refund that they have come to expect every year in the spring has evaporated, or worse yet, they now owe money to the IRS!

Raising children can be one of the most rewarding experiences in life. It is also very costly.

The average refund received was just shy of $3,000 for the 2015 tax year. While it may be tempting to go out and splurge with that money, think about some alternative ways to put your refund dollars to work.