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Gardens have different personalities. Some gardens mimic nature with plants that attract birds and butterflies and other wildlife and look a bit wild. Some are neat and tidy with perennials lined up evenly along pathways and clipped hedges under the windows. Gardens are a...

The City of Scotts Valley has long been recognized as one of the safest cities in the state. That reputation did not happen by accident. From our earliest days, Chief Gerald Pittenger and later Chief Steve Walpole Sr. embraced what we now call community...

The City of Scotts Valley has placed Measure G on the November ballot. If passed, Measure G would increase the City’s Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT)—commonly known as the hotel tax—by 2%, adding just $2 per $100 spent on a hotel stay. With this approach, the...

Yes, it is happening and official. Santa Cruz County Health Officer Gail Newel has allowed the city of Scotts Valley and the Scotts Valley Chamber of Commerce to host its 20th Art, Wine and Beer Festival with Cops’ N Rodders on Aug. 21-22. This spectacular event...

Every year as I get down the Christmas decorations I think about past holidays with friends and family. Who was that well-fed baby in my Dad’s 35mm films? And then there was Aunt Ruth’s aluminum Christmas tree with the rotating color wheel. I remember...

“The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do.” —B.F. Skinner Oxford’s 2013 study estimated that “47% of U.S. occupations were at high risk of automation.” Techno-Marxists fret that AI will wipe out jobs of all but geek aristocrats. “AI will be...

Hand pies are such an ingenious way to create an individual pie without the problems of serving and the opportunity of various fillings. These freeze and travel well. In my aunt’s kitchen, hand pies came with left-over pie dough and the filling from the original...

Several of my friends have big gardens. Gardens that are big enough to have lots of blooming flowers that can be cut and barely make a dent in the riot of color in their garden. The other day I received a huge mixed bouquet....

Post-operative bra comfort is a topic that gets little attention. But a new SLV business owner, Dr. Lisa Bunin (Lisa B.), has undertaken to change that by producing BraLisa—a super-soft, organic cotton bra, with moderate compression, for women recovering from breast surgery. After having breast...

I have a nice Improved Meyer Lemon tree where I live. Because of water restrictions by the Big Basin Water Company, it doesn’t get as much irrigation as I’d like but it still looks pretty good and has quite a few ripening lemons on...