Situated among scores of stately redwood trees, Community Covenant Church welcomes Sunday worshipers. Their new minister, lead pastor Jeremiah Fair, is almost as tall as one of the redwood trees.

Maybe our gardens in California should never have looked like a Monet painting filled with layer upon layer of water-thirsty perennials and lush green lawns big enough for a soccer match. However, we were first settled by Easterners who could grow these plants with natural rainfall so it wasn’t our fault if we learned to grow water-thirsty gardens. Now we are wiser and smarter. We may have been kicking and screaming at first, but all of us now accept that water is limited and we need to use it wisely.

The news for savers keeps getting worse. Not only do you get no interest on your savings, but you’re also paying more to access your own cash.

There was something too good to be true about the Andersons. The young English couple burst upon the local social scene in the summer of 1897. “Nobody appeared to know who the J. Francis Andersons were,” recalled one gossip columnist, “but it was evident to Santa Cruzans that they possessed an abundance of the long green and were willing to spend it with lavish hands.”

On October 7, 2011, Brookdale Lodge suffered substantial fire damage. On October 7, 2015, we still do not know the details of how that fire started at Brookdale Lodge, but we are finally seeing the burned sections of the lodge being torn down. Call this stage one of a renovation plan to restore the historic beauty of this landmark.

 Faraway Japan becomes much closer when teens have a chance to experience it for themselves through an exchange program managed by the City of Santa Cruz.

If you have ever been sent on a Snipe hunt, the corners of your mouth might be turning up as you recall having the “snipe hunt” prank pulled on you. If that experience sounds familiar, then you might be surprised to learn that, according California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Snipe season opens in California on October 17 and runs until January 31, 2016.