June Vargas

Here’s one perk from the pandemic:  Once again, the deadline for filing taxes has been moved back from April 15 to May 17, 2021. Even though it’s a little shorter extension than last year’s July 15 deadline, it still means we get a little breathing room. Or do we? Because,…

If you’re a bad guy, you want to make sure you have a reliable getaway car, right? Every cops-and-robbers movie has a trusty escape vehicle of some kind idling at the curb. How else are you going to do a successful grab-and-run? Well, you can’t—if your car isn’t working right.…

If you start your vehicle and hear a nice, loud roar that only gets louder when you hit the gas, you might want to look under the car—you may be one of the latest victims of the catalytic converter theft craze. Catalytic converter thefts are on the upswing, especially in…

Right now, according to COVID-19.ca.gov, more than 41,000 Californians have lost their lives to the pandemic. And, although the numbers of new cases have started to drop slightly, we are still facing an uphill battle with new variants and sporadic vaccination shipments and schedules. But how about some good news?…

The newest tagline on the television news is “[fill in the blank] is going to look different this year…” Well, guess what: Everything looks different this year, thanks to the pandemic. In the fall issue of DCA’s Consumer Connection magazine, the writers take a look at what’s become different in…

The world can be a very scary, unkind place. If you were gone, would anyone notice? Would anyone miss you? You bet they would. And there are people who have been to that dark place and have come back and who fight to stay out of it. Every day. And…

Let’s face it: 2020 hasn’t been the greatest year to date. OK, maybe close to in all of modern history. California has had more than its share of disasters this year: COVID, unemployment, drought, extreme heat, wildfires … everything but locusts, it seems. But we are still here. And we…

Citizens of the Golden State, we have done it—we made it to level 9 in the game called 2020. And, if nothing else, this anything-that-can-go-wrong year has made us think about being prepared. Now it’s time to actually do it. When disaster strikes, emergency crews will be busy; they may…

Hand sanitizer is a big, big deal right now. And a lot of new manufacturers have jumped on the sanitizer bandwagon, hoping to scoop up some of the revenue. Good for them. But in their attempts to claim their piece of the sanitizer gold rush, something they’re doing is poisoning…