
Waterfront Fridays Launches in Downtown Stockton
Free weekly event features local businesses, food, art and music
The Downtown Stockton Alliance is providing a new networking opportunity for local businesses and entrepreneurs with “Waterfront Fridays,” which launched May 6. The weekly event gives entrepreneurs an affordable opportunity to test products and their customer base using a pop-up model.

Life After KJ
Sacramento City Hall is about to get a lot less interesting
Soon, it will all be over. Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson will leave office, most likely leaving politics behind for good. For a city that has come to simultaneously love and loath his high-flying, face-planting tenure, the future is sure of only one thing: It’s going to be a lot calmer around City Hall the next few years.

Head To Head
Sacramento’s mayoral candidates on jobs, innovation and working with the business community
Jobs have returned to Sacramento. Many surveys, such as the Sacramento Business Review, show that the region’s employment rates have returned to pre-recession levels. Nearly 25,000 jobs came back just last year alone. Unfortunately, two-thirds of that growth is in retail and hospitality jobs that typically pay low wages, while higher-paying jobs achieved only modest gains. Can we do better?

A Good Mentor Is Hard To Find
Women need mentors, but the search for one isn’t always easy
Sarah Sciandri is looking for a woman, but finding one is tougher than she thought. The 34-year-old likes her job as a marketing manager for the Sacramento architecture firm Nacht & Lewis, but she wants a female mentor to help move her career forward.

Behind the Beekeeper’s Veil
Our writer goes undercover — literally — with a commercial beekeeper in Placer County
Northern California’s temperate climate, fertile soil and advanced water-supply system make the region a prime spot for commercial beekeeping, and even more so nowadays. Why’s that? Almonds, which need bees — lots and lots of bees.

Status Check: Male Enhancement
In 2012, we reported on the growing number of men seeking plastic surgery in the Capital Region (“Male Enhancement” by Allen Young, March 2012). We caught up with one of the doctors interviewed, Dr. Debra Johnson of the Plastic Surgery Center of Sacramento, to see what the makeup of her waiting room looks like now.

Carb-Loading With A Cause
Andrea Lepore, co-founder of Hot Italian, runs a master class in following your passions
Hot Italian is one of the hottest food brands in Sacramento, and Lepore is a leading proponent of sustainable building design. Her brick-and-mortar restaurant in midtown Sacramento, the Hot Italian Pizza & Panini Bar, has been certified by the U.S. Green Building Council as silver LEED-certified.

Great Mothers Make Great Leaders
For me, and all the mothers I know, the experience of being a parent has influenced every aspect of our lives, including our careers. I have found that women who make great leaders also make great mothers, and great mothers also have the skills to be great leaders. But employers don’t always see that connection.

Down By The Riverside
MetroEdge ‘Pitch for Change’ winners want to reinvigorate Sacramento’s riverbanks for a new generation
Once upon a time, Sacramento lived and died by its rivers. As the last outpost of good society on the way to the Gold Rush foothills, Sacramento was nestled conveniently at the confluence of both the American and Sacramento rivers.

Startup of the Month: Tallac Networks
A cloud solution that connects customers to a customized web experience
You can’t deny it: The cloud is everywhere. Thanks to tech titans like Google, Amazon and Apple, the idea of data storage has shifted from bulky, blinking units in an enclosed place to the more abstract concept of data stored in open, virtual space.