Drawn by the incoming arena, the burgeoning craft cocktail and beer scene and the farm-to-fork movement’s local strength, San Diego business partners Roy Ledo and Hassan Mahmood will be installing a version of their hit North Park arcade bar, the Coin Op, in place of Marilyn’s on K.

The Sacramento River Cats, for 15 years regarded as one of baseball’s most successful  minor league organizations, announced in September it would be making a big switch. Beginning this season, the team will no longer be the Triple-A affiliate of the Oakland Athletics but will instead become the top-dog minor league team for the San Francisco Giants.

Sometimes quantity is better than quality. That’s the thinking behind CrowdMed, a website that allows an online community of medical professionals, patients, and laypeople to solve cases for patients with undiagnosed medical conditions.

NannyMe is a business and mobile application created by a few Sacramento high schoolers. Similar to the rideshare app Uber, NannyMe receives babysitting requests, then pings nannies (local high school students), who can accept or decline the job. Since NannyMe launched in December, about 75 families have signed up with the service.

Thinking about progressive company cultures probably brings to mind businesses like Google, Twitter, Facebook — companies with free snacks and bean bag chairs. But it’s not the toys and perks that create these cultures. Collaborative-style seating and ping pong tables are the side effects, rather than the catalysts, of enviable and innovative company cultures.

County officials appear close to approving a sweeping plan to preserve Placer’s agricultural character. If approved by the Board of Supervisors, a conservation plan would protect a large area of farms and open space in the western portion of Placer County, and keep them free of development for at least 50 years —possibly longer. 

How likely are you to crowdsource a diagnosis for a mysterious medical condition? 

In 2013 we reported on Capital Region startup Stevia First and its CEO Robert Brooke’s goal of making his company the first domestic distributor of stevia. Stevia First made significant progress last year, most notably by entering into a partnership with China-based stevia distributor Qualipride International Ltd.

“I am an entry-level employee who just graduated from university. I am finding that most of the companies I am applying to rely on automated application systems and even impersonal Skype interviews, making it nearly impossible for me to use my references or get my resume to the top of the pile. What should I know about besting these systems?”

Think of it as The Deodorant Problem. If you’re marketing a brand, it’s easy to sling the sex appeal of wine, cars or a hot new phone. But what if the product is a tad mundane and even a little stinky?  How do you convey the emotional appeal of, say, unclogging a toilet? If you’re Jimmy Crabbé, you crack this problem with an inspired move that no one saw coming.