At first glance, the email appeared innocuous enough. All employees were being asked to change their passwords. Just click the link.

For most business people, a market-based solution to providing health care coverage to uninsured Americans is a no-brainer.

There is a distinction between being pro business and being pro small business, at least according to Marty Keller. He hopes to use this distinction to unify a mostly silent force of 3.5 million small-business owners and give them a voice — and perhaps the ability — to dramatically reshape the California Legislature in 2012.

As health care administrators around the country prepare to implement the Affordable Care Act, educators are also tasked with preparing the next generation of managers — for the unknown.

No one knows yet just how health care reform is going to change the daily routine for practitioners and administrators, but all agree that business decisions, from purchasing supplies to the cost of follow-up care, are going to look different.

Kevin Straw can restore a car to its original state. He can fix a dent, smooth rough spots, put on a fresh coat of paint and make a clunker look new.

But over the next couple years, Straw will have to learn the ropes of another craft, using unfamiliar tools to restore his business, fix the dents inflicted by a legal attack, smooth over the rough spots of his shop’s accessibility to wheelchairs and paint blue stripes in the parking lot.

Kevin Straw can restore a car to its original state. He can fix a dent, smooth rough spots, put on a fresh coat of paint and make a clunker look new.

But over the next couple years, Straw will have to learn the ropes of another craft, using unfamiliar tools to restore his business, fix the dents inflicted by a legal attack, smooth over the rough spots of his shop’s accessibility to wheelchairs and paint blue stripes in the parking lot.

If you own, operate, lease or lease to a business that serves the public, the Americans with Disabilities Act applies to you, and you are legally obligated to follow its facility-access guidelines. Here are tips for becoming compliant, protecting yourself against a complaint or lawsuit and getting all the business you can through your doors:

When it comes to the issue of accessibility, Sacramento businessman Tony Lutfi knows the drill.

Nowadays it’s not only hip for a business to go green, it’s the law. The state of California as well as some Capital Region jurisdictions have ordinances mandating recycling.

Exciting news in the accounting world might sound like an oxymoron, but this is the post-Enron and post-housing bubble economy. The guys and gals in the green eyeshades are under a new spotlight, and the changes they’re making to the practice of accounting are more than just fodder for ledgers.

Builders trying to get plans approved by a city government all know the drill: Make the plans, and bring them to city hall. The city marks them up for revisions. Then you drive back to city hall, pick up the plans, send them off to consultants, make changes, print out hundreds of new pages and drive the new set of plans back to city hall or to another office or agency. Repeat. Repeat again. And maybe again.