FROM THE PUBLISHER: While the actual, astronomical middle of summer is August 7, the days surrounding it may still retain that hazy, lazy and magical quality Shakespeare celebrated in his lighthearted “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.” I’ve lately been finding that some of my dreams for this region and state are leaving me, if not literally sleepless, at least mentally and emotionally tossing and turning.

Life has a flair for the dramatic. It loves to throw us unexpected turns — a relationship hiccup that feels seismic, a health scare that rattles your foundation, a sudden financial shift that throws your budget into chaos. And while our initial reaction might be shock, confusion or even anger, the real strength emerges in how we navigate the aftermath.

On average, more than 13,000 animals come into Bradshaw Animal Shelter in Sacramento each year. During our Comstock’s photo shoot, we were told 72 animals came in on one day alone!

FROM THE PUBLISHER: In a moment of either exasperation or truth seeking, Dr. Sigmund Freud, the father of modern psychiatry, asked, “What does a woman want?” Today, that question needn’t be gender related. It might be more appropriate to ask, “What does the new generation — the youngest segment of the workforce — want?”

As a young girl, I thought my dad was the funniest, smartest, most handsome man in the world. He had many wonderful and endearing qualities, but he was a complicated man. He was an alcoholic and carried a depth of grief, shame and anger that often made him hide the best parts of himself.

CalMatters: I’m one of 60 people who clean the California Medical Facility in Vacaville. Our jobs, which we got through PRIDE Industries, have given us purpose, dignity and steady paychecks that help us pay rent, buy groceries and care for our loved ones. Now all of that is a risk. 

Certainly, many employers are recognizing the business benefits of people working together in an office at least a few days per week, but widespread employee protests have shown that implementing that return is going to be an uphill battle. So what do you do as an employer who’s ready to make that call? And what rights do you have if your boss wants you back in a cubicle?

While dollar donations are mission critical and help to keep the figurative lights on at many nonprofits, hands-on volunteers are also valuable — and the most in-demand type of volunteer role needed is board service. 

FROM THE PUBLISHER: The on-again/off-again saga of relocating the Sacramento Zoo from its longtime William Land Park location to the city of Elk Grove, a little under 13 miles away, had seemed like an idea whose time, available acreage, freeway access and enthusiastic support had come. Then it seemed like it hadn’t, and the project was unceremoniously killed. What happened?

CalMatters: California’s port traffic is beginning to look worse now, under the effects of President Donald Trump’s fickle tariff policy, than it did at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.