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Mind Boosters
Studies show certain foods preserve cognition into the twilight years... but can brain foods make you smarter today?
As we get older and become more at risk for Alzheimer’s, a certain type of diet can boost our cognitive potency. Decades ago, science proved food can impact our heart health. Why should the brain be different?
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Infrastructure Issues Demand Attention
Infrastructure — roads, bridges and dams — is the backbone of any economy. Business can’t function without it. The Association of Civil Engineers estimates that nationally, defective or failing infrastructure will cost the average family $3,400 a year over the next decade.
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Forget About Perks and Focus on Culture
Culture needs to be a constant priority. You can’t expect a bunch of perks to define your company. Instead, spend some time defining your values — afterall, you already know them. Then make sure everyone on your team has buy-in.
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Buzzwords: Bandwidth
In a tweet from March 2015, Forbes magazine called bandwidth a “geeky, pretentious shorthand for available manpower,” saying it was “a gentler brushoff than ‘We literally don’t have the energy to deal right now.’”
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Dilemma of the Month: Getting People To Give Notice
We service clients who are kids in the foster care system. We really value when our employees that resign give at least a three-weeks’ notice, so they can transition their clients — kids who have already had upheaval in their lives — to their team members before they leave. Is there any meat that we can put on the bones of a policy requiring a three-week notice, with some type of consequence for not providing this notice?
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Visualize Your Strategy
How storyboarding can help your team create a strategic plan
Are you the kind of person who thinks in pictures? If so, then storyboarding is for you. Are you the kind of person who doesn’t think in terms of pictures? If so, then storyboarding is for you, too — you may just not know it yet.
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Making the Grade
California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson on charter schools and the future of public education
California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson has spent his career advocating for education issues, from his days as a high school science teacher through his time in the Legislature and now as the state’s top education official. We sat down with him recently to discuss a few critical issues facing California’s schools.
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From Vine to Glass
Sitting on the deck of his family’s tasting room, Warren Bogle looks out over the vineyard his grandfather planted in 1968 in the low-lying land of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. That first planting of 20 acres of vines in Clarksburg transformed the Bogle family from row crop farmers to one of the region’s most successful winemakers.
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Fortress of Solvency
For families taking care of a special-needs child or adult, solid financial and legal planning gives a measure of control over an expensive future
The day that Jenny and Bob had their son Justin in 1994, they set foot in a new world. Jenny went into labor four weeks early, and her baby presented in the wrong direction — feet first. So he was delivered through emergency C-section. Once he was born, his heart rate dropped instead of rising, as it should have. For weeks it wasn’t clear whether he’d survive.
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More Bang for Your Duck
After a rough few years, Sacramento Valley rice farmers are supplementing crop profits with environmental stewardship
Having a robust agricultural industry has meant accommodating crops and livestock by forcing out wildlife. Before farming came to the region 150 years ago, waterbird habitat was primarily provided by wetlands. Now managed wetlands make up only about one-third of their habitat in California and rice fields comprise nearly 60 percent.
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Seeking Stability
New measures call for significant reform to offer foster youth a better chance at permanent homes
Foster youth who live in congregate care settings (like group homes) are more likely than those who live with families to suffer a variety of negative outcomes, including low education levels, mental illness and involvement with the justice system. Placing foster youth in a stable and caring home is paramount, but finding the best way to do that has proved challenging.
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It’s Showtime!
Is entrepreneur fandom hurting business creation?
Actual experts of business creation express concern that media’s flashy portrayal of handsome entrepreneurs, disruptive products and instant investment glosses over the unglamorous learning process vital to any new business.
![Carolyn Salmon retrieves flowers from a freezer at Relles Florist in Midtown Sacramento. Salmon, the floral design manager, has worked at Relles for 23 years and her favorite part of the job is the same today as it was back then: “The joy,” she says. “Flowers are going to bring joy to people’s lives.”](https://www.comstocksmag.com/sites/main/files/imagecache/tile/main-images/embed1_lead.jpg?1577874530)
Perfectly Arranged
Founded in 1946 by Ross Relles, Sr., Relles Florist is now in its fourth location on J Street in Sacramento (a second store on Howe Avenue has closed). After Ross died in 1972, sons Jim and Tom Relles took over; their sister JoAnn Bradley joined in 1975.
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Infographic:Your Body on Good Food
Want to help your heart and brain? Eat better
With Baby boomers aging, nutrition experts urge healthy eating habits to ward off memory and cognitive loss, and keep the heart healthy.