Scott Syphax is an unlikely person to garner a nickname like Dr. Doom. After all, the president and CEO of Sacramento-based Nehemiah Corp. of America is far too thoughtful and deliberate to be saddled with a sobriquet more in line with a snickering cartoon villain.

Ask virtually anyone in the business community what Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration must do to repair our state’s broken economy, and over and again the answer is the same: improve education.

If there’s anyone more excited than a kid in a candy shop, it’s a middle-aged woman in a cupcake shop. The national cupcake craze also has hit all regions and demographics, according to those in the bakery industry.

It’s a Capital Region paradox. The bad news for home builders is that very few new homes are going up. The good news for existing-home sales is that very few new homes are going up.

Bob Deis has been Stockton city manager for less than a year. Since coming on board last June, Deis has faced numerous challenges, most notably finding a solution to the city’s enormous budget shortfall and looming pension obligations. We sat down with him recently to discuss some of those issues and his plans to revitalize Stockton’s business climate.

When Gay Callan left her Bay Area sales job to grow grapes in the Sierra foothills in the early 1980s, people told her that she — a city slicker and a woman to boot — was crazy.

Some banks in the Capital Region are placing more emphasis on customer service and trust as they battle for quality clients in an ever-changing market.

The only thing certain in the world of California workers’ compensation insurance right now, is that it’s uncertain.

Consider the annual physical and why both doctors and America’s work force find them frustrating: The worker has to carve out time to take all the exams and tests, often in different locations and on different days, and doctors lament the lack of time to discuss the results with patients.

When Jim and Diane Williams were forced to admit their age, they also had to admit that many things they took for granted in their younger years now needed a little more attention and discipline.

For 15 years, the California High-Speed Rail Authority and its backers have discussed, planned, studied and lobbied for the kind of fast trains seen elsewhere around the world.

If you think starting a business during a recession is a risky enterprise, imagine putting your entrepreneurial faith in the commercial future of a river flowing to a desolate wilderness.

The University of the Pacific arrived from San Jose in 1924, planting a brick-and-ivy educational institution in the heart of the San Joaquin agricultural community. Since then, it’s grown to become the second-largest private employer in the county. But, school officials say, the university can still do more in the business community.

Opportunity, timing and a willingness to assume entrepreneurial risk led Kevin Hernandez to plan his second startup on the trendy stretch of Stockton’s Pacific Avenue, known as the Miracle Mile.

The last sound anyone wants to hear is a firetruck siren. But last fall, that unsettling sound rang in the middle of the night as a three-alarm fire leaped from an apartment building in midtown Sacramento to the roof of J Street Recorders, home of the multiplatinum blues metal band Tesla.

When a disaster hits, most businesses immediately focus on getting operations up and running, but there’s another aspect to consider: communications. It is crucial to get timely and accurate information distributed to customers, employees, vendors and the community during a disaster.

Having a comprehensive disaster management plan in place alongside a robust and comprehensive insurance package is vital for any business owner hoping to survive a worst-case scenario.

For credit unions, the ability to provide services in the face of disaster is the measure of a job well done.

For companies needing data security and backup, the Sacramento region boasts some of the safest and most affordable data centers in the West. It’s so desirable, in fact, that Twitter has joined Yahoo Inc., eBay Inc., Wells Fargo & Co. and a host of other Fortune 500 companies in storing its data in or near California’s capital.