A staffer in the office of Bonney Plumbing, Heating, Air & Rooter Service grew concerned after smelling alcohol on an employee headed out to a job site. The staffer immediately notified management, who met the man at the site and also detected the scent. This was enough reasonable suspicion to demand a drug test, which showed the employee had been intoxicated while driving a company vehicle.

Change at any level — personal, professional or civic — doesn’t come easily, and we frequently need an urgent situation to force change.

Before opening his first retail coffeehouse in a midtown Sacramento alley, Jason Griest roasted a lot of beans.

Bill Mueller, 47, is CEO and managing partner at Valley Vision. One of four partners in the regional Next Economy initiative, Valley Vision serves as the project manager of the Capital Region’s latest economic development effort.

California’s polls will look decidedly different in June. Instead of the customary partisan primary ballots, this year’s options will include all the candidates for a particular office, and voters can choose any candidate, regardless of their own party registration.

Joining the 1 percent really isn’t that difficult.

When Albert and Frances Lundberg fled the Dust Bowl-ravaged cornfields of Nebraska in 1937 to settle in the greener pastures of the northern Sacramento Valley, they did so with hope for the future.

Long into early spring, hiking the rocky trail to Loch Leven Lakes required little more than a good pair of boots.

The future of community growth in the Capital Region hinges on the fate of several habitat conservation plans slogging through the development pipeline.

A town long known for its quaint historic authenticity, Truckee in the past five years has evolved from a sleepy hamlet to a city with the promise of vibrancy.

Roseville may be contemplating — again — plans to build a long-coveted conference center. The city has for years touted the benefits of a civic center, but such projects are notorious for their inability to bring in hefty, consistent revenue, and plenty of people are wondering if the right time for such a gamble is now.

It’s a case of David versus Goliath. A tiny, privately held Rocklin company is taking on multimillion-dollar competitors with a lightning-fast technology that’s more sophisticated than the competition’s.