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

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:

Call it a recession, a realignment or a downturn. Whatever you call it, our current economy is experiencing convulsions most of us have not seen in our lifetimes. Our nation, our state and our region continue to suffer from a sputtering economy and painfully high unemployment.

In a Thursday morning’s darkness, the hardwood floor of Yoga Shala is covered wall to wall in rubber mats. Seated, students center their breath as instructor Tyler Langdale begins the Vinyasa class.

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.

“We intend — on our own as the majority party — to do all that we can to put people back to work.”  So says Senate Majority Leader Darrell Steinberg. Well, that certainly is good news.

A 2009 report from Pike Research in Boulder, Colo., forecasts the combined biodiesel and ethanol markets will reach $247 billion in sales by 2020, up from just $76 billion in 2010, or about 12 percent annual growth.

When Sacramento-based Aerojet decided to convert part of a superfund site into a solar field, it sought bids from companies across the country. The project, after all, would be big — 35 acres ultimately generating six megawatts of power, making it one of the largest industrial solar projects in the country.

Under the federal Affordable Care Act, all but a small number of Americans soon will be required to have health insurance. But having insurance is one thing; getting the medical care it is intended to cover may be entirely another.

Women in some parts of the United States are dying younger than they did a generation ago.

It’s been more than 10 years since Char Donnermeyer sat in a communitywide forum to determine which charitable cause needed her attention. The United Way had tapped Donnermeyer and two others to start a group that women around the region could rally behind.

Chloe Walker doesn’t remember the first time she moved or how many times she had to pack her belongings in flimsy trash bags. But she remembers getting her first suitcase at age 18, when she became too old for the foster system.

Yolo County is doubly blessed. Within its boundaries lie some of the nation’s richest farmland; the open expanses also make it a prime place to develop solar energy.

The new West Village complex where nearly 2,000 UC Davis students will reside this year closer resembles Club Med than traditional student housing.