There are roads that the director of San Joaquin County’s transportation-planning agency forbids his teenage daughter from driving on.

For much of Jon Costantino’s career, using public transportation was a daily affair. But moving up in his career, both figuratively and literally, pushed him back behind the wheel.

For Lori Raineri, getting from place to place is a team effort involving both human and canine commitment.

Sitting in traffic can be stressful for anyone in a hurry, but the damage to the body and psyche can disproportionately hit low-income people, who are prone to encounter a greater range of destructive agents in their lives, experts say.

Jim Hartley’s morning commute is more scenic than most. The 18-mile route follows residential streets devoid of traffic lights and includes a view over the American River from the Hazel Avenue bridge.

Taxes are en vogue these days, and not just at the state level where Gov. Jerry Brown is pushing a sales and income tax ballot measure. Eight California cities already gained general tax increases from their residents in the June elections; several more cities and counties will attempt to follow suit in November.

When Kelly Sassman started giving Pilates instruction at her Sacramento studio 12 years ago, people couldn’t even pronounce the name of the fitness program.

When I sit down at Juno’s for one of the best burgers of my life, Chef Helms starts by telling me he doesn’t want to be a namedropper. The fact that he mentored under legendary French Chef Jean Luc Chassereau of The Cookery and Reda Bellarbi Saleha of Aioli Bodga Espanola is not the point. 

Jonathan Rewers, 33, serves as chairman of the Sacramento Parks Commission. In the June elections, Rewers garnered 25 percent of the vote in his quest to unseat Kevin Johnson as mayor of Sacramento. He is now a candidate for the City Charter Commission. 

When towns host competitive endurance events with names like Ironman, Spartan Beast and Tough Mudder, you can expect that contestants will leave plenty of footprints. They’ll also leave a lot of money, sometimes millions of dollars.

The California Teachers Association has long been one of the state’s most powerful political players. This year, the organization has thrown its weight behind Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal to raise the state sales tax, in part to fund education. We sat down recently with CTA President Dean Vogel to discuss that support and other critical issues surrounding California schools.

With fewer discretionary dollars in their pocketbooks and more sensitivity at the gas pump, recession-era gamblers want to spend their quarters closer to home.

As Bay Area businesses begin to regain their financial footing, the city of Tracy is aiming to capitalize on a growing need for industrial space in an accessible, affordable zip code.

On a spring day in 2011, 60-year-old Russell Edgar checked himself into a 14-day Newstart residential program at the Weimar Center. In the Sierra Nevada foothills above Sacramento, the center promised to teach people with diabetes, obesity and cancer how to reverse their health problems through natural healing methods.

Tony Mickela doesn’t consider his weekly massage an act of decadent pampering. The 67-year-old retired Sacramento educator instead views the therapy, which he has been receiving for the past 10 years, as an integral part of a healthy lifestyle and his effort to keep an array of health problems at bay.

Somewhere between board meetings, the kids’ soccer practice and family doctors appointments, women are ignoring an essential task: taking care of their hearts.

It all began six years ago, the year my parents turned 80 within a month of one another. Suddenly my strong father, a former steel worker, couldn’t lift most things. At the same time, my multitasking, do-it-all mother became increasingly frustrated by all that she couldn’t accomplish.

When Shelley Tabar’s father fell off her roof, she became his primary caregiver and subsequently lost nearly half her income.

Many of my estate-planning clients grasp the importance of wills, living trusts and financial powers of attorney but feel unprepared when the conversation turns to quality-of-life for their final years.

In the 1970s and again in the 1990s, the nation became engrossed with end-of-life issues when the media grabbed hold of the stories of Karen Ann Quinlan and, later, Terri Schiavo.

Americans once looked at early retirement as reward for decades of hard work, a chance to relax and the opportunity to do more of what they enjoyed — including doing absolutely nothing.

When aging loved ones begin showing signs that they may no longer be safe behind the wheel, there are some options for concerned family members.