In 2016 business and government leaders in Nevada County had an “ah-ha” moment: A report, commissioned by the Nevada County Economic Resource Council in coalition with the Northern Rural Training and Employment Council, showed stakeholders that the county’s local workforce needed easy access to tech-based skills.

Jonathan Palmer, chief technology of Autometrix in Grass Valley, provides insight into how software development has shifted away from PCs and to mobile platforms. His company manufactures automated cutting equipment for textile markets and develops the computer software needed to control the equipment.

The City of West Sacramento has started using mapping software to locate homeless camps as a way to monitor the local homeless population and direct them to public assistance.

In the Sacramento region, at least one major medical provider is already on the same page with the benefits of OpenNotes. Across the country, an estimated 13 million patients can now access their notes. This open-source movement, proponents say, represents a shift away from a paternalistic model of medical care and toward a model of fully-engaged and informed patients. And that, they argue, is better for everyone.

While reproductive technologies have given women and families more control and additional tools, having it all still seems a far leap. Treatments are expensive (most insurance plans won’t cover much), time-consuming and not always effective. Meanwhile, workplace politics have been slow to shift and accommodate a growing number of working moms.

Dr. Aimee Eyvazzadeh, a nationally-recognized fertility expert who runs a practice in San Ramon, gives her perspective on assisted reproductive technology. For more from Eyvazzadeh, check out “Birth Control” in our May issue. Sign up for our newsletter and we’ll email you when it’s available online.

The California Capital Women’s Business Center is a nonprofit organization that provides programs and services to small businesses throughout the state. In collaboration with the Women Veterans Alliance, the Women Veterans One-Stop Resource Center was created to specifically address the needs of women veterans, their spouses and families.

If you’re texting and driving, Sarah Morell might be recording you. She’s usually riding shotgun, as her husband drives, with her camera phone, ready to catch traffic safety violators on video. Her 6-year-old daughter’s in on the action too.

To be disruptive now means to change things, to get people to look at something in a new light. (I’d like to go back and convince my 6-year-old self that it’s actually a good trait that got me sent to the time-out chair.)

Like all jargon, “disruption” started out well-intentioned: Who doesn’t want to be the one with the fresh vision of how things could be — not how they are?

The push to integrate VR into the media has surged in recent years. The Guardian last summer unveiled its first VR project, 6×9, putting viewers into a solitary confinement prison cell. Last fall, The New York Times introduced The Daily 360. These immersive videos, made with Samsung technology, give readers rare glimpses into scenes worldwide.