The arts may be underfunded in the Capital Region, but creativity abounds. Among Sacramento’s prime talents, a number of product designers stand out for their vision, craft and ingenuity.

The housing market may still be depressed, but here in the Capital Region there is no scarcity of talent when it comes to residential architecture and interior décor.

Tenant: California Independent System Operator
Designer: Dreyfuss & Blackford Architects

The Capital Region’s tenant improvement market is trudging along, mired by a deep air of malaise following years of construction decline.

Steady shifts in patient demographics and insurance reimbursement rates are forcing some practitioners to re-evaluate their business models and the way in which they deliver care.

Mandi Miculinich is on the hunt — the hunt for the perfect wedding dress. The Manteca resident has been to nearly half a dozen shops and has come as far as Sacramento to scout the gown worthy of a walk down the aisle.

The tricky part is that Miculinich is a size 22.

Mandi Miculinich is on the hunt — the hunt for the perfect wedding dress. The Manteca resident has been to nearly half a dozen shops and has come as far as Sacramento to scout the gown worthy of a walk down the aisle.

The tricky part is that Miculinich is a size 22.

The city of Lincoln has embraced an alternative mode of transportation — the neighborhood electric vehicle — and so has Sacramento Valley Golf Carts, the city’s only sales and service center for golf carts and NEVs.

Inside a concrete warehouse a few miles past Sacramento International Airport, an 80-pound white sturgeon is hauled onto a table, sliced throat to tail and relieved of its egg-stuffed ovaries. Workers at Sterling Caviar LLC pack the meat on ice, ship the roe elsewhere and repeat the process.

Thoughts of living room wallpaper oft conjure memories of Grandma’s bathroom or a great-aunt’s old bungalow. At Bradbury & Bradbury Art Wallpapers in Benicia, the papermakers think that’s just fine.

Today, there are more than 8 million women-owned businesses in America, generating nearly $1.3 trillion in annual revenue. Women continue to launch enterprises at a faster rate than the national average, according to the latest Census data. In fact, women have been launching and growing businesses faster than men for the past two decades.

State trade groups generate nearly $90 billion in annual spending nationwide through education and training programs, meeting products and services, and local, state and federal taxes, according to the California Society of Association Executives. Roughly 15 percent of that is spent right here in California, and much of it winds up in the till of the hospitality industry.

The market for social gaming in America will reach an estimated $1.25 billion in 2011, and social gaming startups — which didn’t exist three years ago — will account for about $835 million of that total, according to Inside Network Inc., a data collection firm that monitors Facebook, apps and the gaming industry. Sacramento’s own KlickNation Corp., a Facebook-game developer staffed by gaming addicts, techies and three former Marvel Comics artists, is one such small firm with big aspirations.

The walls are freshly painted. Fashionable new light fixtures hang from the ceiling. It’s got the right zip code, the right floor plan, the right price. Think you’re ready to buy that commercial property? Unless you have peered behind those walls and assessed all that’s happening above those lights, fire protection experts say you shouldn’t sign on the dotted line.

Think Sacramento’s plan for a sports arena and triple land-swap sounds complicated? It’s peanuts compared to what commercial real estate brokers are going through to gain and maintain tenants in suburban office properties these days.

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.

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.

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.

Lesli Pletcher’s parents were not extravagantly wealthy by any stretch of the imagination. However, true to form of a couple raised during the Great Depression, they were frugal and financially cautious so that, by the end of their lives, they had amassed a substantial estate capable of easily sustaining Pletcher’s father in his $9,000-a-month Alzheimer’s care facility.

In the 35 years Ken Ruzich has managed local levees, no water event has been more memorable than the 1986 flood that nearly toppled levees along the Yolo bypass. If it wasn’t a 100-year flood, he says, it was close enough: “It was our benchmark.”

In a year of job loss and company closures, Scott Blevins’ freight business is expanding, hiring and hauling in the cash.

Dave Rintala is giving new meaning to the term powder day. His Tahoe adventure-sport company, Pacific Crest Heli-Guides, in partnership with local chopper operator HeliTahoe, has sprouted a new helicopter skiing and snowboarding operation in the Sierra Nevada starting this winter.

Cities nationwide have welcomed hoards of elected officials who will have little time to celebrate their appointments before confronting daunting financial challenges. Among Capital Region cities, public safety budgets and all they encompass — cuts, swollen pensions, potential new fees, layoffs and department closures — have become the most contentious load to bear.

Michael Frenn was a committed Coors Light drinker. For him, it was as American as baseball and apple pie.

As consumers fill their lives with reusable shopping bags, organic foods and energy-efficient vehicles, touting the environmental friendliness of goods and services has become an increasingly important marketing strategy for companies worldwide. This, coupled with vague government guidelines for green marketing claims, is causing challenges as competitors, consumers and environmental advocates demand standards and verification of these claims.

Unless you get on the wrong airplane or harbor a relentless cancer, doctors say you can pretty much count on living to be 90. A hundred years ago, it was age 50. For many women, that would have meant dying before menopause. Now it means living half a lifetime with hormones on the fritz.

Next month the Crocker Art Museum will open the doors to its new galleries, and some experts say the region could see a museum as notable as those in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

About 35 percent of the 25 million people in the United States aged 71 or older have mild cognitive impairment or dementia, according to a 2008 Duke University study.

The shade of the warehouse does little to quell the triple-digit heat. Still, Thomas Nesbit, 21, and Jared Smedly, 22, volunteer their afternoon to construct a picnic table from scratch.

Customers of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District and other power providers could soon realize the benefits of living on a smarter grid.

People, pets and drinking water could be better protected because of a new effort in Sacramento County to shutter abandoned wells.

All that glitters is gold in a down market, and in the wake of economic collapse and the sinking Euro, the metal is looking more precious than ever to buyers and sellers of all shades.

Bold wines are big sellers these days, and to meet consumer demand, winemakers across California are pushing their wines to the max by replacing white varietal vineyards with reds and allowing fruit to stay on the vine a little longer.

Construction projects aren’t known for their efficiencies and streamlined processes.

With demand for cloud computing and virtual data storage on the rise, the job descriptions for technical support positions are dramatically changing.

Building a $50 million company from the ground up in six years doesn’t take a rocket scientist, but it does take one hell of an entrepreneur. Deon Taylor, the 36-year-old mettle behind Deon Taylor Enterprises, is that kind of guy.

After four quarters of increasing venture investment, 2010 is off to a slow start. Venture capitalists invested $4.7 billion in the year’s first quarter, down from $5.2 billion in the fourth quarter of 2009, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers. The life sciences sector, including biotechnology and medical device industries, took the biggest hit with a 26 percent decline in venture investment over the previous quarter.

In lean times, some businesses scrap corporate retreats as an unjustifiable expense to shareholders and staff, while others say that employee getaways are as valuable as ever. But all agree, 2010 is looking up.

When the president announced his federal stimulus plan, jurisdictions across the nation crossed their fingers for funding, and Placer County got in line.

A serendipitous land purchase in Auburn is breathing life into a town property hard-hit by the economy.

With jet fuel going for $5.83 per gallon for full service at Sacramento Executive Airport and $5.75 per gallon for full service at Mather Airport, the $4.99 price tag for the product at Davis Flight Support serves as the initial draw for pilots looking to fill up their corporate jets and chill out near Napa or Sacramento.

It’s no secret that city leaders have cut jobs, programs and services as quickly and responsibly as possible in response to economic malaise. But the numbers still fall short of filling growing budget gaps in jurisdictions across the region.

Bruce Stephens might be on to something. And if his estimates — and the optimism and faith of dozens of investors — prove accurate, his wine bottle washing company could provide a hefty return on investment, dozens of Stockton jobs and low-cost wine bottles for environment and budget-â?¨conscious wineries.

Millions of dollars could soon be available for rural health care providers across the nation.

Several new doors have opened in the Tahoe area the past five years, but few are as grand as those at the $300 million Ritz-Carlton at Northstar.

Efrain Marrero’s friends and family described him as caring and gentle. Never a troublemaker or much of a risk taker, it came as a shock to the community when the 19-year-old college athlete was found dead in his family’s home.