A hundred years ago, the California State Fair had a sure-fire way to entertain crowds: Operators would send two steam locomotives crashing into each other at 90 mph for pure spectacle. Today, Sacramentans with an eye on Cal Expo are still thinking big.

Remember the wild days of the real estate boom when you could buy a house with nothing down? You still can. Well, maybe you can’t, but a very select group of wealthy buyers can.

Terry Green was sitting at home a few years ago when his cell phone rang.

Would his company be interested in doing some projects in China?

Since filing for bankruptcy last year, Stockton hasn’t seen any immediate improvement. The city ended the year with 71 murders, a steady climb from only 26 in 2009. The rise has been attributed to a shrinking police force after the city slashed the department’s budget.

Banks are running up against some odd new competitors these days. Big box retailer Costco is advertising mortgages. Wal-Mart has issued its own debit card. Amazon is offering loans to merchants in its online marketplace.

Congratulations Sacramento. You finally got the economic recovery you’ve been asking for. 

It’s not as big or fast as you had wished for, but give it time. It should get stronger as we move toward 2014.

At an age when many other couples still don’t have their day-to-day finances in shape, Sarah Britton and Will Gonzalez were already planning for their retirement. He was 36, she was 30.

Tablet computers are becoming the tool of choice in multiple industries, adding convenience to simple tasks such as note taking, to more complex operations such as tracking sales. Tablets haven’t replaced laptops yet, but sales trends favor the handheld devices.

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.

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.

When the future of redevelopment agencies started to look shaky last year, West Sacramento decided it could do without one. The city put together a new financing strategy, and in May the Community Investment Action Plan was revealed.

Sacramento County will need an estimated 23,000 low- and very low-income housing units in the next nine years. The six-county region stretching from Yuba to Placer to El Dorado would need more than 41,000 units. But without the tax increment financing once provided by redevelopment agencies, city leaders are wondering where they’re going to come up with the cash to build.

Life often has been unkind to economic development directors since California put its redevelopment agencies out of business last year. Randy Starbuck tells it first hand.

Immediately south and southeast of Elk Grove are thousands of acres of mostly undeveloped farmland that officials think the city will someday need. The plan is to add nearly 8,000 acres — about 29 percent of Elk Grove’s current size — to its fold. But critics say Elk Grove has plenty of unused land within its borders, and California is losing farmland fast.

Check out the license plates of your fellow motorists the next time you are out for a drive, and you may notice more dealer tags than usual.

If Rick Wylie were cast in a Chevy commercial, the director might pair him with a rugged pickup truck. It makes sense; Wylie worked his way up from sheet-metal apprentice to president of a construction company. In the real world, however, Wylie drives a Volt, pearl white with black trim.

Joining the 1 percent really isn’t that difficult.

Perry Ghilarducci holds a vivid memory from the day the Internal Revenue Service showed up unannounced at his office. Nobody wants a surprise visit from the IRS, and it’s even more nerve-wracking when the agents are from the criminal investigation division and when, like Ghilarducci, you’re an accountant.

As Sacramento attempts to forge a regional economic development strategy, manufacturing is being touted as a potential breadwinner, but rebuilding the industry piecemeal could take time.

Tom Kandris makes boxes. And his company, PackageOne Inc., better known as American River Packaging, can also fill them.

Companies in the Sacramento region have long counted on government contracts to smooth out the gyrations of economic cycles. Local, state and federal governments had deep pockets and a seemingly unending appetite for goods and services.

Companies in the Sacramento region have long counted on government contracts to smooth out the gyrations of economic cycles. Local, state and federal governments had deep pockets and a seemingly unending appetite for goods and services.

Northern California’s economy hasn’t edged far enough into recovery to encourage strong hiring. The bouncing stock market, shaky European economies and an upcoming presidential election have many managers wondering what kind of business climate they’ll be dealing with a year from now.

Sacramento loves regional planning. Take an issue — say, transportation or land use or coordination of local government — and a group will sprout to chart a course.

Big banks have been drawing heat this year. Some is focused, such as the clamor over monthly debit card fees being proposed or tested by several national banks. Some is diffused, such as that from the apparently leaderless Occupy Wall Street movement and its nationwide imitators.

A few months after the 2002 launch of Arcadia Biosciences Inc. in Phoenix, CEO Eric Rey insisted the company move to California. Not to Silicon Valley, but to Davis.

There’s a spark of life in housing construction this year. A tiny, weak spark, but a real one nonetheless. Builders are putting up more apartments in the Sacramento region.

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.

During the building boom, contractors had to keep a sharp eye on the rising cost of materials if they wanted to make a decent profit. From 2004 to 2008, double-digit increases were the norm for many products.

Looking back, it’s easy to see how some local government pension plans wound up underfunded. As described in last month’s issue, much of the blame goes to generous legislation passed during California’s boom cycles.

Since founding Sierra Energy Corp. in 2004, Mike Hart has led the charge to make it a force in the world of renewable energy. This year, with a working gasification system to demonstrate for new investors, Hart is stepping aside as CEO.

In 1999 the dot-com boom was sending lots of money to Sacramento. The state Legislature saw it as a good time to share some of that wealth through state and local pension plans via Senate Bill 400.

Bringing in new owners and managers can disrupt a small business even under the best of circumstances. When death forces those changes on a business with little or no warning, the stress multiplies exponentially.

Buy enough businesses and eventually you learn what to expect from the process.

Consider the annual physical and why both doctors and America’s work force find them frustrating: The worker has to carve out time to take all the exams and tests, often in different locations and on different days, and doctors lament the lack of time to discuss the results with patients.

Economically, 2011 may go down as a year with a split personality. Sacramento is looking at a much different year than most of the country. Small businesses face a more divergent climate than large companies. Even among small businesses, many have more confidence in their own prospects than in the economy as a whole.

Let the economists make all the predictions they like about 2011. It’s the businesses of California that have their budgets on the line.

If you’ve ever had to plan an office move, or even live through one, consider the challenge of doing 10 to 20 at the same time. That’s the task facing architects, construction companies and interior designers when governments consolidate far-flung operations under a single roof.

Chris Huppe spent more than a dozen years working on better ways to use the green waste from his landscape maintenance company.

Since they first began squirming in their bassinets in the late 1940s, baby boomers have created unprecedented demand for the industries that cater to their needs. The generation has moved from toys to blue jeans to cosmetic surgery. Now the oldest boomers are in their mid-60s and are purchasing life insurance and long-term care assistance.

Just as winemakers won’t put just any old juice in a barrel, they won’t use any old barrel either. For one wine, it’s French oak. For another, American. For yet another, Hungarian. In some cases the wine goes into a steel tank and never touches oak of any kind.

Like zombies in a low-budget horror movie, commercial properties in the Capital Region are staggering along in the twilight between life and death.

While some companies in the Capital Region anxiously wait for the economy to return to normal, others have set out to create a new normal. They have found new ways to market themselves or have moved into new products and services.

Ready or not, California’s architects will go green starting in January. The state has adopted the Green Building Standards Code, or CalGreen for short.

Steve Moore, of Rex Moore Electrical Contracting, spent a decade handing over the reins of the family business to a fourth generation.

At age 45, the Williamson Act may be dying.

Designed to protect agricultural land from development, the Williamson Act gives tax breaks to landowners to ease some of the financial pressure to sell out. In an era of multibillion

At age 45, the Williamson Act may be dying.

Designed to protect agricultural land from development, the Williamson Act gives tax breaks to landowners to ease some of the financial pressure to sell out. In an era of multibillion

In more than 40 years as an architect, Don Comstock has seen the profession weather some rough periods.

Imagine for a moment that financial advisers and wealth managers were paid based on their performance. What if they couldn’t make money unless they made money for their clients?

Don’t mess with Icing on the Cupcake. The two-year-old specialty bakery in Rocklin has trademarked its name and isn’t shy about protecting it. Go open your own boutique bakery and sell cupcakes if you want, but steer clear of that brand name if you don’t want to hear from a lawyer.

As shopkeepers have done for thousands of years, Andrew Cook talks with his customers about what he ought to carry at the Utrecht Art Supplies store on Howe Avenue. The difference is that Cook, Utrecht’s assistant manager, holds the conversations on Facebook. The store had nearly 800 fans as of late November.

It might be hard to imagine, but Sacramento will start building thousands of houses and condominiums again — some day.