Sacramento County Business, Economy & Jobs Digest

Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state will spend $4.5 million on free legal services for undocumented workers involved in state investigations of wage theft or other labor violations. The lawyers can help with their immigration cases.

The lack of enough places for everyone to live has sent coastal rent prices inland, removing large swaths of previously cheaper rental units.

Luis Yauri Oyola hopes one day to buy a tractor to start a business in Peru; he estimates that he is six years away from that goal, for which he will have spent more than a decade of his life living thousands of miles away from his family. He is on call 24/7 and doesn’t leave the job site except for necessities.

Fair Oaks builder Colton Paulhus is plotting an empire of thousands of tiny homes across the U.S. based on his success in the Sacramento region. Since 2019, his family-run Anchored Tiny Homes has built 200 homes in Northern California and has contracts for another 300.

The 2023 California Michelin Guide was released with no Sacramento-area updates. That’s a shame, according to Sacramento Bee food reporter Benjy Egel, who writes about several restaurants worth noting.

Thirteen Republican state attorneys general have sent a cautionary letter to the CEOs of the 100 largest U.S. companies, highlighting the potential legal ramifications of using race as a factor in employment practices.

Rick L. Callender, president of the California/Hawaii Conference of the NAACP, has announced that the organization is offering free legal advice and consultations to public and private sector employees who have been targets of racial harassment and discrimination.

California’s electric rates are among the highest in the country. Three big power companies propose charging fixed rates based on income, saying low-income customers will save money. Critics doubt it’ll work.

On July 13, California Legislative Black Caucus members Sen. Lola Smallwood-Cuevas and Assemblymember Tina McKinnor led a news conference to express concerns over news reports of Black women abruptly leaving high-profile careers in Hollywood after the state recently approved $1.6 billion in tax credits for the industry.

for the average college student who’s evening consists of noodles and Netflix or a book worm who’s looking for a glass to pair with their favorite Jane Austen novel, Lucid & Voluptuary Wines has a wine pairing for them.

San Francisco has become the prime example of what downtowns shouldn’t look like: vacant, crime-ridden and in various stages of decay. But in truth, it’s just one of many cities across the U.S. whose downtowns are reckoning with a post-pandemic wake-up call.

When Tina Lee-Vogt started as Sacramento’s first nighttime economy manager, officials tasked her with ensuring safe and successful nightlife for entertainment businesses and patrons throughout the city.

Places where a California move is common do not require a long relocation.

Operating since 2001, a Citrus Heights taqueria and market located inside a storefront on Greenback Lane is looking to the future, while keeping family ties with the past.

James Sutter this month became the president of a union that represents more than 3,000 teachers, librarians, and other educators in the Elk Grove Unified School District. The sixth-grade teacher ran unopposed in May.

A 6,000-square-foot building near Sunrise Mall that was once home to a string of nightclubs could become a new event center if plans are approved by the city.

The environmental costs of ending water diversions from Mono Lake to Los Angeles would be mixed: It might help a shore bird habitat but would require changes that increase carbon emissions.

For the first time, San Diego has surpassed San Francisco for average rental rates, making the All-American City the nation’s third-most expensive rental market, according to a Zillow report. But San Jose had the nation’s highest monthly rent with $3,411.

Two former Twitter employees have developed a new social media app called Spill. Alphonzo “Phonz” Terrell and DeVaris Brown say the platform prioritizes the safety and well-being of marginalized identities, with a particular emphasis on African Americans and the LGBT-Q community.

Many California caregivers are aging immigrants making near-minimum wage. Two bills to improve pay and safety could benefit elderly Californians facing a caregiver shortage.

California’s more than 170,000 unhoused people often lack the means and mobility to locate and visit a doctor who will accept them. At least 25 street medicine teams throughout the state are trying to fill that gap by providing health care to unhoused individuals in need.

As California gives immigrants access to more public programs, its poverty rate declines, some say. But budget and recession worries slow that progress.

A proposal to set up degree completion funds for California student athletes has met with stiff opposition from universities and the NCAA. College athletes could earn a share of the revenue they generate under the bill — as much as $25,000 for each year that they played their sport. But the bill’s author has delayed it until 2024 after opponents charged the fund would draw money away from less lucrative sports like gymnastics and swimming.

Many California colleges and universities define “first-generation college student” differently, creating a confusing situation for students to navigate.

Tens of thousands of local workers in the most common state worker positions effectively make less than they were a few years ago, according to a Sacramento Bee review of 14 years of pay scales published by the state controller’s office.

A cohort of leaders under the age of 40 is making a difference in the Capital Region. What they lack in age and decades of professional accomplishments, they make up for with lessons learned through family and experiences.

Legislative leaders declared support for a bill to let staffers finally form a union, but the newly amended bill wouldn’t allow one for another three years.

Truck manufacturers won’t file legal challenges over California's controversial mandate, and in return, the state air board will relax some smog-fighting requirements.

A budget deal between lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newson includes $227 million more for the state’s Middle Class Scholarship, part of a commitment to eventually remove any reason for public university students to go into debt. The revised program debuted last year, sending an average of nearly $2,000 to 300,000 students.

Medi-Cal is changing how it pays mental health providers. Many of those providers say they may no longer be able to afford peer support specialists, home visits and other services.

The first-in-the-nation measure to add caste to state anti-discrimination laws, which passed the state Senate, survives the Assembly judiciary committee. The bill’s author refused to water down the measure further.

A union says hotel workers making $20 to $25 an hour aren’t earning enough to live near where they work.