Heritage Oaks regulatory order removed
Paso Robles-based Heritage Oaks Bancorp has bucked a regulatory consent order placed on it two years ago. The news came on April 23, as the firm reported that it earned $1.6 million in the first quarter, a 204 percent increase over the same quarter a year earlier. The parent company of Heritage Oaks Bank and Read More →
Oxnard corruption probe ends in reports of gov’t waste, but no arrests
More than two years after storming Oxnard’s city hall in a search for documents, Ventura County District Attorney Greg Totten’s office has ended its corruption investigation without pressing charges. In a 99-page report, the District Attorney’s office said it uncovered significant waste of taxpayer money by suspended City Manager Ed Sotelo, Mayor Tom Holden and Read More →
Eucalyptus raises $30M in venture capital
Eucalyptus Systems has raised $30 million in fresh venture capital from the same firm that funded Netflix and Twitter, bringing the Goleta-based cloud computing software company’s total capital raised to date to $55.5 million. Eucalyptus was founded in 2009 by a team of computer scientists led by UC Santa Barbara professor Rich Wolski. It makes Read More →
La Purisima put on the market for $6.3M
A deep dip in the golf industry has caused the owners of La Purisima Golf Course in Lompoc to put the property up for sale for $6.25 million. The 306-acre property located along Highway 246 was quietly put on the market in November, Vice President and General Manager John Carson told the Business Times. When Read More →
Carp flower industry standing strong
Flower growers in Carpinteria, the biggest flower-producing region in the state, are working together to try to keep up as their foreign rivals grow more and more competitive. California’s multimillion-dollar cut flower industry is being threatened by federal trade policies that provide subsidies to foreign flower growers, particularly those in Bogota, Colombia, according to a Read More →
Court clears up lunch break rules
Businesses don’t have to force their workers to take lunch breaks – they need only make them available to avoid penalties under California labor law. But they still face the threat of class-action lawsuits if they have a policy of promoting only the employees who work through their lunch breaks. The California Supreme Court handed Read More →
Ceres loses $6.8M in Q1
Energy crop company Ceres lost $6.8 million in the first quarter, it said in its first earnings report after going public in a $65.3 million IPO in late February. The Thousand Oaks-based firm’s loss widened from $5.4 million a year earlier as revenue dropped from $1.6 million to $1.3 million. Despite a $100,000 increase in Read More →