California, Iceland caught in economic meltdown
Iceland and California are two places you don’t often find mentioned in the same sentence. But they are part of the reason why mayhem in the financial markets shows no sign of quieting down anytime soon. California’s budget problems are well documented in these news pages. This newspaper warned just a few weeks ago that Read More →
101 corridor tech firms reposition for the future
Even amid uncertainty, the tri-county economy continues to chug along. One reason for this is that the region’s technology companies keep an eye to the future. Two concrete examples: San Luis Obispo-based digital agency LEVEL Studios, formerly Web Associates, has undertaken a major re-invention to take itself from a respected Web developer to an online Read More →
Santa Maria joins the ranks of cities rebuilding hospitals
Santa Maria’s Marian Medical Center, a not-for-profit hospital founded by the Sisters of Saint Francis, is set to break ground on a new facility Oct. 6. The estimated $210 million project is expected to be funded by operating costs and philanthropic support, a hospital representative said. Scheduled for completion in 2011, the new hospital will Read More →
The economy has changed but the rules are the same
There’s a reason why the founding fathers put the seat of government in a remote city that was basically built on a swamp. Washington, D.C. proved again in recent days that it was very smart to keep the political capital of the nation and its economic epicenter — first Philadelphia, then New York — at Read More →
Josh Kane leaves the nest, tries spreading his own wings
Josh Kane, long known as an owner of Santa Barbara-based The Apartment Specialists [now called TAS Commercial], has flown the coop and built a new nest for himself in Ventura, leading a satellite office for national commercial brokerage Sperry Van Ness. Kane’s real estate career was hatched alongside TAS owner and founder Craig Lieberman. While Read More →
A return to
No two bailouts are exactly the same. And when it comes comparing the savings and loan era Resolution Trust Corp. to the $700 billion banking industry rescue now before Congress, there is one difference that really stands out. Back in the stone age of 1988, when we were merely trying to take care of regional Read More →
As crush gets under way, labs try to limit production flaws
Wine goes back to biblical times, but today’s wineries are digging into the chemical properties and hi-tech tools of the future to transform their wine into precisely calculated products. Hundreds of wineries large and small across the Tri-Counties have been turning to two regional wine lab companies, Baker Wine & Grape Analysis and Vinquiry, to Read More →
