After almost a decade, Americans may finally be turning the corner on saving money. More than 30 percent of them say they have enough tucked away to cover six months’ worth of expenses — a seven-year high for this measure of financial calamity preparedness, a financial planning favorite.

Plumas Lake Elementary School District in Yuba County partnered with SmartWatt, a New York-based solar firm with an office in Rocklin, to optimize its energy system, including the installation of a solar photovoltaic system. It wasn’t the first solar panel project for SmartWatt, but it is the company’s largest to date.

As the cost of daily life tests the bounds of gravity in San Francisco, a beneficiary has emerged 90 miles away.

As I write this, I am seated by the window on an airplane flying east. Taking off over Sacramento, acres and acres of green and brown agricultural fields come into view. Each block of squared-off land is juxtaposed against another, all cut into varying diagonals and straight lines, forming an intricate pattern of rich farmland.

It’s been 12 years since Estella Sanchez signed rent papers on the first Sol Collective Arts and Cultural Center in Del Paso Heights. More than a decade, hundreds of art exhibitions and thousands of community events later, Sol Collective recently purchased the building on 21st Street in Sacramento. We sat down with Sanchez to talk art, activism, the importance of building ownership and snacks.

Aaron Nitzkin, founder and CEO of Solar Roof Dynamics in Davis, offers his perspective on the future of solar energy. For more from Nitzkin, check out “Daylight Savings” in our June issue. Sign up for our newsletter and we’ll email you when it’s available online.

From texts to photos to emails, every modern law case involves some sort of e-discovery — so why are lawyers still failing to do it?

Under sunny skies at Argonaut High School in Jackson, representatives from the Amador County Public Schools system and OpTerra Energy Services recently celebrated the official groundbreaking of the Amador GOLD program. The public-private partnership combines school infrastructure improvement and energy-efficiency projects with STEM education for students.

If you imagine a humming city as a living body, the conventional alleyway might be the large intestine. It’s a lonely grey loading zone, a collection point for garbage, and a covert space for drug use and violence. But as U.S. cities grow denser, urban passageways that were once ignored and crumbling are enjoying a renaissance. Alleyway activation is a designer buzzword for modernizing utilitarian corridors into well-lit public spaces.

Ask any freelancer what their rates look like and you’ll most likely get hit with one of three options: hourly rates, per project rates or a mix of the two. But how do freelancers decide on these rates?

Two weeks after the Golden 1 Center opened last September, Pizza Rock stopped taking group reservations. The K Street restaurant that blends its food appeal with a nightlife scene had been dealing with empty tables and lines spilling out the door, as parties failed to arrive.

Top-paid executives and investment managers of the California Public Employees’ Retirement System may get as much as a 5 percent bump in their base salaries this year under a proposal to be considered by the largest U.S. pension fund.

Ron Bodenmann, founding partner of CyberCorp Forensics, gives his insights into e-discovery. 

Kimberly Garza, a landscape architect and director of ATLAS Lab, offers her insight into how underutilized urban spaces can be transformed.

If you need a better reason than being “tired” for taking time off, here are four ways to structure your vacation time that benefit you and your employer.

FourthWave, a nonprofit accelerator program for women-led tech companies, expanded from its Los Angeles pilot to Sacramento in March and is already working with its first seven entrepreneurs. We sat down with Cheryl Beninga, who is the managing director of Beninga Advisors and who cofounded FourthWave Sacramento with Tracy Saville, CEO of Sofia Al., to talk about women in technology and the regional tech scene.

In order for spawning Chinook salmon to return to Deer Creek this autumn, they first had to swim against the stream from the San Joaquin River to the Mokelumne River, east of Rio Vista. Then, the determined fish had to make their way up to where the Mokelumne meets the Cosumnes River, and finally, migrate several miles more to get to the shady shores of Deer Creek.