
Working Holiday
How to take a vacation without anyone knowing
The reality is that independent workers don’t get paid vacations, and often don’t have the option to not work. But that shouldn’t come at the cost of leisure—it just means getting a bit more creative with the ever-elusive work-life balance. So, how do you take a trip without anyone knowing?

New Day on Broadway
In Oak Park, the triangle is the shape of things to come
Triangular blocks are wonderful in terms of urban energy because they dictate the creation of three-sided buildings — the only kind that can fit on those awkward sites — and the result is a group of endearing “flatiron” buildings with sharp edges that stand out from their surroundings. In other words, it’s a good place to start the revival of an entire shopping destination.

Made to Last
Trusteed IRAs can stretch assets over generations
You’ve made all the right financial decisions. You’ve saved, you’ve planned, you’ve invested. But what if your heirs aren’t quite ready for the responsibilities and tax advantages that go along with inheriting your dutifully funded IRA? Your best bet for control from the grave may be a trusteed IRA.
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A Better Way to Build Websites
Digital Deployment empowers communication and connects communities
This company is not ordinary. And neither are their employees, clients or projects, for that matter.

Missing Pieces
Is California's latest disability access law causing more lawsuits?
With California leading the nation in ADA lawsuits, two years ago state legislators enacted a reform designed to thread the needle between those positions by educating more businesses about their responsibilities so they would make required access changes. Today, no one can say whether compliance has increased. But the number of ADA lawsuits has soared.

Reaching Inbox Zero
5 steps to stop your inbox from running your life and ruining your day
Abandoning your email is sort of like running away from home: We all know you’ll be back by dinner time.

A Fine Opportunity
One trio’s quest to finance fine dining in Placerville
It was a question they’d asked themselves time and again. Could Placerville support fine dining? Surely, they thought, the market for their envisioned eatery, The Independent Restaurant and Bar, must exist.

Of Rice and Men
On the Cover: Parched by years of drought, thousands of California’s rice fields lie barren
In the Sacramento Valley, where 97 percent of the state’s rice crop is grown, family farmers have been forced to fallow cropland they have worked for generations. The economic hit has been hard and true, affecting not just farmers, but seed distributors, equipment dealers and anyone else with a thumb in the rice business. The drought could cost Central Valley farmers and communities $1.7 billion this year and may lead to more than 14,500 layoffs.

Philosophical Differences
How 3 alternative education methods in the Capital Region measure up
It wasn’t long after I got pregnant with my first son that I began thinking about education.
Even though I knew it would be years before my little guy would go off to school, I wanted to start learning about my options. Some fellow parents and I formed the Education Explorers to research different philosophies.
Here are the basics of what we found:

The Snowflake Strategy
To win with boomers, you’ll need individualized marketing
Let’s be honest, few generations were more aptly named than the baby boomers. While the moniker may have risen from a historically specific fertility trend, in many ways it has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. As writer P.J. O’Rourke once described it: “We’re stuck with being forever described as exploding infants.”