If Rick Wylie were cast in a Chevy commercial, the director might pair him with a rugged pickup truck. It makes sense; Wylie worked his way up from sheet-metal apprentice to president of a construction company. In the real world, however, Wylie drives a Volt, pearl white with black trim.

High-speed trains linking Northern and Southern California have been a point of contention for more than a decade. For some, such “bullet trains” are the ideal solution to growing transportation needs; for others, they represent a boondoggle with enormous economic risk.

Check out the license plates of your fellow motorists the next time you are out for a drive, and you may notice more dealer tags than usual.

When it comes to financial planning, Cesar Lopez knows his stuff. He can write up an annuity, help with investment and tax strategies and give advice on insurance needs. Just don’t ask him to fix his own computer.

It’s a case of David versus Goliath. A tiny, privately held Rocklin company is taking on multimillion-dollar competitors with a lightning-fast technology that’s more sophisticated than the competition’s.

Bill Mueller, 47, is CEO and managing partner at Valley Vision. One of four partners in the regional Next Economy initiative, Valley Vision serves as the project manager of the Capital Region’s latest economic development effort.

Rollie Swingle didn’t have treatment options for his stage IV prostate cancer.

Tom Kandris makes boxes. And his company, PackageOne Inc., better known as American River Packaging, can also fill them.

The black widows caged in professor Craig Vierra’s laboratory evoke the macabre. But here, in the Department of Biological Sciences at Stockton’s University of the Pacific, these crawlers are the story’s heroines.

As Sacramento attempts to forge a regional economic development strategy, manufacturing is being touted as a potential breadwinner, but rebuilding the industry piecemeal could take time.