Sacramento Business Journal articles from December 1999

Sacramento Business Journal archives from December 1999

Looking back, looking forward.(content of publication)(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... Well, that's it. Another century is in the bag. To mark the occasion, we offer a special section this week, "Turn of the Century." Our reporters looked back at what life and business in Sacramento was like a century ago. And we...

Sutter-Summit merger finalized.(Sutter Health, Summit Medical Center)(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... Sutter Health added a 27th hospital, Summit Medical Center in Oakland, to its network on Monday. The deal was completed just hours after a federal judge in San Francisco denied a motion by Attorney General Bill Lockyer to stop the merger...

Stan's Sacramento: Riding a streetcar to yesterday.(Stanley Gilliam)
December 31, 1999... Tell people you're a native of Sacramento, and they look at you with a little disbelief. Add that your parents, all four grandparents and a couple of great-grandparents share the same point of origin, and that disbelief turns to out-and-out...

Workers' comp rates set for liftoff.(workers' compensation rates raised in California)
December 31, 1999... Jeremy Giovannetti at Half Moon Fruit & Produce Co. in the town of Yolo couldn't believe what he was seeing. Last year, the company paid $240,000 for workers' compensation insurance. Now -- without any injuries over the last year among...

Stores see last-minute rush to buy computers.(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... If you think the pre-Christmas shopping rush was bad, try the beat-the-tax-write-off deadline for buying a computer. Locally, places like Computer Warehouse and Gateway Country report deluges this week. "Last year it was a madhouse,"...

Oates opens bank in Rocklin.(Five Star Bank)(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... Five Star Bank opened very quietly in Rocklin on Dec. 20. The bank, started by developer Buzz Oates and his associates, raised slightly more than $12 million in a three-week stock offering. There are 52 shareholders in the bank's subchapter S...

ISO says it's good to go for Y2K.(California Independent System Operator, year 2000)(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... Just to keep the public up on whether they can expect their lights to go out tonight, die not-for-profit California Independent System Operator, which controls wholesale electricity buzzing across most of the state, will be buzzing itself...

Filmmakers want guy to act.(California film workers petition Governor Gray Davis)(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... California film workers on Monday are going to give Gov. Gray Davis a petition signed by 40,000 people who work in television and movies urging the governor to do something about runaway productions. Canadian and Australian film studios...

Western Sierra acquires third bank.(Sentinel Community Bank of Sonora)(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... Western Sierra Bancorp on Tuesday agreed to buy Sentinel Community Bank of Sonora in a $10.8 million stock swap. Western Sierra is the holding company that grew out of Western Sierra Bank, based in Cameron Park. Sentinel is Western Sierra...

H-P lawsuit alleges racketeering, fraud.(Hewlett Packard)
December 31, 1999... Claims it was bilked for tens of millions Hewlett-Packard Co. has filed its third federal lawsuit in nine months, renewing a legal attack on high-tech fraud that it says has cost the company tens of millions of dollars. The latest...

Railroad museum to grow.(California State Railroad Museum)(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... The California State Railroad Museum Foundation is negotiating a deal to turn part of the old railroad shops downtown into a $25 million interactive railroad technology museum. The expansion on an unconnected site would more than double...

Investors revive laggard biotech stocks.(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... Despite all the brilliant science underlying the biotechnology sector, many of the stocks resemble that poor old woman seen in late-night TV commercials: They've fallen and they can't get up. But lately, biotech is getting up. The recent...

Siemens buys maker of transit-managing devices.(Siemens Transportation Systems Inc.)(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... Siemens Transportation Systems Inc. has purchased a business that makes transit information management systems from Rockwell for an undisclosed price. The business, located in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, will remain there as a new business...

Financier changes tack by creating development firm.(Caceres, Ron)(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... After years of finding money for commercial real estate developers, Ron Caceres has traded in his financier's hat to make commercial development his own full-time occupation. Caceres was, one of the founders in 1991 of Newmark Realty...

Molina Medical returning as a Medi-Cal HMO plan.(Health Maintenance Organization)(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... Molina Medical Centers returns as a health plan for Medi-Cal recipients in Sacramento County as of Jan. 1, a move that promises increased competition for local Medi-Cal customers. The change marks a return to form for the Long Beach...

II Fornaio picks Roseville for second local restaurant.(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... If you live in Placer County and are a fan of II Fornaio, the posh Italian restaurant in downtown Sacramento, soon you won't have to drive far for a big night. Corte Madera-based II Fornaio Corp. is designing a restaurant for the new...

A hundred years ago, the city was an urban island.
December 31, 1999... In the 'anything goes' era, everything went sprawling In 1900, the tiny burg of Sacramento was an urban island sheltering just 30,000 residents in a vast sea of open space. A person strolling south from Capitol Avenue would find that...

The future looks crowded for Greater Sacramento.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
December 31, 1999... New development models must emerge to handle it If you like living in Sacramento, you understand why people might want to move here. It's good that you're understanding about it, because about a million more people are going to...

Pumped-up cell phones will keep the future talking.(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... And maybe a computer will be driving your car If you ask the techies at Play Inc., the Rancho Cordova video technology company, what kind of gizmos they think we'll be using in 10 to 20 years, their video-fueled imaginations immediately...

Old Roseville had phones, too; 1 for every 30 folks.(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... Automobiles were scarce and the railroads ruled Back in 1900, early forms of the technology we take for granted were just emerging in Sacramento. The goals then were essentially the same as they are today: to make life easier by...

Docs had own hospitals, and house calls cost $3.(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... Horse-drawn ambulance carried patients, supplies A person born at the turn of the last century lived an average of 48 years. Today's average life span is up to 80. "The difference in life span is probably the best indication of the...

Genetic therapy will tame today's common killers.(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... There'll also be changes in how we pay for it all Cancer will be gone. Birth defects will disappear like childhood diseases did a generation ago. And an understanding of the entire sequence of human genetics will allow doctors to identify...

Financial services head toward one-stop shopping.
December 31, 1999... Most customers will do business electronically Technology changed financial services big time in the 1990s. It's going to do it again in the decade to come. Most large financial companies will offer a broad menu of services from...

If you had the money, yo could bank on 4th and J.(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... In 1900, many could save but few could borrow Financial services in 1900 were primarily reserved for the wealthy. Nearly anyone could save at a bank, but few were allowed to borrow. Banks were where the rich got heavily...

Internet spurs widely varying predictions for retail.(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... But shopping patterns will change in startling ways Retail observers feel pretty confident that shopping as we know it won't vanish, despite intense interest in the Internet. In the next 10 to 25 years, consumers will see big changes...

Big retailers included Hale's, Weinstock, Breuner.(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... Department store notion took off at pioneer shops At the turn of the century, consumer goods and personalized service were plentiful along J and K streets in Sacramento. Among the more prominent city retailers were Hale Bros. & Co....

Farm machines let U.S. become an urban nation.(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... Horse-drawn equipment was common into the '30s A century ago, California's farms were on the brink of a technological age that would swap machinery for muscle. But in 1900, the technological age had not arrived yet. In the 1880s,...

Genes, diesel and more.(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... New century promises new types of fuel, seeds Land use, pesticides and financial pressures are all big issues on the farm. But the most influential question facing agriculture in the new century might be the gentic tweaking that...

Small business 'key' to closing trade gap.(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... Sacramento Business Journal correspondent J. Nils Wright contributed to this story. From a converted chicken barn in the mountains of western Maine, Rachel Carignan exports gaskets for snowmobiles, dirt bikes and other small-engine...

Disaster recovery calls for a professional.(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... Did you know that 44 percent of businesses that lose important records in a fire or other disaster never open again after the event? The Association of Records Managers and Administrators also says that 30 percent of the businesses that...

Title companies.(Statistical Data Included)
December 31, 1999... Title companies (Ranked by number of documents recorded locally; in ties, ranked by local revenue; in second ties, ranked by local branches) Number of...

PEOPLE ON THE MOVE.(appointments in the Sacramento, California area)
December 31, 1999... PRINTING & GRAPHICS Rich Sprague -- a 38-year veteran in printing, publishing, marketing and graphic design -- has been named sales manager of InfoMania Printing and Prepress, a Rancho Cordova firm. Sprague's career includes newspaper...

California Senate Fellows.(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... Applications are available for the 2000-01 California Senate Fellows program, which provides college graduates with a chance to become full-time Senate staff members for 11 months beginning in October. Fellows are assigned to the personal or...

A.C. Martin Partners.(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... A.C. Martin Partners of Sacramento has been chosen by Sonoma State University as executive architect for the new Center for Musical Arts, projected to open in fall 2002. A.C. Martin was selected from a group of 30 California-based...

Valley Media Inc.(partnering with encoding.com to produce online music service)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
December 31, 1999... Valley Media Inc. of Woodland, a distributor of music and video entertainment products, and encoding.com of Seattle say they expect to launch an online music sampling service next year for Valley Media's entire music catalog of more than 2...

National University's Sacramento Academic Center.(offering tax preparation services free of charge to those needing help)(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... National University's Sacramento Academic Center and the Sacramento chapter of the Institute of Management Accountants are sponsoring free federal and state income tax preparation to Sacramento County residents through the Volunteer Income...

Siemens Transportation Systems Inc.(acquires Rockwell's Integrated Local Government)(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... Siemens Transportation Systems Inc. of Sacramento has acquired Rockwell's Integrated Local Government business, which provides citywide information-management systems for public transit and public safety departments. Financial details of the...

InfoCure Corp.(aquires six companies)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
December 31, 1999... InfoCure Corp. of Atlanta has acquired six dental practice management companies, including two in Sacramento: PracticeWorks, a dental practice management software business sold by Zila Inc., and Human Touch. InfoCure says the six transactions...

Integrated Surgical Systems Inc.(collaboration with Zimmer Inc.)(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... Integrated Surgical Systems Inc. of Davis says it is working with Zimmer Inc. to add the NexGen Complete Knee Solution to the products that can be used with Integrated Surgical's Robodoc Surgical Assistant System, under the terms of a new...

American River Holdings.(dividend of 12 cents a share announced)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
December 31, 1999... American River Holdings of Sacramento, which owns American River Bank and First Source Capital, has declared a dividend of 12 cents a share payable Jan. 21, to holders of record Jan. 7. The payment is up 9.8 percent from the June dividend and...

Sacramento County's Business Environmental Resource Center.(awarded for services)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
December 31, 1999... Sacramento County's Business Environmental Resource Center has been awarded the statewide Governor's Environmental and Economic Leadership Award. Recipients are chosen for excellence in protecting the environment and conserving natural...

California Environmental Protection Agency's Department of Pesticide Regulation.(bestows 1999 IPM Innovator Awards)(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... The California Environmental Protection Agency's Department of Pesticide Regulation honored two local organizations at its 1999 IPM Innovator Awards. The local winners are the Association of Applied Insect Ecologists of Sacramento and Weddle,...

Sacramento Business Hall of Fame.(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... Five Sacramento companies were named to the Sacramento Business Hall of Fame at a Dec. 14 Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce luncheon. The inductees are Burnett & Sons Planing Mill & Lumber Co., Longshore's Luggage, The McClatchy...

Brecek & Young Advisors.(named 1999 Dow Jones Investment Advisor Broker/Dealer of the Year)(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... Brecek & Young Advisors was named by Dow Jones Investment Advisor magazine as the 1999 Broker/Dealer of the Year, among those with fewer than 200 brokers. Each broker/dealer was rated by its representatives on various issues such as...

Harblson-Mahony-Higgins Inc.(named General Contractor of the Year)(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... Harblson-Mahony-Higgins Inc. was awarded the General Contractor of the Year award by the Capital City chapter of the American Subcontractors Association.

STOCKS OF LOCAL INTEREST.(stock prices of local firms)(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... STOCKS OF LOCAL INTEREST Dec. 28 % change 52-week 52-week price from Dec. 14 low high Albertons's 33.00 ...

R.H. Phillips Inc.(financial statistics)(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... The company produces premium, super-premium and ultra-premium wines that are sold in the United States and 15 foreign countries. Its brands include Toasted Head, EXP, Kempton Clark and R.H. Phillips. The company was founded in 1981 by...

Is that the best the moon can do?(a past perspective of the year 2000)(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... I stood outside last week beneath the brightest full moon in 133 years, one week before the new millennium, and I tried my best to care. It is not easy, being human and trying to know what to make of these momentous mileposts as they go...

'Insuring the uninsured' wouldn't be enough.(community health clinics are a key part of providing medical care to the poor)(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... You've seen it in newspaper stories and heard it in political speeches. The popular remedy to bringing healthcare to the nation's poor and medically underserved is to insure the uninsured. Billions of dollars are being pledged by...

Maloof Sports and Entertainment.(gives $100,000 to People Reaching Out nonprofit agency)(Brief Article)
December 31, 1999... Maloof Sports and Entertainment has awarded a $100,00 grant to People Reaching Out through the Sacramento Kings Community Foundation. The Kings and People Reaching Out, through 13 years of joint fund raising, have raised nearly $1 million for...

State awards contracts for East End project.
December 17, 1999... Two teams to split $294M The state has awarded $293.6 million in contracts to build the East End office complex in downtown Sacramento, and a cut of the cash will go to two local firms. The East End project calls for five office...

State awards contracts for East End project.(Sacramento, CA)(Brief Article)
December 17, 1999... Housing subsidies granted The state General Services Department is helping to fund new rental housing near the Capitol in exchange for tearing down 51 apartments to make way for offices. As it prepares to build the East End office...

Three vie to develop high-end UCD hotel.(University of California, Davis hotel project)(Brief Article)
December 17, 1999... Three hotel development teams, including two that competed to develop the Sacramento Convention Center hotel, are vying to build a hotel and convention center on the University of California campus in Davis. The high-end project, worth...

A year later, doctors prove that going solo still possible.(doctors leave health maintenance organizations)
December 17, 1999... LAST OF THREE PARTS Burned twice by organized medicine, three intrepid local doctors plunged into debt a year ago and embarked on their own. The medical community watched with bemused interest to see whether it's possible to go solo...

Well drilling stopped near Aerojet due to toxic plume.(Brief Article)
December 17, 1999... The developers of the 6,000-acre Sunrise-Douglas area just south of Rancho Cordova have been told by the state not to drill wells near the site for fear of contamination from the nearby Aerojet plant. Under orders from state environmental...

Open space Valued.(Sacramento, CA open space preservation)
December 17, 1999... Planners: 'It's the quality of life, stupid' It's getting harder and harder these days to scan the horizon without seeing anything that's manmade. And with a million more people expected to be living in Greater Sacramento by 2020, you...

Quickness keeps 'small' developer in the game.(real estate developer, Taylor Properties)(Brief Article)
December 17, 1999... Lux Taylor's first job as an adult was harvesting grapes in South Australia, and later in Woodland. He knew fairly quickly that he wouldn't make a career of it. "It was farming," he says, "very tedious and redundant." Farming the...

Taylor awaits OK for project on Broadway.(shopping center development)(Brief Article)
December 17, 1999... Within the next week, developer Lux Taylor expects to get the go-ahead to begin construction on a new retail center in the center of Sacramento. He'll build a strip center on speculation -- without pre-leased tenants --cater-corner from...

Placer Sierra Bank will open two more branches.(Sacramento, CA)(Brief Article)
December 17, 1999... Placer Sierra Bank is opening new fullservice branches in El Dorado Hills and Lincoln, expanding the Auburn bank's network to 27 offices. The El Dorado Hills branch opens Saturday and the one in Sun City Lincoln Hills is due to open...

Pacific Grain Products' new owner stands pat.(AC Humko acquires Pacific Grain Products)(Brief Article)
December 17, 1999... Pacific Grain Products is losing its Inc., but that's about all. The Woodland supplier of grain-based ingredients has been bought by a Tennessee company that plans to keep the local company's operations and management as is. AC...

Red Lobster and Outback.(Correction Notice)
December 17, 1999... An item in the Dec. 10 "What's Cooking" column incorrectly reported that an Outback Steakhouse is being built on the former site of a Red Lobster Restaurant on Howe Avenue in Sacramento. The Outback Steakhouse is next door to the Red Lobster,...

Square Tree software.(Correction Notice)
December 17, 1999... The Dec. 10 story "Microsoft promotes shift to 'pay-per-view' software" incorrectly reported that Square Tree is a Fair Oaks-based software company. It is a Sacramento-based company.

July Olympic Trials line up $850,000 from sponsors.
December 17, 1999... Local organizers of next summer's U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials have signed up another six corporate sponsors and are getting ready to start selling to smaller businesses. The six new sponsors bring the total commitments up to about...

Money Store vets jumping to rival SBA lenders.
December 17, 1999... Veterans of The Money Store's Small Business Administration lending operation are popping up in rival SBA operations all over town. Observers say it's because the employees' skills make them valuable and scarce, plus many of them may feel...

Houston's Bank United sets up shop in Roseville.
December 17, 1999... A big Houston bank that's starting to go after Small Business Administration loans nationwide has opened a small West Coast SBA headquarters in Roseville. Bank United Corp., with $16.2 billion in assets, has been the largest SEA lender...

Casting wider net, Nordic doubles software sales.
December 17, 1999... Bjorn Persson last year decided to widen the market for the inventory-control software made by his company, Nordic Information Systems Inc. Since it was founded in 1985, Nordic had specialized in selling its software to home...

Christmas tree growers expecting record sales.(Brief Article)
December 17, 1999... It all came together tins year for the Christmas tree growers in the mountains of El Dorado County. Great weather, combined with shortages in competing regions, has cut-and-carry farms in the foothills moving trees faster than free...

Complaints jump 45 percent on health hot line.
December 17, 1999... Area residents continue to have problems with their health plans or medical insurance, according to a new report about managed-care in the region. Over the past year, 3,500 individual consumers called a Sacramento-area hot line to...

Capital Public Radio aims to add third station.
December 17, 1999... Michael Lazar has big plans for KXJZ and KXPR, the public radio stations he manages. They include much larger quarters and adding a third station that would specialize in news and information. The new station could be FM or AM, he says....

Drop in bankruptcies may kill reform.
December 17, 1999... Time may be bankruptcy reform's biggest enemy. Last month the Senate adjourned for the year before completing work on legislation that would make it harder for many bankruptcy filers to avoid repaying some of their debts. The bill is the...

He turned his back on HMOs and found security.(Statistical Data Included)
December 17, 1999... DR. SCOTT WIGGINGTON A year ago, Dr. Scott Wigginton was considered a condemned man. Other doctors saw certain doom in his decision to snub managed care and try to make a go of it on his own. Now they're calling to ask how he does...

New partnership needed time to iron out the kinks.(Statistical Data Included)
December 17, 1999... DR. WINNI LOESCH The atmosphere at River Oaks Medical Group is relaxed, functional and a far cry from the upheaval of last December. While the experts gave this group the best chance of making it on their own, getting a new...

A 'high-tech Dr. Welby' thrives in capitated practice.(Statistical Data Included)
December 17, 1999... DR. WARREN BRANDLE Dr. Warren Brandle struts a bit, showing off the place. He designed his 2,500-square-foot office in Gold River, and it reflects the kind of medical practice he has built over the last year. It's homey but...

Largest office lease deals in 1998.(Statistical Data Included)
December 17, 1999... Largest office lease deals in 1998 (Ranked by square footage) Rank Lease Address square footage Tenant 1. 1125, 11155, 11185 235,000 Delta Dental...

Shopping thriftiness takes a holiday.(Financial fortunes of Once Upon a Child stores during holiday season.)(Statistical Data Included)
December 17, 1999... Shari Stief, owner of four Once Upon a Child stores, has learned to quit fighting the trend. Like operators of many other resale stores, Stief experiences a significant drop in sales in December when gift-giving consumers instead head to...

No matter how you look at it, economy's hot.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
December 17, 1999... The California economy is so hot that even a negative turns out to really be a positive. Wells Fargo Co. and the National Federation of Independent Business make it their business to keep an eye on "Main Street business owners" and their...

Spell out expectations for your new employee.
December 17, 1999... The interviewing is done, the negotiations completed. Today is the day work starts getting done. Well, not quite. You're about 50 percent there. The next key is to get the new employee properly oriented and trained in your ways. The...

Home Builders Institute hires ex-U.S. rep.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
December 17, 1999... Frank Riggs, a former U.S. representative from Northern California, is the new president and CEO of the Home Builders Institute, the educational arm of the National Association of Home Builders. Philip Polivchak, Riggs' predecessor,...

Tech group lauds biz-to-biz e-commerce.(Brief Article)
December 17, 1999... The Clinton administration's creation of a "working group" to address laws and regulations that impede e-commerce was welcomed by the Information Technology Association of America. The ITAA says the administration is on "the right path...

Headin' for the Hills.(business and the housing market is booming in Folsom, CA)
December 17, 1999... Folsom business boom makes it tough for housing construction to keep pace Long known for its cattle drives and its prison, Folsom is now blossoming as a foothill enclave of high-end homes, high-tech businesses and towering offices facing...

North-state construction workers are hard to find.(Brief Article)
December 17, 1999... The building boom in Northern California hot Spots has construction companies scrambling for workers. "Every aspect of the industry is short, from architecture to the trades," said Mike Blixt, president of Rancho Cordova-based Maloney...

Benicia reaps benefits of focusing on industrial development.(Brief Article)
December 17, 1999... With 1.2. million square feet of industrial construction completed in the last five years and as much again expected in the future, out-of-the-way Benicia is rapidly becoming an industrial hot spot. A 600,000-square-foot project is...

Cranes go high-tech while going higher and costlier.(Brief Article)
December 17, 1999... William Johns, owner of Husky Crane, is a third-generation crane operator. He founded his company in 1975, when he was 36, with two cranes; today the company has 45 cranes, and Johns has a long list of stories to tell about the jobs he's done...

Developers jump into telecom, bring strategy here.
December 17, 1999... Big developers Shorenstein Co., Boston Properties Inc. and Cornerstone Properties Inc. have teamed up to jump into the telecommunications business, signaling building owners' growing efforts to squeeze new revenue streams out of their...