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2 months ago | 
pressdemocrat.com | Jeff Quackenbush |Cheryl Sarfaty |Susan Wood
One Fair Wage has launched an emergency relief fund to provide financial assistance and legal support for service workers facing deportation threats and income loss. The New York-based national organization with 300,000 service workers as members is building on the experience it gained with the success of the coronavirus-related fund, which raised $24 million. With it's over 13 million workers, the restaurant industry is the largest employer of immigrants, One Fair Wage states.
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Jan 17, 2025 | 
pressdemocrat.com | Susan Wood
Due to the ongoing bird flu, the state veterinarian has banned poultry and dairy cow exhibitions at fairs and shows — for now. The restriction on the long-standing fair tradition has prompted organizers to consider alternative ways around the loss — using technology and educational means.
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Jan 15, 2025 | 
pressdemocrat.com | Susan Wood
Poppy Bank is rolling into 2025 with more expansion plans. CEO Khalid Acheckzai said Tuesday the Santa Rosa-based bank plans to open 10 more branches. The locations include Los Altos, downtown San Jose, Danville, Newport Beach, San Mateo, downtown San Diego, Novato, Millbrae, Hayward and San Ramon. Acheckzai declined to provide a collective investment amount from the privately held bank.
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Dec 6, 2024 | 
pressdemocrat.com | Susan Wood
The nonprofit United Policyholders offers information on the pros and cons of earthquake insurance: https://uphelp.org/buying-tip-type/earthquake/ North Bay property owners may be rethinking their insurance coverage following the 7.0 earthquake off the coast of Humboldt County Thursday morning.
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Dec 5, 2024 | 
pressdemocrat.com | Susan Wood
When the COVID-19 pandemic erupted in early 2020, David Cruz thought long and hard about taking a swing at running his own business. A carpenter by trade, the 39-year-old American Canyon man wanted to fill a community niche with a passion he’s nurtured since he was 5-years-old. On Nov. 27, Rep It Out became reality.
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Dec 2, 2024 | 
pressdemocrat.com | Susan Wood
U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson has joined labor advocates and other lawmakers in expressing concern over President-elect Donald Trump’s mass deportation plan. For Thompson, D-St. Helena, these migrant farmworkers represent the backbone of agriculture in the Congressman’s 4th District encompassing the North Bay farm belt of Napa, Sonoma, Solano, Lake and Yolo counties. They include farm workers such as Anabel, a Santa Rosa woman who has worked in vineyards tending and landscaping for half her life.
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Nov 26, 2024 | 
pressdemocrat.com | Susan Wood
Keysight Technologies (NYSE: KEYS) reported financial results for its fiscal year ended Oct. 31, showing an over 8% decline in revenue from the prior year. Total revenue for the Santa Rosa-based global test-and-measurement technology company this past fiscal year was $4.98 billion, down 8.9% from a year before, it reported Nov. 19. This figure represents a split between aerospace, commercial communications and electronic industrial divisions.
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Nov 26, 2024 | 
pressdemocrat.com | Susan Wood
North Bay business stakeholders may see a trickle-down effect from President-elect Donald Trump’s dual proposal of tariffs on other nations and mass deportations in ours. Tariffs on wine from other countries will “raise the prices of wine in the U.S.,” UCLA Professor of Economics Jerry Nickelsburg said during an economic conference at Sonoma State University Thursday. “That’s good news in the Wine Country (to winemakers).”But like a double-edged sword, that prospective benefit comes with a caveat.
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Nov 19, 2024 | 
pressdemocrat.com | Susan Wood
State insurance regulators have taken the next step in changing the rate making process for home insurance policies as the industry closes in on another rate increase. The California Department of Insurance sent its final draft of rules using a new “catastrophe model” to the Office of Administrative Law (OAL) for approval. The OAL ensures agency rules are legally valid.
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Nov 14, 2024 | 
pressdemocrat.com | Susan Wood
The Nonprofits Insurance Alliance of California (NIAC) covers 90% of the foster care agencies in the state. It has declared it is closing the door on providing those policies because they’re cost-prohibitive. The Santa Cruz based organization announced in August it wouldn’t be renewing policies starting in October, blaming the judicial process associated with newly inked legislation. California Assembly Bill 2496, which was signed into law Sept. 22 and took effect Oct.
