Parks Printing faced off with the economic slowdown and landed a haymaker on the nay-sayer’s chin via a merger with Stockton’s Snyder Lithograph on November 15, forming Snyder Parks Printing Solutions.

“I wish I could give you the detailed blueprint for fixing the health care system, but I can’t because it is up to you,” Ed O’Neil said to an audience of doctors and health officials from around San Joaquin County.

This year’s agriculture boom is a bust for U.S. dairy farmers as surging costs for cattle feed compound a glut of milk products.

The news is good for retail Central Valley jewelers despite a slowly recovering economy and the soaring prices of gold and platinum, because, said Gary Long owner of Gary Long Jewelers in Stockton’s Lincoln Center, “Consumer confidence has grown after the recent mid-term election.”

Loans for small businesses are available, according to several local community bankers and Small Business Administration’s (SBA) local officials. Yet many small business owners in San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties report difficulty in accessing capital.

Three local Chevy dealers, among those who survived closings by GM in mid-2009, are warily hopeful about the future. One who actually received a “wind-down” letter before a reprieve, remembers tears when the resurrecting phone call was answered.

The classic comment about water attributed to Mark Twain – “Whisky’s for drinking, water’s for fighting over!” – remains true in the battle over what will happen to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta

Susie Fagundes and Michelle VanArtsdalen created a haven where “Bling meets Bliss” in a boutique at 1214 J Street in Modesto. The theory that drives the store is one of elevating and deepening the spirit. One way to get some immediate lift is to find some bling that brightens the mood right away. The second and deeper way is to find candles, jewelry, handbags, original art, clothes, and books that touch the deeper levels of spirit and healing.

Sophie San and Breann Chan, both 13-years-old and from Stockton, only visit retail stores that sell the name brands on their shopping lists.  The young teenagers are experts at finding and buying what’s in, and avoiding what’s not.

More than a fourth of the businesses in San Joaquin and Stanislaus Counties are owned by women.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau in 2007 women owned 7.8 million non-farm businesses in the United States, an increase of 20 percent from 2002. Women-owned businesses accounted for nearly 29 percent of all non-farm businesses in the United States