Two minuscule insects, each less than half an inch long hold the harrowing potential to wreak havoc on the Central Valley’s $4.5 billion agriculture industry and in particular San Joaquin County where they’ve made a very unwelcome appearance.

Not wanting to experience her neighbor’s insect angst, Stanislaus County is keeping a watchful eye out for both bugs with no finds yet.

Electric Vehicle International (EVI), which opened to great fanfare and a visit from Governor Schwarzenegger in November, 2009, will soon be announcing purchase orders for some of their vehicles.

I have to be honest about receiving this week’s test vehicle, the BMW X6; I actually thought I was going to be testing the X5. (I must have misread the memo.) In fact, the existence of the X6 had somehow managed to totally slip by me.  My impression of seeing the X6 for the first time in my driveway was one of puzzlement. It looked too streamlined and sporty with it’s fastback profile to be one of the X model SUV’s, although it looked too tall to be one of the 5, 6 or 7 series Bimmers.

California’s building industry doesn’t expect a substantial recovery anytime soon but there are glimmers of progress.  Despite a 4% increase in the state’s May housing starts as compared to a year ago, California’s housing industry remains weakened by the recession.  The Construction Industry Research Board (CIRB) reported that California’s total housing starts still dipped 6% from April to May of this year, reflecting a continued instability in the industry.

Last month’s article covered the job market in our general area of the Valley from an employer’s point of view.  This month we take a look at that same job market from an employee’s perspective in order to see what types of challenges employers can expect, and explore some possible solutions.

Consumer confidence climbed more than forecast in August as Americans turned less pessimistic about the outlook for jobs, easing concern households will retrench.

The ads are on display in Facebook Inc.'s virtual game "Car Town," as Honda advertises on the social-network site for the first time today.

The President of California State University Stanislaus, Hamid Shirvani, is a noted scholar of architecture and urban design.

The down economy has been rough on dairy farmers in Stanislaus County, so much that the number two commodity – almonds – almost moved into the top slot in the county’s Top Ten crops ranking.

Van Ruiten Winery in Lodi is quadrupling it’s capacity with a new warehouse and bottling line that will transform it from a small boutique winery producing 3,000-to-5,000 cases to the 80,000-to-100,000 case level.