You should have seen my face when I read the headline on CBS13.com, “Famous Crystal Company Goes Bust.” Don’t worry, it’s just about the Waterford company, based in London. I’m not accustomed to getting my U.K. financial news from the home page of my local news website.

Crystal milk products are of course now produced by Foster Farms, and you may continue to enjoy their delicious and affordable milk products at your local greengrocer.

Please to allow me to continue the rant I started before Christmas.

So the results of a survey about the employment outlook for 2009 in Sacramento were released on Wednesday. Check out the headlines from the Google News feed:

• Survey: 20% of Sacramento companies plan layoffs in 2009
• Grim Economic Outlook For Sacramento Area In 2009
• Sacramento Companies To Cut Jobs In 2009
• Region’s jobs outlook for early 2009 is grim

Super…Great…Grand. Did I mention that we get it? No one is saying that these are the days, but come on. Report different.

Continue reading “Only happy when it rains” »

The Bee’s Robert Faturechi reports today that area private schools are seeing increased requests for financial aid:

At Country Day – where tuition costs as much as $17,300 a year – administrators are already taking steps to buy cheaper school supplies, save energy and reduce gas consumption in school vehicles.

I can’t help feeling that Faturechi was playing for an unsympathetic audience reaction by mostly highlighting Country Day School and Jesuit High School (my alma mater) in his report about area families having trouble paying for private school. That’s the only explanation I can find for his relegating Cristo Rey High School to the bottom of his piece. Cristo Rey exclusively targets low income students, who pay for their education by working at local businesses. Some of those businesses are having to pull their support for Cristo Rey, Faturechi reports, which is hurting the school’s bottom line.

Those of you that have passed by the Howe Avenue or Arden Way editions of the Steve’s Pizza franchise have surely assumed they went the way of the dodo. The SP Web site indicates they are “Closed temporarily for renovations” which seemed fishy to me. Emails were sent and responses received and from all accounts both locations will be back up and running in the new year. Howe Avenue in January and Arden Way “in the next 90 days.”

This was good news to me. I hope it is to you as well.

If you’re an RT user I’m sure you know that fares are going up in 2009. An extra two bits for a single fare, and actually also an extra quarter for a transfer, up to 50 cents. So a basic ticket plus transfer is $2.75, almost double the same type of fare on SF Muni, I’m discouraged to learn. However I suppose you could pretend that all of SF would be within the “Central City zone” for Sac RT, in which case a comparable fee will only be $1.60. But that takes some pretending.

However, the silver lining is that RT riders will not experience any service cuts when 2009 comes. In fact, according to the latest “Next Stop News” the only service changes will actually be additional service on several lines.

I like RT’s General Manager Mike Wiley’s moxie; the press release about 2009 fare increases quotes Wiley: “RT could not absorb an $18.3 million raid by the state of California without asking our riders to pay more…”

What do you think though, RT riders? Increased costs or service cuts? Are you going to be happy to pay more knowing that at least for the time being you won’t have to deal with changes to your route?

Better use the ATM.

You proposition 8 debaters should enjoy this one from CBS13.com.

All Golden One Banks in our area are enforcing a new dress code: no hats…”Typically, they have a hood pulled up, they have sunglasses on or they have a hat with a visor pulled down,” says Teresa Halleck, President and CEO of Golden One Credit Union.

“They” of course are the bad guys. And they have a uniform. Without this uniform their super powers are lost.

I kid the Golden One. However, pay close attention to the sign posted at the front of the bank. The forward and backward hat positions are included in this policy.

At the risk of being out of touch with the what’s *really* happening in Sacramento, I mention this sacbee.com article about a new outdoor ice skating rink scheduled to open Friday in Folsom. The details can be found at visitfolsom.com.

This article makes me wonder, however, if it is a smart idea to spend money on “extras” like this in an effort to boost local business.

A report from Folsom city staff puts the total cost of operating the rink for two months during the holidays at $248,000 – $68,000 more than it is predicted to bring in.

I get that the intent with this project is encourage folks to shop and eat locally, but could the $248,000 be better spent helping local businesses lower their prices? Decrease their lease payments? Or is just full steam ahead and let’s see what happens?

Especially with the news that so many of the region’s cities are scrambling to save money and cut corners.

In an effort to control costs, Folsom has a freeze on hiring and discretionary spending, Miller said. But even that won’t be enough to close the budget shortfall, which could be as much as $5 million for the current year if the city were to do nothing.

Your thoughts?

I was in the Natomas/Truxel area the other day and noticed that the new Sonic/T.G.I. Friday’s construction had all but stopped. Fast forward a few days and the Computer Pages once again come to my rescue.

Via KCRA.com

At the intersection of Truxel Road and Gateway Park Boulevard, construction has been halted for a Sonic drive-thru and a T.G.I. Friday’s, which were scheduled to open two years ago.

Sonic blames the slowing economy for not completing the project. It plans to finish its Lincoln location first.

Two years ago! Man, brutal. I think we can do without another chain restaurant (Hear that, Guy?), but I’ve always wondered what the Sonic was all about. Well, apart from those irritating commercials.

I was enjoying the ehow.com recently when I came across this article on “How to Spend the Perfect Weekend in Sacramento” and it got me thinking. What is your perfect weekend in Sacramento? This article does a good job of hitting the mainstream spots. But, what is it missing? I know we like to provide information on specific events here at the Sac Rag, but I’m looking for some every week type things to do that I may not find on the Chamber of Commerce site.

Any suggestions?

Apparently the economy is like, bad or whatever. But you wouldn’t know it if you examine the booming casino market, as evidenced by the long lines to fill out applications at the new Red Hawk casino going up in El Dorado Hills. I suppose you could see this as a good sign–even in these volatile times there is enough walkin around money walkin around to create 1,700 jobs in our area. But one would hope that we Californians might have learned a thing or two about money and risk over the last few weeks!