North Bay Business Journal

Unemployment rates across the North Coast continued to fall, with every county improving its jobless rate over both the last month and over the year, according to figures released by the Economic Development Department.

A Sonoma County-based nonprofit and several others with ties in the North Bay are among 48 organizations across the state to share in $37 million in outreach and education grants from Covered California, the state’s online health exchange developed under health care reform.

Petaluma-based Redwood Community Health Coalition received $830,000. Catholic Charities of California, which has a presence in Solano, Napa, Sonoma, Lake and Mendocino counties, received $859,000. California Rural Indian Health Board, which has a presence in Sonoma and Mendocino counties, was given $300,000. The California NAACP, which has locations in Sonoma and Solono counties, received $600,000 and the Asian Pacific American Legal Center in Solano County received $100,00.

NORTH BAY — More capital is flowing to North Bay small businesses through loan programs backed by the U.S. Small Business Administration, with a 10.4 percent increase in dollar volume funded in Sonoma, Marin and Napa counties comparing the first half of the administration’s fiscal year to the same period one year ago, according to data from the SBA.

Sterling Financial Corporation (NASDAQ:STSA), parent company of Sonoma Bank and Sterling Savings Bank, and Newport Beach-based Commerce National Bank (OTCBB:CNBF) entered a definitive agreement for Sterling to acquire Commerce National for $15.10 per common share in cash, or $42.9 million including planned redemption of outstanding stock options and warrants. …

Sho-Ka-Wa Casino near Hopland said it plans to use the sbX software from International Game Technology (NYSE: IGT). That provides a game theme library, analytics and floor-management features. …

Sausalito’s Smart Meetings magazine, a resource for event-planning professionals, won the 2013 Maggie Award for Best Feature Article, “A Winning Combination” written by David Vranicar, within the Creative Trade & Consumer Print award division for publications with circulations of less than 50,000. …

The Marin Sonoma Concours d’Elegance added a 1961 Cooper T56 Mark ll Formula Junior owned by Steve McQueen to its showing of vintage automobiles once owned by Hollywood legends. …

From Marin to Mendocino, current hospital projects represent at least $550 million worth of combined construction spending.

And it’s a number that will double if and when one of the largest projects — the $500 million rebuild of Marin General Hospital — gets off the ground.

CLOVERDALE — Alexander Valley Regional Medical Center recently filed for designation as a federally qualified health center, a move that, if approved, would allow Sonoma County’s only certified rural health clinic to receive significantly better reimbursement rates and more operating revenue.

The Northern California Center for Well Being is expanding its wellness services into Petaluma. …

Sausalito-based Sanovas Inc. announced the launch of MicroCam, its micro imaging platform for endoscopic device applications. …

Rick Jones of Jones Family Vineyard and the E. Richard Jones Family Foundation joined the board of directors at Clinic Ole in Napa. …

St. Helena Hospital Napa Valley was recognized by Becker’s Hospital Review with the fifth-lowest rate of serious blood clots after surgery of over 4,000 Medicare-certified hospitals in the U.S. …

Ukiah Valley Medical Center’s Family Birth Center has received the IBCLC Care Award by the International Board of Lactation Consultant Examiners and the International Lactation Consultant Association. …

Santa Rosa-based REACH Air Medical Services announced it received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to use its own GPS approaches and routes, directly to hospitals and landing sites in Western Oregon. …

Given continued uncertainties around immigration policy in Washington and Sacramento and the budding of a 2013 crop that could be decent-sized, North Coast winegrape growers are looking for ways to stretch labor farther so they aren’t as short-handed as a number were during the record-volume 2012 season.

FAIRFIELD — Partnership HealthPlan of California, a nonprofit that administers Medi-Cal benefits in six counties, said recently that it is looking to fill 100 positions over the next 12 months after expanding significantly further into Northern California.

Unemployment rates across the North Bay in March dropped several percentage points, and Sonoma County had its best year-over-year job growth in 12 years, according to state figures released this morning.

Unemployment rates across the North Bay dropped in February, in some counties by more than a full percentage point, as the January holiday lull in hiring gave way to positive growth in a number of industries, according to preliminary state figures released Friday.

Five of the six North Bay counties added 13,900 jobs over 12 months.

Unemployment rates across the six North Bay counties ticked up in January, according to state estimates released Friday, a rise attributed to staffing reductions after the year-end holidays.

ROHNERT PARK — In his annual economic forecast at the Sonoma State University Economic Outlook Conference, Dr. Robert Eyler, director of the university’s Center for Regional Economic Analysis, said that the six North Bay counties of Marin, Sonoma, Napa, Solano, Mendocino and Lake could expect “broad growth” across various sectors through 2014.

A new office for the federally administered Small Business Development Center program opened Friday in Santa Rosa, expected to be joined by a first-ever Marin County office later this year. The two locations boost the physical presence for the national program along the Highway 101 corridor in the North Bay.

UKIAH — Adventist Health plans to chip in another $21 million for the planned expansion of Ukiah Valley Medical Center to add improvements to the emergency department and intensive care unit, bringing the total project cost to $41 million.

U.S. wine exports, 90 percent from California, last year increased 2.6 percent in winery revenue to a record $1.43 billion from 2011, but at the same time, shipment volume dipped 4.9 percent, a major wine trade policy advocacy group announced today.

Throughout the debate and the recent implementation of health care reform, health experts and politicians alike have touted the shift away from the fee-for-service model to more coordinated care, leading to better outcomes and lowered spending.

Beginning this year, however, the financial health of hospitals will likely depend on just how well care is coordinated, as a relatively little-known yet critically important piece of the Affordable Care Act is enacted: the “Hospital Value-based Purchasing Program,” overseen by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid.

SANTA ROSA — A training center for North Coast apprentice electricians is getting a major upgrade as the skills needs grow to work on increasingly advanced automation, alternative-energy and energy-efficiency systems.

NORTH BAY — Lenders to the North Bay wine industry are following demand for capital as it ripples outward from a record-breaking grape harvest in 2012, after a boost in cash flow allowed many vineyards to pay down working capital and other business debt.

New California legislation known as the “homeowner bill of rights” helped the rate of new foreclosures to plunge in the North Bay and beyond in January, while home prices and sales in general continued a steady upward climb, according to reports released today by Irvine-based foreclosure tracker RealtyTrac and San Diego-based real estate data service DataQuick.