Business & Real Estate

Los Altos

1281 Eureka Avenue, Williams Trust to N. Abrol for $3,010,000

1514 Kathy Lane, J. & M. Toppel to T. Mu for $3,400,000

Sutter Health recently introduced a video visit feature for common illnesses that anyone can operate from home, an effort to serve more patients in ways that work for them.

By visiting Sutter Health’s My Health Online portal app, people can schedule wa same-day appointment from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. for those 18 months and older. The video visits are designed to help those who do not have conditions severe enough to need a physical visit to the emergency room, including allergies, coughs, fevers, the flu, pink eye, rashes and sore throats.

Graph courtesy of Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis
Financial experts at the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis chart the difference between two- and 10-year bond rates to predict whether a recession is imminent.

 

You may have heard through the financial media that the U.S. Treasury yield curve has been flattening, portending a possible recession in the near term. As of this writing, the yield curve is at its flattest point since 2007. Exactly what is the yield curve, and is it truly a good indicator of a future economic downturn?

The Treasury yield curve is, simplified, the difference between the current two-year and 10-year U.S. Treasury bond rates. Ordinarily the two-year rate is lower than the 10-year rate, resulting in a positively sloped curve if you were to graph it. It is a function of the time value of money. If you buy a 10-year bond, you are lending money to the government for 10 years, hence the demand for a higher return as compared to only a two-year loan.

Courtesy of Tracy Donegan

A client of Mountain View resident and childbirth preparation instructor Tracy Donegan uses virtual-reality glasses to expose her to a different, less intimidating perspective of labor.

The birthing suites at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View and Stanford Hospital are scheduled to undergo redos this year in a continuing regional trend away from shared, noisy birthing wards and toward private rooms with a more homelike feel. Part of that impetus is changing social expectations about privacy, but a larger conversation about choice and childbirth also factors in.

The local businesses focused on education, resources and even midwifery that care for families are all finding a niche with women who see themselves as informed consumers, selectively seeking out health-care providers rather than going with the closest neighborhood option. Many women in Los Altos and Mountain View, for instance, have made the drive to El Camino Hospital in Los Gatos because it is the only area hospital to partner with a midwifery practice, combining access to emergency medical care with a midwife model of childbirth preparation and delivery. Access to all of these resources depends on money and insurance. But it also requires consumers who know, in advance, what questions to ask.

Los Altos

232 Alicia Way, Matterhorn Enterprises to Alicia Limited for $579,500

1586 Ben Roe Drive, Abey Trust to H. & K. Menon for $2,750,000

Megan V. Winslow/Town Crier

The Plum, available at Byington Vineyard & Winery’s Los Altos Tasting Room, dispenses wine by the glass. It functions like a cross between a keg and a Coravin, helping preserve a bottle of wine at its peak by preventing air contact during pouring and storage.

Byington Vineyard & Winery’s Los Altos Tasting Room is experimenting with new formats and hardware meant to make its wines more flexible, scalable and not limited to by-the-bottle drinking. Preservation and storage technology has been expanding beyond bag-of-wine-in-a-box innovations to target the luxury market.

Just inside the door of the tasting room at 366 Main St., a Micro Matic kegerator (keg refrigerator) spouts wine by the glass. Micro Matic launched in 1953 with a focus on breweries and beer but has expanded into beverage hardware of all kinds, from nitro coffee to wine taps.