SAN JOSE, Calif. /eNewsChannels/ -- NEWS: The 'Brain Works' sculpture in San Jose, is the latest public art installation for artist Marta Thoma Hall, who is also president of Velodyne Acoustics, Inc. For Hall, the process of designing a new line of headphones or subwoofers is no different than creating, say, a piece of sculpture.

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. /eNewsChannels/ -- NEWS: EPIC Insurance Brokers and Consultants, a retail property and casualty insurance brokerage and employee benefits consultant, today announced that surety executive Sharon Rusconi and her team have joined the firm in Sacramento, Calif. Rusconi's book of business and other assets were purchased by EPIC from Lesron Insurance Agency.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. /eNewsChannels/ -- NEWS: Tattoos adorn the bodies of over 45 million Americans and the phenomenon of ink-on-flesh is now global. One area often overlooked when discussing tattoo art is the contribution of the Chicano community. 'The elevation of the tattoo to the status of art can be directly traced to Chicano culture,' notes Eric Schwartz, director of the documentary motion picture, 'Tattoo Nation.'

SAN DIEGO, Calif. /eNewsChannels/ -- NEWS: MCT Trading, Inc., a recognized industry leader in risk management providing pipeline hedging, best-execution loan sales and centralized lock desk services, is pleased to announce that MCTlive!, MCT's best-in-class secondary marketing software platform, has been selected as the winner of Mortgage Technology magazine's 2014 Release of the Year Award.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. /eNewsChannels/ -- NEWS: When Wayne Fromm invented and patented the Quik Pod, the original 'selfie stick,' more than 10 years ago, he had no idea how popular selfies would become. In fact, according to an article in Psychology Today, selfies have redefined how we document experiences.

LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. /eNewsChannels/ -- NEWS: California-based artist/photographer Anne Kerry Swank's limited edition Angel watercolor photographs series now hangs in the Vatican, Rome, after a twenty-year journey of the artist that began with a morning prayer to God and Divine Inspiration. The first limited edition watercolor that was received by His Holiness, Pope Francis, and selected for display is 'Serenity,' in green tones, number 1/30.

LOS ANGELES, Calif. /eNewsChannels/ -- NEWS: New book, 'SuperFly - My Untold Story of Hip-Hop' (ISBN: 9780991356010), authored by Gloria Goldwater, pulls back the curtain on how the popular hip-hop magazine, SuperFly, that launched in the early 90s, came to be and why it ultimately folded.

OAKLAND, Calif. /eNewsChannels/ -- NEWS: Ebola is dominating the news headlines, bringing public health into the spotlight. Tragically, thousands have died. In the U.S., public health departments everywhere are quickly learning about Ebola and taking measures to prevent an epidemic here; but they are not starting from scratch, says the California Tuberculosis Controllers Association (CTCA).

LOS ANGELES, Calif. /eNewsChannels/ -- NEWS: It's not hard to lose money in Las Vegas, says new start-up VegasTourism.com. Remember the phrase, The house always wins? For the most part, gone are the days when hotel-casino heads figured that if they could get the tourists there, they'd spend so much money gambling it was worth it to sell prime rib plates for $4.99 and offer cheap entertainment.

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. /eNewsChannels/ -- NEWS: EPIC Insurance Brokers and Consultants, a retail property, casualty insurance brokerage and employee benefits consultant, has been ranked 46 among the world's top insurance brokers in Finaccord's Global Insurance Broking: A Strategic Review of the World's Top 150 Commercial Non-Life Insurance Brokers.