If you’ve ever watched George Carlin’s routine about our obsession with “stuff,” you’ll understand why storage units are so popular in this country (youtube “George Carlin Stuff” if you want a great laugh).

Here in Ashland, Maddy and Mark DiRienzo opened Mistletoe Road Self-Storage (700 Mistletoe Road) in May of 2007 to meet a growing need.

Helping people pursue the American Dream is the whole focus of Caliber Home Loans, located at 146 Clear Creek Drive, Suite 101 (and soon to come to the Northgate Market Place Retail Center in Medford). Branch manager Michael Sallee and his wife Jennifer are both mortgage loan originators and have been in the mortgage business since 1997.

The latest addition to the downtown Ashland restaurant scene is the change from Taroko to Umami Sushi & Asian Cuisine, located at 62 E. Main Street. The new operating owner on site is Theng Wai Boon, who moved to Ashland six months ago from Brooklyn, New York.

Web Staunton learned first-hand the power of healthful eating, and his Northwest Raw Organic Juice Bar at 370 East Main Street is a testament to that lesson.

Diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in 2002, Web struggled through ten years of taking expensive medications and seeing no improvement in his health. He remembers the day that turned his life around.

Owning Siskiyou Import Services is a dream come true for Jon Isbel. The full-service automotive diagnostic, repair and maintenance shop has operated at 1713 Siskiyou Boulevard since 1983. In June, the business went up for sale and Jon and his wife, Tiffanie, jumped at the chance to buy it. It was the realization of a dream for them, and they plan to make the most of it by building on the shop’s history in Ashland.