New utility tax proposed for Elk Grove - March 3, 2010
Elk Grove Citizen
| In what is being described as an attempt to broaden Elk Grove’s tax base and modernize the city’s laws, officials are considering adding cell phones, Voice Over IP (VOIP) and water to the list of utilities that are taxed, as well as lowering the rate charged to that list.
The change would have to be approved by voters, and the Elk Grove City Council last week pushed back a decision about whether or not to add it to the ballot until public outreach meetings have been held.[www] |
Sealing away 10 years of cityhood - Feb. 26, 2010
Elk Grove Citizen
| Ed Keema’s Franklin ranch doesn’t smell much like dairy cows lately.
These days, the land where he and his wife raised cows for decades smells more like a carpenter’s workshop. Keema spends most of his free time in a garage where table saws and power tools lend a fresh sawdust smell to the air.[www] |
Sheriff candidates’ funding strategies differ - Feb. 12, 2010
Elk Grove Citizen
| The 61 pages of documents detailing the money spent and received so far in the race to be the next Sacramento County sheriff describe three very different strategies.
There is a candidate intent on raising money through many donations, a candidate who is – at least for now – content with heavy debt, and a candidate who isn’t so concerned about big numbers.[www] |
Another charter commissioner resigns - Nov. 6, 2009
Elk Grove Citizen
| A week after the Elk Grove Charter Commission faced criticism from the Elk Grove City Council and at a public forum, one of its members resigned and another was briefly hospitalized with a stress-related illness.
Commission chair Jake Allen was hospitalized for a few hours Nov. 3, causing him to miss that night’s meeting. He declined to provide further details of the incident except that he was given a “clean bill of health” and released a few hours after he arrived.[www] |
Elk Grove airport case headed to CA Supreme Court - Oct. 22, 2009
Elk Grove Citizen
| When amateur pilot and flight instructor Kevin Cordes sold his house in 2006 for three times what he paid for it, he moved into something a little more spacious: an airplane hangar.
He said he would’ve had a near-impossible time finding a vacant hangar at any other small airport, but the Sunset Skyranch Airport just outside Elk Grove’s city limits didn’t exactly have a flood of new tenants.[www] |
Many developers less willing to pay city fees - Oct. 1, 2009
Elk Grove Citizen
| Developers don’t owe Elk Grove’s city planning department as much money as they did during years of peak activity, but they aren’t as willing to pay it now, the city’s finance director Becky Craig said this week.
The amount of application processing fees that are more than 90 days late to the city is more than $1 million, but Craig said it was higher when the pace of development was faster.[www] |
Ports honor "Fibber" Hirayama, Nisei Players - Aug. 10, 2009
NikkeiWest
| When Nisei baseball player Satoshi “Fibber” Hirayama played his first of 10 seasons in Japan, he immediately had some pointers for the Japanese players.
The language took him a little longer to figure out. “One of the first things (the other players) taught me was when the manager says something, say ‘I understand,’” Hirayama said. [jpg] |
Madeira properties could see auction block if late taxes aren’t paid - Aug. 7, 2009
Elk Grove Citizen
| In 2004, Elk Grove issued 4,500 building permits for residential units. Last year, it issued 792.
Housing development has slowed to a crawl all over the country, but in Elk Grove, few areas have been hit as hard as Madeira, the city’s first master-planned community.[www] |
Elk Grove doctor joins congressional race - July 23, 2009
Elk Grove Citizen
| If Dr. Ami Bera wants to be a U.S. Representative, he’s going to have to eat a lot of salads.
Or at least that is the Elk Grove resident and longtime medical official’s strategy for the extensive campaign lunches he’ll have to share with constituents, consultants and potential donors over the next year.[www] |
Unsung hero honored in Sacramento community - May 25, 2009
NikkeiWest
| When Sho Hayashigatani immigrated to the United States in 1963, he had high hopes.
“I had a very big so-called dream to become an international lawyer or work at the United Nations,” he said. But there was a problem – his English and knowledge of U.S. tort law were weak. He was failing his classes at UC Berkeley’s law school.[jpg] |
Lincoln Youth Center a place for all youths - April 8, 2009
Lincoln News Messenger
| Standing in Lincoln’s Youth Center, there doesn’t seem to be any obvious difference between the teens sinking into the beanbag chairs and the ones outside playing soccer. Some teens bounce between a group playing video games and a group cooking pasta in the kitchen. They laugh and yell down the hallway to each other.
For some teens, the center is a way to stave off boredom or a place to hang out with friends. For others, it’s a replacement for gang membership. [www] |
Lincoln won't see water shortages this year - March 25, 2009
Lincoln News Messenger
| The fairways at Turkey Creek Golf Club in Lincoln might just become a little harder to hit this summer. Golf Course Superintendent Steven Beck, hoping to conserve water, is looking for parts of the course where he can cut back on irrigation.
“If we can cut back some small areas here and there, they add up,” he said, explaining that saving water is a big part of his job. [www] |
Old missile site targeted in new war on water contamination - March 2, 2009
Lincoln News Messenger
| A former nuclear missile facility in Lincoln could soon be the site of a new battle. The target: toxic contaminants in the groundwater.
A proposal released Feb. 11 by the Army Corps of Engineers and the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board outlines plans to clean up the groundwater by creating permeable reactive barriers – two deep trenches filled with ground-up iron and sand, creating underground filters which would neutralize the contaminants as the water flows through them. [www] |
School district responds to grand jury report - Jan. 20, 2009
Lincoln News Messenger
| A Grand Jury report examining the financial woes of Lincoln’s schools brought few complaints from school officials, whose responses, released Friday, largely agreed with the June report.
In a list of 11 responses, Western Placer Unified School District officials agreed or partially agreed with all of the Grand Jury’s findings they were asked to respond to. [www] |
Obama's YouTube address misses the entire point of YouTube - Nov. 17, 2008
Sacramento State JOUR131: Column and Review Writing
| The next Presidency has a face, but it isn't listening to you.
On Saturday, President-elect Barack Obama delivered the first of what will become weekly addresses – on YouTube. His first 3 ½ minute address touched on the grim future of the economy and urged Congress to take quick action to kickstart it. [www] |
GPS should evolve into a helpful tool, not an overbearing leash - Oct. 13, 2008
Sacramento State JOUR131: Column and Review Writing
| Our makeshift search party lay spread around the room, the exhausted four of us sprawled across the couches. The sun was barely up, and we had found our missing friend after about an hour of looking. Or, rather, he had found us.
“Hey, babe,” he had said casually as he called his girlfriend and said he was ready to come home. She was, understandably, less calm. [www] |
'The Black Swan': Same old 'Story' - April 23, 2008
www.statehornet.com
| As far as intro tracks go, the opener on Story of the Year's new album, "The Black Swan," is pretty deceptive. "Choose Your Fate" opens with heavy, lumbering verses that vocalist Dan Marsala tears through with more intensity than anything from the band's previous albums.
Once the song comes to a screeching end, the album takes a trip to 2003 with a track that could have easily fit on the band's first studio album, "Page Avenue." [www] |
Parks put on hold - April 17, 2008
Sacramento State JOUR135: Public Affairs Reporting
| Sacramento State senior Michelle George has mastered a skill not many other students likely have: churning butter.
As the vocational education major sits in the shade of a tree in Sutter's Fort in a Gold-Rush-era burgundy dress, she explains her craft to two wide-eyed fifth-graders. [www] |
Away from a manger - Dec. 17, 2007
The State Hornet, page A1
| On a cold, rainy December morning, freshman Amy White sits in the Academic Information Resources Center basking in the combined glow from the screen of her laptop and the lights from the Christmas tree just inches away from her seat.
The self-proclaimed Christmas-lover, a business major, doesn't notice the blond angel perched atop the tree. But maybe it's better that way. She's an atheist - she doesn't believe in angels. [www] [pdf] |
Fiscal questions might halt classes - March 14, 2007
The State Hornet, page A1
| It's again time for many departments on campus to begin planning their class schedules for the next two semesters. There's a problem: They don't know how many classes they will be able to afford.
The departments in the College of Arts and Letters - English, communication studies, art, foreign languages and others - are planning highly-tentative schedules for fall 2007 and spring 2008 based on figures that are, in some cases, significantly less than the current amounts. [www] [pdf] |
From bookworm to hot Hornet - Nov. 29, 2006
The State Hornet, page A1 [web version]
| It is the first day of filming for Sacramento State senior Kayden Kross' first movie. As multiple cameras focus in on her performance, the bright lights glisten off her smooth legs, catching her eye.
She is being filmed having sex, and she is worried that her legs might be too white. [www] |
