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| [+] Rosemont Patch: "Bringing Elmo to Juvenile Hall" (Nov. 30, 2010) |
Some residents in Sacramento County Juvenile Hall improve their reading and writing skills, some earn their GEDs and some learn to play peek-a-boo.
The Sacramento County Probation Department is one of about six agencies in California participating in a Georgetown University and Youth Law Center study on a possible way to improve the relationship between incarcerated teen parents and their children: through counseling and Sesame Street's "Sesame Beginnings" video series.
Dubbed the "Baby Elmo Program," the 10-week session involves working with a counselor and watching videos that teach basic parenting skills, like how to praise a child. Each visit is videotaped and sent to Georgetown University as part of the study.
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| [+] Elk Grove Citizen: "Fourth time’s a charm" (July 2, 2010) |
Hal Bartholomew can say something few local politicians can: he was elected to a city council that never existed.
The longtime resident and former Cosumnes Community Services District (CSD) director ran for city council in the 1987 election that also featured Measure A, a proposal to incorporate Elk Grove.
Bartholomew, an attorney, gained the most votes in that election, but Measure A failed by just 554 votes and no city – or city council – was formed.
Incorporation supporters wanted to form a city government to create local control of land-use issues, increase law enforcement, and to have more direct political representation. They often said the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors did not make Elk Grove enough of a priority.
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| [+] Elk Grove Citizen: "New utility tax proposed for Elk Grove" (March 3, 2010) |
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.
If the city decides to place the proposal on the November ballot, it would need to do so before the first council meeting in May, the city’s interim assistant city manager Becky Craig said.
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| [+] Elk Grove Citizen: "Sealing away 10 years of cityhood" (Feb. 26, 2010) |
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. Model airplanes are scattered around the workshop, half a dozen handsaws hang from the walls and a 150-year-old, horse-drawn buggy is parked next to a full-size stagecoach.
Sprawled across a table are parts and plans for his next project: a quarter-scale stagecoach that will house an Elk Grove time capsule for 25 years.
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| [+] Elk Grove Citizen: "Sheriff candidates’ funding strategies differ" (Feb. 12, 2010) |
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.
Elk Grove City Council Member Jim Cooper is the first of those.
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| [+] Elk Grove Citizen: "Elk Grove airport case headed to CA Supreme Court" (Oct. 22, 2009) |
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.
“Being that (the airport) is on the verge of disappearing … it’s a little bit easier to get a hangar there,” said Cordes, who is now president of the Sunset Skyranch Pilots Association.
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| [+] NikkeiWest: "Ports honor 'Fibber' Hirayama, Nisei Players" (Aug. 10, 2009) |
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.
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| [+] Elk Grove Citizen: "Madeira properties could see auction block if late taxes aren’t paid" (Aug. 7, 2009) |
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.
San Jose Magazine once touted Madeira as one of northern California’s “best places to live.”
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| [+] Elk Grove Citizen: "Elk Grove doctor joins congressional race" (July 23, 2009) |
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.
“I’m drinking a lot more coffee,” he said in a phone interview. “I’m having a lot of coffee with folks.”
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| [+] NikkeiWest: "Unsung hero honored in Sacramento community" (May 25, 2009) |
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.
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| [+] Lincoln News Messenger: "Old missile site targeted in new war on water contamination" (March 2, 2009) |
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.
The contaminant in the groundwater, trichloroethene, is known to cause cancer in lab animals, according to officials from the water board.
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