Via the Bee’s Sacto 9-1-1 program I discovered an interesting feature called the Crime Q & A by Ryan Lillis. Ryan tracks down information related to area crimes in response to reader queries. No question is too small either:

Coming home last night in the Tahoe Park area, 65th street between 14th and 21st was blocked by cop cars. This morning nothing in the paper or other news. Do you know what happened? Where can a neighbor find information about incidents area quickly after the fact?

Give it a read, it’s not as fun as learning how much money your neighbor makes, but it’s informative just the same.

With the Fair underway, the Sacramento Bee reminds us that there will be a sobriety checkpoint in Elk Grove tonight. Wait, the Fair is in Sacramento, right? Where lots of folks will be drinking? Ok, cool, Elk Grove it is.

The enforcement is part of the statewide “Avoid” campaign funded by the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Interesting slogan. At any rate, if you follow the link on the Bee story (oh, wait, it’s broken, posted on the 13th, too) you will learn more about the program.

The overall goal of the awareness campaign is to let drivers know about the countywide increased enforcement periods and warn drivers that the only way to “AVOID” the county’s law enforcement officers is to drive sober.

Ah, there it is. I get it now. A press release reminds us that party hosts and families must limit drinks to their guests, and to not serve more than one or two over several hours. Stickie, can you hear me?

Be safe out there.

So I finally caught wind that rapper Kanye West made the classic concert no-no in calling out the wrong city during his show at Arco Arena on Friday.

Kanye quickly apologized on his blog:

PLEASE FORGIVE ME SAC-TOWN
04.19.2008

I can’t believe I bust a spinal tap! It’s no excuse for this I wish I could sink in a black whole. When I said Seattle and there was no crowd response I was up on my spaceship platform thinking damn… I think I just said the wrong city!!!!! I kind of muffled the words so I was praying nobody really caught it. I guess all those hours that me and Phill spent making my mic clear as possible back fired on me! We had alot of problems with the video servers on the first 3 songs and that completely threw me off! Hey, I’m not perfect. Hope everybody had a good time. I’m a man, I can say it… I’m sorry.

Maybe Kanye heard that Sacramento hates hip hop?

Note: A few commenters on this blog picked up on the “Sac Town” reference. People are funny.

This article from the Sacramento Business Journal reminded me of an idea I’ve been thinking about for quite some time. I’d would like for our readers to comment on this post with locations in Sacramento that they know for certain offer free wireless internet service. I know there are tons of sites out there that claim to index these *hotspots* for you, but they are rarely up to date.

I’ll start. I know that Panera Bread offers free Internet service to its customers. I’ve used the one on Howe Avenue many times without fail.

So there you have it, Sacramento. Get out there and find some wifi and report back with your findings. I’ll add a category for this topic (*Free WiFi*) for easy reference later.

UPDATE: Thanks for all of your comments. I think our list is turning out quite nicely. Here’s our Google map.

So I am having lunch the other day at Togo’s. I order the sandwich and am asked if it would be “For here, or to go?” (To go, Togo’s…hey, wait a minute!) which I reply, “To go.” The sandwich maker asks for a “ring” and the cashier then tells me the price. It’s the price on the board, $5.49. I then realize my lunch partner ordered his sandwich “for here.” So I tell the sandwichista that it’s for dine in and she then tells the cashier who then charges me sales tax and we get into this whole thing. The cashier tells me that they have to charge sales tax if you eat the food on the premises. This got me thinking. What’s the deal with dine in sales tax? I’ve heard over the years that it was related to hot food, but that is not always the case.

I went home and jumped on the Interweb and discovered that the rules regarding sales tax and food are, shocker, I know, sketchy at best. I thought I would break it down for you just in case you have nothing better to do than learn about sales tax.

(Warning the content after the jump is dry and, er, taxing. Proceed at your own risk.)

Update: see comment below.

Continue reading “The Sac Rag reports” »

Admit it, you’ve looked somebody up…

It’s called “Daylight Saving Time“, not “Savings”. And don’t try to find some article where it’s acceptable to say it now like “irregardless”. Don’t.

And you gain or lose one hour of sleep the first night only when you go to bed and adjust your clocks accordingly (assuming you get up at the same time).

As you were.

Cbs13.com reports that people looking for sex is a growing problem in Citrus Heights. These “cruisers” are targeting local parks, ducking into bathrooms and bushes to get their shwerve on.

It’s not just the restrooms. Citrus Heights Lieutenant Jeff MacKanin says that people will use the bushes to perform sexual acts, raising concerns not only because families use the park, but also for the spread of disease. “We can teach citizens to be our eyes for us,” says Lt. MacKanin. “We can teach them to log information, [especially] citizens who work well with police.”

Log information? Oh, this can’t miss. I can see it now…”Male suspect places female suspect on top of stainless steel toilet…female suspect asks male suspect to place an “ass gasket” down first to prevent the spread of disease…male suspect searches for said protective device…“

The Presidential Primary Election is coming to Sacramento on February 5th. In an effort to encourage folks to vote, Regional Transit has been running ads featuring McClatchy High School students…

By the way, are we ready to retire the use of pop culture phrases in advertising? (this post is sponsored by Buick - It’s All Good).

At any rate, visit the County Web site for more details on the election. Not sure if you are registered? Use this handy look up tool.

Popular video rental company Netflix apparently is offering its subscribers unlimited access to movies and television shows to watch via the Web on their personal computers (NOTE: This feature is only available to folks using IE 6 or higher!).

The feature will be open to all subscribers already on one of their unlimited monthly video rental plans, with no extra charge.

I currently subscribe to the “2 at-a-time (Unlimited)” plan and am still limited to 14 hours of online viewing. But with instant access to A Fish Called Wanda, Real Genius, and Zoolander, who is complaining?

On a local note, it is always fun to check out what folks are viewing in Sacramento (via Netflix)…

Continue reading “Netflix has no limits (sort of)” »