So if you’re a registered voter you’ve probably received your pamphlet for the upcoming June 3 primary election. First of all, they probably should have come up with a better name than “primary election,” it’s so played out, what with the other primary election we had less than 90 days ago. (Sure fine, one was a presidential primary and this one is statewide.) But more importantly, your pamphlet for this election contains 2 things: Propositions 98 and 99. Which — without boring you by actually doing any research into the props — are for all practical purposes opposing pieces of legislation. Both descriptions contain language to the effect that if this one passes the other one most likely won’t take effect. This is where things get interesting.
Author: CoolDMZ
"X-ray vision to see in between / Where's my kimono and my time machine?"
“Find at SPL” bookmarklet
All this talk of the liberry reminded me of a cool tool that I found on the Sac Public Library’s blog. It is a “Find it at the SPL” bookmarklet (those little “unsafe” bookmark links that run JavaScript in your browser, like “Translate this website into Shizzle-ese” or whathaveyou.) If you’re on a web page, any web page, that lists an ISBN number, this bookmarklet will search the SPL’s catalog for that book. It’s amazing to me that such a task could be so easy, for a site that is as impossible to use as the SPL’s.
Best results for the bookmarklet are found in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser, version 6. 🙂 YMMV.
PHOTOS: Ken Fox’s Great Statues of Auburn
I stumbled upon a wonderful roadside attraction in Auburn yesterday: Ken Fox’s Great Statues. Ken is the creator of the gold miner statue in downtown Auburn, but he also has several other massive concrete figures to his name. Specifically several (mostly) naked collossi just off 49 near In-n-Out.
The statues are unadvertised, which only adds to your initial shock when they loom into view. A few stand in a parking lot of an otherwise ordinary street. The parking lot belongs to the office of the dentist who built the statues, Ken Fox.
Continue reading “PHOTOS: Ken Fox’s Great Statues of Auburn”
Redesign launched!
In honor of The Sac Rag’s 3rd birthday, which was Saturday, we are (finally) introducing our 2008 redesign. In addition to cosmetic changes there are a few new features to which I’d like to call your attention…
Nail in the coffin for KJ?
The Bee reports this morning that Kevin Johnson’s personal attorney conducted an internal investigation of the allegations brought against KJ by a Sac High student last spring, before notifying law enforcement or CPS. As a result the student recanted before the Sac PD conducted their investigation. According to Sgt. Matt Young, the Sac PD’s investigation was wrapped up in 8 days.
Maybe commenter Jean was right and this was the new angle the Bee was researching. It is unclear to me yet whether the sequence of events did not proceed according to legal SOP in this realm. The lawyer, Kevin Hiestand, claims he did tell the teacher, Erik Jones, to file reports with the police and CPS. Jones claims Hiestand told him the school would investigate first. The girl and her family still claim the story was made up. On the other hand we still have the decade old transcript of the confrontation call. All anybody can really do at this point is assume that the creepy guy in that 1996 phone call was guilty of crossing the same boundaries in 2007.
Midtown featured in AAA mag
Heckasac beat me to posting about the article in Via magazine about midtown. The Via article is here. I think it is interesting that one main focus of the article is on Sacto as a “walking town” and for using the phrase “ground-beef triangle” to refer to the as-yet unlabeled area bordered by Ford’s, Willie’s, and Suzie’s. I normally recuse myself from burger discussions, I guess because I am too much of a fan to be objective. I likes em all. Does it have meat between buns? Give it over.
Sac City’s open enrollment calendar confuses
If you’re a parent of a child in the Sac City Unified School District you might have been recently working through the open enrollment program to enroll your child at one of the district’s fine schools outside your own home area. If that’s the case I hope you were able to get your timeline straight, because the District was not. From the Open Enrollment brochure (PDF):
Elementary, K-8 and middle schools will be notified of placement by the Open Enrollment staff during the week of April 18, 2008.
Continue reading “Sac City’s open enrollment calendar confuses”
“Sac Hates Hip Hop”
Nick Miller blogs at Sound Advice today that the words “Sac Hates Hip Hop” have been tagged on boarded-up former site of the Library, which closed last year after a fatal shooting.
What would it take to prove that Sac does not hate hip hop? Would it entail a single Sacramentan saying they love hip hop? Would a hip hop issue of Sac Mag settle the deal? Would Mayor Fargo have to freestyle at city council meetings?
Eau contraire, mon graffito, I think it is you who hate painted walls.
KJ’s comments hurt his defense
The fact that it is not easy for KJ to put this issue to bed is not entirely the fault of the sloppy Sac Bee who published documents dropped off by a political opponent. It is impossible sometimes to discern what KJ is trying to say, to put it mildly. When asked if he paid a settlement to the Phoenix teenager who brought accusations against him in 1996 he said
“I think the important thing, and I’ve always said this all along, is you have to protect the rights of individuals,” Johnson said. “And privacy rights are at first and foremost of what I have to do on a regular basis in this community.”
The Bee correctly points out he doesn’t mention whose privacy. It must not be his own, since a flat “No” answer would be very helpful in clearing this up. I suppose though, since it is not totally established that a settlement request was made, saying No would confirm that there was a request to turn down. I don’t know. It’s true that he has never been charged with anything in these cases, but one wishes that for clarity’s sake, just for once a man accused in a case like this would have more to say than “no charges have been ever assessed toward me.” Something like “I have never acted in an improper manner toward any teenage girl.”
Bee pats itself on the back for KJ allegations
Buried at the bottom of this story about Heather Fargo’s uphill battle against KJ’s celebrity status, the Bee’s Mary Lynne Vellinga mentions yesterday’s Padilla bombshell about KJ:
This week, Johnson has again had to contend with allegations of sexual misconduct with teenage girls in Phoenix and Sacramento. Charges were never brought in either case, but rival mayoral candidate Leonard Padilla on Tuesday distributed the police report in the Phoenix case to the press.
Yes, he had to contend with them again because they were reported on in the same paper after being dropped off by a very concerned political opponent. Continue reading “Bee pats itself on the back for KJ allegations”
The Sac Rag 