Author: CoolDMZ

"X-ray vision to see in between / Where's my kimono and my time machine?"

“Character education is like, the foundation”

The Bee today reports on several area schools that are taking part in local non-profit group Center for Youth Citizenship’s “Free to Learn” program, that helps little students build traits like “caring, giving and service; justice and fairness; leadership, initiative and teamwork; respect; responsibility; and trustworthiness.”

“Character education is, like, the foundation of my classroom,” said Carly Davenport, who teaches fourth grade at Prairie [Elementary, in Elk Grove].

That is like, a really noble goal. (I kid the Carly Davenport. I am a horrible impromptu public speaker.)

In the abstract, I suppose it is good that educators are concerned with building those skills. What sorts of content do they cover to achieve those goals? Continue reading ““Character education is like, the foundation””

Streetcar history on CPR

Via Sacramento History, a great new blog I just came across:

Today on Capital Public Radio (KXJZ/KXPR) there will be a program about Sacramento’s streetcars, the 20th anniversary of Light Rail, and upcoming plans for a streetcar line between Sacramento and West Sacramento.

I was too late to post about the radio spot but it is available online. I can’t believe it has been 20 years of Light Rail. I remember my first ride on the train and loving the swiveling areas between cars. Check out the radio program and check out that blog.

“Students Against Malaria”

I had forgotten I took this shot weekend before last at the Davis Farmer’s Market. Word on the street is this group gets into it frequently with the “Students FOR Malaria”…

"Students Against Malaria"

But I kid the kids. Riffing on this last night my wife and I realized there aren’t very many better options… Student Fighting Malaria sounds good at first until you realize it also sounds like they have malaria. Students For the Eradication of Malaria is precise but wordy.

So if you just tell yourself that it’s against in the sense of “in hostility to” and not in the sense of “disapproving of,” it probably is your best bet. It just sounds and looks funny.

Calif. Study: MySpace.com Linked To Poor Grades

CBS13 reports that a Fresno State professor, clearly possessed of superhuman intellect, has completed what must have been thousands of hours of painstaking research and concluded that MySpace.com accounts can be linked to poor grades among high school students.

Hey Daniel, I smell a big lawsuit in your future!!! Think of your good friends at The Sac Rag when your ship comes in. These t-shirts are literally not moving themselves.

SNR website revamped; Mayor admits railyard purchase misstep

I’m getting a little behind here, working on launching a new website called BLUE MAG, an entertainment wing to my online mansion. Enjoy…

So a completely new look for the News & Review website. I think aspects of it are very attractive but it seems to me to be way too busy.

A great railyard story in last week’s issue as well. Mayor Fargo thinks that Thomas Enterprises didn’t bargain hard enough to get Union Pacific to move the tracks to accomodate the new infrastructure.

“Union Pacific should have moved their tracks. They could have done it. It would have been easy. … It’s a little bit of a sore subject, because we had hoped that our partners in all of this would be stepping up a little more, but the reality is, we wanted to get this done badly.”

So had we, Heather.

Artest arrested on dom. violence charges

ArtestedCBS13 has the goods

Placer County Sheriff’s deputies have arrested Sacramento Kings’ Ron Artest on domestic violence charges.

Deputies say they got a call from Artest’s wife at 9:23 a.m. this morning.

Deputies responded and arrested Artest. He was taken to the Placer County jail in Auburn.

At this point I would like to retract 95% of my statements about the dog abuse thing…

UPDATE: CSI Sac provides the mugshot info

What’s my dateline?

A little late in the day for this, but here’s a little game, sure to be as wildly successful as Make Us Laugh. It’s called Where’s that dateline? I’ll give you a news snippet and you pick the dateline. Ready? Of course not:

A pregnant woman was shot in the back. A 17-year-old girl was shot in the head, rendered blind. A 20-year-old man was shot and killed behind the wheel of a moving car; his 15-year-old female passenger was shot as well.

So what’s my dateline? (No fair guessing if you read the paper or any other local news source before 4:30 today…) Is it…

A. Baghdad, Iraq
B. Sarajevo
C. wherever “Children of Men” takes place, or
D. a few hours in South Sacramento over the weekend?

Do I really have to answer? Bet the Police Chief is wishing he could have squashed that recent story about Sacramento having the lowest number of uniformed offers per capita…

Zodiac coinkidink?

Does anybody else smell a big fat rat?

Nearly four decades after some of the most infamous serial killings in U.S. history, Vallejo Police investigators have submitted new DNA evidence to a California crime lab in hopes of catching the Zodiac killer.

The search for new evidence coincides with the release of a new film chronicling the hunt for the Zodiac killer. “Zodiac,” starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Robert Downey Jr. opens March 2.

Although I am least happy that this story does not involve someone named Britney or Anna Nicole…

New day, new digs for Graswich

Reader kit (whoa! redesign) just emailed with breaking news from the Biz journal that R.E. Graswich, late of the Sacramento Bee, is bouncing back after leaving his 35-year gig by taking a new one at the Sac Mag.

He will now be writing monthly columns for Sacramento magazine and twice-weekly blogs for the magazine’s Web site, sacmag.com.

The best part about the Sac Mag’s website is that it can be read in places other than in the lobby of Supercuts. We can’t wait to see Bob’s new stuff.