Category: News

KCRA: Literally insane for the whales

“Whale Watch” is getting out of hand. The entire KCRA 6 PM newscast last night was dedicated to “Whale Watch.” At about 10:15 last night Edie Lambert was talking to Toby Ross, the City Manager of West Sacramento, who cautioned would-be whale watchers to stay off of levees that are not meant for car traffic. Would it be cruel to suggest that drivers too stupid to stay off of non-roads in order to watch whales too stupid to stay out of fresh water rivers are a match made in heaven?

However, it does reflect well on the kind of news that KCRA likes to present. Flipping over to CBS13 at 11 is like watching the Great Britain PR spot on “Children of Men.” War. Famine. Dead horses. Only CBS 13 still soldiers on…

Elk Grove essence

The City of Elk Grove is requesting feedback from the general public on a variety of new logos and taglines to go with. I’d put up a sample of what they are considering, but apparently I’d have to get permission first and hell if I do that. You can check out all the different logos and taglines here.

Personally, I think that a picture of an elk standing in front of a grove of big box stores would be the best logo, but hey, that’s just me.

(Note to City of Elk Grove: if you don’t want people to steal your pictures, don’t put them on the internet.)

City Beat, starring SacPD as itself

My wife and I were looking for information about the Sac PD’s bus billboards that show a random trunk search with the text “How much junk is in your trunk?” when we found City Beat, the Sac PD’s video channel. I dare you not to think of those public service announcement videos on “Reno 911!”

There’s actually some fun facts in episode #1 about the history of Sac PD. I would embed one of the videos here for you to watch but I don’t want to mess with the po-po…

Sac not one of bloggiest cities?

In fact, we didn’t even make the website… via Boing Boing, here is outside.in, another placeblog site. Their list of “bloggiest neighborhoods” includes one norcal hood, Potrero Hill in SF, and highlights the Potrero Hill SF blog.

I’m a total homer, but I think Sacramento is very very bloggy. Don’t you think? I don’t know how a small district of a city is more bloggy than Sac. We’re definitely the snarkiest norcal town…

“Man sought after making Virginia Tech-type threats”

Sutter County officials are looking for Jeffery Thomas Carney (oh really, they used his middle name?) because he has reportedly been telling acquaintances that he is planning a shooting rampage that will “make Virginia Tech ‘look mild.'”

This is really scary. I hope they find the guy. If only there were some way to remove the fame aspect from the minds of these psychos. For example, you might be able to prevent that by not rushing out to print whatever deranged rantings they send you, NBC.

My mind is reeling that at no point was there anybody in whatever team put that crap on the air who had the good taste and/or an ounce of brains to put a halt to it. I hope the parents of the victims sue the crap out of NBC.

Survey Says…

You Peet’s regulars have surely noticed the sweet lady asking folks to fill out a survey while waiting in line at the Lyon Village location. She is offering a free cup of joe just for filling out the two page survey which mostly deals with demographics and coffee drinking patterns.

So, first and foremost, we love us a free anything here at the Sac Rag so head on down to Peet’s and hop in line.

Now, back to my point. Today I struck up a conversation with the gal. We discussed the Lyon Village location as well as the others in the area. Of course, this lead to our thoughts about a redesign. I freaked her out I am sure with my overly thought out plans for renovation as well as my opinion on the confusion that occurs from time to time when the coffee bean counter doubles as a coffee line which then forces the patrons to create a feeder line on the fly. This doesn’t always work out so well when everyone is not on board with the idea. She humored me and provided feedback. She also mentioned that some folks had suggested a line be created for just drip coffee orders and one for specialty drinks. If you are reading this survey lady, I apologize for my enthusiasm and references to sketches and blueprints I have available upon request.

My assumption is this has to do with the pending remodel first discussed on this here web log last month. You insiders care to chime in?

Overestimating the underestimate

MSNBC has just published a review of the “Top 10 underrated US cities” for travel destinations. Guess why I bring this up?

Sacramento came in as the number 10 top underrated city – which would mean that it’s the least underrated of the top 10 underrated cities. So, in effect Sacramento is the most overrated of the most underrated cities. So, like, is Sacramento really all that underrated then?

The review is provided by ShermansTravel.com (who dey newayz?). Here’s why they think Sacramento is underrated:

Continue reading “Overestimating the underestimate”

“Monster Teacher” reporting

I was a lot more fired up to write about female teacher-male student molestation scandals last night, when I thought there was a brand new scandal on the heels of the Dry Creek situation. I swear there was a teaser for a story about an “FTMS” scandal with a mugshot of a completely different woman. But that was right before bedtime. Turns out, like many stories are on the Sacramento news, that was a flub. I just confirmed with RonTopofIt, he saw the same thing. Get it together, people.

But still, there’s much to discuss. It’s a shame that the reporting on cases like this always has to highlight the “double standard” controversy, but it’s still shocking when you hear the double standard working in soundbites and it goes completely unremarked. Like the neighbor of Kelly Spaich, who was quoted on the evening news saying “She’s an attractive woman… seems like she could get a man.” Or the numerous acquaintances with the perp who say “she’s a good person… I’m not going to judge her, I’ll leave that for the jury.”

Continue reading ““Monster Teacher” reporting”

Enjoy the silence

Frequent Sac Rag readers know that the Man loves to put his foot down on the people. From preventing our hearts from indulging in heaping helpings of trans fats to sticking hard working, tax paying citizens with bills to fix sidewalks, the madness continues. So much so that this story about banning screaming on thrill rides has me perplexed. Am I shocked? Am I amazed? Or am I just so numb to the comings and goings of government interference (I realize that Scandia is not the Government, but it’s close enough, work with me on this) that I’m better off just pointing my web browser back over to nbc.com so I can watch that hilarious Peyton Manning sketch from SNL a few weeks back for the 100th time?

The new no-screaming policy took effect less than a week ago. Neighbors across Interstate 80 complained the screams were constant, rattling their homes and their patience. Scandia owners took community suggestions and came up with the no-screaming policy and say so far visitors have complied. For those who don’t follow the rules, the ride is stopped immediately and the riders must get off and get back in line.

Now this I gotta see. What level of screamage warrants a ride stoppage? And is it too obvious to mention the name of the ride? You know what I’m thinking Sacramento, right? It rhymes with Play Sassy…