Category: News

BASE Jumper Tragedy of ’05

Was it just my wife and me, or was the BASE jumper story last night the funniest local news piece in a while? I don’t think print reports do it justice; to really get the local flavor of this story of a daredevil yahoo jumping off a TV tower and getting stuck on his parachute about 200 feet up, you had to see Miguel Almaguer reporting live from the scene for the 10:00 news on WB58. (Was it a slow night for TV or what? We actually found ourselves watching “Joey” for like 5 minutes. We were eating May Flower at the time so our hands were occupied.)

Unfortunately the video clip on wb58tv.com does not contain video of Almaguer with his makeshift model of the tower and the guide wires that the jumper was caught on, which he used to demonstrate the different scenarios firefighters were considering for freeing the idiot. He did not, unfortunately, use a GI Joe figurine to stand in for the nimrod, who has titanium rods in his legs from a previous unsuccessful jump. Dumbass.
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Let’s Talk Talking Heads

And you may ask yourself-well…how did I get here? Just kidding. I feel like dishing about local news personalities. Today it’s Paul Joncich and Eileen Javora. I like Joncich because he’s not afraid to get caught with his arms crossed when the camera cuts back to the anchor desk shot. It goes a long way toward creating the persona of a no-nonsense newsman. I mean look at that biography: 2 Emmys, who knew! and “one of the first local television reporters in the country to visit the Soviet Union after the fall of communism.” That’s some resume.

The thing about Eileen Javora is that I fear she might be a cyborg. Try to guess how old she is–she could be anywhere from 23 to 42 as far as I can tell, and until KCRA releases a full DNA test I will continue to use whatever public power I have to out her as an ageless half-robot.

Remember how we said “You heard it here first”?

I’m sure you do. If you don’t remember, pay attention: You heard it here first.

RonTopofIt has been keeping us all up to date on this missing woman, and commented on the fact that there seems to be disparities in the attention that some missing persons get over others.

Two whole weeks later, KCRA finally picked up on the disparity issue. Too late though KCRA, you’ve been scooped by almighty Rag of Sac. What exactly are you doing during work?
Continue reading “Remember how we said “You heard it here first”?”

I don’t get it.

A day after this hit the headlines, KCRA reports about this in Elk Grove.

Under a plea agreement, the attempted murder charges were dropped, and Howard pleaded guilty to the child endangerment charges.

Does this rub you the wrong way at all? It shouldn’t because, you know, strangling and setting fire to your children isn’t really attempted murder.

It really doesn’t make any sense, but hey, thanks for getting to the bottom of that one, KCRA!

It’s a little suspect…

Again with the unhelpful suspect decriptions, Sacramento.

Victims described the men as 22 to 29 years old, 5 feet 10 inches to 6 feet tall with thin builds. One was wearing a black beanie and another had his hair in braids, [Police spokeswoman Michelle] Lazark said.

Okay, so the first one is a Sailor and the second one is a Viking? As I’ve said before, fashion comments do not make for good suspect descriptions. After all, when I hear “beanie” I sometimes picture the multi-colored pinwheel hat (like the one Calvin gets hoping it will make him fly–by the way, thanks SacBee for rerunning Calvin).

What defines you?



Plant a Tree, Be a Hero

Over in the Arden/Arcade side of town local folks have been promoting a tree planting program for quite some time. Adopted from the popular program in the oh so popular Arden Park, the Arden/Arcade extension has gone door to door with flyers asking for volunteers to help. This might sound all well and good, but much like a “boo gram” there is a little something else at play. This time, something a bit offensive.

For example, on their website their tag line reads (with photos of streets with and without trees, sure hope you don’t live on of those “belows”:

“Trees Define A Neighborhood. What street would you like to live on?

Another example (#2 on What You Can Do To Help):

ENCOURAGE YOUR NEIGHBORS TO PLANT- If you want to be a hero on your block, give away free trees

Continue reading “What defines you?”

A rant of another color

Not to get too rant heavy here at the Sac Rag, but please take a notice of the headlines on News10.net right now. While everyone seems to be up in arms over this missing woman who was last seen at Thunder Valley Casino last week (uh, her boyfriend waits 2 days to go looking for her? for another post…), no one seems to be talking about (notice how it is 3 stories down on the home page) the Rio Linda Foster Mother who has been missing for eight days! Where’s the 40-45 person search party for this foster mother of three? Well, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department has taken a missing person report. I’ll let you connect the dots here, but I think News10.net needs call a quick staff meeting and discuss their priorities.

Airport of choice?

I was reading this article from the Sac Union today (that’s right, “The Union is back…watch US GROW).” and wondered what the H E double hockey sticks they meant by this:

This figure represents the number of people who have chosen Sacramento International Airport as their airport of choice in the 12-month period from September 2004 through August 2005.

So these 10 million people don’t just live in town, but drove from locations far and wide to fly out of our fair “international” airport?

At any rate, I’ve been making frequent trips to SMF as of late and I must admit that it is easy to get to, easy to pick up/drop off, and not nearly as far away as Denver’s. Holy cow, what a mess that place is.

New Crime Blotter

I’ve been enjoying the Chico State online newspaper as of late. Mostly because they have a great blotter. Such as:

4:59 a.m. Mentally ill person reported on the 100 block of West 17th Street. “Reporting party is at a pay phone saying we need to send the government or someone may get hurt.”

2:34 p.m. Disturbance reported on the 500 block of Orange Street. “Male subject outside waving his hands in the middle of the street and talking about Jesus.”

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