More legal questions for KJ

The questions about Kevin Johnson’s past just keep on coming. The SacBee reports on a federal investigation into St. Hope’s suspected misuse of grant money for the AmeriCorps program and of reports of KJ’s inappropriate behavior towards two teenagers.

From 2004-2007, St. Hope received more than $800,000 for their Hood Corps program aimed at leadership development among inner city youth. Last year, federal funding was terminated because half of the youth involved had dropped out. The program is also supposed to be non-religious and completely voluntary, yet former members report that they were required to study the Bible, attend church, and receive communion. Many participants also had trouble with the mandatory “boot camp” style physical fitness training, another activity forbidden by the funding guidelines. Participants were also allegedly required to perform activities outside of the program’s scope, including campaigning for Sacramento City School Board candidates, a major violation of campaign rules and electoral ethics.

If these allegations turn out to be true, they will be a major blow to KJ’s mayoral campaign, as they show that he cannot even manage a simple government grant within the specified rules. And if he cannot do that, how much success will he have with an entire city?

Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks Tonight!

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks will be performing tonight at Harlow’s. Malkmus was the primary songwriter for Sac-Joaquin Valley 90’s legends Pavement, and has fronted the Portland-based Jicks since 2000. The band will be supporting their new release Real Emotional Trash, his 4th album post-Pavement, and is the first major tour for the act in several years as Malkmus is a recent parent.

Attendees can expect hipsters enjoying butt-bouncingly infectious tunes accompanied by witty lyrical poetry and blistering psychedelic guitar solos. Don’t miss out on a great band that happens to include two indie-rock luminaries, SM and former Sleater-Kinney drummer Janet Weiss.

Rubicon Loves Women!

Today, Rubicon Brewing shows their love for the ladies by featuring 11 beers brewed by women to raise funds for WEAVE. If you did not know, women brewers in the industry are rare, but are increasing in both numbers and prominence (just take a look at the trophy case for Denise Jones, head brewer at Moylan’s in Novato). Come show your support by lifting a glass (or 11 small samples), purchasing raffle tickets for great prizes or picking up a limited edition Women in Brewing T-shirt which is available in any color as long as it is black.

Bring on the Big Brains

An intellectual battle of epic proportions will be held Sunday, April 27 at 9pm. A team of ‘Rag writers will take on a team of Bee writers for the title of “Biggest Smarty Pants” at the weekly pub quiz at Streets of London.

Should you wish to witness the epic battle, or pit your own wits against these two towering intellectual juggernauts, or just wish RunnerGirl a happy birthday, drop on by the J Street location of Streets. We’ll be the team with overly frosted grocery store cake on our table.

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.

Bee Article That Caught My Eye Today #2

The front page of the sports section today was dominated by a fun piece by Bee sportswriter Ahmed Ortiz. I’m not too familiar with Ahmed’s writing, mostly since I keep forgetting that these things called “Raiders” exist, and that’s Ortiz’s bread and butter. But he definitely caught my attention with today’s piece comparing the general flameout of Barry Zito to the other notable big-paycheck pitching flops of the last ten years.

My favorite bit was when he summed up Dodger pitcher Chan Ho Park as “another Boras special” and “a paper tiger,” the former comment referring to Scott Boras, the immanently unlikable “super agent” who always seems to be behind these ridiculously overpriced deals, the latter comment needing no explanation.

Good work, Ahmed.

Bee Article That Caught My Eye Today #1

The Bee is reporting today that CalPERS’ chief investment officer Russell Read is calling it quits. We’ve mentioned Mr. Read here before, less than two years ago in fact, when he first took the job.

Why such a short tenure? Well, it’s not due to Mr. Read’s investing acumen, which led the country’s largest pension fund to achieve higher than average gains in an iffy market. No. It’s instead the pull of Mother Earth on Mr. Read’s heartstrings. According to the Bee, Mr. Read says that he’s leaving “to pursue my long-standing interests in environmental and clean technology investing.”

In other words, if you’ve got a Series 7 license and PhD in biology, Mr. Read might be looking for your particular skill set. Time to dust off that resume.