Happy Birthday SNR!

Sacramento News and Review celebrates its 25th anniversary this week.

25bugThis week marks the 25th anniversary of the Sacramento News and Review‘s first issue. As Melinda Welsh points out in her editorial, one of SNR’s greatest accomplishments is remaining locally owned and independent while alternative weeklies throughout the country are bought by media conglomerations or ceasing publication. This freedom allows writers to focus on Sacramento area interests and to not take any shit from anybody.

Publisher Jeff von Kaenel pushes a strong progressive and forward thinking agenda in his weekly column, a view that is sorely lacking in other major Sacramento media. His staff produces some of the best writing in Sacramento, from capitol and local political coverage to navigating local food and entertainment choices to in-depth cover stories on everything Sacramento.

This Sacto-centric view is displayed this week with more than two dozen notable and interesting locals and also Brian Crall envisioning Sacramento in 25 years. With luck and diligence, the Sacramento News and Review will be there to tell us all about it.

Boxed Cake Mix

Like this, but much cooler.
Like this, but much cooler.
On April 19th, Record Store Day 2014 will feature a number of limited release records from more than 100 artists. The eight record box set from CAKE is sure to create a local buzz among collectors and vibraslap aficionados. The set will include their entire LP discography plus the unreleased LP Live at the Crystal Palace recorded in 2005. I was there, it was awesome.

Sacramento area vinyl vendors are likely to get a good supply of this career spanning retrospective from our most famous hometown band, but fans will have to be smart and quick to snatch one up. Otherwise, the only option will be massively inflated prices on eBay.

SacBee reporters honored by Pulitzer

Bee staffers Cynthia Hubert and Phillip Reese were named finalists for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Investigative Reporting. While they did not bring home the top award, only two stories win the distinction of being a finalist. High praise, indeed.

Their investigation started with allegations that a mentally ill man was discharged by Southern Nevada Adult Mental Health Services in Las Vegas and sent to Sacramento on a Greyhound bus with no supporting resources or plan of treatment. They uncovered a shameful legacy of more than 1500 patients over five years who were similarly shipped to cities across the country.

Hubert and Reese previously won the 2013 George Polk Award in Journalism and the 2013 Worth Bingham Prize for Investigative Journalism. Their entire series can be read here.

Pop-up TARDIS lending library in Tahoe Park

3eaf5b6e9bc49ec3fc8a15d525a7b287.max800Daniel Steinhart, a healthcare administrator from my neighborhood of Tahoe Park, constructed a “Little Free Library” near his home in Tahoe Park. This one is notable for its incredibly geeky shape: a 1960s-era police call box from the UK, now popularly known as the TARDIS, the ship The Doctor (as in “Doctor Who”) uses to travel through spacetime.

A Little Free Library is a pop-up “take a book, return a book” lending library installation that people can use to recycle books and related stuff (toys/games) with their neighbors. The library is bigger on the inside, with everyone in the community sharing what they can. Continue reading “Pop-up TARDIS lending library in Tahoe Park”

City aquatics schedule announced; YMCA to operate Tahoe Pool

The City of Sacramento was able to make an early announcement today about the start of summer aquatics season and it looks like the good news trend continues. The “YMCA of Superior California” will operate Tahoe Pool, as it did last summer, but Glenn Hall and Southside will once more be run by the city. Most pools will be open at least 6 days, with only Cabrillo Pool, near Florin & Freeport, scheduled to be closed.

I guess the last round of sales tax increases is finally starting to pay off? Though I can’t seem to find much in the way of news dating back to those increases to see if they went for city services like Parks & Rec.

I was a Glenn Hall River Rat as a kid but these days I am all about Tahoe Pool and the YMCA folks that ran it last year. Anyone else planning to use the city pools this drought-stricken summer?