Tag: idiots

Concerts in the Park removing beer gardens?

Carla Meyer’s article in today’s Bee celebrating the start of this year’s Concerts in the Park program includes the detail that this year there will be no designated beer garden (“at least for the first performance,” she writes.)

I don’t have a knee-jerk overreaction to easing restrictions on “demon rum” or something, but I’m not sure this is a good idea. I haven’t been to CIP as much in recent years but it seems like the beer garden in Cesar Chavez gets pretty rowdy, am I wrong? I’m not talking about beer fans but about Sacto d-bags. Isn’t that going to hurt the family atmosphere? I personally wouldn’t take my kids somewhere that the general public was imbibing in beer garden quantities.

More importantly though, it seems like this will make it much more difficult to keep minors from getting in on the beer action. Sure, if you’re caught with liquor and no wristband you’re toast, but is there going to be enough security to scan the whole crowd. Seems like Cesar Chavez is the place to be for some underage drinking this summer!

Sacramento Parent goes glam

Sacramento Parent is one of those free advertorial magazines you see in places that moms tend to gather. Typically it features local parents, mostly moms, and articles of interest to families.

The cover of this month’s edition features “The Real Housewives of Sacramento” (2009 called, it wants its pop cultural reference back). The article itself is light on substance (the moms struggle with trying to do too much! Some random person that you don’t know turns out to be a gun lover!) but the cover photo is pretty barftastic:

Continue reading “Sacramento Parent goes glam”

How to solve our wire theft problem

I’m curious as to why so many commenters seem to get where the solution lies in this Sac Bee article about wire thieves wreaking darkness on Sacramento streetlights.

In response to the crime wave, the city has taken the unusual step of creating a Police Department task force dedicated solely to investigating metal theft. Since starting its work a few weeks ago, that team of officers has focused on investigating suspects with a history of metal thievery and identifying crime hot spots in the city where patrol officers are told to keep a careful watch. The Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office has also dedicated a prosecutor to metal- theft cases.

That’s great that actions are being taken to prevent or stop the theft, but doesn’t the real problem lie in the ability to easily recycle this stuff?

Am I over simplifying this? Missing the obvious? Let me know.

Sactown Royalty on Evans trade rumors

Want to kill public support for a big arena project? Start rumor you’re going to trade the team’s best player. Tom Ziller of Sactown Royalty posted an impassioned plea for sanity last night in the face of rumors to that effect being published by Sports Illustrated and former Bee writer Sam Amick.

Ziller takes apart the situation and calls for patience with Evans adjustment to his new role on the team. It’s a great read, as per usual with TZ, and it does make one frustrated with the Kings management. I know next to nothing about these things but it seems to me that a great way to show thanks to folks who put a lot on the line to craft an amazing deal for these owners would be to invest in the team’s future by signing a big free agent at the end of the season.

Batman illegal in Sac County?

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My county lawyer contact clued me in to a real corker of a legal drama. According to the Sacramento County Code, sales of “crime comic books” to children under 18 is a misdemeanor. It dates from 1959 and there is no way to read it that doesn’t make it a crime to sell kids almost any comic book in which superheroes fight crime.

The Board of Supervisors specifically finds that the prohibition against the sale to or circulation of crime “comic” books to children is a reasonable measure to meet the clear and present danger hereinabove found. (Ord. 652 § 1, 1959.)

Among the findings that caused the “clear and present danger” was the finding that “Many children have been incited to commit crimes as a consequence of looking at crime ‘comic’ books.”

Continue reading “Batman illegal in Sac County?”

It pays to recycle


This “blatant act of theft” caused me to pee in your bushes

It’s no secret that in these tough economic times (using this bit for four years now, wow) people will do just about anything to make a few bucks. One of the most popular ways is by recycling. And one of the most popular ways of recycling is by recycling copper. And one of the most popular ways of obtaining copper is by stealing it. Finding places to steal this precious element is where people become especially crafty.

I found this notice on the men’s bathroom door at Valley Oak Park the other day. There was one on the women’s bathroom, I think, but it was ripped off. It must be hard to recycle this sort of thing as it would be a bit obvious when you turn up at your local recycling station. Ah, that’s right, people strike again.

J.A. Recycling did not follow any of the rules, giving us cash for the copper on the spot. When we returned to ask why, workers started leaving…The same scenario played out at Highlands Recycling off Elkhorn Boulevard…Next door at A-1 Recycling, they did take our team member’s driver’s license and thumb print, but there’s no evidence photos were taken of him or the material, and he was given cash instantly.

The state legislature passed AB 844 in 2008, requiring all recycling centers that buy copper to check the seller’s photo ID, take video or a photo of the seller and the material being sold, and also collect their thumb print.

People, once again, are awesome.

Newspaper with a thing for offensive ledes

The Bee reports today on a sex offender caught preying on boys after being released from prison after serving time for a 1988 child molestation charge.

Robert Precobb, a sex offender with a thing for teenage boys, caught a big break last year when a judge ordered him freed from prison. (my emphasis)

Some guys might have “a thing for” redheads, or for Spanish-looking men, or for apple fritters, but a child molester preys on children. It’s super gross to phrase it that way and the Bee should probably change the wording.