David Watts Barton hosted his final “Insight” show on Capital Public Radio Tuesday, and we talked about a few stories that have caught the attention of Sacramentans recently, including arena financing, affordable housing and utilities rate hikes. After Mayor Kevin Johnson announced a tentative agreement to get a new arena built followed by a 7-2 vote by the City Council in favor of moving forward with the project, it looks like a done deal. But a local group called Sacramento Taxpayers Opposed to Pork is making an effort to put the kibosh on the deal with a new November ballot initiative. The initiative would require any public financing for the new entertainment and sports complex to g

Tuesday on Insight on Capital Public Radio, I spoke with host David Watts Barton and Think Big Sacramento Executive Director Chris Lehane about the tentative arena deal brokered in Orlando that will keep the Kings in Sacramento. The framework of the agreement was negotiated over the three-day NBA All-Star Weekend during numerous closed-door discussions between Mayor Kevin Johnson, a delegation from Sacramento, Kings’ owners and NBA officials. The exact terms of the deal will be revealed Thursday, but early reports from the mayor’s office indicated it includes an estimated $75 million contribution from Kings’ owners, the Maloof family, and an estimated $60 million from arena operator Ansc

Tuesday on Capitol Public Radio’s “Insight” program, I sat down with host David Watts Barton and Sacramento Bee editorial board member Foon Rhee to discuss the Checks and Balances Act of 2012 – more commonly known as the “executive mayor” or “strong mayor” initiative. The mayor’s office rolled out the latest version of the strong mayor initiative Dec. 21 by a coalition of supporters led by Mayor Kevin Johnson’s chief of staff, Kunal Merchant. The issue was scheduled to be on the agenda for City Council discussion Tuesday, and Johnson said he is hopeful that council members will put the initiative on the June ballot. Rhee pointed out that Tuesday’s meeting was the 16th time the issue has

Everybody has an opinion. But being able to express your opinion is unique, Sacramento Press Editor in Chief David Watts Barton said during his opinion-writing workshop at the The Sacramento Press Thursday night. “Your goal should be able to really express what you want to say as clearly as you can, so people understand what your opinion is,” Barton said. Barton explained that people first respond to your writing tone. “If you come across as angry or unreasonable, you‘re going to alienate people before you even have a chance to tell them what you think,” Barton said. “Maintain a tone of sweet reasonableness.” Theater critic Bill Burgua heard about the workshop through e-mail and enjoye

The next workshop hosted by The Sacramento Press will be on opinion writing. It will be held at our office from 6:30 - 8 p.m. Feb. 24. Sacramento Press Editor in Chief David Watts Barton will discuss the importance of backing up your opinion, doing reporting and keeping your column focused. Barton worked at The Sacramento Bee from 1985-2007. He was the pop music critic until 1994 and in addition to writing reviews, he wrote weekly columns called Poplife and The Beat. As editor in chief of The Sacramento Press, Barton writes editorials on a regular basis. Badges will be awarded to participants for attending the workshop. To become a verified community contributor, please bring a governm

In case you missed the workshop Wednesday night, here are some of the answers to some of the questions asked and some tips shared by Sacramento Press Editor in Chief David Watts Barton and Managing Editor Colleen Belcher with community contributors about Journalism Open 2011 entries. Q: Are quotes a must? A: No, but as for some basic guidelines: They make your story stronger. The more you get people into your story, the more it helps – even if you’re doing an opinion piece, because the more sources you can point to, the better. Q: Is there a limit to how long the story is? A: The limit is how long it’s interesting. One thing to watch out for is when you talk to people who are good talker

My, it was a busy weekend around Sacramento. And I'm not talking about the holiday. People were shot, people were killed and people (and homes) were robbed. And there was all the other horrible stuff that happens daily. I took the four-day weekend off from news consumption. Monday morning, I remembered why. Much of it, especially the crime news, is depressing and does nothing to improve my life. Worse, some of it is not even entirely true. But confronting it now gives me the opportunity to ask Sacramento Press readers a question about the future of this website. But first, as they say, the news: The big news that I missed until Monday was that a group of four people – described in The

Jeffrey Callison, host of Insight Capitol Public Radio’s popular morning live news magazine, was interviewed by The Sacramento Press Editor in Chief David Watts Barton Sunday Evening. The interview was part of the The Sacramento Living Library, curated by Time Tested Books’ Peter Keat and hosted by “Midtown Monthly” editor Tim Foster. Barton had kicked off The Sacramento Living Library 2010 in January, interviewing Tower Records founder Russ Solomon. More on The Sacramento Living Library and previous interviews is available at Time Tested Books’ website. Insight premiered in July 2009 as a half-hour afternoon news magazine. Then the KXJZ news director had been invited by Station Manager

Anybody can be a critic, David Watts Barton said at the Sacramento Press Review Writing workshop. What distinguishes a good critic is that they can back their opinion up and express it well, he added. The Sacramento Press Editor in Chief discussed the art of review writing Wednesday in-house and via live stream from the Sacramento Press office. Barton has been a pop music critic since he was 16 years old and made a living doing it for The Sacramento Bee for more than 20 years. He began the workshop by making the audience repeat after him, “It’s just my opinion,” which he gave as the overarching mantra for all review writing. “You can get wrapped up in your opinion,” he said. “But it’s

Tonight's Review Writing workshop will be live streamed, and we encourage you to tune in from 6:45 - 8 p.m. Sacramento Press Editor in Chief David Watts Barton will teach the basics of reviewing concerts, theater and other performances. We are not accepting anymore RSVPs at this point. We are at full capacity for attendees. If you have RSVP'd but it's more convenient for you to watch the live stream, we encourage you to do so. The Ustream video will be pasted in this article later today. It will go live when the workshop starts. Free live streaming by Ustream

Food writer Becky Grunewald came to a full house at The Sacramento Press Thursday to share her tips on food writing with attendees, who got the chance to write reviews on food they sampled at the workshop and get professional feedback. Grunewald showed up to give everyone a little taste of good technique at the second food-writing workshop The Sacramento Press has given. Grunewald has been writing a food column for Midtown Monthly for four years, but it all started with her modest food blog. Now, she has her work featured in local monthlies and will have a piece in Sunset magazine next month. The workshop began with a buffet from Selland’s Market, where attendees chose snacks from an as

One of the first stories I was assigned as a new intern in late January was SMUD's installation of energy smart meters. SMUD customers were told the smart meters would provide them with more information about their energy usage, which could lead to better energy management for them and SMUD. The utility had just about finished testing the technology, and was ready to install more than 600,000 meters throughout the Sacramento area. SMUD contracted with South Carolina-based Utility Partners of America for the majority of the installation work, and my assignment was to find out why SMUD had contracted with an out-of-state company rather than a local one. Installation of the smart meters mea

Sacramentans should be enjoying a sigh of relief today, and a swell of pride. After months, years, even a decade of back and forth, conflict and aimlessness, there is finally some movement forward on a sports and entertainment complex. Yes, forward. Thursday morning's decision by the Sacramento First Task Force to recommend - if just recommend - the complicated but far-reaching "land swap" proposed by Gerry Kamilos' and David Taylor's organizations, and supported by the NBA and other crucial organizations, means that we are moving forward. Finally. There will be a lot of arguing about this for some time. As an assistant to Mayor Kevin Johnson, who is to be praised for making progress on

Many of you have asked about workshops and events being posted on our site in addition to the email invitations. Here is some information about our planned December events. We've organized a media panel Dec. 9. and a Google workshop Dec. 15. The media panel is a collaboration between the folks at the Urban Hive and The Sacramento Press. It will be held at the Urban Hive, Dec. 9 from 6:30 - 8:30 p.m. The panel features representatives from each type of news outlet and will focus on the changes each has had to make over the past few years with technology, the economy and social media. Each panel member will also be asked where they see the future of journalism is headed. Attendees will ha

OK, here's a big question, one that stops everyone at some point, even veterans: What should I write about? What's "interesting"? And there are other questions: Is this story too small? Too big? Not local enough? TOO local? We're feeling our way on this one, but we've been very specific that this is about The Grid, the central city, midtown/downtown. (BTW, I'm not that keen on the midtown/downtown distinction, because they're such vague areas. A map I once saw in the Bee had the line demarcating the two meandering all over the Grid, making hash of the distinction. So let's just call it "downtown" or the Grid, eh? And don't get me started on the whole "Handle District" or "SoCap" thing ..

As the Managing Editor of SacramentoPress.com, and a life-long journalist of more than 30 years, I thought I should start a storyline about what I'm trying to do here. My purpose is to get feedback, and to give you, the potential or current contributor, and above all, to give MYSELF, some idea of what's going on with SacramentoPress.com. Despite my experience as a writer for The Sacramento Bee, Sacramento (and other) magazines, my own blog and with stints at radio, this is as new for me as it is for everyone else. Because this is NEW. The internet is not yet a generation old, blogging far newer. And journalism - well, what is that? Our Thursday, Dec. 18 workshop will answer that, in part,