Award-winning British children's book author Caroline Lawrence will be visiting the Del Paso Heights Library (920 Grand Avenue in North Sacramento) on Wednesday, April 25. She will be attending the Friends of the Library meeting and potluck beginning at noon, which is open to anyone interested in supporting the library. A book talk follows at 1:30pm. Later that day, she will be visiting the McClatchy Library (at 22nd & U Streets downtown) 6:30-7:30pm for another lively discussion. All events are free. Ms. Lawrence is the author of the juvenile historical fiction series Roman Mysteries, which has been made into a CBBC TV series in the UK. The thrilling book series has won several awards a

The walls of McClatchy High Auditorium vibrated mightily today when 150 tubas gathered for the 31st annual TubaChristmas concert. Big, bold, and brassy sounds of tubas, euphoniums, sousaphones and baritones filled the space and entertained an estimated crowd of 800. During the free Christmas music concert, the audience sang with gusto, asked questions about the different instruments and wanted to hear the very lowest sound that tubas can make. Steve Iwata and others conducted the aural and visual feast for the senses. Powerful, yet melodic sounds arose from instruments decorated with garlands and blinking lights while the players themselves were adorned in red and green TubaChristmas kni

      A small group of people started gathering in front of McClatchy High School today, at 3 o’clock, to show their support for gay rights. Among the group, were protesters who had gathered earlier at the capitol, students from neighboring schools, and the press.       It was nearing the scheduled time for the arrival of the notorious anti-gay protester, Fred Phelps and his clan, from the Westboro Baptist Church. They were scheduled to arrive at 3;15pm, according to their website godhatesfags.com.       The high school was ready with a dozen staff members standing guard in the front drive way. A number of students chose to dine in restaurants across the street, having a nice vantage point

Sacramento journalist R.E. Graswich is not sad to leave his 37-year journalism career for a new job as special assistant to Mayor Kevin Johnson. “I figure I got one last shot in life here to do something worthwhile as opposed to what you guys do,” he joked while addressing reporters Tuesday. Graswich, 54, left a 35-year career at The Sacramento Bee in 2007. In the two years following his departure from the Bee, he took up “wonderful chances” to work as a co-anchor at KFBK and commentator at KOVR CBS 13, he said. Now, though, he wants to work in the political arena. This is his first week working as a staffer at City Hall in the special assistant position with a salary of $80,000. At Joh

The current fear goes something like this: "If the newspapers disappear, so does all the real original reporting with it." The basic charge is that there is no business model for "giving away" news online, because online revenue is too miniscule and newspapers spend an enormous amount to get us that amazing original content. The trouble is that a lot of those assumptions are just plain false. Once you start delving into the numbers those assumptions begin to wash away. For instance, what does an average major daily pay, in terms of a percentage of its overall budget, for its editorial department? While one's inclination may be to assume that it is a huge portion, the reality is that the

The Sunday, March 1, edition of the Sacramento Bee, included an article written by publisher Cheryl Dell entitled "It's not a lack of readers, it's a lack of advertising."  The gist of the article was that despite the Bee's growing readership, advertising revenue has fallen, forcing the paper to reevaluate its business model.  While it's never a bad idea to revisit policies when times get tough, I don't think Dell's column went far enough to acknowledge one of the biggest albatrosses hanging around the Bee's neck : the McClatchy Company. I'm not trying to demonize McClatchy. The problem is that as a profit-seeking business, McClatchy has institutionally different goals and definitions of

As Chuck D. of Public Enemy once asked rhetorically, "How low can you go?" The stock of the McClatchy Company, parent of The Sacramento Bee (where McClatchy has its corporate offices, at 21st and Q), "broke the buck" for the first time Monday, and continued to slide Tuesday. The stock finished at 75 cents a share on the NYSE Tuesday, after dipping as low as 66 cents a share. This, for a stock that was valued at $70.90 just four years ago this week. Stunning. So, as Chuck asked: How low can it go? Presumably, it has to stop somewhere short of ZERO, but really: Who expected it ever to go this low? From $70.90 to 75 cents in four years? That’s a 99 percent drop, using my rough math. Imagin