It should be an action-packed weekend for Sacramento. The 49ers are up against the Packers for the NFC championship on Saturday, Dine Downtown will be running through the weekend and next week, and the hogs are scheduled to overtake the city for the Easyrider bike show at the Convention Center. But before you dive in, make sure you didn’t miss anything this week on The Sacramento Press. Community Contributors 5. Sacramento's Newest Rising Star by Emilie Cameron Everyone loves to see a local artist edge their way into the national spotlight. Local photographer Ryan Greenleaf is on his way. 4. ‘My Kind Of Town Sacramento Is’ by Kathleen Johnson Kathleen Johnson connected with readers

Mayor Kevin Johnson opened Monday night’s town hall meeting with a speech on his upbringing in Oak Park. The attendants quickly shifted the mood of the meeting with a flood of questions on issues in Sacramento, and many ethnic communities showed concern for lack of support and communication in the past. Johnson said that early on in his term he made the mistake of thinking that there was only one Asian/Pacific Islanders community (API) in Sacramento, when there are in fact more than 40 communities. Because of this, he said he didn’t attend many of the API meetings held last year. He told attendees that this is something he wants to change. “When I was talking to the API community, I said

Sacramento, CA | The momentum is building. That was the message that Stand Up, the Sacramento based non-profit organization devoted to reforming education, touted in front of a packed house at the Guild Theater on Monday night. The event was part of a series of monthly meetings organized by Stand Up to spotlight education improvement efforts in Sacramento. Previous events have brought in former California State Senator Gloria Romero to discuss the “parent trigger” law, the founder of Teach for America Wendy Kopp, and the co-founder of the Knowledge is Power Program, Mike Feinberg. Local high school students acted as ushers alongside staffers from a variety of organizations including Sa

The Guild Theater in Oak Park was host to a forum attended by some of the biggest and most controversial names in education reform Friday evening. The event was organized by Stand Up Sacramento, a non-profit group chaired by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, and featured speakers such as Michelle Rhee, former chancellor of public schools in Washington, DC, her boss in that position, former Washington DC mayor Adrian Fenty, and Richard Whitmire, former editorial writer at USA Today and author of “The Bee Eater,” a book which chronicles Rhee’s time as chancellor. The speakers focused on the need to change teacher retention polices nationwide, and in particular the abolishment of the “LIFO,”

Mayor Kevin Johnson and his fiancée, renown education reformer Michelle Rhee, took the stage Thursday night for their first speaking event in Sacramento at the Tsakopoulos Library Galleria to talk about the changing landscape in the world of education. They held hands, finished each other's sentences, and answered questions from moderator Steven C. Currall, dean of the UC Davis management school as well as some from the crowd of a few hundred attendees. Their appearance came on the heels of the announcement that Rhee's nonprofit educational advocacy organization, StudentsFirst, is now officially headquartered in Sacramento. The two come from very different backgrounds – Rhee was born i

In addition to breaking the news that former Washington, D.C., Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee would base her education group in Sacramento at Thursday’s State of the City address, Mayor Kevin Johnson also laid out his agenda for the environment, education and downtown development. Johnson’s speech was the key draw of the Sacramento Metro Chamber’s 19th annual event, held at the Sacramento Convention Center. The chamber’s communications director, Hal Silliman, said this year’s turnout of about 950 people set a record. In remarks before Johnson’s speech, Metro Chamber Board Chair Gregory Eldridge commented on the poor economic environment in Sacramento, saying “many of our members contin

Former D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee has decided to base her new education nonprofit in Sacramento. Mayor Kevin Johnson, who is engaged to Rhee, announced Rhee's decision in his "State of the City" speech Thursday. Johnson said Rhee's group, StudentsFirst, aims to raise $1 billion in its first year. "She was asked at the launch where the organization would be headquartered," according to the text of Johnson's speech. "She said that while many big city mayors had come a'courting that the mayor of Sacramento had made the most aggressive overtures." Kathleen Haley is a staff reporter for The Sacramento Press.

A high-profile panel that included Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Washington, D.C., Public Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee met in Sacramento on Tuesday evening and discussed pitfalls in the nation’s education system. Most of the members of the panel, which also included Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and an official with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said state and national teachers’ unions have made efforts to halt education reforms. The panel held its discussion after a screening of “Waiting for Superman,” filmmaker Davis Guggenheim’s new documentary about education reform. About 200 people gathered for the screening, including special gu

Even though Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson is a celebrity, it appears he doesn’t want a celeb-style wedding. In a Tuesday e-mail, Johnson and his spouse-to-be, Michelle Rhee, told their friends and family Tuesday that they’re changing the date and location of their wedding to avoid hubbub. Johnson and Washington, D.C., Schools Chancellor Rhee had set a Sept. 4 date to marry in Sacramento. Johnson and Rhee’s e-mail does not provide the new date and location of their wedding. “We underestimated the intensity of interest in the wedding and didn’t manage that well which was our responsibility,” the couple explained in the e-mail. “As a result, the wedding as planned for September 4th ended

School district superintendents should find ways to gain political support from community members, according to Washington, D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee. At a Sacramento Press Club luncheon Monday, Rhee urged the city’s businesspeople, media professionals and politicians to back Sacramento City Unified School District Superintendent Jonathan Raymond in his efforts. These groups should “give this man some cover,” Rhee said. Superintendents are not elected to their positions, but they can benefit from making alliances with groups, she said. “When you are a superintendent and you want to do bold things that might not be popular, you have to have some political capital," she said.

Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson and Washington, D.C. Schools Chancelllor Michelle Rhee are engaged to wed. Few details were released, but the Mayor did issue a statement. "This is an exciting time in our lives and I feel truly blessed," Johnson commented in a public statement issued Friday. "Michelle is an amazing person, and I could not be happier." Rhee, who served on the Mayor's St. Hope Academy before leaving for Washington, D.C., is divorced and has two children. The Sacramento Bee reports Rhee was once on the cover of Time Magazine as a prominent education reformer. No wedding date has been scheduled as of yet. --- Matthew Keys is an online news writer for FOX40.com and communit