Though it was a sparse crowd, none-the-less the first of several events honoring Harvey Milk, last Tuesday, was exciting, informative, and meaningful. Held at the beautiful California Museum and hosted by The Harvey Milk Foundation, Equality California (EQCA) and the California State LGBT Legislative Caucus, the event focused on a discussion of the FAIR Education Act (SB 48) as well as related issues including peer abuse which is prevalent in some of our schools. The FAIR Education Act authored by Sen. Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) mandates all California schools to be more inclusive in teaching students about the history and accomplishments LGBT people have in American society. Because o

Another city budget, another crisis, another standoff with employee unions over pensions and givebacks. Sacramento’s budget crisis is a predictable story, and just as predictable is that when a city has to make cuts, the first ones to feel the pain are those without power or the money to hire lobbyists. People like Brittany Willeford, the mentally disabled 22-year-old woman the Sacramento Press covered earlier this month when she had the courage to address City Council about pending cuts to Access Leisure, a city program that provides social and recreational activities that more than 3,000 disabled young adults in Sacramento have come to rely on. The amount of money in question to save p

Battleship Directed by Peter Berg Reviewed by Malcolm Maclachlan and Tony Sheppard Malcolm: If you were looking for a summer blockbuster idea, you could do a lot worse than “Tim Riggins versus the Aliens.” If you don’t know what I’m talking about, Riggins is the character that made “Battleship” star Taylor Kitsch famous, and who was also one of the main reasons “Friday Night Lights” was one of the most underrated shows (formerly) on television. As the brooding fullback with daddy issues, he lurched back and forth between self-destruction and acts of great moral courage. He was both brawler and dreamer, bully and mentor, and a ladies man who behaved with surprising honor at times. I used t

With the city poised to slash the parks department budget, park maintenance continues to fall short, and Sacramento Press readers are asking if the city should just outsource park maintenance altogether, while union leaders think it’s a bad ide, and a city park comissioner says its been tried before without success.  “The obvious question here is what is the cost if all park maintenance staff are laid off, and the services (are) outsourced to a non-union private contractor?” asked “Cogmeyer,” a frequent Sacramento Press commenter. Craig Powell, president of the local political watchdog group Eye on Sacramento, agreed, saying that outsourcing park maintenance “has to be on the table.” Po

A Facebook group has been set up in support of Carmichael Dave, and though its numbers are a fraction of the following he has on Twitter and Facebook, he had this to say on the page: "Wow. Thanks guys! You are the reason I've smiled so much this week after a horrible, horrible event in my life. I cannot put into words what you all mean to me." Carmichael Dave was a radio personality on local CBS Radio affiliate KHTK, and he was instrumental in keeping the Sacramento Kings in the city last year with the Here We Build campaign. Even as CBS Radio and Carmichael Dave remain tight-lipped on the reason for his departure from the radio station more than a week ago, fans continue to support him, 

By Sara Connor, Unaffiliated Correspondent. May 16, 2012 12:00 p.m., PST Five Reasons Why Kevin McCarty Does Not Deserve Your Vote Over the course of the last two years there has been no one that has been more critical of City Councilman, Kevin McCarty, than I have. While Mr. McCarty exuded tremendous poise and leadership during the city of Sacramento’s arena debacle, he has largely ignored many of the urgent community issues that challenge his council district (district 6). For that purpose, it is important to point out the five most obvious reasons as to why Mr. McCarty does not deserve your vote. First, many of the street lights are either non-operational or non-functioning in the mo

If Occupy protestors disrupt a University of California board meeting by chanting, clapping hands and walking repeatedly in a circle, even after the board members leave the room and are not around to hear them, are the protestors heard? Media crews left shortly thereafter. Protesters are in orange.

In some Sacramento neighborhoods, plant-filled traffic circles hardly get noticed by passers-by, but in Boulevard Park, neighbors see them as an opportunity to beautify an otherwise ordinary traffic-calming device in the middle of an intersection. This weekend, members of the Boulevard Park Green Thumb Brigade will be out in force to weed, trim and water the vegetation in neighborhood traffic circles to keep them in tip-top shape. Friends, neighbors and fellow green thumbs are invited to join the brigade from 9 - 11 a.m. Saturday to help out. For more information, call Green Thumb Brigade organizer Sally Flory-O’Neil at 446-3390, or email sfoniel@comcast.net . More events this week: M

The next time you go to a city park, bring your pruning shears and garden gloves: Park maintenance in the city is about to be dealt a $119,000 budget blow – leaving the department with one-man maintenance crews and increasing the burden on volunteers to pick up the slack. “I’m not happy to say this, but we have inadequate resources and inadequate staffing,” Director Jim Combs told the City Council Tuesday. Even with a department budget reduced by more than 60 percent and staffing reduced by 50 percent over the past five years, Combs said everyone in the department has done their best to keep city services afloat. But it’s a losing battle, Combs said. The city’s park services maintains

Southside Park swimmers should know in the next week whether a bold new plan to reopen the Southside Park Pool succeeds – if it does, it will make for a cool summer for thousands of central city swimmers. The plan hinges on a new partnership between the city of Sacramento and the Sacramento YMCA where the YMCA will operate the pool and provide staff and maintenance all year. “If we can accomplish this, the Southside (Park) Pool will be open for business seven days a week,” City Councilman Rob Fong said. “It would be an amazing asset for the community again.” The new plan includes swim lessons, an aquatics program and open swim times at the pool for families and kids who are out of schoo