The Sacramento Press will be hosting a new workshop for the month of March. We are excited to have our first "Writing about Wine and Spirits" workshop, taught by Rick Kushman. The workshop will be at the Sacramento Press office from 6:30 - 8 p.m. Thursday, March 24. Kushman will discuss techniques for writing about wine and touch on how to write about spirits and beer. The primary focus of the workshop will be wine. He will also discuss terms and phrases to avoid when writing about wine or food. Kushman is an award-winning journalist and former columnist for The Sacramento Bee, where he spent two decades. For the last five years he wrote about wine, food and life in Northern California.

Crews started setting up Wednesday morning for the 12-hour party at Cesar Chavez Plaza for St. Patrick's Day.  The event is expected to draw thousands of people, according to the Downtown Sacramento Partnership. St. Patrick's Day Party in the Park will start at 10 a.m. and end at 10 p.m. Cesar Chavez Plaza is located at 910 I St.

Access Sacramento opened its doors and studios to the public to mark its 25th year of offering community media for Sacramento County. For 25 years, nonprofit organization Access Sacramento has been “making a difference, one voice at a time,” through its commitment to covering local entertainment, high school sports and cultural events. Saturday’s event will showcase what local media has to offer the community and how attendees can play a major role in community reporting. I was 'the media covering the media' as I roamed around snapping photos for a couple of hours. Here are some shots: Many special guests including Assemblyman Roger Dickinson, City Councilman Steve Cohn, Supervisor

News is no longer designed for idle consumption: It is becoming more and more interactive as bloggers, community journalists, Twitter users and witnesses equipped with smart phones make their mark in distributing news. Access Sacramento will be hosting its 25th anniversary celebration Saturday and invites you to be seen and heard by telling your stories through digital media. The event also kicks off “Sunshine Week” (March 13 - 19), a national effort promoting the freedom of information and open government. To help celebrate Sunshine Week, Congresswoman Doris Matsui and city, county and state agency representatives will be in attendance. Access Sacramento is having an open house from noo

Now that the Maloof family has been granted an extension on the deadline to file paperwork to move the Kings – possibly to Anaheim – it seems the professional sports team’s tenure in Sacramento is coming to an end. The possibility of losing the Kings has been the topic of several press conferences from Mayor Kevin Johnson, and fans are doing all they can to keep the Kings in Sacramento with the “Here We Stay” campaign, but we likely won’t know their fate until mid-April. We asked some of The Sacramento Press staffers to share their memories of attending Kings games. Their responses are below. Feel free to share some of your Kings memories in the conversation at the bottom of the story.

Looking to make Beer Week an out-of-body experience? Add a moustache to the mix. Thursday, The Golden Bear in Midtown is hosting “Moustache Party,” with DJ Shaun Slaughter playing Disco music and drink specials on the Lagunitas Sacramento Fusion, which was made specifically for Beer Week.  They will be serving $3 pints of Sac Fusion, also known as the Paradime Sac, from 9 p.m. until close, or until it runs out. There will also be a surprise whiskey pairing, which will be announced at the event. Read Adam Saake’s article in Submerge for more info on the Paradime Sac. Bring your own moustache or slap one on – Golden Bear will have plenty of cookie dusters to go around. There will be prize

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

The results are in and we’re very excited to announce the winners of The Sacramento Press 2011 Journalism Open. More than 50 community contributors accepted the challenge to commit acts of journalism. In January, 134 entries were submitted, many by writers who are new to The Sacramento Press. Thank you to those of you who participated and those who helped spread the word about the contest. There were three Sacramento Press judges who reviewed the entries and determined the winners: Casey Kirk, Recruitment Manager, Brandon Darnell, Copy Editor and Reporter, and Colleen Belcher, Managing Editor. We were looking for stories with a minimum of two sources, stories that incorporated research

We have two new workshops scheduled for the month of February. The first is scheduled from 6:30 - 8 p.m. Feb. 16 at The Sacramento Press office. JT Long will teach this workshop, titled "Write Smarter." Long is an independent journalist and SEO copywriter for publications such as Engineering News-Record, Comstock's Magazine and PublicCEO. She creates communities by telling stories. Long will discuss how to get the most out of your stories so you can use them in different publications. She will cover how to improve your interviewing skills, so you can gather enough information for multiple stories, how to come up with targeted leads and other tips that will benefit freelancers. Sacrame

What’s The Reason? By Shani Lee Sacramento Press Open 2011         It’s a tale as old as time. The school needs computers, or books right? I can remember that being said time and time again as far back as elementary school. Well in this economy it’s the adults who need some help at school. Students at Sacramento City College are from a wide variety of backgrounds, & races, and create an even more diverse group of professionals. Did you know that a group of SCC’s film students won the 2011 Winterfest Sacramento Film & Music festival? Seeing first hand the passion of these students in every aspect is amazing, and encouraging. In such tough economic times it’s good to see people eager to ac

The procrastination must come to an end. There are only hours left to enter The Sacramento Press Journalism Open 2011. Entries must be published by 11:59 p.m. You must tag your article open2011. There are hundreds of dollars in prizes waiting to be doled out to the winners. First place prize is $700, second place is $500 and there are cash prizes for photos, too! If you would like to have your article copy edited, it must be sent to journalism@sacramentopress.com by 6 p.m. Any articles sent after 6 p.m. will have to be published without copy editing. One last thing: there are three judges for this year's contest. One of the judges changed from what we announced at the Journalism Open W

It is an understatement to say that there is an overwhelming amount of concerts, art showings, theatre performances and other exciting events taking place in Sacramento every day. In fact, it’s pretty mind-boggling that anyone can keep track of all of them when planning how and where to spend that rare commodity known as “free time.” That’s where we come in to make your life a little easier. We are very proud to introduce to our users “Go.See.Do.”, your personal guide to upcoming local events. Every week, we handpick a few events that we believe are worthy of your valuable time and deliver them straight to your inbox. Film festivals, fashion shows, poetry readings, food and cocktail we

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

The Sacramento Press Journalism Open is well underway and we're very pleased to see new bylines popping up on our site because of the contest.  The contest ends at 11:59 p.m. Jan. 31, so make sure you've posted all of your entries and tagged them open2011 by that deadline.  First place wins $700, second place $500, and there are many other cash prizes, including prizes for best photos. For those of you who have questions about the contest, we will host a workshop Wednesday, Jan. 12 from 6:30 - 7:30 p.m. at our office. We will be happy to give advice and suggestions on how to develop your story ideas. Our office is located at 431 I St., Suite 107, in the Amtrak station. We are in the sa

Many articles posted on our site are a collaborative effort, with one person writing the text and another person taking photos.  This brings up the question of how a photographer can enter his or her photos in The Sacramento Press Journalism Open 2011 if the article has the byline of the writer. To enter your photos from an article with someone else's byline, use this tag: photosyournameopen2011 So if your name is Joe Schmoe, the appropriate tag would be:    photosjoeschmoeopen2011 E-mail support@sacramentopress.com if you have any other questions.

We have a lot to be grateful for at The Sacramento Press. We celebrated our two-year anniversary in October, and we expanded our office over the summer. We are most thankful for our community contributors – you take the cake. Your comments fill in the blanks of questions unanswered. You keep us honest and accurate by pointing out errors. Your thoughts and opinions spark a stream of community dialogue. Your stories and photos document Sacramento’s history in the making. Your firsthand accounts often break stories like the evacuation of the Roseville Galleria Mall or give us an up-close at, say, a fire in Midtown. A lot of what comes in is unexpected: a letter written by Thomas Enterprise

The first Sacramento Press Journalism Open was a success, and we’re ready to do it all over again! We will have some exciting prizes for our top submissions, and your stories could be chosen for our section pages or newsletter for thousands to read and enjoy. Becoming a published writer is easier than you think, and we’re here to walk you through the process and get you committing acts of journalism. I'm David Watts Barton, editor in chief of The Sacramento Press, our area's top hyper-local news website, where we focus on up-close, in-depth coverage of neighborhoods like yours. We aim to spread the traditional habits of good journalism – accuracy, fairness and a diversity of opinion – ac

During the holidays many people reflect on what they are thankful for in their lives. The Sacramento Press polled people in Sacramento to share some of these sentiments. Feel free to add what you are thankful for in the comment section. Vince Hernandez, City Employee The Sacramento Press caught up with city employee Vince Hernandez at a benefit for Loaves & Fishes on Monday. Hernandez, a tree pruner for the city’s Urban Forestry division, said he knows a few people who are out of work. He said he is thankful he has a job. He also talked about his pride in his son and daughter-in-law, who both work for the Pentagon in Arlington, Va. “I have a boy, and I’m thankful for him, too,” Hernand

You’ve taken some great photos from the Run To Feed the Hungry race and now you want to share them. How do you upload them on our site? Below we’ll show you how to do it. Requirements: iPhone with iOS 3 or higher Android phone Have a Facebook account For iPhone users you can simply download the app at the iTunes store. For Android users simply launch the Android Market on your device then search for "LiveShare" in the Android Market and install it, it’s free! Once you have the app you can use your Facebook credentials to login. Then simply select The Run to Feed the Hungry event, which will pop up under Nov. 25 events. You will see a live gallery of pictures that everyone else at