Saturday afternoon, a small portion of United States Marine Corps Recruit Platoon 1034, known as the “Giants Platoon,” reunited at the Vietnam Memorial in Capital Park in Sacramento for the second time since their homecoming. Retired USMC Sgt. Ed Flores stated that they come and reunite “to honor the accomplishment of our youth, to give praise to our fallen, and to thankfully celebrate life one more time, together.” July 26, 1967, the young volunteers of Platoon 1034, made up of recruits mostly from Northern California, made a special trip to Candlestick Park in San Francisco. During pre-game festivities, they were sworn in on national television and in front of the crowd gathered for th

Sacramento, CA | When a fire truck crew arrived on scene of a house ablaze Thursday afternoon, they had to wait for an engine with water to arrive from a distance. Thursday afternoon, Sacramento firefighters were called out to a blaze in the Oak Park area. When Truck 6 arrived in three minutes (trucks carry no water) the structure was fully involved with fire. The first engine, Engine 10 (carrying water), arrived in 6-8 minutes; Engine 6 (who likely would have arrived with Truck 6) was browned out due to budget cuts. Fortunately this was an unoccupied home which had burned a couple of years ago but had not been torn down. Chief Chris Ortiz explained that fire grows exponentially and lite

Sacramento, CA | Several people busted in Sacramento and throughout California Friday purchasing alcohol for minors. As part of a state-wide operation, agents from the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) with Sacramento Police Department DUI Enforcement Officers ran sting operations throughout the day. Several teams were in the field utilizing actual under-aged decoys who would approach individuals entering a liquor store or market, disclosed their age and asked the persons to purchase alcohol for them. In one incident at Natomas Liquor, the sales clerk (not knowing an operation was under way) even warned the female purchaser that if she was purchasing the beer for minors not

World famous Sean Casey and the TIV (Tornado Intercept Vehicle) blow into Sacramento early Saturday morning. Casey, a die-hard storm chaser and movie producer, built the TIV so that he could accomplish his life-long passion of entering the eye of the tornado and documenting it on film.  Casey built the TIV to accomplish just that. Casey and team began building TIV2  in 2007 and finished it in time for the tornado season of 2008. The turit atop TIV2 was home to the 80mm IMAX camera Sean would use in creating the 3D, action packed, sit-on-the-edge-of-your-seat, stunning Tornado Alley. You may have seen Sean on the Discovery Channel as he was making this movie.  Sean and the TIV will be at

The Sacramento Sheriff's K9 Association held a fundraiser and demonstration Sunday at Pet Food Express on Fair Oaks Blvd. Along with meeting the K9's, getting to rub a K9 belly and meet their handlers, goers had the opportunity to purchase the new 2012 SSDK9 calendar loaded with dynamic images of the dogs and their handlers by XSiGHT Photography and Video. Ike, one of twelve active K9’s in the unit, has seen his fair share of rough and tumble, part of the job as a K9. Deputy Pomerson, Ike’s partner and handler, related how Ike went over a fence after a bad guy and punctured a lung. With the punctured lung, Ike still latched on to the bad guy until deputies apprehended the perp. Ike’s ch

Sacramento, CA | Busy morning Downtown commute interrupted Tuesday morning when a vehicle crashed into a building. Close to 7:30 Tuesday morning, the busy downtown commute was interrupted when a woman driving east on J Street, reportedly felt sick and passed out behind the wheel. Her vehicle hopped the curb and crashed into "Patino Building" at 1010 J St. The driver was transported to hospital via paramedics.

'Occupy Sacramento' blasts City Council during the public forum of the Tuesday, November 1, 2011 meeting. View more photos>>

Occupy Sacramento participants once again stood their ground at Ceasar Chavez Park in Downtown Sacramento. At midnight, an hour after the park is officially closed, dispersal orders were given and 4 (including one in a wheel chair) were arrested peacfully. 

'Occupy' protesters in Sacramento marched on Capital Mall Friday afternoon with a stop at the Bureau of Indian Affairs at 650 Capital Mall with some definite opinions of Columbus and the recent celebration of Columbus Day. After their brief stop and rally at John E. Moss Building, they continued east on Capital Mall where they rallied again on the north steps of the Capital Building See video from demonstration>> View some other 'Occupy' articles on SacPress>>      

Sacramento, CA | Area Pastors promissed to remain on watch, holding current city council members and hopefuls accountable. Area pastors remain on task as promissed, holding both current council members and June 2012 City Council hopefuls accountable. Today, Allen Warren (running for the district 2 seat), and Betty Williams (running for the district 8 seat) were interviewed by a large constituency of area pastors. Both hopefuls shared their backgrounds, qualifications, goals and priorities and then were asked tough and challenging questions and quizzed by the pastors. Warren and Williams were interviewed and "put on the hot seat" seperately by the group of pastors. Sharing his background

Sacramento, CA | Tim Mason, CEO of California based Fresh & Easy Neighborhood Market, with Mayor Kevin Johnson, Councilman Jay Schenirer and other community memberrs broke ground Wednesday morning in a well attended ceremony in Oak Park.  The market will be built on the north west corner of Broadway and 34th Street. Mayor Kevin Johnson stated that when he came back from college he said "what can we do with this piece of property? As a year or two went by, you realize that properites this size get into the wrong hands."  Johnson bought the land in 2002 and just held it "till the right person came in or the right company said 'we want to do something that will be an assest to the community.

Sacramento, CA | A level 3 Hazmat situation shuts down a large industrial area in South Sacramento. Budget weakend hazmat team has to reach out with unusual mutual aid requests.  Wednesday morning, the Sacramento City Fire Department was called to Mike and Sons Inc, in the 8500 block of Elder Creek Road, for a commercial trailer fire. When firefighters arrived “they realized the doors were shut and there was a very pungent odor; so they turned this into a level three hazmat which is the highest level of hazmat response that we have”, Niko King, Assistant Chief for Sacramento City Fire Department stated. As things progressed, they contacted the shipper and the property owner discovering t

Team SacPD is on their home stretch. “Group B is on the way to meet group A for our final day of racing. On the way to the finish line!” was sent out on the team’s Twitter feed Friday morning. Having cycled just over 2,820 since Saturday afternoon’s start, Team SacPD has just 176 miles to go, however, embedded photographer Kati Garner stated, “…the last day of RAAM is not an easy ride for the racers…..they are in the Appalachians, full of ascents and descents for miles and miles.” Team SacPD is the first all police officer team in the history of Race Across America (RAAM), fully comprised of police officers from the Sacramento Police Department doing the race on their personal vacation

It’s all downhill from here… so to speak. Monday, in the Race Across America, Team SacPD concurred their highest elevation climb of the race. With their climb to nearly 11,000 feet above sea level Monday, the team has climbed a total of 55,952 vertical feet since the start of the race Saturday. From this point, the majority of the race is downhill except for a few smaller elevations climbs later in the race. At the time of this posting, the team is skirting the southern part of Colorado and is about half way across the state. At this point they have traveled almost 1,030 miles and have about 1,969 miles to go. The only significant challenge reported today was a racers blown tire shortly

Sunday was a long but rewarding day for Team SacPD in their second day of Race Across America. The team traversed north east through Arizona and at the time of this posting they are just north of Tuba City heading toward Utah. Team SacPD is now 33 hours into the race and have traveled over 615 miles. They have climed a total of 32,744 vertical feet and are presently around 5,000 feet above sea level and will reach around 11,000 feet in this assent.  The day was not without challenges. Early in the day one of the riders wasn't feeling well and had to sit out several relay rotations, but later returned to the race reportedly doing well. The same van that broke down Saturday developed mecha

Team SacPD, started the Race Across America (RAAM) Saturday afternoon. Starting from the pier in Oceanside, they already peddled over 170 miles with just under 2,830 to go at the time of this post. They have cumulatively climbed 8,789 vertical feet and reached a top elevation just over 4,000 above sea level. The team is now commencing a stretch in the race where over the next 750 miles they will ascend to an elevation of over 10,000 feet above sea level. Until they reach that elevation, they will be on a consistent climb with few brief downhill breathers. Shortly after the races start, one of the teams vans with relief riders on board, broke down with radiator issues. “1st crisis! One va

Oceanside, CA | Team SacPD starts pedaling across America, a 3,000 mile trek, at 2PM today and will end in Annapolis, Maryland. The first all police team to compete in the Race Across America (RAAM), Team SacPD, entirely comprised of officers from the Sacramento Police Department, assembled in Oceanside over the past few days, prepping and taking care of last-minute details heading into the big start at 2PM Saturday in Oceanside. Team SacPD is riding to raise awareness of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial. “The eight member SPD Team will raise money and bring media attention to the National Law Enforcement Memorial, Washington DC. Working with the hundreds of federal, state,

Oceanside, CA | Part of Team SacPD (Sacramento Police Department's new cycling team) arrived in Oceanside Wednesday evening for registration in the Race Across America (RAAM) event. Six people affiliated with Team SacPD headed to Oceanside Wednesday in two vans; fourteen more crew members and racers traveled Thursday to join them. The relay teams for RAAM will start on Saturday at Oceanside Pier. Other RAAM races began Tuesday. The race finish is in Annapolis, Maryland between June 24th and 27th at the City Dock. Fourteen additional Team SacPD members head to Oceanside Thursday. You may have never heard of “Team SacPD” before, and with good reason; the team was recently assembled and thi

Sacramento, CA | Motorcycle engines roared, dirt flew and riders grabbed air Saturday in the fortieth annual Hangtown Classic. Almost prophetically, Brandon Short, Media Manager for MX Sports Pro Racing stated in an earlier press release, "With the overall victory at Hangtown last year to his credit, Two Two Motorsports/Bel-Ray racing's Chad Reed should also be a fixture at the front of the field on Saturday and beyond." Short went on to say "...the 2009 Lucas Oil AMA Pro Motocross Champion had an up and down season during his title defense, but with a clean bill of health and support from Factory Honda, Reed is eager to show his younger counterparts that he's still ready to mix it up."

Sacramento, CA | Fists and bottles fly early Saturday morning at Parlare Euro Lounge, leaving one person in serious condition. Just around midnight Saturday, a fight started at the Parlare Euro Lounge on the corner of 10th and J Streets in downtown Sacramento. “The fight spilled out from the club into the street. One of the security guards was hit in the head with a bottle, subsequently fought with the original suspect who in turn, turned and fought with another suspect who was also hit with a bottle,” Sargent Wendy Brown, Sacramento Police Department stated. Later the area was deemed a tapped off crime scene with CSI collecting evidence and photos as one of the injured person’s conditi