There are very few known details about the closing of the Hard Rock Café downtown. Manager Kim Templeton deferred answering questions to a public relations firm. That firm would not answer phone calls. According to a Sacramento Bee article, it will close March 27, but is that before or after the private event listed the same day on the Hard Rock website as "Morgan's Bat Mitzvah?"  One thing is for sure. With the Hard Rock closing, Sacramento is losing several important things: a restaurant, a music venue, a 36-foot guitar with neon highlights and a small museum chock full of Rock 'n' Roll memorabilia. Not to mention an employer. The following is a photo essay depicting some of Hard Rock

Sacramento usually sees large crowds on Second Saturday. But Wednesday, it looked more like Dublin as thousands of green-clad Sacramentans attended block parties, drank green beer and celebrated everything even remotely Irish. The following is a photo essay, depicting some of the Wednesday evening festivities. The first seven photos are from the de Vere's St. Patrick's Day Block Party. Outside the de Vere's St. Patrick's Day Block Party on L Street, this dog dressed for the occasion in a green sweater. The party drew thousands of people to the 1500s block of L Street. Kings mascot Slamson showed up to the block party on stilts and showed off his shamrock-covered blazer. He was a cro

This weekend, the Sacramento Master Singers will perform excerpts from Duke Ellington's "Sacred Concerts." It marks several important homecomings. It will be a homecoming for the Grammy-winning piece, which was played by Ellington and his legendary orchestra in 1965 at Sacramento's Westminster Presbyterian Church. Friday through Sunday, it will be played at the Crest Theater, less than half a mile from the church. It will also be a homecoming for Ardie Bryant, the "Ambassador of Tap," who spent his early years in Sacramento and graduated from Sacramento High School. Saturday, the legendary bebop jazz tap dancer, who has danced with everyone from Ellington to Count Basie, Charlie Parker a

Sacramento is nicknamed the "City of Trees" for a reason. Even in its most urban core, the city is filled with fruit trees. So what happens when those trees produce more fruit than the owners can harvest, let alone eat? One option is to let Harvest Sacramento take care of it. This year alone, the group has collected more than 13,000 pounds of fruit from the Sacramento area, all of which goes to the Sacramento Food Bank. Harvest Sacramento organized a Midtown Fruit Harvest on Saturday in which 25 community volunteers helped pick more than 1,300 pounds of citrus for the food bank. In just three hours, the group collected grapefruit, oranges, lemons and kumquats from nine houses in the grid

Loosen your belts. Sacramento's most famous burger place, The Squeeze Inn, held its grand reopening celebration Thursday morning. The celebration featured guest appearances by Mayor Kevin Johnson, City Councilman Kevin McCarty and County Supervisor Don Nottoli as well as music, speeches, a raffle and a burger-eating contest. Several hundred people shuffled into The Squeeze Inn throughout the lunch hour for special prices on the burger known for its famous "cheese skirt," which extends an inch beyond the bun. The burger is constructed by cooking a one-third-pound beef patty and putting "a giant handful of cheese" on top of, and around, the burger, said Squeeze Inn employee Keith Lenhart.

Visit thesqueezeinn.com for all locations. The new location: 5301 Power Inn Rd #100 Sacramento, CA 95820 (916) 386-8599

If it's extended half a mile south by the Sacramento County supervisors, that will enable Little Saigon to reach just south of 65th. But it might make more sense if it went all the way to Florin, because that's where Tết is usually held.

Thank you everyone!

Nicely done!

** Update: The press conference from the Office of Privacy Protection will be changed into an educational discussion held in room 1190 inside the Capitol.