Sacramento County News, Traffic & Weather


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On Photography and Politics

A celebration of the work of an artist who devoted a career to preserving the wildlands he loved. Plus: News you can use, and a tasty recipe!

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Earth Day: Resilience vs. Disaster

Ee celebrate the efforts our fellow humans have made and are making to help heal our planet and connect us, while we simultaneously consider what we must do to protect our communities as the climate crisis worsens.

Image caption: West Cliff Drive in Santa Cruz, California, following a storm in January 2023. Throughout the state, communities are being forced to budget for disaster.
Budgeting for Resilience

California communities are focusing resources in response to the effects of climate change and other challenges.

Image caption: Clifford Smith sits at a house he was leading for City Net in September 2023. Smith was previously a house leader for Sacramento Self-Help Housing, which collapsed and went bankrupt last year.
After Sacramento Self-Help Housing—What Happens Now

The 2023 collapse of Sacramento Self-Help Housing has led to a large hole in local services. But it also shows problems go well beyond the former nonprofit.

Image caption: Gov. Gavin Newsom tours a Chinese electric-car factory in October, 2023.
How California Helped Clean China’s Bad Air

A Tesla lobbyist, an LA-based environmental group, and Gov. Jerry Brown brought a rule minted in Sacramento to Beijing, and helped launch China’s EV industry.

Image caption: Gov. Jerry Brown meets with Chinese leader Xi Jinping at an economic summit in LA in February, 2012. Since being named Chinese president later that year, Xi has earned harsh criticism for human rights violations, and praise for his environmental policies.
California's Power Beyond its Borders

A Tesla lobbyist, an LA-based environmental group, and Gov. Jerry Brown brought a rule minted in Sacramento to Beijing, and helped launch China’s EV industry.

Image caption: Davis is in California. Davisville is off the charts.
Davisville

We take a look, or rather a listen, to Davisville, a radio show and podcast on low-power but high-energy KDRT 95.7, broadcast out of Davis, California.

Image caption: California has a goal of 6 million heat pumps cooling and heating buildings by 2030.
6 Million New Heat Pumps: Essential to California's Climate Future

Heat pumps, an energy-efficient way to both heat and cool homes, are a necessary element of California's climate goal of net zero carbon emissions. Here's what they are, how they work, and how to get one.

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Bill to Mandate ‘Science of Reading’ in California Classrooms Dies

A bill to mandate use of the method will not advance in the Legislature this year in the face of teachers union opposition.

Image caption: The O Lot Safe Sleeping site at Balboa Park in San Diego on March 22, 2024.
Is San Diego Homeless Camp Ban ‘Successful’?

A new bill would make it illegal for homeless residents to camp in certain places, such as near schools, throughout California. Its authors say such a ban has had great success in San Diego. But a closer look at that …

Image caption: Digital Democracy reporter Ryan Sabalow, left, and CalMatters senior editor Dave Lesher review a Digital Democracy page in the CalMatters newsroom on April 3, 2024.
Digital Democracy Ramps Up Accountability of CA Legislature

In an analysis of more than 1 million votes cast by current legislators since 2017, CalMatters Digital Democracy reporter Ryan Sabalow and CBS Sacramento reporter Julie Watts found that Democrats vote “no” less than 1% of the time on average.

Image caption: The Douglas iris is a wildflower native to central and northern California and parts of southern Oregon.
Greetings & Spring Things from Santa Cruz

This week, a virtual visit to Surf City USA—a great place to experience the season of rebirth and renewal that's worth a drive from anywhere in our coverage area.

Image caption: A  total solar eclipse can offer a rare opportunity to see stars and planets during the day.
The Universe Winks

There is no scientific explanation for the conditions that make an eclipse inevitable. It’s a coincidence. Or a miracle.

Image caption: An online gallery of the murals of Santa Cruz County.
Santa Cruz Murals

Santa Cruz County is home to amazing murals. One amazing person is working to document them in one place.

Image caption: Felicia Van Stolk in her museum's front-yard garden.
A Native-Plant Garden Helps Transform a Neighborhood

On Hilltromper, a conversation with Felicia Van Stolk of the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History about her Garden Learning Center.

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Controversial Housing Law Could Get a Makeover

Some of California’s top lawmakers want to clear up, but also rein in, the “builder’s remedy.”

Image caption: Prop 1 includes funding that will build institutions to treat mental illness and addiction—hopefully nothing like what Randle Patrick McMurphy encountered in 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.'
Sandhill Cranes, Foster Kids, and Coercive Compassion

A type of resurrection involving big birds, and two efforts that offer help to individuals whose lives have been impacted by addiction.

Image caption: A magnificent Sandhill Crane in flight.
The Return of Sandhill Cranes

After being reduced to three or four nesting pairs in all of California in 1944, Sandhill Cranes have come back from the brink and are returning to Lake Tahoe.

Image caption: An assembly hall at Agnews Developmental Center in Santa Clara. Agnews was one of five hospitals that served California residents with developmental disabilities and mental illness, all of which were emptied in the misguided move toward “community care."
Newsom’s Prop 1: Revolution or Return to Reason?

Prop 1 was designed to help unhoused people get off the streets by forcing them into treatment. That’s one reason it took two weeks of vote-counting to pass.

Image caption: Joy Perrin, a mother of two children, testifies at the Budget Subcommittee on Human Services hearing at the state Capitol in Sacramento March 20, 2024. With the help of CalWORKS, Perrin was able to secure housing for her and her family.
California May Gut Two CalWORKS Programs Helping Thousands of Families

The state is considering zeroing out funds for CalWORKS family stabilization and job subsidy programs to help balance the budget.

California Local Pin Marker   Bulletin Board
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04/29/2024

Learn about accessory dwelling units from professionals at this upcoming resource fair

The city of Sacramento saw accessory dwelling unit (ADU) permits increase from 57 in 2019 to 246 in 2023. In an effort to support further development, the City is co-hosting an ADU fair for reside...

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04/28/2024

East Meets West

Christopher Fairman is a walking advertisement for a well-run restaurant. Having been a manager at The Shack and Magpie, he knows how to work with good people who run good businesses and make good...

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04/28/2024

Museum Quality

Thirty-eight years and four remodeling projects later, Jim and Ann Tracy still live in the home they purchased in 1988.

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04/28/2024

Career Leap

Hard work and months of rehearsal come together when Sacramento Ballet’s Second Company performs its spring showcase May 11–12 at Hiram Johnson High School Auditorium.

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04/28/2024

A Better Way

My husband and I live two blocks from the American River Parkway. Dog walks are daily events along dirt paths lined with old oaks and thick sagebrush. The river flows steps away.

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