Union members protested a Meg Whitman fundraiser last night in downtown Sacramento. The California Labor Federation is upset with Meg Whitman for having a $25,000 per plate fundraiser. 50 people protested outside the Elks Building. Meanwhile, another 25 people turned out for the fundraising dinner.

The unions are accustomed to buying politicians and are having a tough time with Meg Whitman because she is not for sale. Jerry Brown who is running against Whitman has been supported by the big unions for a long time.

Continue Reading

Crews in West Sacramento chopped down an 125-year-old butternut tree to make room for a “high-density” business, shopping and residential development, despite a resident’s bid to save the tree in Yolo County Superior Court.

In her July petition seeking to block the tree’s removal, Lana Paulhamus said the city “is responsible for assuring that our natural resources are not destroyed willy-nilly.” Arborists told the Sacramento Bee that the tree, with its 22-foot trunk, was “one of the largest in the region and perhaps the biggest butternut tree in the United States.” They reportedly said the tree was “in fair to good condition and would live 20 to 40 years more with moderate care.”

Continue Reading

Hundreds of people gathered in Sacramento to remember Republican state Sen. Dave Cox. The gathering on Thursday was in remembrance of the man they said dedicated his life to service.

The Sacramento-area lawmaker’s memorial took place several blocks from the Capitol, where he served for 12 years in the Assembly and Senate, including three years as Assembly minority leader. The 72-year-old Cox died at his home July 13 after a 13-year battle with prostate cancer.

Continue Reading

The notorious computer hacker who alerted authorities to the impending disclosure of tens of thousands of classified documents said that despite death threats, he would do it again.

Adrian Lamo, 29, said U.S. Army Pfc. Bradley Manning contacted him in May seeking help in publicizing a massive “war diary” of classified information regarding the war in Afghanistan. Lamo went to the Pentagon instead to report the breach.

Continue Reading

The Tea Party has morphed in many ways since its inception. Grassroots organizations like the Tea Party Movement sometimes have people trying to act as their leader for personal gain. Mark Williams was one of those people. Mark is an out of work talk show from Sacramento. He had a show on AM 1530, but was let go for lack of ratings.

Over the weekend the National Tea Party Federation denounced Mark Williams because of a “clearly offensive” blog post he wrote. Mark said:

We Coloreds have taken a vote and decided that we don’t cotton to that whole emancipation thing. Freedom means having to work for real, think for ourselves, and take consequences along with the rewards. That is just far too much to ask of us Colored People and we demand that it stop!

Continue Reading

Will the City of Sacramento add a tax on pot? Should they tax pot. Those are the questions the Sacramento City Council will try to answer. The Council will debate a tax on marijuana dispensaries at tonight’s city council meeting.

The new tax proposal could be put on the November ballot and voted on by Sacramento residents. In addition to the pot tax the council’s proposal includes increasing the current taxes every business in the city. If the pot tax is enacted it will be officially called the “business operations tax” and would take effect in July 2011.

Continue Reading

In response to the Sacramento City Council passing a resolution of economic sanctions against the State of Arizona, former candidate for State Senate District 6, Gerald Klaas, has created a website urging the boycott of businesses within the city boundaries.

The new website, www.BoycottSacramento.com, notes that the City of Sacramento receives a portion of all sales tax revenue collected within city limits. Followers of the site have decided to boycott businesses within the city limits in order to avoid having their tax dollars allocated to the City of Sacramento.

Continue Reading

Will you boycott Sacramento over the city councils decision to boycott Arizona over enforcing federal law? You are not alone if you plan on boycotting Sacramento businesses. Thousands of people have committed to not do business in the city limits of Sacramento.

Over 2,240 people have signed up for a Facebook group committed to boycotting Sacramento. The Sacramento Convention Center has received hundreds of calls from businesses outside of California saying they will no longer be doing any conventions in Sacramento. Area talk shows are inundated with calls and emails from people all boycotting Sacramento. The Sacramento Metro Chamber has heard from a significant number of business that are getting calls from their customers about a boycott. Most agree the City Council’s decision to boycott Arizona will do very little to hurt Arizona, but will significantly impact the City of Sacramento.

Continue Reading

Is this the last “Furlough Friday“? Well according to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s current executive order mandating that state employees take three unpaid days off a month, it is.

Furlough Friday started back in 2008. At first it was two unpaid days off per month. In July of 2009 it was increased to three days per month. So far state workers have had to take 46 days off.

Several lawsuits are still pending in the state Supreme Court and a dozen are in lower courts. It looks like this is the end of good traffic Fridays for all of the non-state workers.

Following the tragic events in New Orleans due to the havoc and water damage caused by Hurricane Katrina, Sacramento has been singled out as the next city in America’s that is most likely to be hit by floods. California state reports have recently shown that an untimely combination of bad weather and ever-weakening flood control structures will most probably put Sacramento under 20 feet of water – a grim scenario that residents of Sacramento will not want to see come to pass.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger declared a state of emergency for Californias levees in February 2006. He executed Executive Order S-01-06 directing agencies to identify, evaluate and repair critical systems. As a result, some critical erosion sites were repaired in 2006, but the underlying structural problem for the Sacramento region and the state remains.

Continue Reading