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How to Raise a City Leader
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Kevin Johnson’s Mother Talks Community, Campaigning
4
Time to Speak Up
By LANCE ARMSTRONG
Sacramento Union Writer
Sacramento mayoral candidate Kevin Johnson embraces his mother Georgia West at his campaign
headquarters. (Sacramento Union Photo)
Many people in Sacramento’s historic
Oak Park community simply know her as
the manager of the local literary center,
Underground Books. But longtime Oak
Park resident Georgia West is gradually
gaining recognition throughout the city
for her brand new identity.
As the mother of former National
Basketball Association All-Star and current Sacramento mayoral candidate Kevin
Johnson, West is increasingly becoming
known for her presence in the campaign
race for her son to become Sacramento’s
55th mayor since the formation of the city
158 years ago.
Lisa Serna, a coordinator at the Kevin
Johnson for Mayor campaign headquarters
at 2030 16th St. and the daughter of the
late Mayor Joe Serna, said that West’s presence is very valuable to the campaign.
Making a Day of It
By CHRISTINE SOUZA
Special Contributor to The Union
The state Capitol in Sacramento was
transformed into a smorgasbord of food,
fiber, flowers and fun March 25 for
California Ag Day, where the young and
old and the suited and casual came together
to recognize the important role the state’s
farmers and ranchers play.
“Ag Day is a unique opportunity to
influence regulators and the public about
the benefits and issues of agriculture,”
said California Farm Bureau Federation
Second Vice President Kenny Watkins.
“More than 35 exhibits illustrated the
diversity of agriculture and its importance
to the state of California. People were able
to taste the strawberries, touch the alpaca
fur and smell the meat cooking on the
barbecue. Everyone left with a sample of
agriculture.”
Ag Day, presented by the California
Department of Food and Agriculture and
10
Government Gem
see Johnson Mom page 16
More Government,
More Problems
Sporting Gold
By DIANA M. ERNST
Sacramento Union Columnist
see Ag Day page 29
Pick the sport, we have your story.
Read the ‘Sporting Gold’ starting on page 19
Sacramento Roots
Democratic state
Sen. Sheila Kuehl,
California’s leading
proponent of government-run health
care, has assumed
the role of consumer
watchdog. Her new
19
Running a Fever
see Government page 15
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Read the Difference
Raise Your Voice Send your thoughts, your
letters, your opinions to [email protected].
Letters to the Editor
Karen Russo, You’re Wrong
Re: “The Greatest PR Scam in History”
by columnist Karen Russo; published Feb. 15,
2008 in The Union.
Hi, Karen Russo. Did you research
Palestinian history before you wrote your
article saying that they did not exist? Just
because they were not a nation “registered”
with the UN does not give anyone else a
right to kill and force people from their
homes and plop another nation on top of
them.
By the way, why is someone from
another country writing in a local paper in
Sacramento anyway? Can you get me a job
writing articles for a local paper in one of
the ever-increasing Israeli settlements in
the West Bank?
Nick Collins
Phoenix, Ariz.
Editor’s Note: Karen Russo practiced law in
Sacramento for 35 years before moving to Be’er
Sheba, Israel in 2002. She acts as a special foreign correspondent for The Union as part of
our “Letters from Abroad” series. Together
with Liam Weston, who reports on conditions
in Latin America (read his latest column on
page 31), Karen provides our readers a different, distinctive view of the conflicts that exist
in the Middle East. These stories, concerning
immigration and the Middle East, cover the
seminal issues of our time.
Karen Russo, You’re Great
Re: “The Greatest PR Scam in History”
by columnist Karen Russo; published Feb. 15,
2008 in The Union.
Karen, I’ve read your articles off and on
for many years (I lived in Sacramento from
1959 to 2002). I have just read two articles
for the first time: “The Greatest PR Scam
in History” and “Peki’in; Land of Missed
Opportunities.”
I no longer live in Sacramento (I’m now
in Castle Rock, Colo.) and I don’t want to
miss any of your articles in the future. You
are speaking of a subject that is very dear to
my heart. I am not a Jew; I am a Christian
who has a great love and indebtedness to
the Jewish people. I am much more than
their “friend.” I have a deep love and concern for them.
Please tell me the best way for me to
receive whatever you write on this subject.
Thank you very much.
Beverly Paasch
Castle Rock, Colo.
Editor’s Note: Read all of Karen Russo’s columns online at www.SacUnion.com.
The Sacramento Union is currently looking for reporters.
Send resumes to [email protected].
1,000 Words…
In this photo from Associated Press photographer Rich Pedroncelli, we see a solar
powered electric vehicle, with a replica power plug, parked outside the California
Environmental Protection Agency in Sacramento, where state air regulators met to
consider cutting back the state’s clean air program on Thursday, March 27.
We want to see your pictures, too. Show us how the Sacramento region looks
through your eyes. Email your photos to [email protected].
| The Sacramento Union | SacUnion.com | April 4, 2008
April 4, 2008 | SacUnion.com | The Sacramento Union | NEWS: METRO
Speak Up or Face the Totalitarians
The Importance of Raising Your Voice
By KATY GRIMES
Sacramento Union Columnist
When I was in college, I had a particularly nasty professor
who taught a class
on the philosophy of
politics. Oh, he was
a beast. When I picture him, I still cringe.
He took pleasure in asking philosophical
questions that no one could answer. Even
Plato would have been tripped up. Then he
would begin the tirade, name-calling and
pontificating.
Not being a bashful person, I usually
participated in my classes, willing to answer
questions or speak up. However, Professor
Mean worked overtime making his students
feel insecure and unsure, taking obvious
pleasure in our misery and fear. We’ve all
had teachers like this. Today, I would take
him – and those like him – apart.
Bite Your Tongue?
We live in a city and state where you are
called rude and insensitive if your opinion
differs from the liberal agenda. That was
the real issue with my professor; he was an
insufferable liberal and bully, tolerating no
other opinions or perspectives.
Does this sound familiar? Independent of
the setting, liberals show their intolerance
to others’ opinions by hurling accusations
of insensitivity, racism, bigotry, intolerance, cruelty and even barbarianism.
I was taught to speak when spoken to; however, liberals make the
mistake of assuming that everyone
around them is also liberal; consequently, they speak freely whenever
and wherever they are.
My husband and I were having a sandwich last weekend at Vic’s Ice Cream parlor. The college girl serving us wished us
a “Happy Easter” before she realized the
“error” of her ways, clamped her hand over
her mouth and spun around. In response,
we wished her a “Happy Easter.” She
immediately relaxed and then confessed
that she had been yelled at the day before
for wishing someone “Happy Easter.” I
won’t belabor the point, but imagine being
yelled at for wishing someone a happy
holiday, whatever the holiday. Would
you yell at someone for wishing you “Happy Chanukah”
or “Joyous Ramadan” even
though you may not celebrate it?
Oppositions and
Objections
Are you tired of
having liberal issues
rammed down your
throat at the market, the dentist or at
a restaurant? Speak
up. Tell the person
speaking that you
disagree, in the most
polite way. Don’t
scream your
| The Sacramento Union | SacUnion.com | April 4, 2008
point—let your message yell instead. The
more calm you are in your disagreement,
the louder and angrier your opponents will
become. The reason: Liberal issues are
purely emotional.
Conservatives deal in reality. We also
study history and have learned from it. A
“conservative” today, was a “conservative”
10, 20, 30 years ago. We don’t change the
name of our ideology in order to cover up
Thomas Sowell wrote, “Liberalism is totalitarianism with
a human face.” I truly understand that statement, given
the control liberals try to exert over everyone else.
Liberals live in a world of
ideas. They love to brainstorm, “dialogue,” “roundtable” and chat—but
that’s all. They rarely
are comfortable actually acting on much.
Sacramento Mayor
Heather Fargo is an
excellent example:
lot’s of talk that
appears full of
emotion, but she
rarely acts unless
forced to do so, that
is, unless it involves
taxpayer-sponsored
travel.
what we really are: Liberal, Progressive,
Progressive-Centrists—they all share the
same unrealistic goals on a number of
issues, whether it be global warming, affirmative action, big taxes or expanding government. Their goal: Control our lives.
Silent No Longer
Thomas Sowell wrote, “Liberalism is
totalitarianism with a human face.” I truly
understand that statement, given the control liberals try to exert over everyone else.
Everything that liberals stand for is a
contradiction and is more about control
than anything else. Call it the arrogant
“parenting” of society. Yet, liberals’ kids
are brats.
I say it is high time to speak up. Tell them
their kids are brats; tell them that their oilburning 1972 Volvo is emitting greenhouse
gasses into the ozone; ultimately, tell them
you disagree.
It’s easy to discredit liberals—speak
up. They don’t like you anyway.
Katy Grimes is a longtime political
analyst. Read her blog at fetchingjen.
blogspot.com or email her at [email protected].
NEWS: METRO
Rationing Mobility is Irrational
By MARK WILLIAMS
Sacramento Union Columnist
Yes, I know the
above title is a semantic stretch but it is connected to a story that is
simultaneously a huge
stretch of common
sense and a wonderful
example of why government should not take on tasks that it is
not designed to assume. It is also a warning
to heed.
Imagine that you are a business owner,
say, for example, of a bus company. Freeway
congestion and rising gasoline prices have
you flooded with business; the customers
are beating down your doors. What do you
do? Of course, you take advantage of the
demand and raise your price, perhaps you
add little touches in service and charge the
same way the airlines do.
It is also likely that you would also
examine the market conditions driving
your sudden prosperity. If you concluded
that those conditions were likely to prevail over the long term, you would likely
invest in new equipment, not enough to
drive down your raised price, but enough
to take advantage of the additional demand
and the added benefit of building customer
goodwill—thus expanding and creating a
base for future profits.
If, on the other hand, you were Placer
County Transit, you would do something
entirely different. You would cap the number of customers by rationing tickets and
creating a waiting list. It shouldn’t take
too long before savvy commuters from
Placer County realize the potential profit
involved here (the potential that somehow
escapes transit officials) as a black market
for Placer County bus tickets should spring
up fairly quickly. In fact, if you hold one of
these valuable items, feel free to contact me
through The Sacramento Union. I will happily make it worth your while. Then all I
need to do is match that ticket up with a
name on the waiting list and voila!
“can I make it into town again today without the CHP catching me” carpool lane.
Each morning and afternoon drive time,
one lane in each direction is closed to all
but a handful of vehicles, those few who
carpool and others who drive those ridiculous little eco-friendly hybrid things. These
lane closures have the net result of reducing the vehicular capacity of the freeway by
…we have a transportation infrastructure that
provides rail transportation in the same sense that the
Disneyland Monorail provides mass transit.
(Disclaimer: Do not try this at home,
children, as ticket scalping is illegal in
California, but accepting a finder’s fee from
a grateful patron is not.)
This situation exists because with gas
at nearly four bucks a gallon, sitting in
stop-and-go traffic on Interstate 80 is now
expensive in addition to being not fun.
Add to that the taunting glee with which
radio traffic reporters cheerfully and happily deliver the news and the commute can
be quite maddening. (I especially enjoy the
“No problems to report” portion of their
newscast as I pound the dashboard while
mired at the infamous “Douglas Boulevard”
squeeze.)
Ironically, one of the major reasons
why you are sitting in that traffic is that
Caltrans irrationally reduces Interstate 80’s
traffic capacity at just the exact times when
it should be increased.
Yes, they ration access to Interstate 80.
This is done via the High Occupancy
Vehicle Lane—you and I know it as the
some 25 percent. Again, at the exact times
when we need additional pavement upon
which to drive, those are the times selected
by the geniuses in Sacramento to crunch
nearly 100 percent of the traffic into 75
percent of the road.
Of course, you could take the bus, but
the folks in charge of Placer Transit aren’t
any brighter than the pencil pushers at
Caltrans.
Personally, I would be more than happy
to take the train or light rail. I grew up with
trains, light rail and subways. Needless to
say, I loathe driving. Unfortunately, we
have a regional light rail and train transportation infrastructure (and I use that word
very loosely) that provides rail transportation in the same sense that the Disneyland
Monorail provides mass transit. Except in
the case of Disneyland, at least the monorail takes me to and through some places I
want to be.
Here comes the warning: All the presidential candidates agree that the same
irrationality should prevail in such issues
as health care and the economy. Imagine
an America where prosperity and life itself
become commodities to be rationed out by
the same mentality that cannot run a bus.
Mark Williams is a Sacramento-based, awardwinning opinion journalist. Learn more or
contact Mark through his Web site at www.
marktalk.com.
Read a guest commentary discussing the woes
associated with the Sacramento Regional
Transit system on page 9.
“I, like all other human beings, expose
to the world only my trimmed and
perfumed and carefully barbered
public opinions and conceal carefully,
cautiously, wisely, my private ones.”
~ former Sacramento Union Writer Mark Twain
April 4, 2008 | SacUnion.com | The Sacramento Union | | The Sacramento Union | SacUnion.com | April 4, 2008
NEWS: METRO
‘Thoroughly Modern Millie’
Comes to Folsom High School
Special to The Union
The Folsom High School Performing
Arts Department will present “Thoroughly
Modern Millie” as part of the school’s
spring musical.
“Thoroughly Modern Millie” will be
presented April 10-12 and 17-19 at 7 p.m.
All performances will take place in the
Jill Solberg Performing Arts Theatre at
Folsom High School.
Tickets are $10 for adults and $8 for
students, seniors and children. Tickets can
be reserved in advance by emailing [email protected] or by calling the ticket reservation line at 916-484-3723. Tickets will
also be sold at the box office each performance night beginning at 6 p.m.
Joe Gudino as Trevor Graydon; Ren Elser
as Mrs. Meers; Zac Becker as Bun Foo; Kris
Reyes as Ching Ho; and Rebecca Scolnick
as Muzzy Van Hossmere.
Taking place in New York City in 1922,
“Thoroughly Modern Millie” tells the
story of young Millie Dillmount, who has
just moved to the city in search of a new life
for herself. It’s a New York full of intrigue
and jazz—a time when women were entering the workforce and the rules of love and
social behavior were changing forever.
This musical, based on the 1967 film
of the same name and first presented on
Broadway in April 2002, earned 11 Tony
nominations in its first year, including Best
Musical.
The cast includes seasoned veterans and newcomers…
The cast of 54 includes both seasoned veterans and newcomers to the Folsom High
School stage. Lead performers include
Rachel O’Laughlin as Millie Dillmount;
Carmon Reynolds as her love interest,
Jimmy; Kristen Tansey as Miss Dorothy;
Drama teacher Tamara Mosier directs
the show and choir teacher Ginger EkrothSaxon is supervising vocal direction. The
show’s choreography was created and
taught by juniors Katie Rose Cunin and
Danielle Dishman.
Three Arrested in Library Scam
SACRAMENTO (AP) – Sacramento
County prosecutors have filed corruption charges against two former employees of the Sacramento Public Library
and the wife of one of them.
Dennis Nilsson of Folsom and
Sacramento residents James Mayle
(“MAY-lee”) and his wife, Janie RankinsMayle, are charged with grand theft and
bribery. Nilsson and Mayle, the library’s
former security director, also face conflict-of-interest charges.
All three were booked into county jail
March 26.
The charges allege that a company
owned by Rankins-Mayle over billed
the library while doing $1.3 million
worth of routine maintenance. A library
investigation found the cost should have
been half that amount.
The charges allege that Nilsson and
Mayle steered contracts to the firm
owned by Mayle’s wife. Prosecutors say
Nilsson, who was the library system’s
maintenance
supervisor,
approved
the contracts with the inflated billing
and received kickbacks of more then
$90,000.
Dan Karalash, an attorney representing Nilsson, said he could not comment
because he had not yet seen the prosecutor’s case. It was not clear whether
Mayle and Rankins-Mayle had obtained
an attorney.
Pick up your free Sacramento Union
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(Orange Newsstand)
7951 Auburn Blvd
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in the Sacramento area!
April 4, 2008 | SacUnion.com | The Sacramento Union | NEWS: Metro
Local Soldier Sees Progress in Iraq; Determined to Finish Mission
By DEBBIE LEE
Special Contributor to The Union
Editor’s Note: In an effort to offer a new
perspective on Operation Iraqi Freedom and
the challenges facing the armed forces members
fighting it, The Union partnered with a team
of freelance reporters visiting Iraq. Their correspondence and photos were collected and formatted into a comprehensive account of their
frontline experiences.
This story is the third in a three-part series.
There was no question U.S. Army
Reservist Zachary McCary would see combat, that he would fight in the battle that
invades U.S. living rooms every night on
the nightly news. Signed up for infantry
duty when he joined the Army full time,
McCary knew he would be sent to Iraq and
to war.
“My main thing was, if I come to Iraq,
I want to be down on the ground. I want
to be in the fight. I wouldn’t want to just
live on a FOB [large base] and fix trucks,”
he said.
Private First Class McCary, 20, first
joined the Army Reserves in 2005 at the
age of 17. A Modesto resident, McCary
began his military career with the 328th
Combat Support Hospital Unit.
Now, as full time Army infantry, McCary
serves the 1st Squadron, 4th Cavalry
Regiment, also called the “Quarter Cav”
and “Raiders,” attached to the 1st Infantry
Division while in Iraq. The division mainly
serves in the al-Dora neighborhood in
Southern Baghdad
When speaking to McCary about his
companions from the 4th Cavalry and their
mission, the soldier made it abundantly
clear that their units can be counted upon
for success and unmatched professionalism, whether it be when they’re chasing
al-Qaida out of southern Baghdad’s Sunni
neighborhoods or brokering security
agreements with the Jaysh al Mahdi in
eastern Baghdad.
Why He Serves
“I grew up in an extremely patriotic family…ever since I was a child, it was really
what I wanted to do. When I was 17, I
begged my parents to sign the release form
to let me join up and they did,” McCary
said.
McCary has been in Iraq for more
than 11 months and his unit has achieved
incredible gains both in security and work-
Iraqi children play at a newly built park in the al-Dora neighborhood of Baghdad.
ing with the local community.
“Basically we’ve not been backing down.
The Iraqi people, they’re not backing down
[to al-Qaida] and we’ve caught a lot of bad
guys,” he said.
The Warrior and the War
Though he might sound like another
over-eager, gung-ho soldier, McCary
misses home and recognizes how difficult
the mission has been at times, especially
when McCary first came to Baghdad at
the height of violence and insurgent disruption, when the mission seemed insurmountable and the tactics employed at that
time seemed counterproductive.
McCary has been involved in firefights
and IED attacks while serving in Iraq.
He has walked the streets of Baghdad,
dealt with the loss of friends and been
forced to take human life. But he told The
Sacramento Union that he remains committed to the mission.
“Like I told you earlier, you get discouraged. There’s been days when I thought we
shouldn’t even be in Iraq. But then I see
a little girl wearing new clothes, or a guy
driving a car and they would never be able
to have that if we weren’t here. You know,
it totally changes,” he said.
The 2007 “troop surge” strategy implemented by Gen. David Petraeus, the current Commanding General of the MultiNational Force in Iraq, has bolstered
Operation Iraqi Freedom with 30,000 extra
troops and buoyed McCary’s hopes.
“I believe if we pulled out now, all of our
troops, I think Iraq would go back to the
way it was before [the surge],” he said.
Read all three parts of this story series online at
www.SacUnion.com.
Advertise in
Call Our Account Executives Now
| The Sacramento Union | SacUnion.com | April 4, 2008
Kim Perotti
(916) 925-7600 x308
Vikki Sandor-Girolami
(916) 925-7600 x307
NEWS: Metro
Special Guest Commentary
Disappearing Buses, Disappearing Trains, Is It a Magic Act?
By PAUL COX
Sacramento Union Guest Columnist
Editor’s Note: The following is a reader
submission.
Today, for the fifth time, I have been left
waiting for a bus that seems to have just
disappeared into thin air. This is not only a
problem on the buses, but on the light rail
as well. And such unreliable service has not
just inconvenienced me, but co-workers,
friends and family members.
With gas prices soaring, it is curious
why RT seems to lack the ridership you’d
expect. Could it be the poor timeliness of
transit? I could tell you that I remember
catching an on-time bus twice in the past
two months. I could tell you that there are
routes that I depend on to be consistently
late.
Could it be the lack of security? Sure,
the number of security guards has been
increased on trains, and it’s provided some
measure of security. But not too long
ago, I overheard a security guard discussing matter-of-factly that security guards
had been ganged up on and that against
a group, there was little power. And then
there’s the matter of the buses. Loud, rude
people of all ages are often found on the
same bus routes. Playing music or just talking loud and inconveniencing everyone
around them, a bus driver rarely speaks to
them and the remaining passengers often
cower in their seats praying for their stop
to come.
Is this any way to run a transit system? I
understand that you’re going to have your
occasional transient, mentally incapacitated person or even drunk. Those are the
common factors of public transit. But fear
for your person and lack of efficient service should not be things that are of any
concern.
All of this exists and amidst a growing
single trip and daily rate for transit passes.
It seems like the few who ride – who try to
help the environment or just save money
– are supporting a system that is slowly
dying. It seems as though no efforts are
being made, and if they are, they aren’t
bearing any fruit to actually make a change
and make this system what it should be,
rather than what it is and has been.
On this most recent trip, I was traveling
with a friend who is new to this city, and
who has seen me embarrassed on several
occasions because of RT’s less than stellar
performance. Every time, I feel personally
responsible that he has to put up with this
poor transit system.
I don’t need a car, I live downtown and I
work downtown, but make occasional trips
out of downtown. I may need a car if this
Is Sacramento Regional Transit asleep at the wheel? (Sacramento Union Photo)
continues though, as the cost of gas, insurance and car payments may be less than
the constant frustration that comes with
Sacramento Regional Transit.
I’m just lucky that all I was late to today
was my doctor appointment, as I’ve had
friends lose jobs over RT’s untimely service. You really do a disservice to the community by providing an expensive service
that provides little to no dependability,
safety or value and whose current functioning could only be described as “being on
life support” at best.
Paul Cox lives in Sacramento and is employed
as an analyst with the State of California. To
submit a guest commentary, email editor@
SacUnion.com.
Elk Grove History
Comes Alive!
The national award-winning book, “Echoes
of Yesterday,” a history of Elk Grove,
1850 to present, by The Sacramento
Union’s own Lance Armstrong is on sale
now. Get your copy today through the
Web site www.echoesofyesterday.com
or simply send $40/paperback or $60/
hardbound to: Echoes of Yesterday, P.O.
Box 189113, Sacramento, CA 95818.
Buy Your Copy Today
April 4, 2008 | SacUnion.com | The Sacramento Union | NEWS: Sacramento roots
A Government Gem in a Government Town
City Hall Building Reflects 158 Years of City Government
By LANCE ARMSTRONG
Sacramento Union Writer
As the race for mayor continues to heat
up between incumbent Mayor Heather
Fargo and her challenger Kevin Johnson,
it is a good time to reflect upon the long
history of Sacramento’s city government
and the places in which it has met.
Being that construction of today’s historic City Hall was completed in 1910, it
is quite safe to say that an extremely high
majority, if not all, Sacramento residents
recall no other city government meeting
place that was active for such a purpose
prior to this time.
This beaux arts-style building, which is
located at 915 I St., is certainly one of the
city’s most recognized historic landmarks
of importance, not only for the many years
it spent as the seat of the city’s government, but also for its grand architectural
appearance.
Located across the street from Cesar
Chavez Plaza, the large, four-level, white
building draws much attention through its
double Corinthian columns, wide staircase
and tall, four-face, central clock tower.
With a more thorough observation of
this 115-foot-tall clock tower, as well as
other parts of the building’s exterior, one
can easily notice a fine array of terra cotta,
including a pair of eagles and sculpted
fruits and vegetables.
Decoratively framing the roof of the
building is a balustrade, a line of repeating
small posts called balusters.
The site of this building is reflective of
the time of its construction, as it became
one of the new civic buildings to be built
on the outer area of the old commercial
development.
The April 10, 1910 edition of The
Sacramento Union reported the following
words regarding the city government’s historic move to this site: “Most of the city
officials will move into new quarters in new
city hall tomorrow. The board of trustees
will meet for the last time in the old quarters at 4th and J streets tomorrow night,
and one week thence they will hold forth
in the new City Hall.”
Three days later, The Union reported, “It
will be expected that all offices will be completely transferred to the new [City Hall]
building by tomorrow.”
The arrival of the new City Hall was
made possible through a special election
held on March 5, 1907, in which citizens
voted 2,292 to 275 to approve a 40-year,
4 percent bond, totaling $300,000, for the
construction of a new City Hall, receiving
hospital and prison.
Following this vote, several sites were
considered for the new City Hall, includ-
10 | The Sacramento Union | SacUnion.com | April 4, 2008
Built nearly a century ago, Sacramento’s historic City Hall is among the city’s grandest landmarks.
(Sacramento Union Photo/Lance Armstrong)
ing the block bounded by 8th, 9th, M and
N streets and a triangular section of today’s
Cesar Chavez Plaza.
Action was taken toward placing City
Hall at its present site when, as a result of
the urging of John C. Ing, who felt that this
was the only place where City Hall should
be built, a resolution was adopted to condemn this site. And by May 18, 1908, the
site was officially selected, followed by the
naming of Rudolph A. Harold as architect
of the then-soon-to-be-built City Hall.
A contract signed between the city and
the Thompson-Starrett Co. provided that
construction on the building would begin
on April 7, 1909 and be completed by Nov.
1, 1909.
Through the initial efforts of Marshall
Beard, who served as mayor from 1906 to
1907 and from 1910 to 1912, it was eventually decided that the new city headquarters
would be void of a prison.
Although the new City Hall was occupied in April 1910, various work continued
on the interior and exterior of the building,
including work on the ground floor and the
installation of the tower’s clock on Feb. 20,
1911. The clock was replaced 15 years later
by a new clock, which was purchased for
$400.
Various remodeling and renovations to
City Hall have been made throughout its
nearly century-long history, with the first
occurring when the building was only
three years old.
This remodel included adding the building’s elevator, which was the same elevator
that was replaced with an automatic elevator in March 1960.
Among the other early remodeling projects were the $2,200 remodeling of the
assessor’s office in 1923 and a basement
floor remodeling in 1927.
A westerly annex was added to the building in November 1934, followed by the
construction of an easterly annex about five
years later.
The largest and by far the most costly
NEWS: Sacramento roots
City Hall project, however, occurred in
much more recent times, when a $68
million, five-story, 267,000-square-foot
administration building was constructed in
the early 2000s.
It was also during this time that City
Hall underwent an $11.4 million makeover
of its exterior and interior.
The new administration building was
constructed due to the city’s desire to centralize many of its employees, who were
working in various places throughout the
downtown area.
This dual project, which upon its completion was known as the City Hall complex, greatly increased in cost in 2003,
when work was delayed due to the discovery of prehistoric, crescent moon-shaped
stones, ranging from three to five inches
long, on the site. Archaeologists dated the
stones from 8,000 to 10,000 years old.
The magnitude of the discovery, which
led to many other archaeological finds
on the site, was especially important to
Sacramento’s history, considering that prior
to the discovery there was no evidence of
people living in the area more than 6,000
years ago.
Overall, about 75,000 American Indian
City Hall’s 115-foot-tall, four-face clock tower
provides a unique feature to this historic
structure. (Sacramento Union Photo/Lance
Armstrong)
artifacts and at least 45 parcels of human
remains were unearthed at the site.
Although the current City Hall complex,
which was awarded the Sacramento Business
Journal’s “2005 Real Estate Project of the
Year - Best Public Project” award, represents the headquarters of city government
today, the story of city government and its
meeting places begins much earlier.
With a growing need for law and order
during the Gold Rush era, a local government was established in Sacramento in
August 1849.
The Virginia-born Albert Maver Winn,
who was among the first members of
Sacramento’s first local government council
and the founder of the Sons of the Golden
West, is credited as being the first mayor of
Sacramento.
Although William Stout was the first
president of the council, Sacramento was
not chartered as a city until Oct. 13, 1849,
at which time Winn was president of the
council.
The city’s second mayor, Hardin Bigelow
was injured in Sacramento’s tragic Squatter
Riots and died of cholera shortly thereafter. Following his death, former Kentucky
resident Horace Smith took over the office
of mayor on Dec. 14, 1850.
In the early years of Sacramento’s government, there was no permanently designated meeting place or what would later be
referred to as City Hall. And due to this
fact, council meetings were held in various
locations, such as offices of council members, hotels, stores, a sailing ship on the
Sacramento River and (on one occasion) at
Sutter’s Fort.
The council held its first meeting in an
officially designated permanent site at the
non-city-owned St. Louis Exchange on
2nd Street, between I and J streets, on Nov.
14, 1849.
January 1850 marked what is known as
the Great Inundation, in which a severe
flood destroyed much of the city. The tragedy caused the council to relocate its meetings to at least eight different sites during
the next three months.
Following this time until late November
1852, the council generally met at the
Sacramento County Courthouse.
The first building constructed for official
city business was the water works and City
Hall building at the northwest corner of
Front and I streets, which is now the site
of Old Sacramento’s Discovery Museum.
The city council met at this site for more
than 40 years.
The 1874 Sacramento city directory was
the first of Sacramento’s city directories to
refer to the site as housing “City Hall.”
The 1894 city directory shows that City
Hall relocated to Front Street, between J
and K streets. But the following year’s city
directory indicates a new City Hall address
at 328 J St. Although its site remained the
same, City Hall’s address changed to 328 ½
J St. in 1901.
City Hall continued to be located at this
site until its 1910 relocation to its current
9th and I streets site.
According to the June 3, 1909 edition
of The Union, the now-demolished Ebner
home on the northwest corner of 9th and I
streets may have been temporarily used by
the city during this year.
The article mentions that the offices of
Mayor Clinton L. White, the city engineer
and the street superintendent “will soon
move from 4th and J to the Ebner home,”
but the offices of the city clerk, city collector and city auditor would remain at the
328 ½ J St. location.
White, however, never made his office at
the then-new City Hall, as he was replaced
by Beard, who became the first mayor to
hold office in the building. Since this time,
28 other mayors have held office at the
historic City Hall, including the current
Mayor Fargo.
And as the June 3 election approaches,
Sacramento residents will soon know if
Mayor Fargo will remain the 54th mayor in
the city’s 158-year history or if Sacramento
will head in a different direction through
the leadership of a new, 55th mayor of
Sacramento.
Email Lance at [email protected].
April 4, 2008 | SacUnion.com | The Sacramento Union | 11
OPINION
State’s ‘Get Out of Jail Free’ Card
By MICHAEL RUSHFORD
Prison overcrowding has become a serious problem in a number
of states, sparking various legislative efforts to adopt early release or
diversion programs to reduce inmate populations. An Indiana program, implemented in 2001, allows the early release of inmates who
agree to electronic monitoring and participation in re-entry programs. A recent study found half of the criminals who have participated in the program were rearrested for new crimes within three
years of their release. Texas has adopted a new policy which has
police officers issuing citations for most misdemeanors rather than
going through the arrest and booking process. The program is too
new to assess what percentage of those cited will show up for trial.
If the California legislature agrees with Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger, 22,000 felons may soon be released from prison
before their sentences are completed to help reduce the state’s estimated $14.5 to $16 billion budget deficit.
Republican State Assemblyman Greg Aghazarian, vice chairman
of the Assembly Public Safety Committee, has compiled a list of the
types of inmates who fit into this nonviolent, non-serious category:
• Defendants convicted in Juvenile Court for any crime up to and
including murder.
• Persons convicted of recruiting gang members, including
through the use of force.
• Persons convicted of possession of a deadly weapon intended to
be used to intimidate victims of or witnesses to crimes.
• Repeat drunk drivers who cause accidents injuring others.
• Felons in possession of a firearm.
• Persons who traffic in illegal weapons.
• Operators of Methamphetamine and PCP labs, including labs
located in homes with young children.
• Criminals who possess illegal armor-piercing ammunition.
• Criminals convicted of hate crimes.
Whether or not most people would agree that these are not serious criminals, the suggestion that releasing them into society would
have little or no impact on violent crime is questionable.
A new report from the Pew Center on the States points to habitual criminal sentencing laws such as “Three Strikes” for the high
incarceration rate.
“Getting tough on criminals has gotten tough on taxpayers,” said
the project’s director.
This statement conflicts with studies going back three decades
that have found that repeat offenders, the kind locked up by “Three
Strikes” laws, commit several dozen crimes per year.
Moreover, a study by University of Colorado Economics Professor
Steven Levitt estimated that the annual cost of keeping a criminal
in prison amounted to less than two-fifths of the cost of leaving him
on the streets.
Releasing convicted felons from prison will cost far more than
keeping them behind bars and result in more innocent people
becoming victims of violent crime.
Kill Sanctuary Laws Before They Kill Us
On March 1, 19-year-old illegal alien Pedro Espinoza was
released from the Los Angeles
County jail after serving nearly
four months for brandishing a
firearm and resisting arrest. But
because Los Angeles is a “sanctuary” city, Espinoza was not turned
over to U.S. immigration authorities for deportation. The next
day he shot and killed 17-year-old
Jamiel Shaw, Jr., a Los Angeles
high school football star recruited
by Stanford and Rutgers.
Espinoza may have pulled the
trigger, but it was Los Angeles’
sanctuary law that killed Jamiel
Shaw, Jr.
Los Angeles is not alone in
trying to preempt federal immigration laws. San Francisco,
San Diego, Fresno, San Rafael,
Watsonville and Sonoma County
have likewise declared themselves
“sanctuary” locations.
Last year, San Francisco Mayor
Gavin Newsom proudly and defi-
antly announced, “I will not allow
my department heads or anyone
associated with this city to cooperate in any way, shape or form with
raids (on illegal immigrants).”
The tragic, senseless death of
an outstanding young man may
be the wake-up call Congress
needs to finally do something
about communities that officially
or tacitly refuse to help federal
officers deport criminal aliens.
Shaw was walking down the
2100 block of Fifth Avenue
minding his own business when
Espinoza allegedly pulled up in
a car and asked, “Where you
from?” Espinoza, a member of
the 18th Street Gang, was inquiring – in the parlance of street – to
which gang Shaw belonged. A
non-gang member, Shaw had no
time to respond before the illegal
immigrant opened fire. Shaw’s
father ran outside and found his
boy dying under a tree the two
had planted as part of the city’s
Million Trees Initiative.
To compound the tragedy, the
victim’s mother, Army Sgt. Anita
Shaw, was serving in Iraq when
the boy was murdered.
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio
Villaraigosa conducted a ceremony last month to remember
Shaw and to unveil a “tree of life”
plaque. But if the mayor really
wants to honor the young man’s
memory and salve the anguish
of his father and mother, he will
immediately disavow the sanctuary status that enabled the victim’s
slayer to avoid deportation after
his first arrest. Had Espinoza
been deported, Shaw would still
be alive.
Congress should withhold all
federal funding to the California
communities that refuse to cooperate with federal deportation
of illegal aliens who commit
felonies.
And they should do it soon,
before another life is lost.
Michael Rushford is the president and CEO of the Sacramento-based
Criminal Justice Legal Foundation.
Take Down the Site
~ 32 ~
Number of days the Sacramento Bee has
operated a Web site publishing state
employee pay and invading their privacy.
12 | The Sacramento Union | SacUnion.com | April 4, 2008
Family members of Jamiel Shaw Jr. react during funeral services on Tuesday, March 11, 2008 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/
The Los Angeles Times, Barbara Davidson)
‘‘
OPINION
Q uote of T H I S e d i t i on
Imagine an America where prosperity and life
itself become commodities to be rationed out
by the same mentality that cannot run a bus.”
Mark Williams in “Rationing Mobility is Irrational,” page 5
Pedophiles and Public Libraries
If you thought that California
public libraries were the last place
one could find child pornography,
you would be wrong. You would
be wrong, too, if you thought
libraries were doing much to
eliminate it.
On Feb. 28, Tulare County
Assistant
Librarian
Brenda
Biesterfeld, a single mother, saw
Donny Lynn Chrisler eyeballing
child porn on one of the Lindsay
Branch Library’s public-use computers. Biesterfeld reported the
matter to her supervisor, who
instructed her to warn the pervert
that if caught again, he could be
banned from the library.
“This happens more often
than you would think,” she told
Biesterfeld.
When
Biesterfeld
found
Chrisler viewing child porn a
second time, she reported him to
police, who arrested him for violating state and federal law. Police
confiscated the computer for evidentiary purposes and found more
child pornography in his home.
Reportedly, Biesterfeld’s supervisor protested that the police had
no right to enforce anti-pornography laws inside the library and
fired Biesterfeld on March 6.
Three weeks ago, Liberty
Counsel, associated with the
Liberty University School of Law,
sent a demand letter to the Tulare
County Board of Supervisors challenging Biesterfeld’s termination
and asking for her reinstatement.
Librarians should not have to
patrol content on computers. Nor
April 4, 2008
Vol. 2, No. 37
Est. 1851
P.O. Box 748
Sacramento, CA 95812
Tel 916.925.7600
Fax 916.669.8034
Publisher & Editor-in-Chief
J.C. Dutra
[email protected]
should parents have to fear that
their children will share libraries
with pederasts. Publicly funded
computers should not be attractive nuisances for perverts.
However, not everyone agrees.
In a press release issued in
February, the Sacramento County
Chapter of the ACLU complained that the blocking software now used on all Sacramento
library computers is “vulnerable to censorship.” The ACLU
points out that Internet filtering programs tested by the San
Jose Public Library blocked sites
that included WebMD and the
American Urological Association.
We have no doubt that filtering software is imperfect. But losing access to a couple of medical
information sites is a small cost
The Laughing Box
to pay for filtering out hardcore
child pornography. The current
policy of local libraries is to turn
off the blocking software at the
request of any adult. This does
not sound to us like an abridgement of the First Amendment.
We urge the Legislature to
ignore misguided civil libertarians
and enact a requirement that public libraries install screening software to prevent access to all kiddie
porn sites. Let’s keep the screens
on no matter who objects.
Will any legislator argue that
“intellectual freedom” somehow
protects the viewing of child
pornography, one of the basest
forms of human degradation and
exploitation?
Let’s find out. And let’s entitle
the legislation, “Biesterfeld’s Law.”
by Greg Rico
Beware of Pandering Politicians
By DAVID FRUM
Across the U.S., mortgages are being foreclosed. Banks are writing off bad loans. One investment bank has already failed, with who
knows how many more to come.
Oddly, the news from the overall American economy remains
surprisingly better than expected.
Nobody would describe the U.S. economy as booming. But it is
not shrinking either, not according to the available numbers.
Yet, if the economic facts continue to be bearable, the American
economic mood is blackening. Consumer confidence has plunged
to the lowest level since the recession of 1992. Talk to financial professionals and you hear anxiety at best, outright panic at worst.
Here’s what worries the pessimists: In 1992 and 2001, the Federal
Reserve jolted the U.S. economy out of recession with big, bold cuts
in interest rates.
But the Federal Reserve will not find it so easy to cut rates in
2008. The dollar is already anemically weak. And, for the first time
since the 1970s, Americans are confronting the risk of stagflation.
In a stagflating economy, interest rate cuts yield higher prices, not
stronger growth.
Fearing stagflation, the Fed may not dare to cut rates further.
What then?
Then the U.S. government might try cutting taxes or raising
spending—”fiscal stimulus” as the economists call it. There’s just
one problem: Fiscal stimulus does not usually work very well. It
arrives too late, it costs too much relative to the good it does or
consumers (rationally) use it to repay debt rather than to boost their
consumption.
Congress has already voted for just such a plan: $168-billion in
tax rebates that will arrive sometime in the second half of 2008—too
late to help with today’s crisis, and just in time to add to a swelling
federal budget deficit next year.
Meanwhile, the Democratic candidates for president are spending their days frightening markets with reckless talk. Hillary Clinton
has proposed a federal freeze in mortgage interest rates, a moratorium on foreclosures of houses that do not pay their debts and a
large federal bailout of mortgage lenders. Barack Obama’s plan is
marginally less irresponsible—but that greater prudence probably
reflects Obama’s lead in the Democratic delegate count rather than
any better economic sense.
Obama and Clinton are competing to sound more protectionist,
more interventionist, more regulatory, more reckless. But what politicians publicly say matters as much as what they privately think.
Promiscuous pandering promises harden into inescapable commitments. A politician like Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama may
seek only to exploit a financial crisis. They end by stoking it.
John McCain’s challenge and opportunity is to rise above this
kind of crass self-seeking, and to articulate a financial and economic
message that can actually do some good—beginning by refraining
from doing harm.
David Frum is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
[email protected]
Associate Publisher
David Gwiazdon
[email protected]
Managing Editor
Ryan J. Rose
[email protected]
Sports Editor
Patrick Ibarra
[email protected]
Web Editor
David D’Onofrio
Sacramento Bloggers Review
Andy Nevis
Cartoonist
Greg Rico
Contributors
Lance Armstrong
Diana M. Ernst
Kathy Fox
Katy Grimes
Peter Hannaford
Tom Head
Vicki E. Murray
Susan Neal
James J. Scherer
Tyler Stone
Tom Tanton
Liam Weston
Mark Williams
Sports
Jeannie Broussal
Kelly Davis
Glenn Dickey
Bruce Macgowan
Josh Terrell
Account Executives
Kim Perotti
[email protected]
Vikki Sandor-Girolami
[email protected]
Sales Director
David Gwiazdon
[email protected]
Art Diva
Kelly Davis
[email protected]
Marketing
King Media
[email protected]
Accounting
‡Stephen B. Crocker, CPA
Gilbert Associates, Inc.
Legal Counsel
Glenn W. Peterson
Millstone, Peterson & Watts, LLP
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April 4, 2008 | SacUnion.com | The Sacramento Union | 13
14 | The Sacramento Union | SacUnion.com | April 4, 2008
NEWS: STATE CAPITOL
Government from page 1
measure, SB 1565, targets problems with
the California Institute for Regenerative
Medicine.
Some may wonder if the senator should
be pointing fingers, but CIRM does seem
to lack accountability.
California voters implemented CIRM
in 2004 through Proposition 71, which
aimed to make use of funds for stem cell
research that has the greatest potential for
treatments and cures. Since 2004, CIRM
has proved quite adept at throwing grant
money around. In fact, it provides the most
funding for human embryonic stem cell
research in the world.
interest), is not directly tied to California’s
crumbling state budget. In light of the
budget, however, and CIRM’s record of
zero cures, it’s hardly the best time to boost
executive salaries. Yet that is precisely
what CIRM did, paying Alan Trounson,
president of the institute, a whopping
$490,000—up from $412,000.
Also receiving a pay raise are the CIRM
executives; these positions will now pay
No Oversight, No Results, No
Problems Here
It’s true that CIRM’s financial support,
$3 billion in bond sales ($6 billion with
Now Featured in Every Edition of the Sacramento Union
New York Times Crossword Puzzle
Across
55 Hwys.
  1 Cause of a skin
rash
56 Some
  7 Rug, so to speak
57 Simon
10 Bugle
tune
14 Quenched
15 Very
close friend,
in slang
16 Miner’s
entry
17 “Back
to the
Future” subject
19 Guadalajara
dispatch, for
short
21 Hare
Krishnas’
wear
22 TV
station, e.g.
way
master’s work
25 Best
___ (“The
Da Vinci Code”
group)
suited
26 Marine
28 Fans
raptor
often have it
31 Moonshiner’s
setup
33 Give
a ticket
34 ___-cone
35 Earthquake
39 Medium’s
42 Fraternal
43 Interior
focus
47 Flaky
site
claim
org.
designer’s
sort
51 Horror
film staple
52 Parts
of a
Christmas Eve
service
53 Court
org.
2
3
4
5
6
7
14
8
9
10
15
17
21
23
24
12
13
45
46
16
18
20
11
19
22
59 Opus
60 Defaulter’s
loss
61 C-E-G
triad, e.g.
63 Some
Feds
65 It
can precede the
first words of 17-,
28-, 35-, 47- and
61-Across
matches are
made of
67 It
26
27
31
may leave marks
68 Doesn’t
stick to the
straight and narrow
Down
  1 Homes with
electronic gates,
maybe
  2 Some newsletter
pictures
  3 Machine on a
skating rink
40
41
38
49
57
50
44
51
54
55
58
59
60
61
63
64
65
66
67
68
62
puzzle by chuck hamilton
12 Enters
helter-
skelter
13 Opening
18 Having
stuff
of
the right
36 Food
pkg.
markings
37 Mauna
38 Brain
on
wine city
27 2003
Will Ferrell
title role
  9 Styling aid
30 Army,
a scene?
navy and air
force: Abbr.
32 Prada
and Fendi
50 Alternatives
’Vettes
___
54 Race
scan letters
39 Offerers
29 Made
fans
37
43
56
  8 Sews up
11 Devoted
36
34
53
25 Italian
island
33
52
  5 Way around Paris
10 “Omoo”
30
48
22 Stick
  7 Hi sign?
29
42
47
  4 Barely make, with
“out”
  6 Far from klutzy
28
35
39
25
32
disadvantage
66 What
23 Eastern
24 Old
doctoral
Wiesenthal’s
quarry
64 ___
greeting
20 Police
exams
1
No. 0220
of arms
40 “Puh-lease!”
41 Defensive
wall
44 Spanish
capital
under the Moors
45 Not
helter-skelter
1711
to
site since
57 Brussels-based
org.
58 It’s
“stronger than
dirt”
61 War
room fixture
62 “Ben-___”
46 Lives
48 Parts
of analogies
49 Automaker
Ferrari
Find answers on
page 29.
more than $300,000—up from $270,000.
But the questionable behavior goes beyond
salaries. In recent months, reports point to
several CIRM board members secretly lobbing for self-serving grants.
In case CIRM board members have
forgotten, their mission is to serve citizens—these executives administer a state
agency voted into existence and paid for by
California taxpayers.
Pot-Calling-the-Kettle Politics
In a prepared statement, Sen. Kuehl said
SB 1565 would “help ensure the public’s
trust” in CIRM. Perhaps she should test
her own health care bill – the universal,
single-payer health care measure SB 840
– against this standard. What is there about
government-run medicine that should
inspire citizens’ trust?
Canada’s independent Fraser Institute
has studied the costs and effects of the
single-payer health care system in that
country and has long warned Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger against Sen. Kuehl’s SB
840. Fraser research points to the fact that
health care seems to cost less in Canada
because public health insurance there does
not cover the advanced medical treatments
that are common in the United States.
Fraser’s 2007 report, “Waiting Your Turn:
Hospital Waiting Lists in Canada,” found
that the waiting time between referral from
a general practitioner and treatment across
12 specialties and 10 provinces was more
than 18 weeks last year. The Pacific Research
Institute has shown that such a government
health system in California would eliminate private health care, push doctors out
of business and create long waiting lists for
services. This could also cost taxpayers an
estimated $1 billion annually.
If Sen. Kuehl is really concerned with
public accountability and access, she would
know that government bureaucracies are
least accountable to individual citizens
who need increased affordability and more
choice in health care.
Less Government is the Answer
The CIRM is indeed a money pit that
needs more scrutiny. But if a small state
institute can resist oversight, how much
more so would a big, government-run
health care system?
As the record shows, government
monopoly health care is practically impossible to reform – much less eliminate
– whatever its level of non-performance.
That is something legislators, and the governor, must keep in mind as they debate
California’s health care future.
Diana Ernst is a policy fellow in health care
studies at the Pacific Research Institute. Email
her at [email protected].
April 4, 2008 | SacUnion.com | The Sacramento Union | 15
NEWS: STATE CAPITOL
Johnson Mom from page 1
“Georgia has her work at the bookstore,
but she is still very helpful to the campaign,”
Serna said. “She is helping with signing up
volunteers, getting people to put out lawn
signs and just getting the word out.”
Of course, it may seem natural that West
would be interested in supporting Johnson’s
campaign, considering that Johnson is her
son. But West said that there is more to her
promotion of Johnson than a mother supporting her son’s endeavors.
West, who was born in 1949, notes that
as someone who grew up in Oak Park in
the 1950s and 1960s, she has seen both the
good and the bad of the area.
“I was born and raised here (at 3024 San
Diego Way in Oak Park) and I’ve seen
the changes,” West said. “I saw it when it
was booming when Oak Park had a mini
downtown with all the businesses and then
I saw when it had nothing. It was just doom
and gloom, prostitutes on the streets, you
know, everything gone.
“They had a big fire in the 60s or early
70s in Oak Park on 35th Street and Oak
Park just went downhill from there. It is
just exhilarating to see what Kevin has
done for the community, because I know
what Oak Park was like many years ago, so
to see it making a comeback, a renaissance,
you feel great.”
West added that even though it happened
to be her son who led a drive to improve the
community of Oak Park, she would wholeheartedly support such a person whether
that person was her child or not.
But naturally, West is pleased that it
was Johnson who helped improve the area
through such educational and redevelopment projects such as turning his alma
mater Sacramento High School into a successful charter high school and playing a
part in the success stories of 20 Sacramento
businesses, which resulted in nearly 300
local jobs.
West is also proud of the commitment
Johnson has made in his campaign to the
issues of reducing crime, improving public
schools and the local economy and raising
the city’s overall quality of life.
Johnson admits on his own that his
mother and his grandparents, a pair
of former Oak Park residents, George
and Pat Peat, played a major role in his
development.
He added that through such support, he
learned the importance of being an active
citizen, noting that he knew early in his life
that “when you saw something wrong, you
couldn’t stand on the sidelines. You had an
obligation to stand up and do something
about it.”
This strong-willed attitude in life can be
seen through the words and action of West,
When not working as a manager at Oak Park’s Underground Books, Georgia West, mother of Sacramento mayoral candidate Kevin Johnson, volunteers her time at her son’s campaign headquarters.
(Sacramento Union Photo/Lance Armstrong)
16 | The Sacramento Union | SacUnion.com | April 4, 2008
NEWS: STATE CAPITOL
who is known by many in her community
as the hard-working, positive thinking
“Mother Rose”—a nickname she received
as a constant supporter of the Phoenix Suns
during Johnson’s playing days in the NBA.
to (teach) him right from wrong and about
giving back.”
West further praised her parents for
helping to make her a better role model as
a parent.
“Kevin is a wonderful person and he has dedicated his
life to helping children and helping people,” West said.
“It’s his passion and when he makes a commitment, he
gives 100 percent.”
West, who is still a fan of the Suns, as well
as the Sacramento Kings and San Francisco
Giants, said that the nickname was simply
derived from her role as an older mother
and the fact that her middle name is Rose.
When asked to describe how her influence helped to make Johnson the type
of person he is today, West, who was the
single mother of Johnson and his younger
brother Ronnie, said it was important for
her to create a positive home life.
“It was just the three of us together and
I just tried to give him a good foundation
about being honest, about working hard,
but my parents were the main ones,” West
said. “I was there and I tried to contribute
and support him in all that I could from
his academics to all his athletics. I just tried
“My parents had good morals and they
always gave me inspiration and they just
encouraged me,” West said. “I always
wanted to be a nurse, so they also encouraged me to do that.”
Furthermore, West, who spent about 25
years as a registered nurse, said that she also
gained a lot of confidence through several
of her favorite teachers in college.
West emphasized that in light of
Johnson’s fame and success, her other son,
Ronnie, a 26-year-old resident of Oak
Park, has also led a successful life.
“Ronnie graduated from UC Berkeley
and he has also been helping Kevin as
the facilities and operations manager at
Sacramento High School,” West said.
“He also opened Uncle Jed’s Barbershop
[in Oak Park] and he has gone to summer
leadership programs at Harvard. Ronnie is
a wonderful person and a great personality.
I am just very proud of my children.”
West said that through her love for
Johnson and the city of Sacramento, she will
continue to support Johnson’s campaign.
West said that she feels blessed to have
Johnson as her son and that she is proud
that he has dedicated himself to become
worthy to become Sacramento’s next
mayor.
“Kevin is a wonderful person and he has
dedicated his life to helping children and
helping people,” West said. “It’s his passion and when he makes a commitment, he
gives 100 percent. Also, he’s a good listener
and he will do what he can to make things
happen. He’s also not going to make false
promises and I can guarantee that he will
make a great mayor.”
For the sake of Sacramento, if Johnson is
elected as the city’s next mayor, hopefully
Mother (Rose) truly knows best.
Email Lance at [email protected].
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April 4, 2008 | SacUnion.com | The Sacramento Union | 17
NEWS: State Capitol
Government Watchdog Keeps Eye on Legislators
By STEVE LAWRENCE
Associated Press Writer
SACRAMENTO (AP) – Some elected
officials might have thought they’d have a
friend atop the state’s campaign watchdog
agency when Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
selected a former state legislator to
head California’s Fair Political Practices
Commission.
It hasn’t quite turned out that way.
Since former Republican senator Ross
Johnson was appointed just more than
a year ago, the agency has taken several
steps to increase disclosure of campaign
donations and has had several run-ins with
elected officials.
Johnson said his aggressive stance on
behalf of campaign finance laws should not
be surprising.
“Anybody who thinks because of my
background in elective office that I am
going to fix traffic tickets for anybody, they
not only don’t know me, they couldn’t have
been paying any attention to me during the
26 years I was in the Legislature,” he said.
He acknowledges he was a partisan and
a leader in the Republican Party when he
held elected office, but his focus shifted to
the center when Schwarzenegger appointed
him.
“The day I took the oath of office as
chairman of the Fair Political Practices
Commission, I ceased to be a player,” he
said. “I became a referee or umpire, and my
job is – the job of this agency is – to enforce
the law and call them as we see them.”
The five-member commission has limited use of politicians’ legal defense funds
and required greater disclosure of how
they spend campaign donations and the
travel gifts they receive.
It has begun posting the contributions
state elected officials arrange for their pet
projects on the its Web site and has set
up a toll-free number (1-800-561-1861)
to report alleged violations of campaign
finance law.
The agency has generated attention
lately for its investigations of state Sen.
Carole Migden at a time when the San
Francisco Democrat is embroiled in a difficult primary campaign.
The commission recently imposed a
record $350,000 fine on Migden, who
acknowledged 89 violations of campaign
finance law. In recent days, the agency
filed a $9 million countersuit that alleges
Migden repeatedly and deliberately violated California’s campaign finance laws.
Migden’s supporters say the actions are
politically motivated.
Johnson, a 68-year-old lawyer from
Orange County, isn’t a newcomer to
efforts to regulate campaign contributions,
although sometimes his motives and tactics
have been questioned by other supporters
of tougher campaign finance laws.
“He has certainly been involved in stymieing reform as a legislator,” said Robert
Stern, a former attorney for the FPPC who
now serves as president of the Center for
Governmental Studies, a political think
tank based in Los Angeles.
Senate Minority Leader Dick Ackerman,
R-Tustin, said the FPPC under Johnson, a
18 | The Sacramento Union | SacUnion.com | April 4, 2008
former iron worker and railroad hand, has
been more evenhanded. Ackerman said it
also is quicker in dealing with potential
violations and resolving old complaints
that left clouds hanging over candidates’
heads.
“I don’t think there was any thought
that that he was going to be friendly just
because he was one of us,” Ackerman said.
“I supported him, and many people – both
Republicans and Democrats – supported
him because they knew he would be fair.”
Johnson said he doesn’t interfere with
decisions by the agency’s enforcement staff
about which cases to pursue. He said the
decision to sue Migden was approved by
the entire five-member commission, three
of whom, like Migden, are Democrats.
“We are enforcing the law, and that’s it,”
he said.
Sporting Gold
Friday, April 4, 2008
Smoking in
Sacramento
Featuring Driver
Leah Pruett LeDuc
Dragsters
Burn Rubber
April 12
PAGE 20
22 Holmes Takes
All American Victory
24 C-Webb Leaves a
Lasting Legacy
26 Season Starts with
Opening Day
April 4, 2008 | SacUnion.com | The Sacramento Union | 19
SPORTING GOLD: Cover Story
LeDuc and Nitro Dragsters Bring Heat to Sacramento Raceway
By PATRICK IBARRA
Sacramento Union Sports Editor
Leah Pruett LeDuc isn’t your typical dragster. Donning a patch that reads
“Heartbreaker,” she looks more like the
women handing out trophies than the ones
receiving them. Yet catch her on the track
and it’s not about good looks, it’s about
speed.
“It’s what I know and what I love,” said
LeDuc, the 19-year-old driver of a Dickies
Mustang dragster. “Competing is like
nothing else. You get to do what no one
else gets to do. It’s an adrenaline rush that
nothing else can duplicate.”
On April 12, the Southern California
racer will bring her looks and talents to the
track at Sacramento Raceway for Funny
Car Fever, a nitro drag racing event coming back to the area after 20 years. She’ll
be joined by a competitive field of nearly
300 cars, all competing in various classes
throughout the afternoon.
“It’s gonna be a great event,” LeDuc
said. “What racers want is to race in front
of people. We don’t want to race with
no one in the stands. We’re not making
money doing this; we’re doing it for the
fun of it. But I predict one of the biggest
crowds at the Sacramento Raceway for the
whole year.”
Funny Car Fever will feature over
12 nitro nostalgia funny cars with legendary names the likes of “Bubble Up
Pontiac,” “Plueger and Gyger Mustang”
and “Code Red Challenger,” along with
22 supercharged alcohol funny cars from
the California Independent Funny Car
Association. Classes will include 220 miles
per hour dragsters in Top Eliminator West,
7.0 Pro, Top Sportsman and four Pro-Gas
categories. Drivers competing for cash will
also battle in the Door Slamming Bracket,
On the cover: 619 Promotions Co-Owner Lee
Paul Jennings burns out his Code Red Challenger. (Photo Courtesy 619 Promotions)
good for a $4,000 purse.
“This is the first time in 20 years that a
full field of Nitro Funny Cars is competing
at Sacramento Raceway,” said Lisa Jennings
of 619 Promotions, which is putting on the
event. “These same cars would draw over
12,000 spectators at an event. These are
replicas of what John Force would race
back in the day. (We) want to bring back
how racing use to be.
“We are also promoting a family friendly
atmosphere. The pit areas are not roped
off like they are at the professional level.
Spectators can literally walk up and see the
cars and engines. Spectators get to interact
with their drivers and crews. (Our) goal is
to bring back the excitement of years past
and rekindle the interest in the nostalgia of
nitro funny cars.”
One of the highlights of the event,
though, is LeDuc, who is climbing the
ranks much like Danica Patrick, a professional open-wheel driver LeDuc has been
compared to.
world. We do it the old style way. You can’t
start any lower than Jr. Drag Racing. But
there are some comparisons. We’re both
females. She’s made it into the pros and I’m
trying. What I want people to see, though,
is the different ways we got there, and how
“Women have to capitalize on whatever niche they have.”
“I think it’s a different comparison,” said
LeDuc, who started racing at age eight
when her father put her in a Jr. Drag Racing
league. “(Patrick) comes from a prominent
racing family, with a lot of money in the
IRL (Indy Racing League). I’m working
my way up. My dad isn’t known in that
I worked my way up.”
LeDuc’s had to fight off similar barriers,
too, being a woman in a sport predominately run by men.
“A lot of people underestimate us
because we’re women, and because I’m
really young,” she said. “They wonder
Leah Pruett LeDuc admits using her image as a
woman “in a man’s world” is to her advantage.
(Photo Courtesy of Leah Pruett LeDuc)
Leah Pruett LeDuc poses by her “Dickies Girl” drag racing Mustang, which she’ll use to tear up the
track at the Sacramento Raceway on April 12. (Photo Courtesy Leah Pruett LeDuc)
20 | The Sacramento Union | SacUnion.com | April 4, 2008
SPORTING GOLD
where my experience is, but little do they
know, I’ve been racing for years. In the very
beginning, I felt that. But that’s just the old
people. This day and age, they’re not that
group. We’ve got a woman running for
president and we are making our way out
there. Some old guys think we don’t belong
there, but most guys are friendly and help
us out. They want to see us succeed.”
Being a woman in racing doesn’t have to
be a hinder, either. According to LeDuc, it
is a blessing.
“There are more advantages than disadvantages,” she said. “It’s a great marketing
aspect. We are a minority in the whole racing industry. We get to play up on that and
are more apt to get sponsors.
“Women have to capitalize on whatever
niche they have. Being a woman is a pretty
big niche. If you’re known for a good thing
and get your name out there, people recognize you and that’s what helps you move
up. Just be confident. You can’t be discouraged because you’re a woman in a man’s
world. You’re there for a reason. Go big, or
do don’t do it at all.”
Gates open at 12 p.m. on April 12 at
Sacramento Raceway, with qualifying
beginning at 1 p.m. Nitro Funny Car eliminations begin at 3 p.m., with jet cars going
at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. General admission
is $20 and pit admission is $5 extra. Kids
under 12 and parking are free.
Dragster Leah Pruett LeDuc warms up her Mustang up before a race. The 19-year-old racer is more than a pretty face, she’s tough competition. (Photo
Courtesy Leah Pruett LeDuc)
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April 4, 2008 | SacUnion.com | The Sacramento Union | 21
SPORTING GOLD
Holmes Wins NASCAR Camping World West Series Season Opener
McAnally Team Racer Leads From Start to Finish at All American Raceway
By JEANNIE BROUSSAL
Sacramento Union’s Gearhead Gal
Eric Holmes showed them all who’s boss
on March 29 at All American Speedway
in Roseville by leading the NASCAR
Camping World West Series season-opening race from start to finish in the No. 20
NAPA Auto Parts Toyota, capturing the
win for Bill McAnally Racing.
Holmes started on the outside of row
one, then charged past pole-sitter Jason
Bowles on the first lap and never looked
back.
I raced here 11 years ago and I won. I’m
two-for-two here so I really like it.”
Third place starter David Mayhew,
driving the No. 21 BayBioDiesel/RCR
Chevrolet, gave Holmes a run for his
money by hugging his rear bumper for
most of the race.
Holmes also fought a static-filled radio
and 11 restarts to win the caution-filled
race.
“Anything can happen on the restarts,”
Holmes said. “The cars don’t drive good
for a few laps, so I knew if I could just beat
“You have to have luck, start up front and play all your
cards right. It’s like a chess match.”
“It feels good,” Holmes said. “I knew
coming in we had the opportunity. You
have to have luck, start up front and play
all your cards right. It’s like a chess match.
him (Mayhew) on the restarts, I could just
drive away from him. The restarts are definitely stressful.”
Holmes is in his first year driving for Bill
Eric Holmes (center left), Bill McAnally (center right) and their team celebrate in Victory Circle after
winning the NASCAR Camping World Series West Toyota NAPA AutoCare Center 150 race on March
29 at All American Speedway in Roseville. (Sacramento Union Photo/Jeannie Broussal)
Eric Holmes qualified his No. 20 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota on the outside of row one. He went on to
win the race on March 29 at All American Speedway. (Sacramento Union Photo/Jeannie Broussal)
22 | The Sacramento Union | SacUnion.com | April 4, 2008
McAnally Racing.
“Bill is a proven championship car
owner,” Holmes said. “I’ve always wanted
to drive for him.”
Local favorite and 2007 NASCAR
Whelan Series All American champion
Eric Schmidt, who started fifth in the No.
5 AT&T/Yellowpages.com Chevrolet, spun
out early and found himself at the back of
the pack. He put on a spectacular show as
he worked his way up to the No. 2 spot, but
spun out again on the last restart, ending
his chance for a win.
After a 26-year absence, NASCAR’s
Camping World West was enthusiastically
welcomed back by the sold-out crowd.
Fans were treated to fireworks in the sky
and a thrilling night of racing on the magnificent short track.
The next stop on the Camping World
Series West schedule is April 10 at Phoenix
International Raceway. The series will
race at Infineon Raceway on June 21, in
the Bennett Lane Winery 200 during the
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Toyota/Save
Mart 350 race weekend.
SPORTING GOLD
NBA Playoff System Fine the Way It Is
By Glenn Dickey
Sacramento Union Columnist
The
overwhelming superiority of
the NBA’s Western
Conference this season
has led to proposals
that teams be seeded
by records in the playoffs, so the best teams
are in. Sounds tempting, but there
are at least two reasons not to do this:
1) Strength Varies Over Time
Relative strength of conferences and
leagues vary from time to time. When I first
started covering Major League Baseball in
the 50s and 60s, the National League was
the stronger league, because it had tapped
into the black players’ market earlier and
stronger. Now, the American League is
definitely the stronger league, but five or
10 years from now, who knows?
I also started covering the Raiders in
1967, when the prevailing wisdom (which
usually meant sportswriters opinions) was
that the National Football League was a
much stronger league than the American
Football League.
Before the Raiders played the Green
Bay Packers in the second Super Bowl, Tex
Maule, who was an extreme NFL loyalist,
analyzed the teams position-by-position
for Sports Illustrated. He rated the teams
dead-even at the fullback position, but gave
the Packers the edge at every one of the
remaining 21 positions.
stretch, so it was 5-of-6 for the AFC.
Then, the NFC dominated, starting in
the mid-80s, and again it was because of
dynasty teams.
Now, it is the AFC which is dominant, though the NFC won the last
Super Bowl. For the last six years, the
best teams have been the New England
Patriots and the Indianapolis Colts.
But nobody has revived Maule’s idea of an
inter-league playoff system because there
have been too many swings in conference
domination.
In the NBA, the Eastern Conference has
often been strong—I still remember the epic
struggles between the Philadelphia 76ers,
led by Wilt Chamberlain, and the Boston
Celtics with Bill Russell. There’s no reason
to believe that the Eastern Conference will
not be strong again in a relatively short time.
2) Negating Conference Play
The proposed system would completely
obliterate the meaning of conference play
and make it all about the playoffs.
The divisional idea has already broken down. Papers now list the conference
standings in the run for the playoffs, with
only a little letter marker to indicate who’s
winning a division. If only the best teams
advance to the playoffs, why even bother
with conference designations? Just play a
totally interlocking schedule and forget
about conferences.
In baseball, teams play within their league
for the most part, with only a relatively few
interleague games. Still, it’s not difficult
There’s no reason to believe that the Eastern Conference will not be strong again in a relatively short time.
The Packers won their second Super
Bowl and Maule then proposed that,
instead of each league playing off to determine a representative for the Super Bowl,
there should be inter-league playoffs from
the start, with the two best teams meeting
in the Super Bowl. Maule obviously felt
those teams would both be from the NFL.
Then, the AFL won the next two Super
Bowls. It turned out that NFL superiority
was a myth; it was only the Packers, a great
dynasty team, who made the NFL winners
in the Super Bowl. That wouldn’t have
been surprising if sportswriters had taken
off their blinders, because football teams
turn over quickly, due to the shortness of
players’ careers.
Since the merger to the NFL, one conference or the other has been dominant for
extended periods. The AFC was dominant
in the 70s, mostly because of the Pittsburgh
Steelers, who won four out of six Super
Bowls. The Raiders also won one in that
to figure out who the strongest teams are.
How would you feel if your team was the
third best in the National League but shut
out of an eight-team playoff because six
American League teams were considered
better?
I sympathize with the NBA’s Western
Conference teams battling for the playoffs
because a good team will miss out. As of
March 26, the Dallas Mavericks, Golden
State Warriors and Denver Nuggets were
7-8-9 in the West. If they were in the East,
they’d be 4-5-6 and comfortably in the
playoffs. As it is, one of them will be left
out in the Western Conference playoffs.
My guess is Dallas, but that would make
an important point because the Mavericks
were the best team in the West last season,
which shows how fast basketball fortunes
can change.
The format may not look good this year
but it will correct itself in the near future.
There’s no reason to change.
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April 4, 2008 | SacUnion.com | The Sacramento Union | 23
SPORTING GOLD
Webber’s Legacy, Good or Bad, Lives on After Retirement
By JOSH TERRELL
Sacramento Union Sports Writer
Chris Webber was right in Robert
Horry’s face that night at Staples.
Flying out from the top of the key, his
long right arm fully extended, Webber’s
powerful frame straddled the split second that separated what would have been
Sacramento’s finest moment from what
would be its worst.
But as this city knows all too well, Horry
drained the long three in Game 6 of the
2002 Western Conference Finals, denying a redemption of sorts for the man that,
to this day, personifies the pinnacle of
Sacramento hoops.
My introduction to Webber came on
April 5, 1993, as I dug an Army foxhole
outside of Ft. Benning, Ga. I was vaguely
familiar with the University of Michigan’s
“Fab Five” at the time, but the small radio
connecting my platoon with the NCAA’s
championship game brought Webber
closer to us than he would have liked.
Did “The Timeout” cost Webber’s
Wolverines the game on its own? Certainly
not. It’s easy to forget North Carolina still
had a two-point lead with 11 seconds to
go, but it’s hard to remember a more boneheaded decision by an athlete on a stage
that large.
But because of Horry’s dagger and the
Kings’ subsequent fold in Game 7, Webber
will be remembered by many for an illfated college try instead of what he accomplished over most of 15 NBA seasons.
And that’s just wrong.
Webber joined the Kings in 1998, and
with the help of fellow newcomers Vlade
Divac, Peja Stojakovic and Jason “White
Chocolate” Williams, turned what was a
moribund franchise into not only a contender, but probably the game’s most exciting show at the time.
It was on Webber’s watch that postseasons in Sacramento morphed from
laughably unattainable into an annual
party. Northern California watering holes
became purple-emblazoned festivals on
game nights, where hugs and high-fives
were the norm and if you donned a Kings
Golden State Warriors forward Chris Webber watches a basketball game against the Chicago Bulls
in this Feb. 7, 2008 file photo, in Oakland, Calif. Webber ended his comeback attempt with the Warriors and retired after 15 seasons in the NBA. (AP Photo/Ben Margot)
jersey, you were family.
Starting on Nov. 26, 1999, Arco Arena
became the hottest ticket in town, selling
out 354 straight before the streak ended
with this season’s opener. It was truly a circus show, and No. 4 became both strongman and ringleader.
Standing 6 feet 10 inches tall and weighing-in at 245 pounds, his 4,006 career
rebounds and 26 boards in one game are
still the Sacramento-era Kings standard.
Webber had an incredibly soft shot for
such a big man, with hands that would have
made Fred Biletnikoff proud, and while he
starred at power forward, he sits at fifth on
Sacramento’s assists list.
Kings fans won’t soon forget the nightly
double-doubles, the six-straight playoff
drives that Webber’s all-around talent
glued together, or the simple reminder of
the man known as Center Court at Truxel.
They won’t forget the gleaming, charismatic smile that made “C-Webb” the face
of the franchise for six wild seasons.
Last week he announced the end of an
NBA career that included five trips to the
All-Star game and career averages of 20.7
points, 9.8 rebounds and 4.2 assists per
game. Those stats group him with elites
like Larry Bird, Wilt Chamberlain and
Elgin Baylor.
The basketball world at large might
remember a timeout, a malcontent, a substance abuse suspension, some bogus grand
jury testimony or a money-laundering
scandal.
Webber represented the best and worst
of times, but Sacramento will always
remember him as its greatest King.
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•
SPORTING GOLD
Cal Coach Ben Braun Fired After 12 Seasons
By JANIE McCAULEY
AP Sports Writer
BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — California
underachieved in the eyes of its players, its
athletic director and its fans.
The school fired basketball coach
Ben Braun on March 26 following another
disappointing season in which the Golden
Bears missed the NCAA tournament for
the fourth time in five years.
Braun spent 12 years at Cal and made the
tournament five times. But the Bears only
went to the NCAA tournament once over
his final five seasons, leading to the decision by athletic director Sandy Barbour.
She met on March 26 with Braun, who
then met with eight players from the team
in the locker room afterward with the news.
Barbour, too, talked to as many players as
she could considering some had already left
town for spring break. She said her decision was made this week after evaluating
the program over the course of the season.
“Ultimately, the bottom line is we just
didn’t win enough basketball games,”
Barbour said. “I believe this is a very talented team and I believe they underperformed. ...It concerns me not to put the
student-athletes in position to have outrageous success.”
Cal finished ninth in the Pac-10 this season, going 17-16 overall and just 6-12 in
the conference despite having a talented
roster that included likely future NBA players in Ryan Anderson, DeVon Hardin and
Patrick Christopher. Anderson, the team’s
leading scorer and rebounder this season
as a sophomore, is likely to declare himself
eligible for the NBA draft without hiring
an agent so he can still return to school.
The Bears had the youngest roster in the
Pac-10 – with two seniors and no active
juniors – and made the NIT, where they
were knocked out in the second round by
Ohio State on March 24.
“I was speechless, shocked, kind of numb
in a way,” forward Jamal Boykin said. “I
heard all the rumors. I understand, but
I think it’s unfortunate because he’s put
together a really good system. I understand how the business works. This is a top
university.”
Braun leaves Cal with a 219-154 record
at the school. His most successful season
was his first after taking over when former coach Todd Bozeman was found to
have paid $30,000 to the father of a former player. The Bears went 23-9 in 199697 and advanced to the third round of the
NCAA tournament.
Cal won the NIT in 1999 and made
three straight trips to the NCAA tournament from 2001-03, before struggling in
recent years as other conference programs
have improved. The Bears have placed
eighth or ninth in the Pac-10 in three of
the last four years.
“I’d like to thank the Cal community for
12 great years of support,” Braun said in a
statement. “I’ve had the privilege to coach
at one of the top universities in the country,
and I’m proud of the program we’ve built.
Going to eight postseason tournaments
has been very special. I’m obviously disappointed that my staff and I won’t be able to
coach this team next year, and I feel they
will be very successful.”
According to terms of the most recent
contract extension that went through the
2010-11 season, Braun is due a $985,000
buyout.
Barbour said a search for a new coach
will begin immediately, aided by the firm of
Eastman & Beaudine, Inc. Associate Head
Coach Louis Reynaud will direct the program until a new head coach is named, and
the other assistants will at least stay aboard
until then.
The University of California, Berkeley, fired coach
Ben Braun on March 26 after a dismal season
that saw the Bears go 17-16 overall and just
6-12 in the Pac-10. (Sacramento Union Photo/
Greg Ashman)
April 4, 2008 | SacUnion.com | The Sacramento Union | 25
SPORTING GOLD
Opening Day a Special Time in the Major Leagues
By BRUCE MACGOWAN
Sacramento Union Columnist
The Opening Day
of the baseball season
always has a special
significance. No other
sport celebrates its first
games of the new season quite like baseball.
In Cincinnati, where
the first professional team played its first
initial game back in 1869, the city still
holds a parade that winds through town
and to the ballpark on Opening Day. A tradition that started back in the days of the
horse drawn carriage and the gas lamp is
still observed.
Here on the West Coast, San Francisco
Giants and Oakland A’s fans are getting
excited about the first games of the season,
even though both teams are not expected
to do much during 2008.
One of my favorite Opening Day mem-
ories was watching now Hall of Famer
Gaylord Perry use his “grease ball” to shut
out the San Diego Padres in the first home
game of the 1971 Western Division winning season.
Just six years ago, the Giants had a
memorable opening series in Los Angeles
during their pennant winning campaign.
Barry Bonds, just six months off his record
breaking 73-homer season, blasted four
homers in the first two games as the Giants
pounded their hapless rivals from the
southland in three straight wins. I vividly
remember the “Oohs” and “Ahs” rising
from the normally staid Los Angeles fans
at Chavez Ravine as Bonds’ shots soared
high into the seats.
While some fans have vivid recollections
of individual games, others remember the
drama of listening to the broadcasts over
the radio. Baseball and radio still make a
perfect marriage, as the game is really the
only sport that many fans would prefer to
Si
nc
e
19
85
San Francisco Giants center fielder Aaron Rowand (right), followed by shortstop Kevin Frandsen,
runs onto the field at the start of a spring training baseball game on Feb. 28 in Scottsdale, Ariz.
The Giants will play their home opener on April 7. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)
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26 | The Sacramento Union | SacUnion.com | April 4, 2008
listen to on radio than watch on TV. The
familiar and friendly voices of legendary
Giants’ announcers Russ Hodges, Lon
Simmons, Hank Greenwald and now Jon
Miller, still seem so familiar to many that
they almost feel like old friends. If you’re
a Northern Californian, they provide a
pleasant background sound to your summer activities.
Baseball also brings us hope and diverts
our attention from the mundane and sometimes tragic events of the real world. A
famous writer once said that one only has to
go to the sports pages to read about man’s
triumphs, a nice change of pace, especially
after reading about the daily tragedies on
the front pages of the paper.
Opening Day also brings hope for fans of
the sad-sack teams. Perhaps it’s the return
of warmer and longer days, or maybe it’s
getting back to the game itself after a long,
cold wet winter that stirs folks’ interest.
The game arrives in the spring when everything is green, the snows and rains have for
the most part vanished, and the hills are
alive with the bright colors of spring. Each
game becomes a small chapter in a long,
winding narrative that takes many twists
and turns over the course of 162 games and
six months, and the long season can rivet
the interest of the hardcore and even the
casual fan.
Another personal favorite memory of
Opening Day is from 1987. I remember
Mike Krukow, a 20-game winner from the
year before, pitched eight brilliant innings,
but the visiting Padres led 3-1 going to the
bottom half of the eighth. However, a twoout, two-run double into the right field
corner by outfielder Candy Maldonado
SPORTING GOLD
tied the game at 3-3, and sent over 52,000
fans at Candlestick Park into a frenzy. Will
Clark, who would have a spectacular season in 1987, picked up three hits and also
scored the game-winning run in the 12th
inning, when switch-hitting outfielder Chili
Davis laced a two-out RBI single to make it
a 4-3 final. That stirring win was a portend
of things to come, as the Giants took the
division title that year and then came within
one win of going to the World Series.
Krukow, who now entertains the fans
from the TV booth, is one of the most
enthusiastic announcers in the game, but I
suspect that even he is harboring no illusions about the Giants’ chances of winning
another title this season. On paper, this may
be the worst San Francisco Giants team in
51 years, although you’d have to go pretty
far to flop as badly as the 1985 Giants, who
lost a humiliating 100 games.
Still, AT&T Park will be packed this
coming Monday, as the Giants open their
second half century of playing baseball in
Northern California. If you’re a baseball
fan, it’s really nice to welcome back your
favorite sport for another season. It’s like
welcoming back an old friend who has
returned for his annual visit to your home.
Xterra Runners Circle
Folsom Lake
Special to The Union
Ace Ware, 26, and Sarah Raitter, 36,
blew past the competition at last weekend’s XTERRA Chanoko Trail Run 16k
on March 29. On a drizzly, chilly morning, runners came out to Folsom Lake to
prove they had what it took to overcome
the grueling, winding hills and uneven slippery trails.
Ware, with his time of 1:02:36, came in
first for the men a mere minute ahead of
runner-up William Raitter, 38.
For the women, Reno native Raitter, 36,
won with her time of 1:05:47, solidifying
her win over Mary Courtright by a margin
of almost 12 minutes.
The youngest runner to cross the finish line was Reaghan Emrick. Only 12
years old, the El Dorado Hills resident has
placed in the top 11 females or better overall in the last three races she has entered in
the 2008 running season. Coming in with
her time of 1:32:49, Reaghan continued
her streak.
With runners ranging in age from 12
to 64, the XTERRA Chanoko Trail Run
proved to be an event for athletes of all
ages. The 10-mile run gave Northern
California’s runners the opportunity to
come face-to-face with the best nature had
to offer.
Complete results from the race and more
information can be found online at www.
xterratrailrun.com.
April 4, 2008 | SacUnion.com | The Sacramento Union | 27
Home & Garden
Dollars and $ense
Bonds 101 – Back to Basics
By JAMES J. SCHERER, MBA
Sacramento Union Finance Advisor
The fear of recession tends to influence
investors to buy bonds. However, before
you jump in, we need to look at the risks.
Bonds represent a loan to a borrower
such as a corporation, municipality or government agency. The borrowers issue a
formal IOU that promises to pay you a specific amount of interest, usually quarterly
or semiannually, and repay the full amount
of principal at a fixed date in the future.
loaned them. Moody’s Investors Service,
Standard & Poor’s and other companies
publish credit quality ratings for bonds.
Check your bonds out. As a rule of thumb,
bonds issued by corporations or municipalities with a triple-B rating or higher
are called investment-grade bonds. Noninvestment-grade bonds, with ratings as
low as D, are sometimes referred to as junk
or high-yield bonds because of the higher
rates they must pay to attract investors due
to the substantial risks involved.
…go into the investment with your eyes wide open…
Credit Risk
Credit risk refers to the possibility that a
bond issuer won’t pay back the money you
Market Risk
If I sell a bond before maturity there will
usually be a gain or loss due to the change
in market value. This is called market risk.
Carefully think through your future cash
needs before you buy or you may have to
sell before you want to.
Bonds can be a great way to hunker down
when the stock market is underperforming.
But go into the investment with your eyes
wide open and always get good advice.
Interest Rate Risk
Bond prices tend to drop when interest
rates rise, and vice versa. Think of it like
a teeter-totter. This inverse relationship is
referred to as interest rate risk. If I buy a
bond yielding 4 percent and bond interest
rates of similar bonds increase, the market
value of my bond will decrease. Please note
that exposure to interest rate risk increases
with the length of a bond’s maturity.
This article is not intended to provide specific
investment advice. Consult your financial advisor or me if you have any questions.
James J. Scherer is a financial advisor with,
and securities offered through LPL Financial,
Member FINRA/SIPC (CA Insurance License
0C20370). Reach him at 916-797-1188 or
Email at [email protected].
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News: From the Front
Ag Day
from page 1
California Women for Agriculture, is an
annual event that showcases California’s
diverse agricultural sector valued at $31.8
billion.
Like several thousand others, U.S.
Department of Agriculture Secretary Ed
Shafer made California Ag Day part of
his plans. He arrived at the west steps of
the Capitol on March 25 to join with Gov.
Schwarzenegger, California Food and
Agriculture Secretary A.G. Kawamura,
other dignitaries and the public to honor
California for its many agricultural
accomplishments.
“You don’t have to be the secretary of
agriculture very long to realize that this
state’s contributions to our nation are magnificent,” Shafer said. “You generate more
than one half of the fruits and vegetables
grown in our nation every year. You are
the leading producer of dairy products and
one of our leading producers of livestock
and poultry. You are the leading producer
of tree nuts and greenhouse and nursery
products. And of course you are the nation’s
largest producer of wine.”
With new markets and new consumers
emerging around the world, Shafer added
that it is critical for the future of agriculture in California and across the nation to
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger samples one of the food dishes made from California products while
touring California Agriculture Day at the Capitol in Sacramento, Tuesday, March 25, 2008. (AP
Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
maintain strong growth in exports.
“At USDA, one of our most important
jobs is making sure that American producers can compete on a level playing field
in foreign markets,” Shafer said. “That is
why we’re working hard this year to win
approval for the free trade agreements with
Colombia, Korea and Panama that are now
pending before Congress.”
Celeste Settrini, first vice president of
the California Women For Agriculture,
acknowledged the urban and rural interface that exists in the state and suggested
that communication and events like Ag
Day are the key to educating people about
where their food comes from.
“As our state becomes increasingly
urban and as more people become further
removed from their source of food and
fiber, CWA remains dedicated to building
bridges of communication and ensuring
that agriculture continues to be recognized
for its contributions to the economy, while
supplying healthy and nutritious products
to you and your family,” Settrini said.
That sentiment was further emphasized
by crowd-energizing celebrity chef and
TV personality Guy Fieri of the Food
Network.
“It is easy to look good on the Food
Network when you come from ‘Cali.’ We
are the home of true food. The culture of
food is so rich in our community and our
state,” said Fieri, who owns several restaurants in California. “We’re alive and well
in California with the opportunity to cook
with great, fresh produce and the fresh
meat that we have available.”
As part of the Ag Day program, Fieri
gave a “Cooking with your Kids” presentation where Assemblymembers Tom
Berryhill, R-Modesto, and his children and
Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale, and his daughter, battled in a cook-off with help from a
solar-powered kitchen provided by Pacific
Gas & Electric Co.
“We got involved in an idea of cooking
with your kids. It is something that has
moved away from our culture today with
dual-family incomes,” said Fieri, who was
at Ag Day with his son, Hunter. “Take
some time and cook with your family.”
The Ag Day celebration featured more
than 35 exhibitors representing agricultural commodity groups and organizations
including the California Farm Bureau
Federation, the California Foundation for
Agriculture in the Classroom and the foundation’s “Imagine this…” contest winners.
“Imagine this…” winner Chance Holley,
a fifth-grader from Chatom Elementary in
Stanislaus County, referred to Ag Day as
“awesome!”
“I got to taste some pork and I also tasted
lamb for the first time. It was good. I also
ate some strawberries and petted the alpaca.
Their fur is so soft. I couldn’t believe it,” he
said. “It (agriculture) is really important to
know about. It is our food, it’s our clothes,
it’s everything.”
Christine Souza is a reporter for Ag Alert. She
may be contacted at [email protected]. Story
reprinted with permission of the California
Farm Bureau Federation. For more information about the Farm Bureau or to subscribe to
its bimonthly magazine, “California Country,”
visit www.cfbf.com.
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30 | The Sacramento Union | SacUnion.com | April 4, 2008
NEWS: Special Feature
Letters from Abroad
The Cuban Role in Mexico’s Drug Problem
By LIAM WESTON
Sacramento Union Columnist
The City of El Paso,
Texas has begun a
two-year countdown
to its celebration of
the 100th anniversary of the Mexican
Revolution. The celebration is titled “El
Paso-Ciudad Juarez, Two Cities That
Sparked a Revolution.”
Unfortunately, people living just south
of the Rio Grande in Mexico may not share
El Paso’s nostalgia for war. For people living in Mexico’s Ciudad Juarez today, the
Revolution appears to be back in the worst
way. Since the beginning of this year, over
200 residents of the city have died violently
while another 22 were killed over the
recent Easter weekend.
In response, Mexican President Felipe
Calderón has mobilized 1,500 additional
troops to the border along with 400 federal
police. Making good on a campaign promise to fight the drug cartels, Calderon is in
the fight of his life as now 25,000 troops
deployed since 2006 and an army of federal
Mexican law enforcement officials battle
not only drug cartels but also the corrupt
local police that protect them in Mexican
cities along the U.S. border.
ment into Ciudad Juarez, Mexico’s Foreign
Minister, Patricia Espinosa, attended a
wreath laying ceremony on a statue of
Benito Juarez (the Mexican revolution-
The Bush Administration needs to first demand that
Mexico close its back door to Cuba…
The Bush Administration has promised
Mexico $1.4 billion to assist in the fight.
But Congress is not in agreement and
wants better proof the funds will really
go to fight the “war on drugs.” As the
situation deteriorates in Mexico, it is difficult not to be sympathetic of President
Calderon and his efforts to rid Mexico of
organized drug crime. Unfortunately, just
as President Calderón is raising the hand
of the Mexican Government to stamp out
official corruption funded by drug money,
he is using the other hand of his government to facilitate it.
The Cuban Connection
On March 14, just as Mexican federal
troops were preparing for their deploy-
ary for whom the city Juarez is named)
in Havana, Cuba as part of an effort to
increase economic and political ties with
Cuba.
Cuba’s direct involvement in trafficking
drugs is often debated, but the fact they
have laundered money for the Mexican and
Columbian drug cartels has been widely
reported. In the late 1990s, the Miami
Herald reported on investigations into the
money laundering of drug cartels that led
directly back to Cuba. According to one
article, Mexican investigators discovered
that the largest of the Columbian drug
lords at the time, Carrillo Fuentes, was
hiding his money and family in Cuba.
The Cuban government explained his
visits to Cuba along with business ties in
a letter described this way by the Herald,
“the Cuban government letter, which
made its way to the Mexican press, claimed
that Carrillo Fuentes did not engage in
any commercial activities on the island. It
asserted that the drug lord had made inquiries about possible investments in Cuba’s
Mariel free trade zone, but that no business
deals had materialized.”
The fact the Cuban government was
willing to acknowledge that the world’s
most sought-after drug kingpin was traveling to and from Cuba unmolested while
discussing potential investments on the
island was significant.
This is consistent with studies that have
concluded the mysterious financing used
to build so many new tourist hotels in
Cuba is laundered drug money. According
to a well-placed Cuban defector, Jesús M.
Fernández, the offshore accounts used by
Castro to store the laundered drug money
are called “Reserva del Comandante” and
were the same private accounts Castro’s
regime once used to obfuscate the amount
of Soviet subsidies he was receiving.
The Ties that Bind
Increasing financial and commercial
ties between Cuba and Mexico could not
come at a worse time for the poor souls of
Ciudad Juarez. While their neighbor to the
north, El Paso, is spending U.S tax dollars
in preparation of a grand celebration of the
Mexican Revolution, citizens in Ciudad
Juarez are struggling to survive a corrupt
government that is now just a remnant of
that revolution.
The Bush Administration needs to first
demand that Mexico close its back door
to Cuba with a trade embargo of its own
before bringing another $1.4 billion in the
front door to combat the corruption that
Cuba supports.
Liam Weston works in international business.
He can be reached at [email protected].
Mexico’s Foreign Minister Patricia Espinosa (second right) attends a ceremony at the statue of late Mexican President Benito Juarez in Havana, Friday,
March 14, 2008. Espinosa, Mexico’s top diplomat, visited Cuba in an effort to improve relations between the two nations, which suffered under both
nations’ previous administrations. (AP Photo/Javier Galeano)
“Letters from Abroad” is a story series by The Union in which columnists
Karen Russo and Liam Weston provide firsthand analysis concerning the
most prominent foreign policy issues
of our time: Israel and the Middle
East (by Russo, a journalist living in
Israel) and U.S.-Mexican relations in
regards to immigration (by Weston,
an international trade advisor familiar
with Latin America). Russo and
Weston will publish alternately every
other week and appear on this page.
April 4, 2008 | SacUnion.com | The Sacramento Union | 31