Nov 28, 2024
For more than a year, American River Parkway supporters have called for a redesign of erosion- control plans by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The Army Corps intends to bulldoze through fragile river parkway landscape, destroy riparian habitat, replace shoreline with rock and rubble, and threaten countless wildlife to protect the city from floods. The project, called Contract 3B, runs from the Howe Avenue bridge to east of Watt Avenue.
But when a draft environmental impact report generated negative comments from the public and agencies—as many as 1,900 letters—the Army Corps postponed its work until 2026.
Nov 28, 2024
As a kid, I spent many hours at the Crocker Art Museum. Between school trips and weekend jaunts with my artist parents, I wandered the halls finding favorite paintings and artifacts.
One constant was the presence of Lial Jones, the Crocker’s Mort and Marcy Friedman director and CEO. Deeply kind despite an imposing presence, Jones would greet us with a smile. I was star-struck, knowing she ran the place.
Now Jones is retiring. In January, she leaves a 25-year Crocker legacy that could fill volumes.
Under Jones, the collection grew by 23,000 objects, attendance and membership doubled, and programming expanded. She oversaw the tripling of the Crocker’s physical footprint with the addition of the Teel Family Pavilion.
Nov 28, 2024
Ryan and Heather Filippini go way back. They met as youngsters at St. Anne’s Catholic School in Lodi, followed separate paths to college, got reacquainted in Sacramento and married in 2010.
Now they work mostly from home. Ryan works in real estate. Heather works for a tech support company. East Sac is their base.
“Our first East Sac home was a two-bedroom, one-bath near Bertha Henschel Park,” Ryan says. “We then upgraded to a larger house across the street. We loved our neighbors and our tightknit neighborhood, especially during COVID lockdowns.”
Nov 28, 2024
One recent afternoon, I stood in a Midtown workout studio called Her Elevated, dressed for movement with other women. We were learning to defend ourselves.
I was ready to throw some punches. But when instructor Lisa Thew, owner of self-defense training company Diamond Defense, started the class, I was handed a binder and asked to sit on a couch.
For the next hour, Thew took the group through lessons in risk assessment and awareness that form the basis of Rape Aggression Defense.
Nov 28, 2024
If there’s one thing Kamika Hebbert knows it’s this: “It doesn’t matter what you come from, you can be the change. Don’t let your negative circumstances be your outcome.”
She could be speaking about herself. Hebbert grew up between foster care and her biological family. Many of her relatives were incarcerated. At age 9, she started writing letters to family members behind bars to provide them with an emotional connection, care packages and even financial support.
Nov 28, 2024
Sometimes, I feel like the man who had enough with life’s difficulties and went to live in a monastery.
Once in the monastery, the man was instructed to speak only two words per year.
After his first year, he met with his abbot. His two words, “Bed hard.”
After his second year, he told his abbot, “Food bad.”
Finally, on his third year, he came to the abbot’s office and said, “I quit.”
