Water Wizards

Water Wizards

A cardboard box can save lives.

Don’t believe me? Ask Robert Metcalf, professor emeritus of biological sciences at Sacramento State and co-founder of International Water and Health Alliances.

With his wife, Mary Beth, a retired physician, Metcalf helps raise funds to support an organization called Friends of the Old, or FOTO, a community group in Lower Nyakach, Kenya.

The program provides reading glasses for elderly people, seeds for the neediest households, education for girls and, perhaps most importantly, water-treatment supplies.

Where Is Animal Control?

Where Is Animal Control?

There is a hidden world in Sacramento, off the grid and unknown to most. Dogs in small cages or padlocked to trees and poles. Chains tangled with little room to move. Many without food, water or shelter.

These are the dogs of homeless camps.

“You know those commercials on TV?” Debbie Tillotson says. She’s talking about the heart-wrenching public service ads that expose the underworld of animal abuse. “You can easily insert Sacramento. This is your backyard, it’s the same thing.”

Eaten Alive

Eaten Alive

The prey lands. A trap is sprung. The prey struggles but is no match for the enzymes that slowly digest it between vibrant green lobes with tooth-like trichomes.

No, this isn’t a scene out of “Little Shop of Horrors.” It’s the daily eating habit of a Venus flytrap, one of hundreds of carnivorous plant species that capture our imagination.

“Carnivory in plants has arisen at least 12 different times in 12 different areas around the world,” says Ron Nies, president of the Sacramento Bromeliad and Carnivorous Plant Society. “The whole idea of plants absorbing insects makes sense. They grow in areas with nutrient-poor soils, so they catch insects to supplement their needs.”

Fabulous Finds

Fabulous Finds

Fabulous Finds Sales from Assistance League store help community By LeAne H. Rutherford June 2023 Customers discover “fabulous finds” when they shop at the Assistance League of Sacramento’s upscale resale business on Fulton Avenue. The Assistance League solicits...
Taking Care

Taking Care

This post is sponsored by Taking Care Physicians find concierge medicine works for many By Jessica Laskey June 2023 It’s 7 p.m., most doctors’ offices are closed, and you have a medical concern. You call your physician and who picks up? Your physician. In a brief...
Born To Serve

Born To Serve

Wendy Bruns has attended a lot of births. So many that she’s become a hot commodity for friends and family giving birth who want a supportive person in the room.

“Birthwork is definitely a calling,” says Bruns, a Sonoma County native who earned a bachelor’s degree in anthropology at UC Santa Cruz. “I had a friend who got pregnant at 19 and the dad wasn’t in the picture, so I went to every prenatal appointment with her and was there when she gave birth to my godson. I hadn’t seen anything about birth except on TV, so I watched birth videos and learned everything I could. Then I attended my nephew’s birth and other friends’ and family’s births and people started saying, ‘You should do this as a career.’”