Oct 6, 2021
Irene B. West was a trailblazer on many levels. As Elk Grove’s first Black classroom educator in what was a rural community, she enjoyed a long career as a teacher and principal.
The Elk Grove Unified School District named an elementary school after her in 2002. West died in April at age 88.
Brian MacNeill is principal at Irene B. West Elementary School. “Thankfully, I had the opportunity to meet Mrs. West and wanted all in the community to know her,” he says. “In January 2018, we had an evening with Mrs. West and a couple of hundred folks attended. I wanted them to know her. So I interviewed Mrs. West about teaching in Elk Grove.”
Sep 28, 2021
Take a close look at the photo. Chain-link kennel, maybe 4 feet by 6 feet. Hardpan dirt. Feces underfoot. Empty food bowl. Filthy water dish. Solitary confinement. Here in Sacramento. And it’s legal.
My husband and I foster dogs for a local rescue group. In August on a 100-plus-degree day, I stood in the backyard of Becky Browning’s South Sacramento home. She had applied to adopt one of our foster mutts and I was performing a home visit.
Sep 28, 2021
Todd Patterson has lived many lives in his nearly six decades. The Sacramento native has resided all over the country and has owned all kinds of businesses, many in East Sacramento.
After serving in the Navy, Patterson did “a little of this, a little of that,” which included a stint in the fashion industry. That job took him to Fashion Weeks all over the world, but he eventually landed back in Sacramento working for an East Sac real estate company.
When Patterson’s boss bought the Parcel Plus retail store at 3104 O St. and asked for help turning it around, Patterson had no idea it would become his next career.
“My parents owned parcel and packaging businesses in Arizona,” Patterson says, “but I never would have thought that’s where I’d end up.”
Sep 28, 2021
Amatoria Fine Art Books is not a new beginning as much as it is a rebirth. For 35 years, Richard L. Press Fine and Scholarly Books on the Arts subsisted on a quiet corner in Midtown, its shelves curated and ministered by the titular Richard L. Press.
Over the course of his life, Press accumulated a collection of rare books that made discerning bibliophiles drool. He focused on fine art, mostly—painting, literature, photography and architecture, to name a few broad categories. But his collection of 15,000 books was as varied as the arts themselves, and included a plethora of rare, out-of-print texts on fringe subjects like typography, cartography, papermaking, mosaics, textiles and more.
Sep 28, 2021
When the gift shop in the California State Capitol Museum reopens, it will be more than a welcome return of eclectic merchandise. The reopening of Capitol Books & Gifts means employment for clients of the Developmental Disabilities Service Organization.
All purchases made at the gift shop support the programs of the disabilities group, an award-winning nonprofit that provides more than 400 adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities with job training, employment opportunities, arts programming, life-skill building and social interaction. The organization’s Employment Plus program matches clients with jobs that fit skill levels and interests.
Sep 28, 2021
Trish Levin and Carol Voyles have nearly 600 grandchildren. No, they’re not all biological.
Most of the kids are students at Ethel Phillips Elementary School in the City Farms neighborhood south of Sutterville Road. But that doesn’t mean Levin and Voyles love them any less.
