R.E. Graswich

Writer and Editorial Team

About This Author

R.E. Graswich is a journalist, author and media expert. His book “Vagrant Kings” is the definitive history of the Sacramento Kings basketball team. He was Special Assistant to Mayor Kevin Johnson, managed the Sacramento Voices program for the Maynard Institute of Journalism Education and worked for the Sacramento Bee, CBS 13 and KFBK.

Articles by this author

All The Marbles

A new basketball season beckons and something bizarre is happening at Golden 1 Center. The Kings believe now is the time to win an NBA championship.

I began to follow the Kings for a living in 1984. They were based in Kansas City. My newspaper sent me to Missouri to see what the fuss was about.

For the next 40 years, I never saw the Kings march into a new season with a win-it-all attitude. Until now.

Fast Company

Kristi Matal figured fast cars, soccer kids and dogs made a bad combination. Kids and dogs were fine. Speeding drivers meant trouble.

She decided to do something about it.

The problem roared into Matal’s view as she visited the dog park at Bill Conlin Youth Sports Complex on Freeport Boulevard. Dog owners were frustrated by motorists flying past Conlin on the rural, two-lane highway that borders the park.

Experience Matters

Sacramento makes safe choices when it’s time to elect a mayor. For the past half-century, voters picked nothing but incumbents or experienced City Council members to lead City Hall.

With one exception.

In 2008, voters rejected two-term mayor Heather Fargo in favor of Kevin Johnson, a retired basketball star who returned home to build charter schools and buy real estate in his Oak Park neighborhood.

Today voters have a chance to install another political amateur in the mayor’s office.

Flojaune Cofer, a public health nonprofit policy director, is running against longtime State Assembly and City Council member Kevin McCarty.

Bridge Out

There’s big trouble with the bike and railroad bridge that crosses Interstate 5 and Riverside Boulevard near Sutterville Road. Here’s how the city tried to hide the story.

Word spread this summer over concerns with concrete that holds the new bridge together. It’s hard to keep everyone quiet about potentially inferior concrete on a bridge above an interstate.

Call them desperate, duplicitous or naïve. But authorities at City Hall figured they could bury the facts and cover up the details.

City officials stonewalled my questions about the bridge, a high-profile structure that arches over the freeway and connects the new Del Rio Trail with the Sacramento River Parkway bike path.

Imposter Syndrome

Imposter Syndrome Steinberg’s curse was obvious: He replaced a sports star By R.E. Graswich...