SACRAMENTO – The City of Sacramento is recognizing one of its former leaders. On Sunday, May 6, the Amphitheatre at McClatchy Park will be dedicated in the name of the former City Councilmember Callie Carney. Ms. Carney was the city’s first African American woman to serve on the Council.
The Dedication ceremony, set to start at 3:00 p.m., will take place in McClatchy Park hosted by current District 5 City Councilmember Jay Schenirer.
SACRAMENTO – Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, after meeting with owners of the Sacramento Kings for the last two days, said today the proposed arena deal has fallen through because of “irreconcilable” differences between the City and the Maloofs.
Mayor Johnson said that the meetings with the Kings owners had been productive but added, “It just became clear that the differences that we had were irreconcilable.”
Speaking to a room of reporters Friday, a clearly disappointed Mayor Johnson said he would examine the City’s “plan B” and continue to meet with potential arena operators AEG about a downtown entertainment and sports complex.
SACRAMENTO – Winners of the 2012 Green California Leadership Awards acknowledging public sector sustainability, have been announced! The awards will be presented at the Green California Summit on April 26, 2012, during the Leadership Awards Ceremony at the Sacramento Convention Center. The City of Sacramento has earned its place among the winners.
The Green California Summit, now in its sixth year, is the pre-eminent conference and exposition focused on green government and its private sector partners in California. The conference draws thousands of attendees to its full slate of educational workshops, panels, special events and its green products and services expo.
The leadership awards were established to recognize outstanding environmental achievements by cities, state agencies and other government entities in California. The eight award topics and winners are chosen in cooperation with the Summit’s Advisory Board. Award categories range from sustainability in transportation projects to climate change, energy innovation, water and waste management. All nominated projects are publicly financed and executed and have a measurable benefit to the natural and human environment.
The City of Sacramento has received the Green Economic Development Leadership Award for its Clean Energy Sacramento Program which enables building owners to finance renewable energy and energy efficiency upgrades over the long-term through their property taxes. The city has partnered with Ygrene Energy Fund to administer and fund the program with $100 million in private capital. Clean Energy Sacramento was designed to meet a number of challenges, not the least of which is the regions 13 percent unemployment rate, which will be positively impacted by the creation of up to 1,100 jobs over the next 5 years. The program will also eliminate the up-front costs for installing renewable energy and energy efficiency retrofits for commercial buildings.
SACRAMENTO – Every summer for the past 26 years, local law enforcement and Sacramento youth team up for the Kops-N-Kids summer camp program.
Kops-N-Kids is a non-profit organization that hosts a weeklong summer sports camp for children ages 9-13 in the Sacramento area. The focus of the camp is to educate children about gang resistance, violence prevention, gun avoidance, and to promote positive choices. Youth are given the opportunity for positive interaction with law enforcement and fire department role models. A new educational element addressing internet safety has been added.
The 2012 Kops-N-Kids summer camp runs June 18-22 at Rosemont High School at 9594 Kiefer Blvd., Sacramento. The hours of camp are 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday through Thursday, and 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p. m. on Friday. The cost of the camp is only $32 for the entire week. Busing is available from select local school districts.
The Sacramento County Probation Department, in partnership with local law enforcement agencies, fire departments, businesses, civic and community organizations, takes extreme pride in this program that promotes confidence, courage and teamwork in our community’s youth.
There are a limited number of spaces available. Visit the website or register online at www.kopsnkids.com
CHICAGO – Cars.com, compiled a list of U.S. cities with the most and least eco-friendly car shoppers. The site looked at search data from its millions of site visitors and determined that, based on their searches for vehicles that get more than 40 mpg, California shoppers are the greenest in the U.S., and Southern states are the least green.
“Earth Day is our yearly reminder that we can be doing more for the environment,” said Cars.com Editor-in-Chief, Patrick Olsen. “This list ranks cities where car shoppers are most interested in minimizing their driving’s impact on the environment. With more hybrids, electrics and very fuel-efficient vehicles on the market than ever before, shoppers looking for a new car can do their part to reduce their carbon footprint without skimping on style and comfort.”
A few vehicles that Olsen recommends for the eco-conscious shopper this Earth Day include:
The top 10 cities with the greenest car shoppers, based on Cars.com searches, are*:
*Ranked greenest to least green
“There’s a perception that Californians are more eco-conscious, and our car shopping data shows that’s true,” said Olsen. “With more charging stations than any other state and dedicated car-pool lanes, it’s easy to understand why manufacturers typically choose California as the place to launch their new ‘green’ vehicles.”
The 10 cities with the fewest green car shoppers, based on Cars.com searches, are*:
*Ranked least green to greener
“The hard-workers in the South need their pickup trucks,” said Olsen. “For these workers, a hybrid or fuel efficient vehicle would likely be a second car, and that’s just not as feasible for many in this economy.”
SACRAMENTO – This Saturday, April 28th is a fabulous kids event! Passport to Summer Youth Fair highlights a wide-range of opportunities for healthy summer and after school activities. It will be featuring programs offered by the local parks and recreation departments, as well as opportunities provided by a number of other community organizations, including the Boys and Girls Clubs, Sacramento Youth Symphony, Crocker Art Museum, CSU Camps and YMCA.
It will be held at Oak Park Community Center at 3425 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. The fun will include bounce houses, face painting, snacks, entertainment, and more. To top it off, everything is FREE!
For more information visit : http://sd06.senate.ca.gov/sites/sd06.senate.ca.gov/files/2012-04-28-Passport-to-Summer.pdf
SACRAMENTO – Gotta love a man who can burn.
Members of the 100 Black Men of Sacramento will show off their culinary skills as they present the return of their signature fundraiser, Real Mean Can Cook on Sunday, April 22. The event is set to run 1:00 to 4:00 p.m. at the Samuel C. Pannell Community Center, 2450 Meadowview Road.
The Real Men Can Cook raises money for the 100 Black Men of Sacramento’s mentoring and scholarship programs. For the cost of admission, $25 in advance or $30 at the door, diners can sample dishes prepared by members and supporters. Dishes include chicken, collard greens, candied yams, gumbo and more.
Participants include special guest chef, Gary Gainey, the executive chef at the Power Balance Pavilion. Other activities include live musical performances by the Christ Temple Apostolic Church’s Youth Choir.
The 100 Black Men’s mission is to improve the quality of life in the African American community. The organiztion’s programs are directed at young African American males and offer structured mentoring, tutoring, cultural enrichment and college scholarships.
For more information, contact Booker T. Pannell at (916) 289-3657 or George Campbell at (916) 543-2867.
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By Genoa Barrow
OBSERVER Senior Staff Writer
SACRAMENTO – The Black filmmaking tradition will be celebrated this month as organizers of the Sacramento International Film Festival host its CineSoul event on April 22 as part of its weeklong effort to cultivate the art form and build a local film making community.
CineSoul will be held at The Artisan, 1901 Del Paso Boulevard, beginning at 12:30 p.m. The annual showcase was started in 2005.
CineSoul, also called the Sacramento Black Film Festival, starts off with CineSoul Shorts. There will be screening of “Drain Pipe Dreams” by Drew Louis, “Road Rage” by Heather Donnell, “Brotherly Love” by Choice Skinner, “Chocolate Ice Cream” by Howard Squires, and “Mikel’s Faith” by Alexander Etseyatse.
Other films to be shown include “Being Elmo,” a documentary about African American puppeteer Kevin Clash, who is the man behind Sesame Street’s beloved Elmo character, “Black Power Mix Tape,” about leaders in the Black Power movement; “Carbon for Water,” about the lack of clean drinking water, health and human rights in Kenya, and “Mercury’s Rule,” by Bay Area filmmaker Jaylani Roberts.
Set in Oakland, “Mercury’s Rule” is a fictional story of two Black sisters seeking to avenge the death of a drug kingpin.
“The film has dark elements and gritty scenes, but at its core it is about the loving relationship between two sisters,” Ms. Roberts said.
This is Ms. Roberts’ second film, she also stars in it, portraying the character Razor. While she doesn’t mind doing double duty, she says she envisions the day when she can just be behind the camera.
“Life would be a lot easier,” she said.
Ms. Roberts hails from the mission district of San Francisco and has lived in Oakland off and on for most of her life.
“It has been a wonderful canvas to tell inspiring yet heart wrenching stories. My experiences in Oakland have lent to me feeling that urban stories and the urban voice should be heard more through film,” she shared.
She hopes to get distribution for the film and use it to showcase her skills as a filmmaker.
Ms. Roberts and other featured filmmakers will talk about their projects as CineSoul culminates at 8:30 p.m. with a discussion and after party at nearby Carol’s Books.
Film lovers can view films individually or get an All Day Pass to see all the films for $20. For a complete schedule of films and show times, call (916) 524-5138 or visit www.sacramentofilmfestival.com.
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By Genoa Barrow
OBSERVER | Senior Staff Writer
SACRAMENTO – Customers of the Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) come to expect the best from the electric utility they own and when it comes to smart meters, SMUD continues to deliver. SMUD has completed installation of smart meters for its more than 600,000 residential and business customers. The project, which started in late 2009, has been completed on time and on budget. It is a major success. SMUD is one of only a handful of utilities in the United States to complete such a large deployment effort.
Throughout the project, SMUD has maintained customer satisfaction levels in the mid-90th percentile. Ongoing surveys measure customer satisfaction with the meters, the installation process and associated communications. The complaint rate is only 0.09 percent.
SMUD smart meters provide SMUD customers with more flexibility and choice and immediate benefits. For example, customers can now see their electricity usage online, and start and stop service remotely. Meters are now read automatically precluding meter readers from being on customers’ property. Fewer trucks will be needed to maintain the system.
Smart meters also provide the foundation for the future smart grid, a comprehensive upgrade that will provide digital two-way communication to customers about rates, products and services and even help identify outages more quickly. Quicker restorations and even some “self-healing” features will improve reliability and save energy. “Smart meters and the smart grid will revolutionize the way we use energy in our lives in a very productive way,” said SMUD General Manager and CEO John DiStasio. “SMUD customers will be able to better gauge how they use electricity to better manage their usage, bill and comfort according to their needs,” DiStasio said.
Congresswoman Doris O. Matsui (D-Sacramento) joined SMUD in celebrating the highly successful deployment. Matsui was instrumental in SMUD winning a $127.5 million Smart Grid Investment Grant from the Department of Energy. The grant helped SMUD fund the meter installations and begin building the smart grid. “The Smart Grid Investment Grant program is accelerating the modernization of the nation’s electric transmission and distribution systems. The funding SMUD received will ensure Sacramento residents have a smarter, more efficient and reliable electric system that will empower consumers to make energy-saving choices and will foster new growth of renewable energy sources,” Matsui said.
From the very beginning, SMUD made its smart meter program customer-centric, always putting the customer’s satisfaction first and foremost. SMUD ensured customers knew when the meter would be installed and communicated in easy to understand literature in six languages explaining the process and the benefits. Customers were provided 14-day notices for installations with the option to schedule installation appointments within a one-hour window. SMUD offers domestically based live agents to handle any questions.
Another key factor for SMUD’s success is careful planning. SMUD installed the network that reads the meters before installing the meters and tested the network extensively. SMUD began deployment by conducting a year-long test with approximately 80,000 smart meters in the downtown Sacramento area, suburban Folsom and the rural southeastern part of Sacramento County. The test measured the capability of the network as well as billing accuracy. This approach helped SMUD minimize doing estimated reads, an aspect that has complicated other utilities’ rollouts. The test was very successful. In 2011, SMUD began full deployment and installed as many as 50,000 meters per month, completing it in the first quarter of 2012.
As a result, the SMUD smart meter project was awarded the 2012 Smart Utility Award—Excellence Awards North America—by Metering International magazine, a pre-eminent industry trade publication. “SMUD’s project stands out for its forward-thinking approach,” the magazine wrote, calling SMUD a “truly smart grid trailblazer” with a “holistic vision (that) encompasses the community as the primary benefitting entity.”
SMUD envisions a day when customers can better tailor their energy usage by pre-setting or remotely programming their preferences for thermostats, appliance use and electric vehicle charging. These tools can reduce their bills and deliver overall community benefits in the form of a more reliable grid and more stable rates, especially during hot summer days when SMUD pays higher prices for purchased power.
The smart grid ties together all aspects of electricity delivery and consumption. The resulting potential energy savings could help SMUD save roughly $8 million to $15 million annually in power supply costs. Those savings could help SMUD avoid a major transmission investment or a local large scale electric generation project. The cheapest power plant is the one that isn’t built, and at today’s prices, SMUD’s smart meter and smart grid projects could avoid about $300 million to $400 million of upfront capital costs with regard to future generation needs.
For more information about the SMUD smart meter and smart grid projects, visit smud.org.
SACRAMENTO – GSUL President and CEO David DeLuz will be presenting an overview of the 2012 State of Black America report, developed and published by the National Urban League.
In addition to sharing key information and strategies from the comprehensive report, DeLuz will also be sharing the NUL’s 12 point jobs plan, and update on its implementation and local data that can help begin discussions on a local strategy.
DETAILS:
Indivisible Meeting
Monday, April 16, 2012
6:00 pm – 7:30 pm
The Guild Theater
2828 35th Street
