Registrar of Voters Jill LaVine announced today that those interested in voting in the upcoming Statewide Primary Election have until Monday, May 24, 2010 to register to vote.  Everyone who is not currently registered or those who want to change their party and participate in this election need to make sure they are registered.

To determine if you are currently registered, you can check the Registrar’s website at

http://www.elections.saccounty.net/VotingInformation/default.htm Continue Reading »

Do you ever wonder what goes on at City Council meetings?  Have you ever thought maybe I should go and check it out, but wait…..I have to work…..or there’s nobody to watch the kids…..or my car’s in the shop……etc. etc. etc.  Even if life gets in the way, it’s still possible to see what’s happening at all those public meetings like the City Council meetings or Design Commission meetings or the Planning Commission.  Continue Reading »

CalVCP (California Victims Compensation Program) will kick off the annual National Crime Victims’ Rights Week with a “Victims’ Rights Rally” on Monday, April 19, 2010, starting at 10:15AM outside CalVCP Headquarters, 400 R Street, Sacramento, CA  95811.  For the first time, this rally will bring together all State agencies involved in protecting victims of crime, with a show of strength and recognition for California’s victims.  Following the Rally, a large group of State employees will be escorted by Sacramento Police Officers on the march to the State Capitol for an event featuring speakers and a victim resource fair. Continue Reading »

The Utilities Rate Advisory Commission is a Panel to Advise the Mayor and City Council on Proposed Rate Changes.  City of Sacramento residents are invited to apply for a position on the Utilities Rate Advisory Commission. Established by the Sacramento City Council in 2008, this commission is a sounding board for proposed rate changes and serves as an expert advisory panel to the Mayor and City Council. Members also serve as a community liaison, providing information about utility service rates and collecting feedback.  “We understand that customer input in the rate setting process is vital to balancing service levels set by the City Council with competitive rates,” said Department of Utilities Director Marty Hanneman.  “The Rate Advisory Commission provides an avenue for residents to actively participate in finding that balance.” Continue Reading »

Hard to believe it has been a year since Barack Obama was elected President of the U. S. of America.  Tomorrow evening, President Obama will stand before a joint session of Congress and deliver his first State of the Union address outlining where he thinks we are and where we’re going as a Nation.  In preparation for this annual address, he asked his Cabinet to take a moment to prepare a similar report for the American people. Continue Reading »

This is a great way to make history fun for the whole family and it’s FREE.  Get your own little piece of history by visiting the California State Capitol Museum 10th & L Streets State Capitol, Room B-27, Sacramento, CA 95814.  Continue Reading »

THE GREAT GARAGE SALE IS OVER

On Friday when the State of California Garage Sale started there were no parking places and the line to get in the door to buy all the junk treasures snaked past the building for several blocks.  It was quite an event; there were people directing traffic, TV camera crews, vendors selling food and even porta-potties.  I wasn’t sure if I was at the wrong place and maybe I had wandered into the circus instead of a giant garage sale. 

I guess in these economic times everybody is looking for a bargain and a lot of people found one this weekend at the State of California Great Garage Sale.  Probably not even a dent in the budget deficit, but the big Garage Sale is over and the final results are in, over $1.5 million in sales.

•  $1.2 million in vehicle sales
• $237k in warehouse items
• $58k on EBay

You only thought “Cash for Clunkers” was over; the State of California sold a lot of clunkers pre-owned vehicles for a cool $1.2 million dollars cash at the garage sale this weekend.  Click on this link to see a list of cars and the sale prices.  The Governator signed the sun visor of a few of the vehicles hoping star power would up the price.  I heard a couple of people wanted a discount because of the graffiti in some of the cars; I’m not saying it had anything to do with signatures on sun visors but who knows. 

If you measure it by the amount of people who came then the Great Garage Sales seems like a Great Success.  If this isn’t enough to balance the budget maybe we could all bring our extra stuff and meet our state legislators over at Arnold and Maria’s house and have another one of these.  Everybody check your closets for extra stuff.

The State of California needs some quick cash.  So what’s a state to do?  They do just what the rest of us would do, raise the garage door, stick a sign in the yard, drag all the junk out and sell it cheap.  You know what they say, “One state’s junk is another man’s treasures”.  That may not be exactly how the saying goes, but we will all get a chance to find out for ourselves this weekend.

Starting Friday, August 28, 2009, from 8:00AM to 6:00PM and Saturday, August 29, 2009, from 7:00AM to 12:00PM the State of California is having a giant garage sale at 1700 National Drive, Sacramento, CA.  Cars can be previewed on Thursday, August 27, 2009, from 8:00AM to 4:00PM.  

For all the details visit the special website for the State of California garage sale dgs.ca.gov/garagesale

Cash for Clunkers Running out of Money

Cash for clunkers may be out of money after just one week.  The White House said Thursday it was reviewing the wildly popular program because of concerns that the budget for rebates for new auto purchases may have been exhausted in only a week. The program, called the Car Allowance Rebate System, known as CARS, offers owners of old cars and trucks $3,500 or $4,500 toward a new, more fuel-efficient vehicle.

Dealers have been submitting the rebates at such a fast pace the government already has a backlog and isn’t sure how much money is left to fund the program and thus the program may have to be suspended until the processing catches up and the government can figure it out. 

Maybe we should just take back a few of those billions the government used to shore up Wall Street and just let everybody that is driving a clunker get a new car.  Seems that might give those banks a little business to keep them going and help people get a new car as well as keeping a few more dealerships from closing their doors.

The White House said auto dealers and consumers should have confidence that transactions under the program that already have taken place would be honored.  So if you have a clunker and want to get in on the cash better hurry!

Email from Obama

I’m feeling important again today.  You guessed it; I got another personal email from Barak Obama.  It’s a pretty fancy message too with a video right in the middle; they must have a cracker jack tech team at the white house.  No invites to a cabinet meeting yet, but I’m on the email list.  I also got a notice that I won the Canadian Lottery, an offer for a free cell phone, and a message from a widow in Africa that needs my help getting her money out of the country and away from all the corrupt people trying to cheat her out of her fortune, it’s so bad she has offered me half her money if I will just help her.  I’ll deal with those other opportunities later, but first I need to tell you what the President wanted in his email. Probably the easiest way to do that is just to share it with you, (notice it starts “Dear Friend”, I must be important to be friends with the president) so here it is: Continue Reading »