News and Information

Ohana Dance Group

2009-09-14T05:53:23Z

Hip-shaking is not a requirement for most dancers, but in the case of the Ohana Hawaiian Dance Group, it's a must.

Celebrating the Hawaiian culture through hula dancing is what the dance group does the best. The Ohana Dance Group was founded in 2003 by Pat Toyama in hopes to reconnect with the Hawaiian culture she left behind in 1986. Toyama, her proclaimed Hawaiian name, meaning "cool fragrance" in Hawaiian, is currently the only Hula instructor.

The group just recently became a non-profit this past year. "It started at a church as a church activity," Toyama said. "In 2005, we branched off and in 2009 we became a non-profit."

Toyama said the dance group wanted to qualify for grants, since financially they were just skimming by, and become a non-profit would allow them to do so.

Currently, the Ohana Dance Group puts on about a dozen performances a year, with a major one in September. All of the profits go toward guest performers, Faith Ako being this year's guest, and scholarships for high school students.

The group has given out seven $500 scholarships to graduating high school seniors since they have become an organization, two of them being this year and four last year, Toyama said.

The cost per month for lessons is $35 for adults and $25 for children, which on average is lower than or equal to a regular gym membership. Toyama said that she also tries to keep the group family friendly.

"We try to keep the cost down for students. Many times other kinds of sports require a high(er) cost to join," Tomaya said. "And we do highly encourage families to participate by offering discounts."

The dance group consist of about 30 members, women and children making up most of it. Currently there are only 3 male dancers. Toyama said she believes it's because men in the mainland are too shy to dance hula.

Regardless of their gender, age and race, all group members have been given Hawaiian names.

"The depth of their commitment to the culture after about a year and a half will earn them a Hawaiian name," Toyama said.

Toyama said she encourages everyone to join and take lessons, the only requirements are: love for the Hawaiian culture and passion for hula dancing.

According to the Ohana Dance Group Web site, the group is a multi-generation dance group with members of various background and cultures. Toyama said that she is the only member that was born in Hawaii.

Christine "Makale`a" Beyer and her two children, ages 13 and 19, are currently the only caucasian family in the group. "I watched my daughter do it, and I thought, 'I can do that too,'" Beyer said.

She said she was looking to enroll her 19-year-old daughter Michelle "Lilinoe" in a dance group and met Toyama at an event hosted at an L&L Hawaiin BBQ restaurant about two and a half years ago. Soon after, the mother/daughter duo joined the dance group. 13-year-old Jack "Keaka" joined a few months later and dad Jeff Beyer participated for the first time as a guest dancer during this past weekend's performance.

Unlike the Beyer family, Debby "Alana" Bell had another reason for joining the group.

"I finally decided to get in tune with my heritage," Bell said. "It's a really interesting cultural experience."

Bell said her parents were born in Hawaii and wanted embrace their culture by joining the dance group.

Bell has been a member for about 2 years and said it was her first time hula dancing. At a young age, Bell had been involved in musical theatre, but never managed to learn the dance tied so closely to her heritage, she said. Bell now attends the International Hula Conference in Waikiki.

Last year was her first time attending, and she said she was looking forward to attending this year's conference in November.

For more information about the Ohana Dance group visit http://www.ohanadancegroup.com/whoweare.html

Second Sunday

2009-09-12T18:05:00Z

When the Second Saturday party ends, the "Second Sunday" cleanup begins. A couple of Sacramento Midtown community members have taken matters into their own hands by organizing Green/Clean Sacramento Midtown. The group on the popular networking Web site Meetup.com helps keep Sacramento streets clean.

The meetup group, which consists of about 25 members, was created in April by Julie Kaye in hopes of improving the garbage and gutter problems in the Midtown area. Even though the group has a significant number of members, only four to eight people attend the cleanup sessions, she said. Members typically spend two to three hours cleaning the cross streets between I and J, and 16th through 28th. Kaye said all members of the meetup group are volunteers looking to preserve Midtown's beauty.

"We have noticed an increase in trash," Kaye said. "Our intent is to get businesses to clean up the sidewalks."

Known mainly for its "Second Sunday" cleanups, as the community likes to call them, the group also cleans its designated area at least twice a month, Kaye said, and is looking for other ways to keep the streets clean.

Kaye, who volunteers with the Midtown Business Association (MBA), said she had not been happy with the way her neighborhood was starting to look and decided to do something about it. She approached the MBA with the problem in April 2008 and has been working to improve the Midtown community since.

"We've been working to get a lot of things, trash cans being one of them," Kaye said. "Even if you wanted to throw away trash, there is no place to throw it."

Kaye said she believes the community is trying to keep Midtown clean because trash is typically found on top of dumpsters around the community after large events such as Second Saturday. More trash cans would help, she said.

Aja Uranga-Foster, MBA operation manager, said that the association shares Kaye's concerns. She said that MBA set up a contract with a nonprofit social services agency that goes out at least six times a month for four to five hours a day to clean the Midtown area. A crew, consisting of four to five workers, definitely stays busy, Uranga-Foster said.

"The workers collect bags and bags and bags of garbage."

She said that cities in California are not required to pay for disposal bins. Many of the trash cans around Sacramento have been paid for by organizations such as MBA.

Some members of the Midtown community, such as Esther Ramos, feel that the area is in desperate need of trash cans. "My neighborhood is not a bad one, but there is trash everywhere," said Ramos, who has lived in Midtown for six months. "They just need to put (in) trash cans, plain and simple."

She said she feels there's a simple fix for most of Midtown's garbage problems -- place trash cans in the area.

Other members of the community feel that more trash cans might cause more problems.

"I don't think it would help because homeless people will go through them," said Rihanna Cole, who has lived in Midtown for about a year. "I hate to say it, but it might cause more trash."

The MBA has received more than a dozen requests from businesses to put trash cans around Midtown, but Uranga-Foster said that only six qualify for placement. She said that the placement process is a bit complicated because the organization must work with the city. Even though the city is not responsible for the funding, it must approve placement and manage the trash cans.

Kaye and her volunteer cleanup crew are a major help, since the funding for MBA's cleaning crew is not extensive, said Uranga-Foster. Kaye and other community members also are concerned with issues such as gutter maintenance and leaf pickup , she said. Such work is crucial at a time the city's budget is exhausted and there is less street cleaning.

Kaye and the MBA have been sending notices to businesses in order to cut back on the gutter clutter. Uranga-Foster said that the business community is reacting positively to such requests.

This "Second Sunday," Sept. 13, Kaye's volunteer cleanup crew will meet at 9 a.m. at Weatherstone Coffee and Trading Co.

For more information, visit http://www.meetup.com/Green-and-Clean-Sacramento-Midtown-Meetup-Group.

Marci Nault's 101 Dreams Come True

2010-01-15T04:57:14Z

Dreams are said to be a state of unconsciousness, but they don't always have to be. Marcy Nault is living proof that dreams can come true.

Nault, a fiction writer originally from Boston and currently living in Sacramento, created a list of 20 dreams she wanted to accomplish throughout her lifetime. The list included learning to figure skate, traveling around the world and learning how to salsa dance. During an eight-year period she accomplished her entire list of dreams.

Nault said she knew she wanted more but wasn't inspired to pursue her dreams until she ended a long-term relationship about two years ago. She had moved to California with her partner, but what she found in Sacramento at the time wasn't what she was looking for.

"Honestly, I (thought), I don't think I want to live in Sacramento," she said, adding that she was just looking to make her partner happy. "Two years ago, when I left the relationship, I (thought), I can go back to Boston, a place that I know that I love and I have all my friends and family, or I can really experience living her in California."

After deciding to stay in the Golden State, she moved out of Folsom, where she had started a life with her former partner, and moved to College Greens by the American River. She said at that point she realized what Sacramento truly had to offer. She was also able to accomplish her most challenging dream: buying a home outright.

Nault was previously a homeowner in Boston, but she decided to sell it before her move to California. She said she never lost the urge to become a homeowner again. Owning a home in California became a dream on her list.

After accomplishing her first 20 dreams, Nault decided to extend her list to 101 dreams, but said she was only trying to make herself feel better after the break-up. She noted she was only trying to make herself feel better, she didn't think she was going to accomplish them.

"I sat down and I started thinking about the things that I had done over the last couple of years that really made me happy," she said. "I had a list of 20 things that I had done, and I (thought), well, if these things made me happy, what else makes me happy? If there were no limits in life, what would I want to do, where would I want to go?"

A friend she had met in Sacramento invited her on a trip to Alaska, which just happened to be on her list of dreams. Soon after she was going to Disney World, hiking in Yosemite and scuba diving.

Local writer Jazmin Matuabjia said she experienced part of one of Nault's dreams. Matuabjia and Nault met in a writers' group in Sacramento. They became good friends, despite their different writing styles and topics, according to Matuabjia, and soon were on their way to Vienna to make another of Nault's dreams come true.

"Marci is a lot more complex then she is assumed to be, but she is also very warm and giving," Matuabjia said. "The first thing you learn about Marci is that nothing surprises you."

She said that all of Nault's dreams are very ambitious, and there is no doubt in her mind that she will accomplish all of her 101 goals. Some goals that Nault has yet to accomplish are visiting Hawaii, New Zealand and Galapagos, passing senior moves in figure skating, bungee jumping, flying an airplane, wearing a fabulous dress to an elegant event, learning photography, and writing a New York Times bestseller.

Currently, Nault is working on making it on that bestseller list. She is trying to publish her first novel, "Who I Am With You," which is about a girl in her 20s who ends up living in a community filled with 70-year-olds.

Nault's agent, Yfat Reiss Gendell of Foundry Media, said her book is currently being looked at by 40 publishers. Gendell said it was going to be a bit tough for Nault's book to get published, since she is a first-time novelist, but she believes in her and her novel.

"What's great about Marci is that she really does follow her dreams," Gendell said in an e-mail. "Many people dream about writing a novel. Marci has actually done it. If anyone can make her dreams come true, it's Marci."

Gendell said Nault has only expressed interest in publishing the book that is currently on the table, but she would be excited to read anything that Nault sends her way. She noted that Nault is a great writer.

But what is Nault's more desired dream?

"I want to grant a Make A Wish for a child," she said, adding that she believes the Make A Wish Foundation is an inspirational organization. "I don't know how I'd go about that, but I've been so fortunate in my life, and to make a child happy would be amazing."

Nault said she will continue to pursue her 101 dreams. She said she wants to inspire people of all ages to follow their dreams.

She has given herself until June 4, 2012 to accomplish her entire list. When asked about the time limit, she said she wanted to move on to other things in her life, such as starting a family and possibly moving back to Massachusetts.

To learn more about Nault's dreams, visit 101dreamscometrue.com.

Access Leisure Teen Program Struggles

2009-10-09T20:34:59Z

With half-empty classrooms and no state funding, the Access Leisure Teen Program struggles to keep its doors open.

Access Leisure is an after-school program for disabled teen and young adults, ages of 12 to 25, that is city-operated and up until Aug. 31 it was state-funded. The centers vary in location.

Michael Haworth, a recreational Leader at the McClatchy Access Leisure Teen Program, said the budget cut has impacted the program as well as the families who participate.

“A lot of our teens, they just don’t have the money to pay for it,” Haworth said. “They don’t come from super wealthy households."

With lack of funding, the program leaders were forced to start charging families for access to the after-school centers starting Sept. 1.

The program was started in 1989 and has been funded by Alta California Regional Center, a private non-profit organization working with the California Department of Developmental Services, according to Program

Alta was able to fund programs, such as Access Leisure Teen Program, after the Lanterman Act was passed in 1969. The Lanterman Act was revised this summer by both the state senate and assembly and received major changes that affected where the money is allowed to be spent, according to Alta executive director Phil Bonnet.

“Among some of the things that we are not allowed to purchase are specific recreational services - camp, horse back riding, things like that.”

Bonnet said the law made it “illegal” for Alta to continue funding recreational programs such as Access Leisure.

Alta currently funds more than 16,000 people with developmental disabilities in 10 different counties in California, but many of them only received reduction in funding, according to Bonnet. Access Leisure Teen Program, amongst other programs, falls under the category of recreational services and was forced to be cut.

The program now struggles to stay afloat financially.

“We can’t prolong the revenue not coming in,” Prater said. “We have to bring in the revenue in a timely fashion or else my management(The City of Sacramento) is going to shut us down.”

According to Prater, two similar programs have already shut down. At the end of August, the Laurelruff Access Leisure Teen Program in Sacramento and the Discovery Access Leisure Teen Program in Natomas were both shut down.

The two remaining programs are McClatchy in Sacramento and Harriet Eddy in Elk Grove.

Program Supervisor Pam Prater said this past month was a difficult month for the program.

“We worked really hard to keep at least two of our programs open because we know if you completely close the doors, the chances of coming back are grimmer than if you have a little bit of blood in the system,” Prater said.

Access Leisure now has four categories, which differ in fees, for families to choose from: category one includes unlimited access to the program and is $400 a month; category two includes access to the program 4 days per week and is $336 a month; category three includes access to the program three days per week and is $264 a month; and Category four includes access to the program two days per weekend is $192 a month, according to Prater.

Prater said the program cannot afford to have any type of payment plans for the families.

The program was officially informed by Alta on Aug. 4 that funding would stop Aug. 31. Prater said she had been keeping up with the Lanterman Act, which was being revised on in mid-July in the senate and assembly, and knew there were possibility cuts would be made.

Prater took precaution and began setting up parent meetings as well as taking surveys on people's thoughts regarding the funding cut toward the end of July.

“Many parents told us that if our program wasn’t there, they wouldn’t have any place for their child to go,” Prater said. “A lot of them can’t stay home by themselves. They need assistance.”

The attendance at McClatchy, was cut in half in September, according to Prater. The program went from having 41 attendees throughout the week to 21 this past month.The attendance at the Elk Grove location was also cut in half.

“As much as we’re trying to make ends meet we’re not, ” Prater said. “We’re falling short every month. We need more participation.”

For more information regarding the program, visit accessleisuresac.org.

Furloughs Impact Students

2009-09-21T21:43:22Z

Furloughs at Sacramento State affect more than just professors. Students are seeing the changes in the classroom and in the quality of education.

Furloughs at all state universities took effect in August after the CSU Board of Trustees negotiated up to 24 furlough days this upcoming fiscal year for all 23 campuses.

Dr. Stan Oden, associate professor in the government department, feels that students are being hit just as hard with the changes being made after furloughs.

“Students, I think, are the ones who are really getting the shaft in this process,” Oden said. “They’re not getting classes and they’re taking longer to graduate.”

Oden said that he has seen many of his colleagues being impacted in different ways due to furloughs, but he feels that students are the ones experiencing the major change in the quality of education.

Some students agree with Oden.

“I do feel bad for the teachers because they got that decrease in pay,” Kristinamarie Scheuneman, senior government major, said. “But it’s kind of sad that our education is being cut. We’re paying more, but we’re getting less.”

With the current furlough schedules, faculty and staff are required to cut back on office hours and/or class time for two full workdays, every month. The 10 percent cut to full-time faculty isn’t the only thing changing classrooms.

Many of the part-time professors are also being laid off, which is creating a larger impact on classes offered, and students are feeling that impact.

“I remember that in one of my classes the wait list was like 30 people,” Ashley Munoz, junior psychology major, said. “And I thought, ‘that’s enough to fill up a-whole-nother classroom,’ but we can’t pay another teacher.”

Kevin Wehr, President of the Sacramento State Chapter of the California Faculty Association, said he knows of six to seven part-time faculty whose contracts have not been renewed and there could possibly be more to come. He said they won't know the exact number until mid-October.

With part-time faculty being laid off and full-time faculty being forced to decrease hours, education is not coming easy to students.

“With students we’re talking about the rest of their lives. These budget cuts, the furloughs, the student fee increases, they are going to have an effect on what this university looks like,” Wehr said. ”We’re going to see the denial of access for students.”

Sacramento State President Alexander Gonzalez said in an interview with Fox40 News at the beginning of August that the budget process was political and he was uncertain of what would happen.

Laura Gonzalez, Director of the Office of Governmental Affairs at Associate Students Inc., said that she has met with some legislators over the summer and the legislators are aware of the impacts that furloughs and budget cuts have had on students.

“We did bring up the fact that we are struggling with these furloughs and how they are affecting our students.” Laura Gonzalez said. “But one of the things that always comes up is the fiscal situation of our state.”

Gonzalez said there is not much that can be done for this year’s furlough, but OGA is hoping to unite forces with CFA and Students for Quality Education to make a change for upcoming years. She said that things are expected to get worse next fall.

According to Gonazalez, Assembly Bill 656, could be a possible solution to the higher education funding crisis.

"One of the goals of OGA is to link up with CFA and SQE and CSU Alliance to inform students," Gonzalez said. "We all support this bill, and we've been advocating on it and we do find it as a solution, AB656 is a solution, it might be a short term solution but at least we have something that we can advocate for."

CFA, SQE and OGA believe that educating and advocating, as well as passing legislation, such as Assembly Bill 656, could be a short term solution to help solve the funding problem for higher education

“What we need to do is we need to tax the corporations, especially the oil corporations, we need to find new money to bring into the system.” Wehr said. “We are the only state in the union that does not have this fee.”

AB 656, introduced by Assemblyman Alberto Torrico, is an oil and gas severance fee that will tax large corporations and use the money to fund higher education. Similar laws have been in effect for years in states such as Texas.

Laura Gonzalez said that if AB 656 does not pass, creating another bill and finding an author to support it could be another solution.

“It’s very clear that the less funding you give to higher education, we’ve gotten lower and lower on how well the state does in higher education.” Gonzalez said. “I forgot what rank we are in, but we’re pretty low.”

Gonzalez said she believes the only way to get California out of the recession is to continue educating Californians, who will eventually contribute back. She said it would be difficult to get out of a fiscal crisis if education is at the bottom of California's list of priorities.

Wehr also agreed with Gonzalez.

“This is the place where we train the teachers and the engineers, the nurses. These are the people that are going to pull California out of a recession.” Wehr said. “If we don’t invest in them, we may never get out of the recession.”

But for students such as Scheuneman, the hope for a better educational system remains doubtful.

“I hope it gets better, but I don’t see it getting better,” Scheuneman said. “I’m fearful, when my kids have to go to college, how expensive it’s going to be and how competitive it’s going to be to get into college.”

Uptown Liz

2009-10-31T03:27:44Z

After her younger sister Elizabeth "Liz" Ann Overturf died of breast cancer in 2006 at age 28, Ramona Russell started a charity Web site in her memory.

Uptown Liz debuted on July 17, 2007, what would have been Liz’s 30th birthday, out of Russell’s home. The Web site is a retail referral site, a site with links to retail products, that are owned by charities or give a percentage of their proceeds to charity.

Russell toyed with various names for the Web site, looking for something that would describe her sister’s personality.

“I came up with the idea when I was running one day,” Russell said. “(Liz) was very stylish, a real fashionista, and she wanted to own a boutique one day.”

Uptown Liz started with 80 charitable products and has grown to include more than 600.

Russell said word of mouth and positive press has helped the site grow.

“People from various circles, in business and philanthropy, seem to have heard of the company or me,” Russell said, “which I am always surprised by.”

Uptown Liz received national coverage within three weeks of its launch when Daryn Kagan, former CNN anchor, featured it on a video slideshow on her Web site. And in the past couple of years, Russell has received media coverage from more than 45 outlets, including Sacramento Magazine and FOX News. She said the publicity comes from the site being different.

“What makes it unique and that no one else has done, is you can shop in the cause category that you care about or the product category that you care about,” Russell said. “And it was designed very clean and organized, so it would be easy to shop through it.”

Uptown Liz supports 60 causes, including breast cancer, leukemia and Parkinson’s disease, and is linked to more than 200 retailers. The Web site gets 250,00 to 300,000 hits per month.

For more information or to shop for your cause, visit www.uptownliz.com.

County of Sacramento enforces Trans Fat Law

2010-01-05T07:09:05Z

As of Jan. 1, California takes precautions to ensure restaurants and other food facilities follow the dictate's of Assembly Bill 97, which prohibits the use of oil, shortening and margarine with more than 0.5 grams of trans fat. The law was authored by Assemblyman Tony Mendoza and signed by Governor Schwarzenegger in 2008.

California became the first state to pass such a law, although cities such as New York and Boston have similar laws. According to Mendoza's Trans Fat Ban Fact Sheet, trans fat increases the risk of coronary heart disease, the leading cause of deaths in the country.

"This is more than just legislation. This is a call to action that takes into consideration the health of our families," Mendoza said in a press release in 2008. It continued: "... this is an invisible and dangerous ingredient that increases the risk of heart disease, stroke and high blood pressure. It had to be eliminated."

The law also requires restaurants to keep nutrition facts for oils, shortening and margarine containing trans fat and will ban its use in baked goods, such as donuts, in 2011.

But who will enforce the statewide law?

"The AB 97 changes the food law that is enforced by local jurisdictions. In most cases it's the counties and the states, (even though) there's a few cities that do restaurant inspections. But essentially it's counties around the state (that) will be doing the enforcement," said John Rogers, spokesman for the Environmental Management Department. He added that his department will enforce the law in Sacramento County.

To keep counties consistent, the state created a committee of representatives from the restaurant industry, local jurisdictions and the state to develop a guidance document, Rogers said. The document would be helpful not only to agencies regulating the law, it also would provide guidelines for the restaurant industry.

According to a press release by the Environmental Management Department, the California Restaurant Association is one of the groups represented in the committee. But the restaurant association was not always a proponent of the bill.

Daniel Conner, California Restaurant Association spokesman, said the group initially was against the bill because of concerns about the process involved in making the law. He said the association wasn't concerned about trans fat; members didn't like a political body making decisions about ingredients.

"We thought decisions (about trans fat) would be better handled at perhaps a federal level by an agency like the Food and Drug Administration, where they have the scientific expertise and the policies in place, so that they can evaluate these things, rather then have a state Legislature undertake that," Conner said, adding the group is now collaborating with state legislators to make the law more efficient.

Conner said the law affected some eateries more than others. Larger restaurant chains, such as Taco Bell, Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald's as well as large up-scale restaurants transitioned into healthier alternatives before the passing of the bill.

"The thought was that the folks that were going to need the extra time, the extra year and a half to move away from trans fats, were, generally speaking, going to be independent 'mom and pop' restaurants, in particularly ethnic restaurants, who relied on trans fats in their cooking," Conner said, adding that bakeries would have similar issues moving away from trans fat.

But not all small franchises needed the extra year.

Joe Doumit owns Midtown Taqueria, a 'mom and pop' Mexican restaurant in East Sacramento. He said his restaurant has used trans-fat-free canola oil for years and that it hasn't changed the cooking.

"I don't know much about that law; nobody from the state has come to talk to me about it," Doumit said in a thick accent. "I got an informational package, but that's all I know."

He said the Environmental Management Department inspects his restaurant every three months and he hopes to learn more about the law during the next visit.

The Environmental Management Department will continue to conduct inspections three times a year, according to Rogers, and added that they are not planning on increasing that number. Instead, the department will incorporate the new trans fat regulations into its inspection process.

For more information about the law or regulations, visit emd.saccounty.net.

Sacramento Ballet's Unstoppable 55th Season

2009-10-26T03:34:51Z

The Sacramento Ballet opened its 55th season with the First Annual Capital Choreography Competition at the Crest Theatre Oct. 17 and 24.

Both days consisted of three dances choreographed by Viktor Kabaniaev, Amy Seiwert and Matthew Neenan, who competed for a cash prize as well as a Tiffany & Co. star.

Neenan’s dance, The Ration, took the judges award, while Seiwert’s On Frail Wings won the peoples choice award during both showings.

Pepper Von, international fitness instructor and choreographer and a judge for the Oct. 24 performance, said Neenan and Seiwert used the theater beautifully.

“The two who exhibited (the use of space) best, in my perspective, were Amy and Matthew,” Von said. “I don’t do safe, you don’t grow and you don’t blaze trails if you stay in a safe box, and those guys came out of the box. They took risks, they took a chance, they challenged the dancers.”

And challenging the dancers as well as the audience is what the Sacramento Ballet is known for.

Founded in 1954 by Barbara and Deane Crockett, the company started as a regional school. It later became a professional company, but still offered classes for ages 6 to 18. Twenty-four classes per week are taught now.

Ron Cunningham joined the company in 1988 and his wife, Carinne Binda, joined the following year, according to the Sacramento Ballet Web site. They became co- artistic directors of the company in 1991.

Cunningham and Binda had been dancers at the Boston Ballet Company for 15 years, and Cunningham became the resident choreographer. But they were ready for the next step.

“At a certain point, when we had our first child, we decided we wanted our own company,” Cunningham said. “We thought that beginning with a fresh start from the ground up was an opportunity to build a company and an institution with our vision.”

Cunningham and Binda did just that. The Sacramento Ballet is known for its diverse repertoire and talented dancers.

The Sacramento Ballet has 16 dancers this season, some from around the world, such as Australian Richard Porter, who's been with the company for two seasons.

“I decided to come (to Sacramento), and this company here has a great repertoire,” Porter said. “Here, you get to dance a whole lot more, everyone here gets a good shot of showing their ability, which you train so many years to do and in a larger company often you can get stuck in the back for a long time.”

The diversity of the programs attracts not only dancers, but audience members as well.

Karen Finerman, a subscriber, said the diversity keeps her coming back.

“They do a traditional ballet, the whole tutu, they’ll do story ballet, they’ll do the children’s ballet,” Finerman said. “They always select such great programs year after year.”

Finerman, who has been a ballet subscriber for eight years, said she plans to continue for years to come because of the repertoire.

Diversity is what the company strives for, Cunningham said, since it competes with companies whose budgets are larger.

“We are always trying to look and do innovative things, where our dancers work directly in the creative process,” Cunningham said. “We have 18 of George Balanchine’s ballets in our repertory and we do a lot of my repertory, which is unique to me and that give the company kind of a unique signature.”

Cunningham said the Sacramento ballet does six to eight new works a season.

Many of the dancers also create 5- to 10-minute pieces that, when combined with one another dancer's, could become a whole performance.

Audience member Geoffery Kimbrough said the Sacramento ballet has a lot of cohesiveness.

“Sacramento Ballet is a much better company than Sacramento deserves,” Kimbrough said. “It’s a top notch company. The local audience has no idea what they’ve got.”

Free To Eat with Fiber Girl

2009-10-07T06:28:54Z

It’s a bird, it’s a plane... no it's Fiber Girl!

As she runs around in her purple leotard and cape saving the world one lecture at a time, Bronwyn Schweigerdt still finds time to spread her knowledge through her books.

Schweigerdt, also knows as Fiber Girl - a nickname given to her by a friend - is a nutritionist and self-published author in Sacramento.

“I realized what people's questions were and where their confusion was and this book was written to answer all of that,” Schweigerdt said.

Schweigerdt graduated with a Bachelor's Degree from Cal Poly in 1994 and received her Master’s Degree in nutrition from Tufts University in 1996.

She began teaching nutrition at Bakersfield Community College in 1998. Schweigerdt moved to Sacramento about 10 years ago to be near her friends and is currently teaching nutrition at CalPERS. She has also been teaching at community colleges around Sacramento on and off for seven years.

“I had people in my classes tell me that their cholesterol was lower and their partner’s cholesterol was lower,” Schweigerdt said. “ I just heard all this feedback and people were actually doing what I told them to do and their lives were being changed and that’s when I published The UnDiet.”

She self-published her first book, The UnDiet, in 2002. The book sold more than 14,000 copies, Schweigerdt said. Her second book, Free to Eat, was published in August 2009.

Currently, she gives lectures in the community an average of three to six times per month about nutrition, health, weight loss and her high-fiber diet.

Members of the community, such as Roger Randall of Sacramento, enjoy Schweigerdt’s lectures.

“I’m a diabetic, type two, and I wanted to know what she had to say,” said Roger Randall. “I found it useful and very interesting.”

Randall said she mentioned a few health tips for diabetics that his doctor never told him, such as staying away from carbohydrates and eating dried fruit.

He and his wife Rosemarie own both of Schweigerdt’s books. Randall said he has read The UnDiet and is looking forward to reading Free to Eat.

Rosemarie Randall also keeps up with Schweigerdt’s blog and website.

“My daughter-in-law got me involved with her website, and that’s how I got involved with her books," she said.

Schweigerdt began a blog on her website about a year and a half ago and has written about topics including anemia, bone loss and cancer to name a few. She typically writes one blog a week.

Schweigerdt said her second book derived from her blogs.

“I realized that I had enough info in my blogs to put it into a book,” Schweigerdt said. “Everything pretty much accumulated from my blog.”

Also posted on her website, www.fiber-girl.com, and on YouTube is her Fiber-Girl video that incorporates a super hero, nutrition and some comedy.

“Her fiber-girl video is really great,” Rosemarie Randall said with a slight giggle.

The seven-minute YouTube video shows what types of foods are high in fiber and how eating fiber can help with weight loss.

But Schweigerdt’s video is only meant to draw attention, her book Free to Eat not only explains high fiber food and their benefits, but it also contains 50 healthy recipes at the end of the book created by nutritionist and natural foods chef Jennifer Brewer.

“It’s one thing to teach people how to eat, but if they’re totally changing their die, they need recipes” Schweigerdt said. “They need to know where to start.”

Dietitian Rachel Daniels who attended Schweigerdt’s lecture at Whole Foods Sunday afternoon said the information was very interesting.

Daniels typically reads books with heavier medical lingo, but she said Schweigerdt’s made it easy for regular people with non-medical background to read.

“She has more basic information,” Daniels said. “ I just skimmed the book, but it’s pretty good.”

When Schweigerdt first started as a nutritionist, she said she wanted to save the world. She traveled to many countries including Africa, Peru and Fiji to name a few, but didn’t find the satisfaction she was looking for.

She said teaching Americans to maintain a healthy diet was what she was really passionate about.

“The cancer rate, the diabetes rate, the heart disease rate, just everything has never been higher,” Schweigerdt said. “It’s so painful to see.”

To purchase Free to Eat book visit www.fiber-girl.com or go to Sacramento Natural Foods Co-Op.

Bethlehem becomes 9th Sister City

2009-12-17T04:55:45Z

The Sacramento City Council unanimously passed, with a 10-0 vote, the Bethlehem Sister City Initiative proposal, which establishes a formal relationship between Sacramento and Bethlehem, during Tuesday’s council meeting.

The council also adopted a resolution to establish a relationship with an Israeli city in the future.

The Bethlehem Sister City Initiative was started in 2006 by community volunteers who were interested in forming environmental, artistic and agricultural ties between the two cities, according to the report by Council Operations Manager Lisa Serna-Mayorga.

This past October, the Jewish community also expressed interest in forming a bond between Sacramento and an Israeli city.

Barry Broad, chair of the Jewish Community Relations Council, is a supporter of both initiatives, but said he believes politics should be kept separate from the relationship built within the cities.

“Sacramento is neither going to solve the problems of the Middle East, nor do we want to in any way exacerbate them,” he said. “One of the important aspects of the Sister City Program is to foster these kind of people-to-people, business-to-business (relationships).”

Broad said Sacramento is a cross-culture community that is diverse in many aspects, including religion. He said members of the community are accepting and therefore should lead by example.

“In this community, there isn’t any tension,” he said. “We are a model for hopefully what maybe folks can someday be in that part of the world.”

Councilmember Steve Cohn agreed.

“I think, as Barry said, it’s likely that Sacramento is going to be the answer to peace in the Middle East,” he said. “On the other hand, we can do our part — and our part is to show that people are people where ever they are in the world and we can get along.”

He said he hopes the spirit of acceptance in the Sacramento community will prevail in other parts of the world.

And that is the goal of Sacramento’s Sister Cities Council - to “promote peace through mutual respect, understanding and cooperation.”

The council was established in the late 1980s under Mayor Anne Rudin after Sacramento had already partnered with various cities around the world.

Starr Hurley, president of the Hamilton-Sacramento Sister City Committee, said the council was established in order for all Sister City organizations to connect with one another.

“The Sister City Council is like an information center,” she said. “We meet every other month to find out what each of the Sister Cities are doing so that we can keep informed.”

Sacramento currently has nine Sister Cities: Manila, Philippines- established in 1961; Matsuyama, Japan- established in 1981; Jinan, China- established in 1984; Hamilton, New Zealand- established in 1988; Liestal, Switzerland- established in 1989; Chisinau, Moldova- established in 1989; Yongsan-gu, Korea- established in 1997; San Juan de Oriente, Nicaragua- established in 2006; and finally Bethlehem, Palestine- established Tuesday.

But the Jewish community has already made its mark to become Sacramento’s 10th Sister City.

Sacramentan Maurice Mrabe, initiative supporter who is originally from Palestine, said the Middle East needs that kind of support from cities around the United States.

“I think all the towns of the West Bank need this outlet and this relationship with the outside world,” he said. “These types of relationships can be an open door to the world.”

Mosque Completion in May

2010-02-10T06:31:37Z

The Sacramento Area League of Associated Muslims Center, an Islamic center located off Community Oak Drive, will finalize phase three of their mission in May with the completion of their mosque.

Salam Center was established in 1987 in hopes of one day having a complete Muslim community center that would include a library, bookstore, school, counseling center, youth center, family corner and a mosque.

Phase one, which was started in the late 1980s, included on-site work such as boundary walls, landscaping and the front gate. Phase two, which began in the early '90s, brought the completion of the community center, full-time school, weekend school and kitchen. Phase three has been devoted to building the mosque.

Abdul Azeez, imam or prayer leader at the Salam Center, spoke of the need for a prayer center.

“What we need is a full-time place for our prayers,” he said, adding that the center hosts about 500 people during Friday services. “We have limited space now, and we’re certain that if we have additional space we will get a lot more people.”

Azeez said Salam Center has been using the community center hall to hold its prayer services and that it will be a nice change to have a mosque for Friday prayer services.

He added that the mosque will help with fundraising in order to offer the community more services, as well as increase service attendance. The mosque capacity will be about 800.

Interior designer and architect Passant Abd-Elrazek has been working on the mosque for more than a year. She is a member of the center and had been looking for a way to get more involved.

“I wanted to give back to the community in some way,” she said. “I have a background in architecture and I’m from the Middle East and I have a good background in the Islamic architecture, and this is how I'm giving back.”

She added that the interior of the mosque is being modeled after Egyptian mosques, except for the colors.

Abd-Elrazek noted that many mosques around the world, including Egyptian ones, are very colorful, but her goal for the Salam Center mosque is to keep it as neutral as possible. The interior colors will include beige, tan and green.

The focal point of the mosque will be the marble waterfall in the lobby that will cascade into two pools.

Farrukh Faeed, volunteer chairman of Salam's board of trustees, said dedicated volunteers such as Abd-Elrazek keep the center running.

“Salam Center is the most diverse of all the Islamic centers in Sacramento,” he said, adding that they also attract people from other faiths. “We consider ourselves an American mosque. It is open to people from all walks of life, religious beliefs, and national origin background, so we have a very active participation.”

Faeed has been volunteering at the center since 2007 and said the center has various committees where people can get involved, including the administrative, education, finance, fundraising, membership and religious services committees.

For more information on the Salam Center or how to get involved, visit salamcenter.org.

Funding California's Future

2009-10-21T03:01:06Z

Times are tough for college students in California.

State grants are being cut drastically due to budget cuts and Furloughs are closing down entire campuses on non-holidays. It is looking grim for the future of higher education.

Assembly Bill 656, introduced by Majority Leader Alberto Torrico, proposes a gas and oil severance tax in California that could make for a brighter future.

AB 656 was introduced on Feb. 25 and had minor alterations since, the last being on July 7. Currently states with oil supplies, such as Alaska and Texas, have oil severance taxes that help fund higher education and proponents of AB 656 are looking to do the same.

"Fees have increased in eight out of the last 10 years, a 33 percent increase this year at the CSU and UC system alone and financial aid has been reduced, class offerings have been reduced, class sizes have increased," Torrico said. "We're really starting to decimate higher education in California, so there seems to be a bad trend and if we want to invest in our future and invest in young people, we're going to have to put more money into higher education."

In 1994, tuition in the CSU System was $1,428 a year and at the beginning of the 2009/2010 school year tuition was $4,026 a year, one semester costing more than tuition for a full year in 1994.

Torrico had help writing the bill from several assembly members, as well as Senator DeSaulnier and statewide California Faculty Association(CFA). Sacramento State CFA President Kevin Wehr said CFA helped sponsor the bill and pitched the idea to Torrico.

"Majority Leader Torrico agreed that (the bill) was a good idea and proposed it to the assembly," Wehr said. "but we did help with some of the languages and the concepts."

According to the AB 656, a 9.9 percent oil severance tax would be implemented on oil drilling and funding would go toward a California higher education fund and would need to be passed by two-thirds of the assembly.

Torrico said the fund would generate about $1 billion a year and a commission would have to be established to manage the funds.

Assemblywoman Connie Conway, opponent of the bill, said there are better ways to help fund higher education then through AB 656, such as a better disbursement of tax dollars because they are being mismanaged. She said forming a commission to manage the funds is also an unnecessary investment and that money should be put toward higher education.

"Education is important and getting to a place were we can be more supportive and getting to a place where we can be more supportive of education would be great for the California State Legislature," Conway said. "I'm just not sure that this was the right vehicle tying oil production to education. It would create a commission to oversee it and those are so very costly - I'd rather put that money into education."

Conway said she was recently appointed to the Disability Access Commission where they discussed budget and as of now it has cost the state $80,000 to start the commission. The budget would cover the cost of staff and other important miscellaneous expenses.

Regardless of the position being taken in the assembly, students are feeling the impact on campuses around California.

Senior history major Andrew Haas said he believes California's educational system will impact future generations.

"I think we have a big problem with higher education as far as funding," Haas said. "The biggest impact, I think, is that just the fact that higher education, especially here in Sacramento is supposed to propel the city forward and we're the future leaders of the city."

Wehr agreed with Hass. Wehr believes that by no adequately funding higher education, students will be weeded out and the future of California could be greatly affected.

"We are on a downward spiral, right now, our higher education funding here in California has been squeezed and cut for the last six years," Wehr said. "We're actually at approximately half of where we were six years ago, and it's going to keep being a problem."

Wehr said institutions of higher education don't expect to see funding form the state's general fund any time soon - that is why the bill is proposing a dedicated revenue stream. He said the legislature should focus more on higher education because students are the future of California and they will be the ones who will take California out this depression.

According to an Associated Press article released in 2007, California is no longer the sixth largest economy in the world. As of 2007, California was ranked eighth.

The fear of many proponents of the bill is that many people will have less access to higher education and it will affect California's economy directly. And some students, such as freshmen civil engineering major Laura Araque, fear that they will get cheated out of a quality education.

"A lot of people will probably wanting to stop going to school," Araque said. "because why pay so much for so little education."

Mercy San Juan Hospital Features Local Photographer

2009-12-22T07:38:39Z

With a camera in his hand and a head full of dreams, young Jay Canter never would have imagined his photographs one day would be featured in publications around the world or in a hospital lobby in his hometown.

Canter was given his first camera at age 6 while on a family trip to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, in Washington D.C.

“I’ve always been a very curious kid who has always wanted to be hands-on with things. And obviously going to the Smithsonian with expensive pieces of artwork and dinosaur bones, I was the one who would jump under the rope and touch everything,” Canter said. “So my parents gave me a camera to keep me out of trouble and that’s how I basically became the family photographer.”

But he did more with a camera then document family trips; as he got older, he began photographing motorsports, weddings and other events.

Canter, who took one photography class at El Camino High School and is primarily self-taught, had a shot published in a motorsport magazine when he was 17. His mother, Elise Canter, said that is when he realized he could make a living out of photography.

“One day, a magazine called his friend and said that they needed to know if he knew of anybody who had taken any photos (of a sporting event) because theirs didn’t come out and they wanted to buy some,” she said, adding that Canter had been photographing that event. “That is when Jay discovered he could sell photos for real money.”

Since then, Canter's work has been published in more than 70 publications, including DUB, Extreme and Street Racing, and in seven countries including Canada, Australia, Greece, Italy, Japan and China.

Canter said his passion always has been automobiles and motorsports photography, but that he didn’t want to limit himself to one subject. In the past decade, he has photographed restaurants, musicians, wineries, fashion shows and other local events. He recently discovered a passion for landscape photography.

When asked about his biggest accomplishment, he mentioned three: Getting published in "Tuner Cars Field Guide"; being voted Sacramento’s number one photographer in the Sacramento News & Review in 2008; and a recent commission at Mercy San Juan Medical Center tower in Carmichael.

Canter was one of five local photographers whose work was chosen by art consultant Lori Sklar to decorate the hospital's new tower.

“I read about Jay online. I had never worked with him before, but I saw that he was a photographer of some renown in Sacramento,” Sklar said, adding that his photographs were the type of artwork the hospital was hoping to purchase for the new wing.

Sklar said the hospital was looking for scenic landscapes of the greater Sacramento area by local photographers that enhance the healing environment of the hospital.

Becky Furtado, communication specialist at Mercy San Juan, said Canter's work does just that.

She added that it’s the first time the hospital has commissioned local artists to create work for their lobbies and that they are very satisfied with the work.

Furtado noted: “A lot of people have made comments about his work, positive comments. They think it's good photography and I agree.”

Canter’s fine art photography features scenery around Sacramento including Old Town Sacramento and the Rainbow Bridge in Folsom as as well as scenery in Lake Tahoe, the San Francisco Bay, Placerville and Utah. Canter said 95 percent of the photographs are of local scenery, including two panoramas of Sacramento.

Elise Canter said she appreciates the hospital's recognition of her son’s work.

“As a mother, you just hope that your child finds something that he really loves to do and we are just absolutely thrilled,” she said. “It’s always nice (when) other people are recognizing your child’s talents."

For more information about Jay Canter, visit jaycanter.com

Jeff Musser's "Message in Flesh"

2009-12-24T07:31:17Z

Following your dreams doesn’t necessarily mean following your checkbook -- a life lesson local painter Jeff Musser can relate to.

Musser was born and raised in Sacramento and began sketching comics and actions figures when he was 5. He didn’t get serious about his work until he got placed into an advanced art class his freshmen year at Sacramento High School.

"(I) was around 15 when I decided this is what I want to do with my life,” Musser said. “I wasn’t sure in what capacity -- whether I would be a sculptor or a graphic designer or (do) paint installation, but I just knew being creative and being an artist was what I was supposed to do.”

At the time, his work was mainly with pencil and charcoal.

Throughout high school, he attended various open houses in San Francisco hosted by The Art Institute of Chicago. His Father, Ron Musser, said he was admitted into the institute his junior year in high school after displaying his portfolio to an admissions representative.

But Musser didn’t go straight to the Art Institute of Chicago -- after high school, he attended American River College in order to complete his general education requirements and save some money.

By the fall of 1997, he headed to the "Windy City" and the school of his dreams.

“I knew at the time that it was the best thing for him,” Ron Musser said. “Jeffery’s never been a small-town person, he needed to get out of Sacramento and explore and gain an understanding about life, which he did in Chicago.”

While at the art institute, Musser was introduced to a new love: oil painting. He took three painting classes, but decided to major in graphic design.

Musser said he was only thinking economically about his future when he declared his major, but he never lost his passion for painting.

“During my first real painting class, everything just seemed to come together,” he said. “I can’t really explain it other then once I found it, it just fit and I didn’t question it.”

After graduating in 2000, Musser began working for an ad agency in Chicago where he designed McDonald's happy meal boxes and displays.

But Musser said he was unhappy with his career path.

Before he got the opportunity to leave the advertising industry, he was laid off at the end of 2001. He said that was when he decided he was going to paint for a living.

That decision proved to be harder then imagined.

The following two years were the loneliest and most terrifying years of his life, Musser said. He remained jobless and was living on food stamps, but refused to return to the advertising industry because it didn’t seem right.

“The part that people don’t tell you about chasing your dreams, they don’t tell you the terrifying revelations that come after you have made that leap,” he said.

After returning to Sacramento, Musser worked various “odd” jobs at the mall and warehouses.

While working these other jobs, Musser never stopped painting. In college, he became interested in figurative art, a representation of forms derived from life, but never found a market for it in Chicago. He said Sacramento, surprisingly, welcomed his form of art. According to Musser, he sells about eight to 10 paintings a year for an average of $2,000 per work--he is now able to paint full-time.

At the beginning of 2003, he was commissioned by Oprah Winfrey to paint her dogs Sophie and Solomon.

Since then, Musser has had much success and various shows around the area, including his recent “Messages in Flesh” display at Sacramento State. The body of work includes paintings of human figures with large tattoos.

“It took me a while to figure out what I was going to focus on,” Musser said. “Then I realized I wanted to work out our generation's obsession with tattoos -- why they get them, where they get them, why they express themselves on such a canvas using someone else’s artwork.”

Musser said he typically approaches locals with tattoos and asks permission to paint them. Garrett Van Vleck, co-owner of Shady Lady, said he agreed to be one of Musser’s subjects after he was approached four months ago.

Van Vleck said he’s not sure what Musser has in store for his painting, but can’t wait to find out.

“I was actually really inspired to let him do a painting of me because of how impressed I was with his other stuff,” Van Vleck said, adding that he has various tattoos, including ones on his back, chest and calf. “I think (his artwork) is pretty amazing.”

Musser has become heavily involved in Sacramento's art scene in recent years.

In May, he joined the Verge Gallery co-op, an art society with shared space, in Sacramento. The co-op currently has 15 members, including Musser as well as local artists Liv Moe, Lisa Marasso and Jacob Fossum.

Musser's next group show will be Jan. 9, the first Second Saturday of 2010, at the Verge Gallery on 1900 V Street. He said 10 pieces from his "Message in Flesh" body of work will be featured, 90 percent of them being new work.

For more information about the show, visit vergegaller.com

For more information about Musser, visit jeffmusser.com

Photos Courtesy of Jeff Musser