There was a whole lot of prayer, dancing and applauding going on today on the west Capitol steps. The Call to Conscience was described as spiritual repentance "when there is no hope for a nation." Evangelical conservative Lou Engle and other pastors and speakers protested gay marriage, pornography and abortion. A worshipper, with the word "life" printed on tape over her mouth, is part of a grassroots prayer mobilization movement to end abortion.   A man holds his arm above a woman crying as she is held by another.   Worshippers gathered in the grass and sidewalk on the west steps of the Capitol. A big screen is on the right. Big screens were set up along Capitol Mall Blvd on each blo

Eureka! I struck gold yesterday in Old Sac at Gold Rush Days. Well, more like the color of silver, tin to be exact. Tinsmith William Brown is worth his weight in gold. His window into the pre-Gold Rush days of tinning are educational. His tinsmith booth is in the tent city closest to the Railroad Museum. Step back in time. Stop at his booth. You'll be glad you did! He'll explain the origin of tole painting on tin, as well as the 'tippy-cup' babies drink from after giving up the bottle. William Brown peers through his wiring down machine used in tinsmithing.   Brown holds a tin coffeepot he created. He and another tinner are the only tinsmiths in the US that make the coffeepot.

The law school at the University of California, Davis, is now a better fit for its 610 students. A $30 million new wing has been added to the school’s building, which was intended for only 50 students when it was first built in 1968. “We were, in effect, bursting at the seams,” Kevin R. Johnson, dean of the law school, said in a Friday interview. A ribbon-cutting event was held Friday for the new wing, which includes six new classrooms, one of which serves as a courtroom. The law school’s building gained 18,000 more square feet with the new addition. The new courtroom has room for 125 people and is more technologically up-to-date than the courtroom in the building’s old wing, said Pamel

Markus Mar-Liu volunteered at Sacramento Food Bank & Family Services (SFBFS) as a student with Mc Clatchy High school. Markus is an incredible young man with high ambition and drive to make the world a better place. Markus recently completed a project that took a great deal of planning and organization to complete. As a final project for Eagle Scouts, he painted a nook, built a desk with three chairs, hung a modern and very fashionable curtain with rod; which, can now be used as a divider of the two rooms. This project has built a safe haven for the young children who attend Play Care in which they can relax and read a book or prepare for Kindergarten. Markus showed great deal dedication

After 20 years in business, the owners of Midtown’s Cafe Marika said they are living their dream – but getting there was no easy task. Lubomir (Louie) and Eva Chruma were living in Karlovy Vary – a spa and resort town in then-Czechoslovakia, but they dreamed of escaping the communist regime and moving to the United States. “We escaped in 1982,” Eva said. “We bought a vacation to Yugoslavia and crossed into Austria.” After seven months in a NATO refugee camp in Austria with others who had fled the Eastern Bloc countries, the Chrumas were able to travel to the United States with permission from the American consulate. Without knowing where they would be living, the two professional chefs

Quick Update Workers are back on the job at the Tapestri Square brownstone-style homes at  2002 T Street. 58 single-family brownstone-style homes will retain the neighborhood’s historic charm and style while catering to an upscale buyer. They range from 1,300 to 2,800 square feet, starting from the high $300,000's. A donation to the Sacramento Children's Home will be made on behalf of Tapestri Square for each home sold. email info@tapestrisquare.com tapestrisquare.com SacPress Photos | Kati Garner

A downtown restaurant, Sofia on 11th, is expected to close Saturday — another victim of the recession and Furlough Fridays, as well as a somewhat obscure location. Jeremy and Vicki Bennett, both Mississippi natives, took over the restaurant four years ago with partner Martin Tejeda. Staff was reduced to a skeleton crew in June. Jeremy Bennett shared news of the closing with employees and customers on Thursday. "It just got to the point where I couldn't hold on anymore," he said. Bennett helped seat people when Sofia filled during the lunch rush. Wearing a black T-shirt as he poured iced tea, the most visible sign that he was the owner was the strain on his face. Dinner business droppe

The opening of a commuter/touring bike shop and cafe next to the downtown train station has stalled. Brothers Tim and Mike Fallis originally had expected to open Depot Bikes & Cafe at the Railway Express Agency Building, 431 I St., Suite 102, in mid-May. They planned to sell, rent and service bikes and offer ready-to-go food and beverages. The opening was pushed back to July or August when they took over the lease for the space next door, after 5th and H Café closed Memorial Day Weekend. No work appears to have been done on either retail space since then, and temporary signs announcing the coming of Depot Bikes have been taken down. Tim Fallis could not be reached for comment.   Pho

 The availability of locally grown and organic fruits, vegetables and other food preparation items seems like it is exploding in the Sacramento region. An excellent way to learn how to prepare new and interesting meals with this abundance is to attend a cooking class at the Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op’s Community Learning Center and Cooking School. The Sacramento Natural Foods Co-op has long been an advocate foreducation about local, organic and sustainable food production, so it is not surprising that the staff wants to help you use what the co-op and other supply. The Community Learning Center and Cooking School is in a small storefront on Alhambra Boulevard next to the main store.

The Sacramento Groovy Users (SacGRU) is a professional association of software developers.  The group discusses the Groovy programming language and all it's frameworks, libraries and technologies.  Founded in December of 2008, the group meets the 1st Thursday of every month.  Please see the group's website at http://sacgru.com for details such as meeting time and place. Tonight the group will be meeting at The Sacramento Press (yes this Sacramento Press) on the corner of 5th and H Street in downtown Sacramento at 6:30.  The presentation will be "An Introduction to the Grails Framework".