"For us domestic riders, this is our Tour de France," Chris Jones said of the Amgen Tour of California. "It's the biggest race of our year," added the 31-year-old cyclist from Auburn. Jones and Michael Sayers, a retired professional rider, are Amgen tour veterans. They joined John McCasey, Sacramento Sports Commission director, at a Tuesday press conference at Mason's Restaurant. They introduced the tour's first stage -- from Nevada City to Sacramento -- with Mayor Kevin Johnson and Councilmen Ray Tretheway and Steve Cohn also in attendance. The event kicked off with a video that provided a glimpse of the scenery cyclists will see when they ride from Nevada City to Sacramento on May 16.

  Seems whenever I spend time at McKinley Park in East Sacramento I leave feeling in a lighter spirit. The geese seem to catch my attention first, with their noises and posturing.   Folks love to feed them!   Squirrels are active in trees and on the ground. Dogs love to chase them.   And some hand feed the little things.   Or watch them scamper away from them.   This duck did a hard landing.   And this dude stood its ground and scared a dog away.    

Runners of the 27th Annual California International Marathon passed through East Sacramento on a crisp Sunday morning. Photo credit: anthonybento.com

They came in packed SUVs to fill  the streets of East sacramento. Several hundreds of them for the effect of a totally calm,safe environment and to give their kids a night of pure bliss and the motherload of all sugar highs.  Perhaps also to get scared and pass on this  American pleasure moment to their progeny  and to show them the higher levels of living and community. There was no controversy here . People of all subcultures of the human race coming together and sharing whats good about america. Lots of first rate Holloween effects here as  many of thr houses looked like Hollywood sets for a certian film genre and the jack-a-lanterns were almost all cut to perfection. My gut feeling is

The name sounds misleading, eliciting imagery of "Little Orphan Annie," or playful puns from Charles Dickens' novel "Oliver Twist". But the food served at Orphan is absolutely no joke.  Chris Pendarvis, owner of Naked Lounge and Naked Coffee in Sacramento, opened his new restaurant on Sept 28.  "Coffee is very competitive," Pendarvis said. "I wanted to move forward on a different level, and round out the Naked Coffee business. We certainly now have all morning needs covered." Orphan is located across the Cannery Business Park in East Sacramento. The space has already been used as a restaurant over the years, Moxie Jr. initially, then the more recent Sapor and Soprattutto Salumeria & Ris

Driving to the Post Office along J Street this morning, I noticed a "detour"sign posted at 43rd St due to road work. Glancing down the road I saw deep piles of greenery and limbs blocking the middle of the street. And there was a huge crane in the midst of it. So I drove down another street to M St, approached 43rd, and then drove about a quarter of the way down it and parked, all the while keeping one eye on the crane. I couldn't quite figure out what was going on at first when I saw this: Is it a really really really long chainsaw blade thinning out the trees near the road?.   Then I looked at it from this angle:     Then it all came together once this happened:   There

Sacramento's Italian community is known to produce gourmet food, but there's much more to the community than Biba, Sofia's and Hot Italian. With this weekend's Festa Italian opening Saturday and running through Sunday at The Croatian Culture Center, we take a look back at the role Italian immigrants and their descendants played in Sacramento's history. Italian Americans have a long history in the Sacramento area. Agriculture and food processing are just some of the many successes of Italian Americans who settled in the area in the early 1850s, but their successes are hardly limited to that. Early Italian Americans Many of the earliest Gold Rush settlers who migrated in the "Mother Lode

Babe the sheep-herding pig and his talking farm friends will revisit the big screen Saturday night at East Portal Park in East Sacramento. The '90s classic Babe is the first film to be featured at Sacramento's fifth Screen on the Green free movie series, held in different local neighborhood parks for four consecutive Saturdays in August. Founded by City Councilman Steve Cohn, Screen on the Green has grown immensely in attendance each year since it first began five years ago, said District Director Sue Brown. Although anyone is welcome to attend, the films are geared toward families. Last year's films included Charlotte's Web, Hairspray, Ratatouille and The Goonies. Screen on the Green i

When asked to talk about their neighborhoods, Sacramento residents have a lot to say. Sacramento dwellers who follow The Sacramento Press on Twitter revealed their feelings about their neighborhoods on Wednesday and Thursday. Check out their tweets: @ShermanLoehr: I dwell in River Park. Love being so close to the wonders of East Sac & Fair Oaks Blvd. And listening to trains at night! @journalistnate: I was born and raised in Oak Park. People from elsewhere are a lot more freaked out about my neighborhood than I am. @johntodd: RioLinda is not NEARLY as miserable as many make it out to be. It’s much more Mayberry than South Central. @swellyn: West Tahoe Park. Highly diverse, some artists

Rick Mahan was shaping hand-rolled pizza dough for Friday's lunch rush at his newest restaurant, One Speed, when a customer brought in tomatoes fresh from the garden. The plump red fruit later found its way onto a Caprese salad -- almost as quickly as pizza had made its way into the chef's heart. Mahan said he's been dreaming about creating a pizza place since opening The Waterboy in Midtown nearly 13 years ago. "I've never gotten over my pizza fascination," said Mahan, one of two pizza cooks cranking out pie after pie. "For me, the most satisfying thing to cook from start to finish is pizza. I've cooked everything over the years and I've loved it. This is proving to be a very satisfying

It's about time. On Tuesday night, the Sacramento City Council voted 6-3 to make it a crime to dig thru recycling and waste bins. (City Council members Fong, McCarty and Pannell were the votes against it).  Anyone who lives in Midtown, downtown, East Sac, Land Park, and other areas will appreciate the new ordinance. That's because stealing recyclable materials has become a full-time activity for plenty of folks -- and a headache for those of us who live in the city. During the past few years, the problem of bin raiding has gone from bad to worse.  A few months ago, a friend in Midtown told me how the scavengers had taken to jumping his fence and coming into his backyard to go after the