The election of President Barack Obama freed up many in the older generation of African Americans to speak about things they had kept secret or kept silent about. Many of those were things their children, their relatives and even their spouses were not aware of. The California Lectures guest this week, Michele Norris, cited this as one of the reasons she was able to learn more about her family history while writing her new book “The Grace of Silence.” Norris is best known as a host of National Public Radio’s afternoon news show “All Things Considered.” She grew up in a South Minneapolis neighborhood. After starting a college education in electrical engineering she switched to journalism,

Lectures California Lectures.MICHELE NORRIS In conversation with Pamela Wu Wednesday, October 6, 2010 Crest Theatre | 7:30 p.m. Michele Norris hosts NPR’s All Things Considered, public radio’s longest-running national program. Before joining NPR in 2002, Norris worked as a reporter for ABC News, a position in which she garnered both an Emmy Award and a Peabody Award for her coverage of 9/11. Norris has reported extensively on issues of inner city poverty, race and education for The Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times. Her powerful Washington Post series on the drug trade's impact on young children was published along with essays by Nelson Mandela and Gabriel

 In wake of the recent disaster in Haiti, many people are looking for ways to help the victims. There are various ways to do so on a local level, and some businesses are already making a difference. From big to small, fundraisers and donations are giving Sacramentans ways to reach out to Haiti. With the damage still unknown, there is still more we can do to help. Here’s what you can do to help with disaster relief in Haiti: -Local businesses and communities can take the initiative to raise and donate funds to the Sacramento-Sierra Chapter of the American Red Cross, whose spokeswoman Trista Jensen says, “The best thing that people can do right now is to make a donation.” KCRA 3 is joinin

I have never heard of a newspaper anywhere in the United States that has been so tormented by the truth as I have of the Sacramento Bee. In late 1990 Raley's published and distributed their so-called account of Tom Raley's success story. Then on March 4, 1991, The Sacramento Bee did an article about Raley’s, their success and the man who they had been told and believed had created their success, CEO Chuck Collings. That was the one-two punch that made us come out fighting. What Raley's and the Sacramento Bee wrote were fighting words and we began fighting for the truth. In Raley's history book and the Bee article, Collings was basking in his self proclaimed glory that he was the savior o