Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson has made a surprise comeback – once again playing professional basketball to help the city woo back the Sacramento Kings. In a development that shocked the rest of the City Council and the world of professional sports, the 45-year-old former NBA All-Star joined the Kings on court at Power Balance Pavilion Tuesday. The wily and seasoned Johnson led the Kings in a 116-113 win against his old team, the Phoenix Suns. Johnson became a blur of purple – a purple haze, if you will – in the white and purple Kings jersey he wore in place of his No. 7 Phoenix Suns jersey. "I'll prove I'm a strong mayor!" Johnson yelled as he performed a triple-axle, leapt skyward and

Tuesday morning, Mayor Kevin Johnson was joined by a handful of Safe Ground supporters for a weekly press conference inside City Hall. After reiterating his goal to end homelessness in Sacramento, he invited Sister Libby Fernandez and Greg Bunker, the respective executive directors of Loaves and Fishes and Francis house, as well as a homeless man named Thomas Jackson Ashmore III, to speak. Johnson spoke about his meeting over the weekend with campers at the recently vacated 1220 C St. campground owned by Mark Merin. At the camp site, Merin had also been involved in a property dispute over the land with the neighboring Pedro and Gracilla Hernandez residence. Johnson mentioned that a compr

Wednesday morning Mayor Kevin Johnson held his second "For Art's Sake" meeting, which saw an increase in attendance over last month. More than 100 people crowded into the Verge Art Gallery on 19th and V Streets. To open the meeting, Dennis Mangers, senior adviser for Senator Darrell Steinberg, summarized the previous meeting. Afterward, Johnson took the podium to lay down his vision for the arts initiative. "What is our vision? What are our goals? Who do we want to be as an art community? Those are things we are going to start answering ourselves," he said. "Over the next 11 months, we're going to create a sustainable arts community." He mentioned that as a whole, an estimated $100,000

While watching Mayor Kevin Johnson speak in clear but emotive language on television, it is clear he is ready to start his new position with a full head of steam. With the American flag draped behind him he said, "We did it, I'm ready and I know you are too, and that's what it's going to need to take place. Incredible public will amongst the citizens, needs to occur for us to make real change in Sacramento." After the confetti fell and the people left Memorial Auditorium, Kevin Johnson's personal inaugural party was held at Randy Parygary's new K street venture, Cosmo and Social. I spoke with Parygary and asked how excited he was to have the new mayors inaugural party at his location. "

Sacramento is not always a town that's on the national scene, but tonight it was. Our new Mayor-Elect Kevin Johnson was the main interview on The Colbert Report. The Colbert Report is a program on Comedy Central that centers around Stephen Colbert and his far right on air persona. While this storyline is generally about all news that takes place within 6 blocks of my apartment, tonight's news took place inside my apartment, KJ's appearance on The Colbert Report. During the interview KJ more than held his own in an interview that is usually a tough challenge. The result of which is that KJ actually challenged Mr. Colbert. And that challenge is of local signifigance, he challenged Colbert