Under a slew of military flags, banners and pictures of troops, volunteers at Cal Expo collected care package donations Friday. They were members of the Defenders of Freedom a local nonprofit organization that assists servicemembers and their families. Toiletries, games and DVD's were among the most requested items by troops serving around the country and overseas. The items were being assembled into care packages for troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. "Both my sons serve in the Army," said Maria Elena Szlachciuk, founder of Defenders of Freedom. "These items, combined with letters and cards, can lift a soldier's morale." The California chapter was founded in 2007 after a similar chapter s

Sacramento State has the second-highest veterans and their dependents student population of any California State University and University of California campus. With more than 1,200 veterans and dependents taking classes there, the Student Veterans Organization is one of the highest profile clubs on campus. Its first spring meeting is Monday. Active since fall 2007, SVO is dedicated to helping veterans and their families in every facet of college life. From class enrollment to complicated government forms, theSVO assists members every step of the way. "This is my version of a fraternity," Air Force veteran Dustin McMillan said of the group. "Commonalities we all share, like the military,

Sacramento, CA- All the hard work throughout the year of the Capital Air Show staff began to show it's fruit today as a myriad of aircraft flew in to Mather Field to participate in the fourth annual Sacramento Capital Air Show. Out on the tarmac, barriers and safety fences were being put in place, displays began to take form, the sound system that runs the entire length of the flight line was assembled and pilots took to the air to get a feel for the topography of Sacramento. Tim Baker flies a stunt plane for Geico; he's been passionately flying for them for six to seven years and has done 22 air shows. Not only is Tim the pilot, he is also in charge of the displays. "Geico works me har

I walked onto the quad of Bella Vista High School on a Sunday afternoon to a sight of 20 or so men climbing walls, running like cheetahs on all fours and swinging from trees. This was the Sacramento regional parkour practice, led by a SFparkour.com representative, Victor Lo Forte. He has been a practitioner of parkour, or traceur, French for tracer, for three and a half years and has led the Sacramento group for about two years. "From what I understand, it's basically the discipline of training one's mind and body to prepare oneself to overcome obstacles in an environment," Lo Forte said. Parkour is said to be rooted in early 20th century French military practices. Georges Hébert, a Wor

Disabled Veterans Win Battle in “Good Faith” Fight to Save Taxpayers Money Disabled veteran companies and taxpayers are both winners in recent changes promoted by California’s wounded warriors. The non-profit California Disabled Veterans Business Alliance has fought the Good Faith Effort (GFE) provision in State contracting as a useless diversion actually keeping business away from Disabled Veteran Business Enterprises (DVBE). Now, the State has acted on the recommendations of the Alliance in coordination with DGS and other state agencies and has passed legislation to eliminate the GFE effective 28 July 2009. By promoting equality with the State of California’s Small Business preference

Hours before Honduran President Manuel Zelaya was forcefully exiled to Costa Rica on June 27, he met with seven delegates from Sacramento. The seven were: Bill Camp, executive secretary for the Sacramento Central Labor Council (SCLC); Bud McKinney, a sheet mill worker; Chris Bender, a union representative; Greg Larkins, president of IBW Local 340 and a political organizer for the SCLC; Arturo Aleman, a consultant, Kate Allen, a graduate student at UCLA and summer intern for the SCLC and Dion Archuleta, a canner at Campbell Soup in South Sacramento. The following is an account of their experiences in Honduras over a three-day period in which an alleged coup d’état took place. Background

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen Directed by Michael Bay By Tony Sheppard Capitol Weekly Describing this movie is an almost pointless exercise. It’s not going to be seen—or not seen—because of what critics think, or based on minor details like logical storytelling and plot coherence (or the lack thereof). It’s a movie that will be raved about by fanboys and by those who just dig 150 minutes of sequentially coordinated but also oddly disjointed special effects. In that regard, it’s a visual orgy of arbitrary excess. That arbitrariness often comes in the form of clashes between the signature “alien robots” with no real sense of logic as to who is likely to win in any such encounter. Th

Fallen soldier, Staff Sgt. Bryan Hall, was welcomed home today. Hall was returned from overseas to Dover Air Force Base, then flown to Sacramento Executive Airport this morning. A procession followed Hall’s hearse from the airport to south Highway 99 and ended at Elk Grove Funeral Chapel. Staff Sgt. Hall was killed in Iraq with four other soldiers when an explosive laden truck careened through an Iraqi police headquarters. Community members lined the freeway and side roads waving flags and welcoming our fallen soldier home; but perhaps the most striking exhibit was the firefighters and apparatus that could be clearly seen atop every freeway overpass on the route. If you knew nothing abou

AB 223 and 351 passed through Assembly committee hearings on Wednesday afternoon at the Capitol. At least 100 San Francisco high school students stood lining the hallway outside room 126 to support the bills. Some were wearing military attire, and others wore stickers on their shirts that read “I love JROTC”. Inside, meanwhile, the Assembly Education Committee heard each bill, both involving San Francisco’s Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program. AB 223, introduced last month by Assemblywoman Fiona Ma (D-San Francisco), is an urgency measure, meaning that with a two-thirds majority vote in both the Assembly and Senate, it will require the San Francisco Unified School District to

Out of the millions of brave military veterans who have given service to their country, hundreds of thousands were exposed to asbestos. Used throughout the 20th century in many industries, asbestos gained immense popularity because of its innate flame resistant, durable and versatile qualities. It made it an ideal choice for many military applications. The value of asbestos was so high that did not get phased out until the 1970’s. Sacramento is no stranger to military bases, with the Navy, Army and Air Force all having bases in the city to some degree. Asbestos use greatly impacted the Navy. Prior to World War II, many shipyards in the country constructed their vessels in hopes of crea