Tax season just ended, so I thought I'd talk about something specific to medical marijuana patients: the sin tax on medicinal cannabis that Sacramento voters voted into office in 2010 via Measure C. In a city council session early in Summer 2010, before the midterm election, the Sacramento City Council was having discussions about the medical marijuana ordinance. They were discussing making dispensaries licensed and legal in Sacramento City, when a city council member thought it would be prudent if they put a marijuana tax on the ballot. The idea behind it was that if Prop 19 made it legal for the recreational use of cannabis, they would need a tax structure in place in order to make

Have you ever heard of “drugged driving?” Well, the proponents of Senate Bill 289 are making it their job to bring this new phraseology into the vernacular of the California electorate. What precisely is "drugged driving?" On the surface this law seems to make sense – nobody wants someone who is incapacitated behind the wheel of heavy machinery. However, closer scrutiny reveals that anyone who has consumed cannabis in the last few weeks could test positive. While the law will allow for prescription drugs to be exempt, this exemption does not apply to those who choose marijuana as medicine because they can only get it through a doctors recommendation - which is not the same, legally, as a

Since its formation in 1970, the nonprofit known as the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws aka NORML has not had a presence in the Sacramento area. Originally formed by Keith Stroup on a mere $5,000 donation from the Playboy Foundation, the Washington, D.C.-based group has grown to have 12 chapters in California and more than 100 in other American cities and abroad. Bob “Adman” Bowerman took it upon himself to change all that. Newly retired at 61 from his multimillion-dollar ad agency Concepts, Bowerman became familiar with medical cannabis due to personal illness. “I got my medical cannabis card in 2002,” he told me in a recent interview. "Cannabis has helped me thro

Try to imagine you are in jail charged with a marijuana crime. You’ve been lead to believe that all your friends believe the exaggerated claims made about you by the media. You enter a courtroom, but are in a cage to protect the room from you. Feeling humiliated, subjugated and demoralized you look up to see a courtroom full of people wearing green ribbons to show their support.. You are elated! You can see your community has not turned its back on you – you have friends who care enough to support you. This is the power of court support. On March 9, over 30 supporters of medical marijuana filled up a courtroom in Yuba County for the case of Eric Salerno. The group was organized by Winagai

Well, that’s a wrap – congrats to all of the winners and entrants who submitted to our Journalism Open 2013. We had 76 written submissions this year and 114 photo submissions, and it wasn’t an easy job to narrow either of those categories down. But somehow we all managed. Myself and editor Jared Goyette narrowed down the top 12 articles which were then tallied by our panel of guest judges. Photos were judged by myself and Goyette. You can find a complete list of judging criteria here. Our $400 People’s Choice Award was a close race between Stephania Erkenbrecher’s article on Verge Center for the Arts and Ron Mullins’ piece on medical cannabis. I spent much time calling around to verify v

Are you ready to party with The Sacramento Press? The Journalism Open 2013 closed on Jan. 31, so don’t forget to check out the written and photography submissions that our contributors worked so hard on. The top finalists have been selected, and now our panel of guest judges are working hard to select this year’s winners. We also need your help in selecting who will win $400 for our People’s Choice Award. Soon all the work will be over though, and it will be time to kick back with good snacks and even better friends to announce the winners and honor this year’s writers. Please join The Sac Press staff, Journalism Open guest judges and contributors at Chops Steakhouse downtown on Tuesday

Welcome to February, when the Journalism Open contest really gets good. This is the time when our contributing writers get to stop toiling and start celebrating all of their hard work. While editor Jared Goyette and myself will forward on the top ten finalist entries to our panel of guest judges to score, we’re also asking you, our readers, to get in on the action. Below you’ll find, in no particular order, the People's Choice contenders, which were selected based on a combination of article views and thumbs ups received. We’ll count votes received up until 5 p.m. on Feb. 11. The winner will be selected soley based on approval rating. Vote for your favorite articles by giving them the co

Dubbed the "Emerald City" by Mayor Kevin Johnson, Sacramento is known as one of the most diverse metropolitan cities in Northern California, fostering an estimated population of 472,178, according to the latest Census data recorded in April 2010. Much like the capitol's reputation to host diversity, in terms of culture, as does our Regional Transit Light Rail system, carrying diverse subcultures as its precious cargo.     Currently, RT Light Rail offers three service lines that travel across the greater Sacramento region. The Gold Line, which services travelers between downtown and historic Folsom, the Blue Line, which services between Watt/I-80 to Meadowview and the more recently i

On Nov. 18, 2012, I posted an article on an amazing event called Music-Come-1st Episode 1: Evolution of Hip Hop. The concept of this event was to promote saving music programs in schools. This live filming event featured the Grammy-Award winning hip-hop artist Yolanda Whittaker, known as YoYo, and Sacramento’s finest local hip-hop artists, such as Destructikonz, Century Got Bars, BenOfficialTheGreat, Sol Spoken, Nome Nomaad, Mic Jordan and DJ EPIK. The event was held Dec. 21, 2012, at the California Auto Museum, and was an amazing event full of live performances, a thought-provoking panel discussion on the evolution of hip-hop, and nominations for best and worst hip-hop albums and artists

Roadside memorials stand as silent monuments where a life has been lost. In Natomas, three different memorials pay tribute to three very different men. The one thing they had in common: violent deaths. Zachary Ragan, 42 Plastic flowers, candles and dirty stuffed animals surround a cross in a vacant lot in the Sleep Train Arena's shadow. The memorial marks the spot where Ragan – suspected of assaulting a teen with a knife the day before – was shot and killed by a Sacramento Police officer on Oct. 28. 2010. Adam Steinbach, 27 A memorial on the roadside at Del Paso and Northgate boulevards sits near the spot Steinbach was found dead of stab wounds on May 31, 2011. A week later, Sacrament