Sacramento City Hall expects to add several new high-tech electric cars to its fleet in the coming months, thanks to a federal Department of Energy program. Five Chevrolet Volts will make up the first batch of electric cars coming to the city government later this year. The city can expect five Dodge Ram PHEV pick-up trucks to be available after the Volts, according to the Sacramento Municipal Utilities District, which is organizing a local electric car program. Specific timelines for the arrival of the cars are not yet available. While the city will have some maintenance costs, the cars themselves will be free. The federal government gave grants to General Motors and Chrysler to provide

Sacramento City Councilman Steve Cohn has prevailed over realtor Chris Little, his toughest challenger. Cohn, who has held his District 3 seat since 1994, took just under 54 percent of the vote with all precincts counted. Realtor Chris Little followed Cohn with nearly 38 percent. Cohn, who is a top attorney at the Sacramento Municipal Utilities District, garnered 4,792 votes. Little received 3,351. Election results have not yet been certified, said Brad Buyse, the county’s campaign services manager. More than 20,000 vote-by-mail ballots came in Tuesday, Buyse said Wednesday morning, and they are still in envelopes. It was unclear how many, if any, of those vote-by-mail ballots would a

One of the first stories I was assigned as a new intern in late January was SMUD's installation of energy smart meters. SMUD customers were told the smart meters would provide them with more information about their energy usage, which could lead to better energy management for them and SMUD. The utility had just about finished testing the technology, and was ready to install more than 600,000 meters throughout the Sacramento area. SMUD contracted with South Carolina-based Utility Partners of America for the majority of the installation work, and my assignment was to find out why SMUD had contracted with an out-of-state company rather than a local one. Installation of the smart meters mea

A major international bank that has generated controversy on the national level is being welcomed to Sacramento by the city’s mayor. At the same time, Goldman Sachs is being sued by a city councilman. Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson’s volunteer arena task force has applauded Goldman for volunteering to work with task force members to analyze proposals for a new entertainment and sports complex. Meanwhile, City Councilman Steve Cohn is suing Goldman as part of his day job. Cohn is the Chief Assistant General Counsel for the Sacramento Municipal Utilities District, which is fighting Goldman in federal court in New York. SMUD alleges that Goldman and 46 other financial companies together ch