I recently had a conversation centered around the idea of hopelessness and suicide. The conversation was dark, depressing and eye opening. I am always amazed when I speak with someone who does not believe in depression, at least in the clinical sense. They feel it is only in a person's mind and if they would just...DO something about it, it would be all right. Unfortunately, depression is real. It is a living, breathing part of your everyday life if you have fallen under the spell. You cannot escape it without a dedicated plan that often includes counseling and medication. What I find myself asking is, "Why do some people seem susceptible to depression when others do not?" I have never

Martha Schmidtmann Dunne, whose husband Mike Dunne is a local food and wine writer and editor at Sacramento Bee, found that she was also a writer when she began penning a book about her family’s struggle with her youngest son’s Asperger’s Syndrome. “I never had any intention of writing a book. I was just trying to understand my son,” said Dunne, who wrote her book in the house she shares with her husband and son in Sacramento. Four years ago, Dunne and her husband came to the realization that their adult son, Dylan Dunne, then 36, had Asperger’s Syndrome. This led her on a three-year research spree of Asperger’s that eventually culminated with the publishing of her book, “Wait, What do

Sacramento, CA – Equality Action Now, in partnership with the Sacramento Gay and Lesbian Center, Sacramento State Pride Center, Gender Health Center and other local organizations and mental health specialists have organized a candlelight vigil in the parking lot of McMartin Realty, 20th and K Street, Midtown Sacramento between 6:00pm and 7:00pm, Friday, October 8, 2010. The vigil will be held in conjunction with a nation-wide effort to, “Stand Up to Youth Suicide”. Representatives of Equality Action Now and other LGBT organizations and mental health experts will be on hand to help with questions and concerns and to provide the community with resources to fight bullying in Sacramento area

I have come to the conclusion that most local new outlets do not commit enough resources to the difficult task our Sacramento Police Department faces everyday: maintaining order in a large modern city comprised of many different neighborhoods.   I wouldn’t attempt to postulate if the lack of committed media resources is due to design or a natural evolution, but I have found it lacking for quite sometime, and have begun to use other methods to gain information on local Police activity. Since the first day of it’s inception I have read Sacpd.org’s Daily Activity Log.  I have found it to be a fascinating read, full of stories and crimes you may not hear about on the television news.  Many tim