Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "sunrise"

Painterly effect

2011-09-23T14:51:13Z

Early morning clouds provide a painterly backdrop for the Globe Mills complex in Alkali Flats.

Sacramento Fourth of July roundup

2010-06-30T03:23:02Z

Looking for an explosive way to spend your Fourth of July? Well, look no further. We’ve compiled a list of some of the best Fourth of July events in the Sacramento area.

Sacramento

Cal Expo will once again host an Independence Day Celebration sponsored by Coca-Cola and Miller Lite at the Miller Lite Grandstand near the East Gate entrance. The festivities will begin at 6:30 p.m. with a performance from Mick Martin and the Blues Rockers. State Fair mascot Poppy will also be there to entertain the crowds. Cal Expo’s media partner, radio station 107.9 The End, will provide music to the spectacular fireworks show, starting at 9:30 p.m. Parking for the event is $10, and general admission to the show is free. You can also buy reserved seating for $10 at tickets.com, or at the East Gate box office beginning at 3 p.m. Sunday. Cal Expo is located on 1600 Exposition Blvd.

The Sacramento River Cats will be having their own celebration at Raley Field on Friday and Saturday as they host the Fresno Grizzlies. On Friday, the team will honor Sacramento firefighters with a firefighters' night. Fire engine displays will be set up, and firefighters in attendance will be recognized on the field. Stick around after the game for the fireworks, a kick-off to their weekend celebrations. And as the Cats close out their three-game series with the Grizzlies on Saturday, the U.S. Army will present the Sutter Health Fireworks Extravaganza and start the Fourth of July with a bang. Tickets to the games can be purchased online at rivercats.com, or at the Raley Field box office. Raley Field is located at 400 Ballpark Drive in West Sacramento.

If you want to watch the Raley Field fireworks in a classier setting, you can climb aboard the Hornblower yacht in Old Sacramento. Departing from Front Street, the cruise will begin at 7 p.m. and will include the fireworks show, dinner, and dancing. Tickets for the Hornblower are $109 and can be reserved at the Hornblower website.

Old Sacramento’s newest street theater program, “Time Travel Weekends," will put an Independence Day twist on its historical re-enactments for the Fourth of July weekend. Guests can take part in square dancing, croquet, pie-eating contests and picnics while enjoying military parades and cannon firings. The weekend will also feature a reading of the Declaration of Independence.

The Grange Restaurant and Bar on 926 J Street will host its inaugural All American barbecue. The three-course menu will include all the barbecue fixings you love on the Fourth of July. The meal starts with a salad with ranch dressing. The second course provides a slow-cooked Riverdog Farm hog with Carolina barbecue sauce, corn on the cob and potato salad. For dessert, the restaurant offers a berry cobbler with vanilla ice cream. The all-American meal is $35 per person.

The Sacramento Firecracker 5K/10K will be held at McKinley Park at 8 a.m. Saturday. Participants will be given a free short-sleeve T-shirt at the event. Adults and children can take part in a 5K or a 10K run or walk. Registration is $35 until Wednesday for adults, and $40 on race day. Children 15 and under can participate for $20. Proceeds will benefit the Wounded Warrior Project, a group that aims to help injured men and women in the service.

If you prefer to run for free, the Buffalo Chips Running Club will host its 35th annual Fourth of July five mile run, starting at Glen Hall Park on the corner of Sandburg and Carlson Drives in River Park at 8 a.m. Arrive by 7:45 a.m. to sign in. The kid’s half-mile race begins at 7:45 for ages 10 and younger, and the five mile race begins at 8 a.m.

On Saturday, the Sacramento Pocket area will host its annual Spirit of the Pocket Parade. The parade, featuring about 60 floats, will start at 10 a.m. at Lisbon Elementary School, located at 7775 S. Land Park Drive, and will end at Garcia Bend Park on 7654 Pocket Road. The Grand Marshall of this year’s parade will be Bandit, the German shepherd police dog that was recently shot in the line of duty. Other notables at the parade will be Senate President Pro-Tem Darrell Steinberg and Councilman Robbie Waters. At the end of the parade, a community fair will be held at Garcia Bend Park, where different area businesses will show off some of their wares.

Carmichael

Enjoy a pancake breakfast on the Fourth of July at the Carmichael Park Elks Club Lodge, located at 5631 Cypress Ave. After breakfast, the Carmichael Elks will hold their 52nd annual Fourth of July parade, beginning at 11 a.m. on Marconi and Fair Oaks and ending at the Elks Club Lodge. A celebration will follow at the La Sierra Community Center on 5325 Engle Rd., which will include an outdoor barbecue, live music and dancing, free swimming and games for the kids. The fireworks show will begin at 9:30 p.m. at the La Sierra Community Center.

Citrus Heights

In Citrus Heights, Sunrise Mall, located at 6196 Sunrise Mall, will host a free celebration from noon to 9 p.m. Thursday through July 6. The festivities will include live music beginning at 7:30 p.m., a kid’s carnival and a 3D fireworks show. On Independence Day, the mall will present a fireworks show in the parking lot at 9:30 p.m. Special 3D glasses will be distributed for the show, and radio station 98 Rock will provide synchronized music for the festivities.

Rancho Cordova

Rancho Cordova will begin its two-day celebration of Independence Day at 10 a.m. Saturday with a parade on Coloma Road and Cordova Lane. Activities for the children will be provided from 1-6 p.m. at Hagan Park, located on 2197 Chase Drive, including a carnival, water show, tae kwon do, train rides, petting zoo, pony rides and pedal boats. A beer garden will be open from noon until 11 p.m. At 8:30 p.m., former Bad Company singer Brian Howe will perform live. A fireworks show will begin at 9:45 p.m., and on July 4th, Carmichael will provide more food, music and fun. Along with the kids' zone and beer garden, party band Busta-Groove will perform at 8:30 p.m., followed by the grand finale fireworks at 9:45 p.m. Parking is $10 at the park.

Folsom

Presented by the Folsom Chamber of Commerce, the Folsom Pro Rodeo is offering a new laser light show for fans along with nightly fireworks displays. The rodeo begins at 6:30 p.m. Thursday with a Bullipede, where brightly-dressed teams of five runners gallop in a western-style race. Also at 6:30 is the cattle drive. Cowboys will parade steers down Sutter Street in the true fashion of the Old West. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, the rodeo gates will open at 6 p.m., with roping events starting at 7 p.m. and riding events at 8:15 p.m. After dusk, enjoy the laser and fireworks show while enjoying live music from the Dave Russell Band and a drink in Mike's Golden Spike Saloon. The rodeo is held at the Dan Russell arena, located at 401 Stafford St. in Folsom. Reserved tickets are $22.50 in advance. General admission is $19 for adults, $15 for children 12 and under, and $15 for seniors. Visitors can park at the nearby Wal-Mart on 1018 Riley St. and ride a free shuttle to the arena.

Health IT M&A: Impact of Oracle Acquisition of Phase Forward

2010-04-19T23:03:46Z

The Health IT market is consolidating. E-Clinical Data Management demands all but force R&D, as well as post-market prescription and OTC product surveillance, into digital domains. Robust database applications are needed to support these applications and systems. Oracle, Microsoft, and SAP are the three dominant players in the space.

Oracle has been on a steady acquisition spree for some time and has just strengthened its position further. The Oracle Health Sciences (OHS) unit, created in 2008, acquired safety and pharmacovigilance specialist Relsys (makers of Argus Safety) in April 2009. Past Oracle acquisitions of Siebel Systems (Siebel Clinical CTMS - Clinical Trial Management System) complimented the Oracle Remote Data Capture (RDC) application that is widely used for Electronic Data Capture throughout the industry.

Today, Oracle announced the $685 Million (€507m) acquisition of Phase Forward, the leader in the EDC market, having as much as 70% market share, including as many as 15 out of 20 of the top pharma and biotech. More companies use Phase Forward's EDC applications than use Oracle's RDC applications. However, the landscape has now changed. This move adds Phase Forward’s broad range of EDC, CTMS, and other key products to Oracle’s existing offering, thus elevating its position profile in a market that Forrester Research recently predicted will be worth $26 Billion before the end of 2010.

Combined with Oracle's seamless integration of leading sales CRM software (Salesforce.com) and visual Business Intelligence (Hyperion), Oracle has widened the gap in the eClinical space. In order to keep up, Microsoft will certainly have to consider either building a new application in-house, or buying one of the 3-4 other products on the market that currently have any significant market share. Other players in the EDC space include Meditata Systems (Makers of Rave), OmniComm Systems (Makers of TrialMaster), TrialStat (owned by Indian giant, Jubilant Organosys), and Perceptive Informatics (A Parexel company) Clinphone/Datalabs EDC and CTMS applications. Another potential target is Aris Global (perhaps the #1 competitor of Relsys; makers of ARISg safety and pharmacovigilance software). Similarly, SAP will have to take a hard look at the industry as well. The result could be a bidding war for the last remaining players in what was a fragmented EDC landscape.

Novella Clinical, a North Carolina -based eClinical Contract Research Organization (CRO), has been using Phase Forward EDC software for over a decade. Having demonstrated successful cross-platform integration resulting in smooth and seamless global operation, impressive ISO compliance validated by world renown Underwriters Laboratories, and being named to the Deloitte Fast-50 list of the 50 fastest growing companies, Novella is the paradigm example of integrative workability and the gold standard of eClinical quality. Many companies seek to do what Novella has done. The components of their successful Health IT platform offering is a great model regarding what can be developed next.

Accordingly, safe bets for the next waves of acquisition likely focus squarely on the makers of Electronic Patient Reported Outcomes (ePRO) software, and makers of Electronic Medical Records (EMR), Electronic Health Records (EHR), and Personal Health Records (PHR) applications. Leaders in the ePRO space include InVivo Data, PHT, and eResearch Technology (ERT). In fact, based on Phase Forward's July 2009 acquisition Maaguzi, it would appear Oracle is already poised to be in the ePRO space. Along the health record lines, Microsoft already has a strong edge in the EMR/EHR/PHR space. For Oracle to capture significant market share, it would likely need to target a company like Madison, Wisconsin -based Epic Systems, or perhaps even go after Cerner, another market leader.

For SAP, the uphill battle will be even steeper. Any decision not to yield market share will require expedited aggressive acquisition and integration efforts. While some high level integration consultants say that SAP products are more advanced, the fundamental lack of leading applications specific to healthcare currently leaves them almost entirely out of the market.

Benjamin Williams, Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer (CIO) of Catholic Healthcare West (CHW; owners of the Mercy Hospitals in the Sacramento region), is in his third year of technology implementation, consolidation, and integration at the organization's 42 hospitals across California, Nevada, and Arizona. He oversees business intelligence, clinical information systems, and the entire IT infrastructure. This includes oversight of Care Connect, CHW's EHR system. What is Care Connect? The names often seem to come out of left field. It is a uniquely branded and customized version of Epic software.

Further investigation reveals what most already know, the EMR space is even more fragmented than EDC. There are many more players, and many more uniquely branded products. Even the iconic General Electric is in the space. GE Healthcare owns Centricity, an enterprise class EMR application in use in over 200 hospitals around the country. Both Centricity and Care Connect have been used by Providence Healthcare hospitals in various locations. Providence is regarded much like CHW. They have approximately 35 hospitals in their system.

Perhaps the newest and most interesting market participant is a company called Eclipsys. The Atlanta, Georgia -based company has just unveiled its new Sunrise 5.5 enterprise class EHR suite. According to the company, this new version includes an open architecture platform designed to improve the exchange of data between the various layers of software technology being used inside an institution, while simultaneously lowering the total cost of license or ownership. Furthermore, the new solution is said to include smart alert functionality, embedded clinical documentation interoperability by way of of industry-standard vocabularies that allows for smooth data exchange, enhanced documentation of allergies, intolerances and other adverse events that affect patient quality of life, as well as their uniquely branded clinical analytics technology that helps make complex data easier to understand and use.

Ultimately, that's the goal. Make data transferable, visible, able to be understood, and able to be used, all while being securely protected from malicious misuse and public view. Pine Bluff, Arkansas -based Jefferson Regional Medical Center will be the first Eclipsys client to deploy Sunrise 5.5 perhaps as soon as next week. Surely many eyes will be monitoring changes in efficiency, quality, and cost management. Positive results may lead Eclipsys near the front of acquisition target lists.

Interestingly, Kaiser recently completed its system-wide national deployment of ambulatory and in-patient EMR on March 2, in Vallejo. The systems are live in every location, including 21 hospitals in Northern California alone. Kaiser uses Epic. Their system is customized and is called Health Connect.

The last of our major regional healthcare service providers is Sutter Health. Sutter CIO, Jonathan Manis, is an industry veteran with over 20 years of healthcare IT leadership experience, and a background that includes education at the United States Naval Academy and the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey. With Sutter, he oversees over $1 Billion in IT infrastructure. Given that sutter will spend perhaps as much as halfa billion dollars between now and 2015 on system-wide EHR implementation, Sutter CEO, Patrick Fry, says Manis' experience is crucial to Sutter's continued success. Sutter uses Epic software.

Clearly, all eyes should be on Epic. If the Sacramento valley and the Northern California region are any indication, Epic is to EMR what Phase Forward is to EDC: the gold standard. While CHW, Sutter, and Kaiser may compete for patients, members and service utilization, they all agree on one thing: the goals of technology implementation are clear: increase efficiency, reduce administrative processing time, expedite critical information availability, reduce medical error, increase communication, lower costs, and improve the quality of care that people in the community receive. Looking at Oracle's acqisition of Phase forward, a well-known and highly regarded industry veteran opting to remain anonymous says the following, "This provides an opportunity for better integration into the majority of backbones for data warehousing throughout the healthcare sector. It's good for Phase [Forward] and it's great for Oracle, who, by the way, has been calling themselves an eClinical software and service provider for months." It is with this in mind that market consolidating acquisitions must be carefully examined, because compromising any of the above is rarely - if ever - in the public interest.

Sac Sunrise

2009-11-24T18:04:36Z

From the quiet streets of Old Sac, the sun begins its arrival on a chilly morning two days before Thanksgiving.

Watch SacPress for upcoming holiday events happening in Downtown and Old Sacramento. SacPress photo | Kati Garner

Gunshots rang out near thousands celebrating 4th of July, behind Sunrise mall

2009-07-05T22:56:20Z

Sacramento, CA- Four males and three females, one shooter, were somehow all involved in a shooting behind Sunrise Mall during festivities Saturday evening.

Shortly before fireworks were launched at the Sunrise Mall Fourth of July celebration, two people were shot at the Sunrise Vista Apartments, located behind the mall.

One victim was not expected to survive and the other was in serious condition that night. One male was detained and brought back to the seen for a "field show-up". This is where bright lights are put on the subject for two reasons: one so the witnesses can clearly see the suspect to identify him, and secondly so the suspect can't see the witnesses. It is unknown at this time if the suspect was positively identified.

It appeared that the scene was quite confusing for Citrus Heights law enforcement to sort through and gain control of. Thousands of people were moving through the crime scene area which made it nearly impossible for on scene K-9's to track suspects and obscured the scene.