Newest articles on The Sacramento Press tagged as "veteran"

City Council accepts Paralympic grant

2010-12-17T01:29:36Z

The City Council accepted a one-year, $150,000 grant on Tuesday from The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs through a selection process done by the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC).

The USOC selected Sacramento as one of five regions to receive the grant to promote sports and recreation for veterans with disabilities. The four other regions to receive the grant were Boston, Georgia, Texas and Chicago.

A City Council report said that “it is likely that the USOC will select the City of Sacramento as the recipient of these funds annually for a total of four years.”

In a Department of Veterans Affairs press release, Charlie Huebner, chief of Paralympics at the USOC, said, “Research shows that sports and physical activity provide incredible healing power and contribute significantly to successful rehabilitation and re-engagement in life for people and soldiers who become physically disabled.”

The grant will be used by Access Leisure, a division of the city’s Department of Parks and Recreation to hire a full-time program coordinator and two part-time recreation leaders to coordinate, expand and enhance veterans with disabilities participation in Paralympic sports in northern California.

The new staff will work with Access Leisure’s Paralympic Sport Sacramento Club, an official Paralympic Sport Club of the USOC Paralympic Divison since 2008.

Annie Desalernos, director for regional programs for Paralympic sports, said, “Locally what we’re trying to do is to get people with disabilities and visual impairments involved in active sports. It’s our responsibility as community members to provide them with the sports and recreation that is a part of every individual’s lifestyle.”

The Paralympic Sport Club’s goal is to be a place for people with physical and visual difficulties to engage in sports, not to produce Olympic-level athletes, Desalernos said.

The Club is actively seeking injured, ill or wounded veterans to come and participate in the program. The sports are sled hockey, track and field, hand cycling, goal ball, quad rugby, swimming, wheelchair basketball and wheel chair tennis.

“We are actively seeking veterans with visual impairment or are that are blind to participate in our tandem cycling program” Desalernos, said.

Those interested in participating in the club can contact Annie Desalernos at adesaler@cityofsacramento.org or (916) 808-3809. For more information, go to http://www.accessleisuresac.org/.

“The Veterans' Benefits Improvement Act of 2008 authorizes VA to award $8 million in annual grant support to the U.S. Paralympics to plan, develop, manage, and implement an integrated adaptive sports program for disabled Veterans and disabled members of the Armed Force,” according to a Department of Veterans Affairs press release.

Mountain Lions stalking a quarterback.

2010-05-20T05:52:32Z

The Sacramento Mountain Lions are about to receive a large dose of credibility and star power. According to ESPN's Adam Schefter, the UFL's Sacramento franchise is in the process of finalizing a contract with former NFL quarterback Daunte Culpepper.

The erstwhile QB, who played in eight games last season for the Detroit Lions, will try to prove that he has still got something in the tank after spending the past five years as an NFL journeyman.

A three-time Pro Bowler and one-time Madden NFL cover boy with the Minnesota Vikings, the 6-foot 4-inch, 260-pound quarterback put up huge numbers in 2004, throwing for 39 touchdowns and nearly 5,000 yards. He set a record for most combined yardage passing and rushing that still stands. If it weren't for Peyton Manning and his record-setting 49 TDs that year, he most assuredly would have been voted the leagues Most Valuable Player. He was one of the league's biggest stars, and it seemed he would be for quite some time.

Then 2005 happened.

The Vikings got off to a slow start, due in large part to Culpepper's struggles. They were just 2-4 when he tore his ACL, MCL and PCL in a game against the Carolina Panthers. He was done for the year, and he had six touchdowns, 12 picks and a passer's rating of 64.4. A far cry from the gaudy 110.9 from the previous season.

To add insult to injury, literally, Culpepper was at the heart of a sex boat scandal involving 17 Vikings, two boats and a gaggle of strippers and live sex acts. Culpepper was one of four players charged with three misdemeanors. It really amounted to immature antics and boys being boys, but coupled with the injury, his deteriorating play and some contract issues, Daunte was on his way out.

Since that time, he has been a part-time starter for the Detroit Lions, Oakland Raiders and Miami Dolphins, but has never appeared in more than eight games in any one season.

The signing makes sense for everyone involved. In Culpepper, the Mountain Lions will be getting the kind of big name who will put butts in the seats. Up until now, the biggest names in the UFL have been the coaches. Dennis Green hands over his "face of the franchise" tag to Culpepper the moment he signs. Culpepper also may open the flood gates for other old or troubled stars to join the league.

In Sacramento, Culpepper will get a chance to play once more for Denny Green, under whose tutelage he had his greatest success. He will have a chance to start and prove himself on the field, an opportunity he would not have had in the NFL. If he plays well enough, he may earn his ticket back into the League.

It remains to be seen whether the UFL will survive where the XFL, World League and others have failed. Moving the franchises to cities that don't have NFL teams was a very good start. And bringing in quality name talent like Daunte Culpepper is another step in the right direction. Keep this up, and the NFL will find itself with something it has never really had before, a viable minor league.

Either way, the Sacramento Mountain Lions just got a lot more interesting.

James M. Moose

2009-11-30T06:49:20Z

You could chat with Jim Moose for a while and not find out that he’s a World War II veteran or a retired attorney, but you might be able to figure it out through his poetry. Jim uses regular rhythms and rhyme in his poetry – you can hear that classic lilt of iambic pentameter in much of his work. It’s bouncy and generally easy to follow. But Jim’s wide range of topics – old friends, war scenes, historical poems, mountain hikes and courtroom scenes – set him apart from most poets I know. Check out this selection of pieces from his new book Hotchpot – you’ll find humor and wisdom, sorrow and joy, and a unique look at the world in the poetry of James M. Moose.

Jim Moose, pere (James M. Moose) is a retired civil servant and Navy veteran of WWII, a graduate of UC Berkeley and its law school. He produced nothing in the way of literature, other than legal opinions and decisions, until he wrote his first poem after retiring in 1995. His poetry has been published in Susurrus, the Sacramento City College literary magazine, and he has recently self-published a collection of his poems he has entitled Hotchpot.

Reminiscence

I met a charming girl, and shortly moved away.
It was as though she’d evanesced; I neither saw
nor heard of her again. A thought of her, astray,
alit a time or two, then moved into the maw
of time’s recycle bin. All memory of her
was gone – for sixty years, at least – and then, by hap,
an anamnestic trick: a mental chorister
pronounced, “And now, your ken of Emalyn unwrap!”
She was a preacher’s kid, precocious, prim and plain
but not a Grundyist – a hayride proved her so.
She’d written in my yearbook in a friendly vein,
and it occurred to me that I could be her beau.
This shard reminds me, in my latter, happy lot,
that if I’d stayed, not moved, I’d be someone I’m not.

Oral Argument

A lengthy wait, in a snaking queue
of youngish lawyer-spectators,
with their several needs to watch,
to pass an elaborate security bar
(God Save This Honorable Court)
before entering the courtroom
to hear a functionary, finely-tuned
lay down for counsel, with apt
and market-tested humor and advice,
the rules for argument, before
the Court arrives (All Rise)
to hear their morning calendar;

a handsome courtroom,
wood-paneled and –pilastered,
a bench, raised and rampart-like,
fit for seven demigods,
and a ceiling almost out of sight,
designed to evoke awe and wonder
from all who enter here
to argue, or just to watch
the unrehearsed but stylized
ballet of question and response;

questions from the Court,
always interrupting counsel’s
argument and train of thought –
sometimes betraying a majestic
misunderstanding of the facts.

The Alpinist

I rose that day and climbed the lofty peak
with cloudy robes that filed the western sky,
and was exalted as I mounted there.

What was the potion there supplied to me?
What vasty notion filled my mind?
What strange vision was vouchsafed to me?

The granite rock beneath my feet rose up
and lifted me as if an ocean wave and I a
sleeping petrel resting on its bosom there.

The vastness of the sky enfolded me and
I was one with nature and eternity, and
knew I was a creature of the universe.

What's happening at the Capitol: November 10

2009-11-11T00:45:34Z

Wednesday, Nov. 10

1 - 2 p.m. In honor of Veterans Day, Mexican-American Veteran Memorial, Inc., will hold a memorial service at the California Veterans Memorial for about 50 people.

No further events until Saturday, Nov. 14.