As an owner of Macer Media, publisher of The Sacramento Press, I have never made a political statement on this site. Today I will, out of self-preservation, and a concern for what is just and good for this site, and the people of this community in general. Wikipedia went black Wednesday due to its strong opposition to the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA). Google also voiced its opposition with a link on its homepage. Many other Interenet companies took similar steps. So the first question is: What is SOPA? SOPA is a piece of proposed legislation in the House of Representatives aimed at, you guessed it, stopping piracy. The main proponent of the bill is the Motion Picture Association of Ame

As of today The Sacramento Press has an official mobile site. The great thing about this mobile site is that it can be found at the same location as our regular site, it's way more readable on your average smartphone. Our great development team optimized most of the pages on our site for the mobile browsing experience and those pages include: Sign-up Log in Front Page and Tag Pages User Profiles Search The other big feature we are launching is a developer API. An API or Application Programming Interface is a way for someone to interact with our site programatically. So if someone wanted to make an application for a phone or the Web that used our publicly available data, now they c

You know who you are, but when you write for The Sacramento Press, our readers might not. That’s part of the impetus behind today’s site update concerning disclosures. We have added a new section to our “write article” page that pokes and prods everyone from staff to community contributors to disclose personal and professional affiliations to anything discussed in stories. This update goes hand-in-hand with an update to our terms of use policy, which now requires a disclosure in any circumstance where a contributor has a “personal or professional interest in the subject matter of such article.” The interface is clean and simple and is just a text area that allows you to add a short des

When 34-year-old Elizabeth Jackson was a first-time mom staying home alone to raise her son, she felt isolated and sometimes unsure of herself – but a creative outlet her mother never knew of when she was an infant helped her feel connected and confident – her blog. “The community was the best thing,” she said. “Being a mom is so isolating.” The isolation, she said, comes from not being able to have a conversation with an infant – who was the only one home. For Jackson, the isolation was made harder, as she was new to Sacramento, but her blog gave her a ready community of people going through the same things, and they were always just an email away. “You have all these questions,” she s

Men of all ages and shoe sizes gathered at the corner of 18th Street and Capitol Avenue, ready to walk one mile in women’s high heels to support WEAVE’s first “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” event. “There are so many men that are affected by sexual assault, and this is a way for men to show their support,” said Amber Stott, WEAVE director of communications relations. Stott estimated that since Friday WEAVE has raised over $63, 000. Stott said all proceeds will go to WEAVE and benefit the various services that WEAVE provides, including counseling, WEAVE safe house, legal assistance, prevention programs and 24-hour support and response teams to help survivors of sexual assault. In addition to

It’s been nearly two and half years since we launched The Sacramento Press, and today we released a few changes (more than just the temporary purple color), one of which is removing the beta stamp from our navigation. What is a beta stamp, you ask? Well, since you can no longer see it on our site, I grabbed this screenshot of what it used to look like. Beta generally indicates that a company is still working out the kinks in their core product. But we finally are happy to say we feel pretty happy with what we have, so no more beta! Does this mean we stop working on new features? Absolutely not. We will in fact bring new and increasingly cool features to The Sacramento Press over the co

Each day there are hundreds of individuals and families living without basic human needs, such as food and shelter right in our own Sacramento County. Using Sacramento Community Family Resources website statics which received over 97,000 page views since January 1st 2011 there were over: • 1,728 Unique page views from words such as “homeless shelters in Sacramento”. • 2,945 Unique page views from words such as “food closet locations in Sacramento”. The list can go on and on, but the most important thing to know is that each of these numbers is an individual or family that is in immediate need of food or shelter. The question is “do we really need research and statistics to tell us that t

Now you can add captions and credits to images that you upload to the site. Because we have added captions and credits, the interface has changed for adding pictures to the slide show at the top of each story. The interface will allow you to give yourself a photo credit and assign multiple captions at the same time. Captions are optional, but image credits are required. You can also rearrange your pictures by simply dragging and dropping the rows into the appropriate order. You drag a picture by clicking the gridded dot icon located just to the left of your picture. In order to display this new information, we had to change the look and feel of the article’s slide show gallery. Captions

A Wal-Mart Facebook campaign is helping to raise awareness of hunger in our communities while offering $1 million dollars to the fight. One in five Californians is food insecure and in the Sacramento area 17.7% of families (national average: 9.2%) cannot afford regular meals. Sacramento needs your help! Anyone with a Facebook can participate and support the fight against hunger by visiting the website and “liking” Sacramento. Wal-Mart will donate $1 million to the community with the most support and $100,000 each to the next five communities. The Sacramento area is currently in 7th place. The deadline is December 31, 2010, 4pm PST. Spread the word Once you've “Liked” Sacramento, there'

The Department of Human Assistance (DHA), in conjunction with its partners, Volunteers of America and Sacramento Area Emergency Housing Center (SAEHC) will provide winter housing and shelter to homeless families from December 1, 2010, through March 31, 2011. DHA will provide $150,000 in funding. With half of this funding Volunteers of America will be able to provide up to 25 beds for families at 3547 Myrtle Avenue, and with the other half SAEHC will be able to provide up to 25 beds for families at 3671 5th Avenue. “Sacramento County is committed to helping the homeless in our community,” said Paul Lake, DHA Interim Director. “While the funding amount is less than in previous years, it wil

An early bout of severe weather will hit Sacramento tonight through Wednesday night, endangering the lives of the approximately 1,200 homeless men, women and children sleeping outside in Sacramento County. The next three days will see lows of 28 degrees to 30 degrees, with rain forecasted for this evening. Due to the projected low temperatures, warming centers are being activated for Tuesday, November 23,  Wednesday, November 24, and Thursday, November 25, 2010. Open warming centers are: -Volunteers of America A Street Shelter (1400 North A Street, next door to TLCS Guest House: Men only -Salvation Army Shelter (12th & North B Street): Women and Men, 18 years + -Union Gospel Mission

In the true spirit of the Holiday Season, Rogers Jewelry Co. is hosting a benefit for the Sacramento Muscular Dystrophy Association in their newest store, located in Granite Bay Pavilions on the corner of Sierra College Boulevard and Eureka Road in Roseville. On Sunday, 100 percent of the proceeds of all sales will be donated directly to the Sacramento Muscular Dystrophy Association. The MDA helps provide care and treatment of individuals with neuro-muscular and skeletal dysfunctions as well as funds research into diseases of the spine and central nervous system. Most people know the MDA from their main fundraising effort, the Labor Day Telethon hosted by comedian Jerry Lewis. Rogers is

California Universities Collaborate in Voter Registration Initiative   Student Associations Register 40,000 New California Voters for Tomorrow’s Election   Students in California’s state universities partnered in a major statewide voter registration initiative this season, resulting in 40,000 additional college students registered and mobilized for tomorrow’s election. Sponsored by the California State Student Association (CSSA) and University of California Student Association (UCSA), each of the 23 CSU and ten UC campuses encouraged students to become more active in and to vote in the 2010 California Midterm election. Campuses from San Diego to Humboldt participated in the bold initi

Once a month, every month like clockwork since 2005, hundreds of people get together under the 12th street bridge for a love-in. Yes you heard right, and this is probably the first time you have ever heard of it. In fact it happens this Saturday, October 30th at 2:00pm.  People come from all over the area dressed in tie-dye and many other forms of clothing, depending on the weather, to create an atmosphere where "Love Wins". This monthly event is called Project61 and was started by local rapper and motivational speaker Minister RMB in the fall of 2004 with some friends.  RMB says, "Everybody wants to know they are valued and loved...regardless of their current situation or background.  Pe

Sacramento Habitat for Humanity (SHfH) is a nonprofit organization committed to building quality, energy-efficient, affordable housing in partnership with low-income families in Sacramento County. There is an immediate opportunity for families in need – which have the ability to make small monthly mortgage payments, whose credit record can demonstrate responsibility, and which have the desire to help themselves and other families in need – to be able to own a home. SHfH works with selected low-income partner families who want to learn what it takes to become responsible homeowners. Qualified families will partner with SHfH to build and purchase their own homes with no down payment and

Pink! Pink! Pink! Pink is plastered everywhere. From the NFL and the MLB players wearing pink, to hundred of placements in the grocery stores, on the TV and in print, it’s impossible to go anywhere without seeing pink. Does anyone not know that it’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month? In Sacramento, the Susan G. Komen Foundation twist is “In the Pink”. They started the month off with “Call for the Cure,” a very successful telethon sponsored by KCRA/MY58 that raised an incredible $84,000. Local restaurants, including all in the Paragary chain, are participating in the “Dine Out for the Cure” by donating proceeds from special pink items on their menus. The Baron Gallery is one of many art galler

Watching the news everyday is very frustrating seeing that nearly every part of Sacramento has a house that has been damaged by an "Unknown Character" who is setting innocent peoples houses on fire, for what reason? What are the police, community doing about this problem? I hate to see people out of house & home because of someones carelessness to other properties. Its just such a coincedence that every single day there is a fire. I just want it to stop because I REFUSE to be a victim to this mess. What can we do to prevent it?

 For local businesses all over Sacramento, there’s nothing like making great connections, branching out your network, and reaching consumers in need of your products. The Rainbow Chamber of Commerce provides an umbrella of networking opportunities for gays, lesbians and gay-friendly business owners through monthly mixers to political and community social events. Thanks to the success of its exceptional members, the Rainbow Chamber of Commerce gives back to our city through the Rainbow Chamber Foundation. Providing college scholarships and leadership awards to outstanding gay, lesbian and gay-friendly youth, the RCC Foundation takes tremendous steps forward to help improve the lives of the

When children are brought into this world, the universal hope for them is a loving, supportive, healthy life, with loving parents, a good education, and every need met with the utmost satisfaction. The sad truth is that even in our own Sacramento community, children are placed into the foster care system. Child abuse, neglect, drug addiction, and poverty are only a few of the nightmares faced by many young members of our city. These kids never asked to be in these situations nor do they have much of a say as to what happens to them including where they live or where they go to school. This is where Sacramento Child Advocates comes in! They have Given a voice and protected the rights of ove

             400 friends & I attended the best party Fairytale Town has ever seen and the generosity of the Sacramenten's was truly evident. Benefitting the Sacramento Area Emergency Housing Center, the wining, dinning and dancing added to the highlight of the event, the live auction. Every paddle raised went towards helping the homeless issue in Sacramento. David Sobon of David Sobon Auctions entertained and engaged the crowd into a bidding frenzy. It was fun to watch and got me raising my paddle too.                The participating restaurants were fabulous, a mix of comfort food and elegant dishes. The wine was enjoyable and satisfying with all the local favorites in the house. A perf