Californians to Protect Local Taxpayer and Vital Services has gathered close to a million signatures in support of the Local Taxpayer, Public Safety and Transportation Protection Act of 2010. Support for this bill has been overwhelming throughout California. The number of signatures gathered by late February stood at 500,000. Roughly 320,000 signatures were gathered between the end of February and the end of March. The act is designed to prevent the Legislature from transferring, borrowing, restricting, taxes imposed by municipalities by amending the California constitution. The coalition list in support of this act ranges from city mayors, public safety, labor groups, transportation, bu

A night of burlesque dancing, live music and live art is happening Saturday at the Bohemian Ball in Old Sacramento. Mike and Natalya Wahba, owners of Café Americain, are hosting the event, which they said will be on the order of what you might expect to find in San Francisco.  The evening will include musical performances, Russian cuisine, absinthe and a fashion show of lingerie. The ball also will be a masquerade party, so don costumes and wear your finery. The after party will begin at 1 a.m., with performances by Black Kat Kabaret, Sizzling Sirens Burlesque, and fire eating and belly dancing by Leona. Musicians will include Jeff Stott, a composer and aficionado of the international

Investigative journalist Richard Trainor will be promoting his new book, “Paradise Lost?: High-Speed Trains Get Waylaid, Shady Politicians get Billions and Taxpayers Get the Shaft!” at Harlow’s Wednesday. The book opens with a sordid account of Trainor’s lifestyle and the pitfalls of being an investigative journalist. That lifestyle included homelessness, a politician threatening to throw him off the Bay Bridge if he didn’t back off of a story, and being tossed in jail as he relentlessly pursued shady politicians and their scams. “Paradise Lost?” is an extraordinary account of what politicians call ‘pump and dump’ schemes. The two main examples in the book elaborate on high-speed rail p

The City of Sacramento is negotiating a deal with Clear Channel Outdoor (CCO) to install four digital billboards along several freeways within city limits. The four proposed digital billboards would be located at Interstate 80 at Northgate, Interstate 5 at Richards Blvd., Capital City Freeway at Fulton Ave., and Highway 99 at Mack Road. The city’s goals for installing the digital billboards are to diversify and increase city funds. According to Tom Zeidner, the senior economic development project manager, the financial terms between the city and CCO are still being negotiated, and he is not able to discuss the specifics. The revenue the city is expected to earn and how it will be distr

The Peace and Freedom Party is gathering signatures in Sacramento to put Daniel Fredrick on the ballot in the November election. Fredrick is running for Assembly District 4 against Republican incumbent TedGaines. Fredrick has made his reasons for running against Gaines abundantly clear: “In a nutshell, what separates me from Ted Gaines is everything! Whatever he stands for, I am the opposite. So are my solutions.” Fredrick made the decision to run during a meeting in which Ray Reynolds, a ocal member of the PFP, said, “We are never going to get any young people in this party by running our tired old asses again. Daniel, you need to run”. The importance of getting a younger demographic i