Soaked turkey hats, rain gear and lots of slogging marked the 18th year of Run to Feed the Hungry. It was wet, but it was wonderful. East Sacramento Preservation set up a camera at the Y—45th and J Streets, where the 10k and the 5k split. The rain thinned out the throngs, and weakened the resolve of some to peel off the sheets, but the turn out was still enormous. The charity race is a cultural event in East Sacramento. You can’t watch without a smile and a warm heart, even on the wettest, dampest of days.

In Australia they call them kangatarians — people who eat kangaroo exclusively. Such a person in East Sacramento would need to know about Cookie’s. The East Sacramento drive-in has gone “wild” and now serves ostrich, buffalo and kangaroo meat burgers. Lean-diet advocates have long touted the health benefits of game meat. Compared to its beef cousins, it wins the low-fat contest. But kangaroo? Will Americans warm up to “Skippy” and other game burgers? Are they soon to be in the meat sections, or will they remain a culinary oddity? The test On a warm afternoon, East Sacramento News conducted a scientificish test. Three average East Sacramentans were ready to try the wild burgers. Each

Laura Barrett and a dedicated band of volunteers kept the Bertha Henschel Wading Pool open this summer, but now they are faced with a mountain to climb. “We raised money for the past two years to help support the pool and keep it open. Now the need is much more extreme. We are bracing for a possible contribution of $22,000 to keep the pool running next year,” says Barrett, coordinator of The Friends of Bertha Henschel Park. All city resources are dwindling and more and more neighbors and community members are relied on to keep services running, especially in our parks. For Bertha Henschel the news is grim. “At this point the City Parks and Recreation department is saying that there will

When Jim Ferry (an East Sacramento resident) contacted his neighbors to address the impacts of Mercy Hospital using J Street as their primary loading dock, he got a lot of supportive response. The neighborhood is stressed by Mercy's inconsideration. Mr. Ferry has done an admirable job of documenting a fairly shocking misuse of the public way for a loading dock through his blog at http://mercygeneral.blogspot.com. More than any petition, Mr. Ferry's blog uses photos to show the truth. A picture truly is worth a thousand words. The loading situation on J Street is patently hazardous. There are frequently semi-tractor trucks parked in a seven foot wide space that impinge upon the west-bo

Tarzan The longhaired, blue-eyed punk scaled a 30-foot tree and got himself stuck in the canopy for eight days. He made the evening news. A tree-trimming crew bagged the bad boy and rappelled him down. He then spent time in the pokey until Happy Tails bailed him out. With three of his nine lives ticked off, he is one lucky kitty. Cats like Tarzan are “second chance cats” and they are Happy Tails Pet Sanctuary’s specialty. Rescued from an uncertain fate at the Sacramento City Animal Shelter, he was brought to Happy Tails on Folsom Boulevard for a second chance at adoption. He was cleaned up, chipped, checked, vaccinated and neutered. Happy Tails won’t refuse a cat. “But first do everyth