The Sacramento Area League of Associated Muslims Center, an Islamic center located off Community Oak Drive, will finalize phase three of their mission in May with the completion of their mosque.   Salam Center was established in 1987 in hopes of one day having a complete Muslim community center that would include a library, bookstore, school, counseling center, youth center, family corner and a mosque.   Phase one, which was started in the late 1980s, included on-site work such as boundary walls, landscaping and the front gate.  Phase two, which began in the early '90s, brought the completion of the community center, full-time school, weekend school and kitchen.  Phase three has been d

KOLT Run Creations  hosted a full house at Ooley Theater during the opening weekend of “Crime and Punishment.”   The theatrical performance features local actors Brian Rife, Patrick Murphy and Kelley Ogden. Rife plays Raskolnikov, the protagonist guilty of murdering two women, while Murphy and Ogden play a variety of characters throughout the show.   Having three actors play seven characters is not as distracting as it seems. The actors do a good job transitioning into different roles. They also have great facial expressions along with changes in pitch that help differentiate characters.   Audience member Penny Kline Meagher said she felt that Ogden did a good job in her transitions.

Dreams are said to be a state of unconsciousness, but they don't always have to be.  Marcy Nault is living proof that dreams can come true.   Nault, a fiction writer originally from Boston and currently living in Sacramento, created a list of 20 dreams she wanted to accomplish throughout her lifetime. The list included learning to figure skate, traveling around the world and learning how to salsa dance. During an eight-year period she accomplished her entire list of dreams.   Nault said she knew she wanted more but wasn't inspired to pursue her dreams until she ended a long-term relationship about two years ago. She had moved to California with her partner, but what she found in Sacramen

"Crime and Punishment," a theatrical performance presented by KOLT Run Creations, will open Friday at Ooley Theater in Midtown.  The play, originally a novel by Fyodor Dostoevsky, was brought to Sacramento by KOLT co-founders Kelley Ogden and Lisa Thew for a specific purpose.  "We usually do shows or pick scripts that have issues that are related to our community," Odgen said. "When we looked at doing our next show, we could not escape that there is a real economic poverty (in Sacramento)."  Odgen explained the with all the job-loss and furlough situations, they felt the play reflected current times around the community.  "Crime and Punishment" takes place during the mid-1800s in St. P

Additional safety precautions for athletes of all ages were discussed during the Youth Sports Safety Summit Tuesday morning. Professionals, including athletic trainers, orthopaedic surgeons, parents, students, physicians, professors and state legislators all presented possible solutions to help decrease the risk of catastrophic athletic injuries and illness among athletes.    Last year, Tommy Mallon, a student at Santa Fe Christian High School in San Diego, broke his neck during a lacrosse game.  His school athletic trainer, Riki Kirchhoff, saved his life by following proper procedure.  It turned out Mallon had a fractured neck and without the help of an athletic trainer, he would have d

Assembly Bill 656, authored by Assemblyman Alberto Torrico, was suspended after a second hearing at the Assembly Committee of Revenue and Taxation on Monday.  AB 656, proposing an oil and gas severance tax with revenue going to California's higher education system, was introduced last February and went through the first hearing in May, but the hearing was canceled by Torrico.  During the second hearing, Chairman Charles Calderon and the Revenue and Taxation Committee said they believed the bill needed further discussion and a possible decrease of the 12.5 percent tax rate originally proposed to a more reasonable 6 to 7 percent.  "The real truth here is the bill is going nowhere--it's no

The National Athletic Trainer Association (NATA) will be holding a Youth Sports Safety Summit at the Capitol on Tuesday in hopes of educating legislators, athletes, parents, coaches and the community about catastrophic dangers young athletes are exposed to.  In December, NATA partnered with 30 organizations, including American Academy of Pediatrics, American Medical Society for Sports Medicine and California Brain Injury Association to name a few, and formed an Alliance to combat the "youth sports safety crisis in America." The event will feature various speakers from the alliance including: Cindy Chang, MD, representative for the American Medical Society for Sports Medicine (AMSSM); Dian

As of Jan. 1, California takes precautions to ensure restaurants and other food facilities follow the dictate's of Assembly Bill 97, which prohibits the use of oil, shortening and margarine with more than 0.5 grams of trans fat.  The law was authored by Assemblyman Tony Mendoza and signed by Governor Schwarzenegger in 2008.  California became the first state to pass such a law, although cities such as New York and Boston have similar laws. According to Mendoza's Trans Fat Ban Fact Sheet, trans fat increases the risk of coronary heart disease, the leading cause of deaths in the country.  "This is more than just legislation. This is a call to action that takes into consideration the health

Making the second stop of a thirteen-city tour, Broadway’s "Xanadu" has made its way to Sacramento. The musical production, directed by Christopher Ashley, brings drama, comedy and a bit of 21st century lingo into a must-see production. "Xanadu" takes place during the 1980s in Venice Beach, Calif. where an artist named Sonny Malone, played by Max Von Essen, struggles to satisfy his artistic hunger. After creating the chalk drawing “The Nine Sisters," Sonny’s creation comes to live with one purpose — to artistically inspire him. The romantic comedy also features Elizabeth Stanley as Kira or Terpsichore, the muse of dance, who becomes Sonny’s inspiration and love interest. Even though th

‘Robin’ Neighborhood: Downtown “I want to be just a little bit more healthy in 2010 than I was in 2009.” -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   Jack Wooten(left) and Bunlong Hong(right) Neighborhood: South Sacramento “My new years resolution is to cut back on eating fast food because it’s pricey and it’s unhealthy and it’s a lot of my diet," Wooten said. His friend Hong said "(I) want to pick up a musical instrument, specifically the ukulele.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------   Francisco Rodriguez

Sacramentans enjoy the final days of 2009 at the midtown ice rink on 20th Street next to J Street.  The rink, which was previously located in downtown on 7th Street next to K Street, will operate until Jan. 18.   Hours of operation are from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m Monday through Friday.  Cost is $5 for children, $8 for adults and $2 for skate rentals.        

Following your dreams doesn’t necessarily mean following your checkbook -- a life lesson local painter Jeff Musser can relate to. Musser was born and raised in Sacramento and began sketching comics and actions figures when he was 5. He didn’t get serious about his work until he got placed into an advanced art class his freshmen year at Sacramento High School. "(I) was around 15 when I decided this is what I want to do with my life,” Musser said.  “I wasn’t sure in what capacity -- whether I would be a sculptor or a graphic designer or (do) paint installation, but I just knew being creative and being an artist was what I was supposed to do.” At the time, his work was mainly with pencil a

With a camera in his hand and a head full of dreams, young Jay Canter never would have imagined his photographs one day would be featured in publications around the world or in a hospital lobby in his hometown. Canter was given his first camera at age 6 while on a family trip to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, in Washington D.C. “I’ve always been a very curious kid who has always wanted to be hands-on with things.  And obviously going to the Smithsonian with expensive pieces of artwork and dinosaur bones, I was the one who would jump under the rope and touch everything,” Canter said.  “So my parents gave me a camera to keep me out of trouble and that’s how I basically became t

Saxophonist and composer Eric Arellano might be new to the professional jazz scene, but he is not new to Sacramento. He was born and raised in Carmichael and developed a passion for jazz in elementary school, where he was first exposed to the saxophone. His father Ron Arellano said he has been inseparable from the instrument ever since -- well, sort of. “He was going to quit sax after two months (of playing) because he didn’t make the honor band,” Ron Arellano said. “Basically I said, ‘I rented this saxophone for six months, you’re going to play,’ and I think that decision changed his life.” Since then, Arellano became an accomplished musician around the area and now the world. After

The Sacramento City Council unanimously passed, with a 10-0 vote, the Bethlehem Sister City Initiative proposal, which establishes a formal relationship between Sacramento and Bethlehem, during Tuesday’s council meeting. The council also adopted a resolution to establish a relationship with an Israeli city in the future. The Bethlehem Sister City Initiative was started in 2006 by community volunteers who were interested in forming environmental, artistic and agricultural ties between the two cities, according to the report by Council Operations Manager Lisa Serna-Mayorga. This past October, the Jewish community also expressed interest in forming a bond between Sacramento and an Israeli

Christmas is back and so is another season of "The Nutcracker". Sacramento Ballet co-art directors, Ron Cunningham and Carinne Binda outdid themselves during the opening performance. In celebration of Cunningham’s 500th "Nutcracker" showing, there were guest performances from Cunningham himself as well as Melissa Sandvig from “So You Think You Can Dance” and former company dancer Nina Baratova, who shared the sugar plum fairly role with company dancer Amanda Peet. But where was the finest sugar plum fairy of them all? Kirsten Bloom, prima ballerina, was sitting in Row J watching the performance in a lovely red dress with her long-time boyfriend. Bloom is expected her first child and i

As children pranced around the well-lit and creatively-designed stage during Tuesday night’s dress rehearsal of the Nutcracker at the Community Center Theater, the Sacramento Ballet prepared for another season of Sugar Plum Fairies. Director of Production Kyle Lemoi, who has been with the company for three seasons, said he has done many Nutcracker productions around the country, but the stage setup and attention to detail is what sets the Sacramento production apart.   “The set was made in Russia and was designed by (Alan Vaes), who lives in New York,” he said. “Everything is hand painted and they painted it with dye.” The stage setup is a recent addition to the company and has only bee

It's been said that photographs are worth a thousand words. And in the case of Troy Keon, they certainly are. Keon opened the world to a new form of art that many see, but never acknowledge, with the publication of his book A Regular Robert Frost: Bathroom Prose and Graffiti. The book, which was self-published and released in June, captures words and drawings created on walls of dive bars, coffee shops and restaurants in four cities: New York City, Berkeley, San Francisco and Sacramento. “Of course among all the dry, stale curse, you’re going to find some insightful prose,” Keon said.  “I think the idea about being anonymous really takes off. It’s really unfiltered, rather irreverent, b

 With Christmas around the corner and charitable spirits in the air, the Cathedral Square Homeless Program will host the Third Annual Festival of Trees and Lights at the Westfield Downtown Plaza Friday and Saturday.  The two-day event will be held in the Plaza Level between the Westfield Play Town and Morton’s Steakhouse. Friday's event, which is an invitation-only event , will consist of a live auction as well as a silent auction and a performance from Academy Orchestra Ensemble. Saturday's festivities, which are free to the public, will include raffle prize drawings, a holiday boutique and performances from various community choirs and groups, such as Love Taxi, A Small Difference and

Fruit spreads, Christmas ornaments, handbags, hats and clothing filled Cal Expo during the 37th Harvest Festival Original Arts and Crafts Show Friday. The festival is a weekend-long event with 270 arts and crafts booths and a variety of musical performances, from the Fargo Brothers and Tom Rigney and Flambeau to name a few, as well as food booths, such as Cocina Mexicana and Southwest Café. Account Executive Liz Stigge said a crowd of about 15,000 is expected to attend throughout the weekend. The Harvest Festival has nine shows, including eight in California, that are held in cities with a passion for crafts. “We usually pick places that are routed in an arts culture,” Stigge said. “Th