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08/26/2024

🔹
CHALK IT UP!
The annual Chalk It Up! art and music festival is back Aug. 31 to Sept. 2 at Fremont Park.
Enjoy three days of live music, vendors, food trucks, kids’ activities and hundreds of volunteer artists creating stunning works of art on sidewalks around the park.
“We are so excited to bring the festival back for our 33rd year,” says Chalk It Up! Executive Director Christy Jourdan.
“We are one of the last free, family friendly festivals in the region and we are grateful to our community—volunteer artists, volunteer musicians, and especially our generous sponsors and donors—who are key to keeping this tradition alive since we started back in 1991.”
Since 2012, Chalk It Up! has awarded more than $70,000 to local schools and nonprofits, such as River City Theatre Company, Leading Edge Academy Expressive Arts and San Juan Unified School District Foster Youth Services.

For information, visit chalkitup.org.

08/26/2024

Career Change
Wildlife biologist shares life stories
Roger Jones has a thicket of trees named for him. It’s called Rawge’s Grove, situated in the Bufferlands natural habitat refuge on the outskirts of the Sacramento Regional Wastewater Treatment Plant in Elk Grove.

Rawge’s Grove—a nod to Jones’ nickname—is part of the 2,150-acre Bufferlands. The grove honors the man who helped create the barrier between the treatment facility and surrounding neighborhoods.

In 1990, when Jones was a young wildlife biologist from UC Davis, he was hired to oversee the area’s habitat restoration.

“It was just me and one engineer on this 3,000-acre refuge,” recalls Jones, who grew up on a farm in the San Joaquin Valley. “The engineer, Roy Nelson, would say, ‘What could we do here? What do you want?’

“So I took the reins. I would suggest things and Roy knew how to make them happen with the county. In 30 years, we turned it into the incredible Bufferlands.”

Bufferlands is home to restored wildlife habitats, including Upper Beach Lake Wildlife Area and Laguna Wetlands Complex. There’s the Trail of Trees with 6,500 native trees and shrubs. There’s the historic 1940s Nicolaus Dairy restored in 2016 to host hands-on educational experiences.

Thanks to Jones and Nelson, Bufferlands welcomes thousands of visitors for tours and events.

“It’s only about 2,500 acres—the farm I grew up on was about the same size—but it’s 2,500 acres of magic,” Jones says. “We have 250 species of birds. Yosemite is 50,000 acres and they only have about 20 birds more than us.

“There may not be any other place in California that has this amount of diversity of mammals, fish, insects and plants.”

While Jones has talent for working with the land, it was not his intended career. He started in the oil fields in his 20s, but oil prices tanked. Soon unemployed, he took a creative writing class at Coalinga College. Staff convinced him to become a full-time student majoring in journalism.

A chance encounter with a wildlife biologist made him change tack. He transferred to UC Davis to study natural resource science.

“In the back of my mind, I knew I wanted to write,” he says. “I figured, if I got a job as a wildlife biologist, I could write any time. But it actually took me 30 years.”

Jones returned to his first love when it looked like he was running out of time. In April 2020, COVID-19 landed him on a hospital ventilator for more than a month. He was told he would likely die.

The prognosis got him thinking about the book he meant to write. He started composing on his phone in his hospital bed and “finished two years later on a chaise-longue in a hut in Panama over the water, looking down at the beautiful fish. Things change in your life and your troubles can change also,” he says.

The resulting memoir, “And There I Was… Just Minding My Own Business,” is a compendium of 50 chapters of true stories spanning 60 years of life.

“Every bit of it is true, but I think every single story isn’t just about me, it’s more general,” Jones says. “People can read it and think, ‘That’s me,’ or ‘I’ve never thought about that.’ I hope it reverberates bigger.”

Jones retired in March after 34 years at Bufferlands. He set off on a two-month book signing tour and trip to Mexico with his wife, “my muse and my support” Rhonda. Of his first six days back, two were at Bufferlands.

“They still seek my counsel and I’m so thankful they still reach out to me. I love these people,” Jones says. “We’re all friends. We’ve been in each other’s weddings. The six of us are very close, which is as good as you could ever hope for in your lifetime.”

For information, visit rawge.com and sacsewer.com/bufferlands.

Written By Jessica Laskey
Photography By Linda Smolek

Jessica Laskey can be reached at [email protected]. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram: .

08/22/2024

Cider Rules
Two Rivers puts local harvest into its drinks
The local climate produces visionary farm-to-table approaches. You can find a fine example at Two Rivers Cider Co., where the region’s apples, pomegranates, mandarins, yuzus, kumquats, cherries, melons and huckleberries create diverse cider offerings.

Founded in 1996 by Vincent Sterne, Two Rivers in Hollywood Park helped pioneer the cider revolution. As people became more aware of food allergies, cider—gluten-free and with a real fruit base—became the alcoholic beverage of choice for many.

Sterne developed Two Rivers after working at Rubicon Brewing Company. He wanted to start a business in the fermentation industry but wasn’t sure which approach worked best.

After studying winemaking, he recognized the connections with cider making. Sterne decided to focus on cider. He introduced several original and exciting fruit pairings under the Two Rivers brand.

He traveled to England, Spain and France, and studied cider production. With his knowledge of cider, Sterne became a founding member of the American Cider Association, now 6,000 strong.

He marketed and sold Two Rivers ciders to local breweries around Sacramento and the Bay Area. Most sales came from brew pub taps.

The pandemic closed 90% of these accounts. Two Rivers shifted strategies and started selling cider in cans.

Today many supermarkets and beverage stores around Norther California carry Two Rivers cans.

With easy access to orchards around Apple Hill, along with abundant local fruits, Two Rivers has one of the widest selections of cider varieties.

When asked about his favorite Two Rivers ciders, Sterne says he’s “fond of the single varietals, especially the Black Twig and Macintosh apple varieties when I can get them. Another one of my favorites is our Bone Dry. Just apples, fermented.”

My Two Rivers favorites are pomegranate, huckleberry and yuzu. All feature healthy local fruit juices in a dry cider, never too sweet.

From my perspective, poor cider is oversaturated with artificial sugars. Compared to mass-produced commercial brands, artisanal cider is dry, not too sweet and made from real fruit juice.

Two Rivers doesn’t add extra sugar. Nor does Sterne add artificial flavors. There are no chemicals in the brewing process. Steam sanitizes and cleans the production area.

Sterne often rides his bike to sales calls, tries to recycle as much as possible and uses biodiesel in his delivery trucks when the fuel is available. Apple pumice, a byproduct from apple pressing, is fed to animals by Sterne’s apple suppliers.

What’s next for this pioneer in the orchard-to-can (or tap) movement? Sterne is developing a local sake product.

He says, “We will be doing the same thing with sake that we do with our cider. Sake is exciting, and we will use local rice in the sake. The only byproduct is something called sake kasu, which can be used to make drinks and to marinate fish or food. Kasu can be resold to the Asian market.”

Highlighting the region’s abundant rice production, Sterne’s sake label will celebrate his approach of capturing the local bounty.

Ever the inventor and curator of good times, most nights the Two Rivers taproom presents acoustic jazz, ukulele lessons, line and samba dancing, and open mike events.

Written By Gabrielle Meyers
Photography By Aniko Kiezel

For information, visit tworiverscider.com. Visit the taproom at 4311 Attawa Ave.

Gabrielle Myers can be reached at [email protected]. Her latest book of poetry, “Break Self: Feed,” is available for $20.99 from fishinglinepress.com. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram: .

08/21/2024

🔹
Salute to Big Bands
Susan Skinner and Hey Day Quintet

Saturday
August 24
5 & 7 p.m.
Twin Lotus Thai
(8345 Folsom Blvd.); twinlotusthai.com

Hey Day Quintet’s Tony Marvelli, Brandon Au, Joe Gilman, Tom Hannickel and Tim Metz join vocalist Susan Skinner for selections from jazz stars like Harry James, Duke Ellington, Les Brown, Glen Miller, Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey and Count Basie.

08/21/2024

River Rebound
Hope meets hurdles at proposed waterfront towers
Sacramento needs new housing in all varieties, locations and price ranges. This reality is part of what makes the American River One high-rise apartment proposal on the American River near Downtown so intriguing.

The 3-acre site at Bercut Drive off Richards Boulevard was home to the Hungry Hunter and Rusty Duck restaurants, torn down years ago.

Now, property owner Steve Ayers, who also owns the Elks Tower, has city approval to build four residential apartment towers ranging from 11 to 18 stories in a city that hasn’t exactly embraced high-rise apartment living.

The area known as the River District became desirable for developers in recent years with a new state office complex and Kaiser Permanente’s planned hospital. But much of the neighborhood remains industrial and rundown.

The area around Ayer’s project is a magnet for homeless people, thanks to its isolation along the river.

Not long after he bought the property, Ayers sued to block a proposed city project for homeless residents across from his land. The plan never came to fruition.

Recently, the 825-unit development proposed by Ayers became the target of a lawsuit filed by the Save the American River Association. The suit claims the city improperly exempted American River One from the comprehensive environmental review required by the California Environmental Quality Act, primarily because of its proximity to light rail and location within a transit corridor.

The attractive mixed-use project, about a half mile from light rail, has merit. American River One is designed by the respected architectural firm LPA Design Studios. The proposal includes four residential towers with a variety of public spaces, two stories of indoor parking, retail, restaurant, gardens and decks at multiple levels with views of Downtown and the rivers.

If developers and their partners want to invest in a much needed and ambitious project in a challenging neighborhood, why not give them a shot?

Ayers calls his site “one of the best blank canvases in the entire city of Sacramento,” but declined my request for an interview.

He was in the news several years ago when the California Gaming Control Commission rejected his application for a card room at the Elks Tower after a state background check concluded he lacked “good character.” Ayers appealed and sued, but never got his gambling license.

His troubles seemed to stem from two past convictions for driving under the influence and a 2017 domestic dispute concerning a public confrontation with his wife. In his appeal of the gaming commission’s ruling, Ayers, a successful local businessman, testified he often socialized with clients and “sometimes I drink in excess of what I should.”

Others testified for Ayers and said he completed an alcohol recovery program and made generous donations to Loaves & Fishes and other charities. News reports highlighted contributions he made to the community.

Anthony Scotch, longtime local real estate broker and development coordinator for American River One, tells me in an email Ayers is “not interested” in talking publicly. Scotch insists the project pencils out nicely.

“We had a marketing report done several years ago that indicated there would be a rental interest in a project like this,” Scotch says. “With the recent completion of the state office complex and the future plans of the Kaiser facility in the River District, the need for living units in this area is real.”

As for the neighborhood’s current state, Scotch says: “As is typical of older blighted neighborhoods, new projects tend to bring new life, population and other monies to improve the area.”

I like what I’ve seen and heard about American River One and the positive impact it can make on its surroundings. Being a builder in California requires patience and persistence. This proposal has been in the works for years. Like Ayers, it continues to encounter and overcome obstacles.

A vacant, sketchy 3-acre parcel leaves the River District worse off. Settlement of the lawsuit must recognize that reality. If the suit resolves without scuttling American River One, we’ll see if Ayers is committed enough to pull this off.

Written By Gary Delsohn

Gary Delsohn can be reached at [email protected]. Follow us on Facebook an

08/21/2024

🔹
Get out for a little fun 🤩
LOOK what’s happening

Activities 🎈 Music 🎵 Food 🥘
TWO RIVERS CIDER
4311 Attawa Way, Sac 95822

08/20/2024

Get Organized
Educator outlines keys to academic success
Mitch Weathers saw his multi-language students struggle in school and asked himself one question: What helps students be successful?

Thus began a quest to identify the most significant impacts on academic achievement and success.
The result is Organized Binder, a program that helps teachers create predictability as they help students develop executive function skills.

“If you go class to class and each has wildly different procedures and you’re a multi-language student, that’s a huge cognitive load and mental calories you’re expending just getting through the school day,” Weathers says.

“The short-term memory is finite. The more you tax it, the less available it is to focus on learning. But if you adopt a routine, you can free up mental calories.”

Appropriately, Organized Binder uses a binder as the central tool.

“I firmly believe students need to see (organization) modeled. Time and task management, how to keep a calendar, how to keep yourself organized, set goals,” Weather says. “The binder brings clarity to executive functioning within the context of what they’re trying to learn.

“There’s something about that physical color-coded binder,” he continues. “If you hold students accountable organizationally and they can participate in the routine, then you’re laying the foundation for success. It all comes back to that binder as a way to make it far more likely you’ll develop the skills and habits for academic success and the empowerment that comes with that over time.”

Weathers admits school was never a strong point for him, which is why he finds empathy with struggling students.

He graduated from Del Campo High School and studied geology in college, assuming he would become a high school science teacher. After getting married and running a nonprofit for at-risk kids, he realized he needed time to figure out his path. He and his wife traveled Europe by rail until they ran out of money.

The time away allowed Weathers to figure out he wanted to work in classrooms. He earned his teaching credential and master’s degree in cross-cultural pedagogy while working as a long-term substitute teacher.

He and his wife spent 15 years in the Bay Area until family called them back to East Sacramento 10 years ago. By then, Organized Binder was taking shape. Weathers tested different binder configurations on students to see what worked best.

“It started to coalesce around routine,” he says. “There can be gray areas of undefined time in lesson plans. Some students can ride through that, but for others, they feel lost with too much ambiguity. Classroom management issues breed there.

“I needed to figure out how to paint these gray areas black and white to reduce ambiguity and bring about clarity. Then engagement goes up and management issues go down.”

Organized Binder has spread across the globe. There’s a Spanish program for the U.S. and Guatemala. The company is launching a French pilot in Ontario, Canada.

In March, Weathers published a companion book, “Executive Functions for Every Classroom.” His timing was impeccable. Parents and educators saw students struggle with self-regulation and motivation coming out of the pandemic. The book addresses these issues in a relevant, practical way. The book hit No. 1 on Amazon its second week.

“Regardless of what continent you were on, the pandemic paused life and interrupted learning,” Weathers says. “It was a reminder that what we do as teachers matters. We were collectively seeing that we needed to focus on executive function skills, and the book answers how to do that. Schools in China are contacting me to say, ‘We’re all reading your book!’ It’s a weird little vehicle for this universal message.”

For information, visit organizedbinder.com.

Written By Jessica Laskey
Photography By Aniko Kiezel

Jessica Laskey can be reached at [email protected]. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram: .

08/19/2024

🔹
Jessica Wimbley is “busy in the best of ways - - the way you dream you could be an artist.”
As an interdisciplinary artist and curator, Wimbley works on multiple projects, from billboards and video installations to collages and portraits.
“I don’t see an artist as solely fixed to working in a specific medium and producing frine art objects,” says Wimbley, who lives in Midtown and holds degrees in painting, visual arts and arts management. “Being a contemporary artist, I’m constantly learning and finding ways art can bridge different discussions, communities, people and ways of thinking.”

Excerpt from Artist Profile in August 2024 Inside Sacramento.
Written By Jessica Laskey.
Photo By Aubrey Johnsson

08/19/2024

Digital Publication: August Inside Sacramento LAND PARK
Cover Artist: Naomi Bautista

https://issuu.com/insidepublications/docs/inside_land_park-grid_august_2024

08/19/2024

Digital Publication: August Inside Sacramento POCKET.
Cover Artist: Erin Martinelli

https://issuu.com/insidepublications/docs/inside_pocket_august_2024

08/16/2024

🔹
READERS Near & Far
Maya and Anne Kitt at the Christmas Market in the Riverside District of Savannah, Georgia.

Take a picture of with Inside Sacramento on your next travels and send us a high res file to [email protected].

08/16/2024

Midtown restaurant feels like a vacation!!
“This tastes like vacation,” my wife says as she takes the first bite. It does. Everything about Octopus Baja, the new Mexican fusion restaurant in Midtown, feels like a step away from the ordinary, a mile from the everyday.

Octopus Baja is the latest from restaurateur Ernesto Delgado. Other sites include Tequila Museo Mayahuel, Mesa Mercado in Carmichael and Sal’s Tacos in West Sacramento.

Having eaten at most of these establishments, I can say Delgado’s businesses share the same DNA: mix familiar with creative, traditional with modern, and do it with exceptional service.

Octopus Baja is a happy place. Music is happy, servers are happy, even the decor is happy. The brightness of the drinks, brightness of the dishes and brightness of the setting sun over Sutter’s Fort provides a joyous, lighthearted atmosphere.

Yes, it’s like being on vacation. Even for people not familiar with the food and culture of Baja California, Octopus Baja transports the sensibilities of our state’s southern neighbor. The food and vibe feel far removed from the streets of Midtown.

Not long ago, this small concrete block building at 28th and K streets was a Blimpie sandwich shop. (It was the only Blimpie I ever saw.) When the sandwich shop shuttered, various businesses were proposed but none took hold.

The busy corner stood idle and forlorn until March, when Delgado and crew opened Octopus Baja.

Today the corner is alive with vivid blue walls and striped umbrellas. Inside, the bar is backed by fish-scale tile in a dozen shades of blue. Murals of sea creatures, each the size of an economy car, decorate the walls.

Soft lights surrounded by Mobius strips of wicker hang over every table. Even oafish writers knocking their heads on the hanging lamps can’t diminish the cheerfulness.

Seafood dominates the menu. The mahi-mahi aguachile is the bite to begin with and get your bearings. A punchy mix of mahi-mahi, seaweed, avocado and serrano chilies create an intense introduction to the meal.

Next, try the octopus. My rule is if the dish features in the restaurant’s name, order it. You can’t lose. This dish just reinforces the rule. Braised octopus served next to crumbled chorizo, mango and avocado purée is a winner. It’s as tender and flavorful a bite of octopus as I’ve ever enjoyed.

Dessert is no afterthought. The butter cake especially impresses. A crumbed brown butter cake features raspberry purée and mango gel topped with a dollop of pistachio ice cream. You’ll crave it.

For many travelers, nothing tastes like vacation more than an idealized cocktail. The bar focus is tropical and indulgent. With a concentration on mezcal, tequila and rum, the bar puts out sophisticated yet fun party drinks that taste like lounging near the ocean under an umbrella with your feet in the sand. The coconut-pineapple smash is my favorite.

Octopus Baja’s sister restaurant, Octopus Peru, opened in April across from Cesar Chavez Plaza and another Delgado establishment, La Cosecha. It focuses more on Peruvian preparations with an eye toward fusion cooking.

With reasonable prices (cheaper than a flight to Cabo) and a winning feel, Octopus Baja is a one-night vacation to check out.

Octopus Baja is at 2731 K St.; (916) 754-2172.

Written By Greg Sabin
Photography By Linda Smolek

Greg Sabin can be reached at [email protected]. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram: .

08/15/2024

Path of Destruction
Army Corps project puts western pond turtle at risk
The slightest noise—heavy footstep, rustling branch, loud whisper—will send the northwestern pond turtle off a sunlit log and into his safe place, the cool waters of the American River.

He’s a shy creature. The booming sounds of heavy machinery tearing up his riparian habitat will not bode well for him.

Next summer, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will begin another phase of its erosion-control project along the lower American River from the Howe Avenue bridge to east of Watt Avenue.

Trucks, tractors and excavators will bulldoze through the wild and scenic parkway landscape.

Just in time for northwestern pond turtle nesting season.

The turtles mate throughout spring and summer. Females lay eggs on land, sometimes as far as 500 feet from water. They pack soil and vegetation over the eggs, making nests almost impossible to detect.

“If construction begins, the turtles’ dirt-covered nests will be in the path of destruction,” says Dr. Michelle Stevens, professor of environmental studies at Sacramento State University.

The hatchlings remain in their terrestrial nests over winter. When they emerge in spring, they are the size of a quarter. Their shell is soft. “Those hatchlings are trying to make their way to the water. So that’s also a risky time for them,” says Sac State grad student and senior research assistant Lexi von Ehrenkrook.

Stevens and von Ehrenkrook’s comment letter to the Army Corps notes hatchlings are sensitive to disturbances. They are at risk of falling into construction excavations and being crushed by equipment.

The Army Corps reports, “Unfortunately, wildlife is often displaced as a result of vegetation removal in advance of construction activities.” The Corps says those activities are timed for fall and early winter, “typically the non-breeding season, when the level of impact/displacement to wildlife would be minimal.”

Fall through winter is when the adult turtle metabolism slows (called brumation). They burrow in mud, close to water’s edge, making the reptile difficult to detect.

“Turtles are cold-blooded animals,” says Professor Stevens, who heads up a restoration project at Bushy Lake, habitat to hundreds of turtles on the American River near Cal Expo. “If the turtles are in a state of dormancy, any in the riverbanks or river’s edge would be squashed.”

To avoid conflicts with heavy equipment, the comment letter recommends an on-site monitor during construction, and stopping work during turtle brumation and nesting.

Steven’s team recommends fencing around the construction area for a year to keep turtles out and prevent nesting.
Does the Army Corps have plans for fencing? “Oh, heck no,” Stevens says.

Last month, Stevens and her team began nest surveys to determine how many northwestern pond turtles will be affected by the erosion-control work.

“You need to know the site and know how different species are using the area,” von Ehrenkrook says. “If there is an important site they return to and that’s suddenly gone, what are they going to do? Having information and surveying is critical.”

Stevens calls the Army Corps’ Environmental Impact Report convoluted, confusing and difficult to analyze. “It was remiss in its investigation and consideration of the impact on wildlife, and in particular the turtles.”

The Army Corps says wildlife will “move to adjacent habitats upstream and downstream of the construction footprint.” It says the displacement will be temporary.

“We have such a truncated, fragmented corridor for wildlife habitat anyway,” Stevens says. “It’s been disturbed and destroyed by wildfire, homeless encampments. We have so little left.

“Where do they think they’ll go?”

To mitigate the impact, the Army Corps reports “two to three times the amount of habitat will be replaced and protected.”

“How can they possibly say that?” Stevens asks. “Are they going to use a magic wand and take out all the houses? The animals are just going to move up and down the river? I think not.”

For now, the turtles’ fate is in the hands of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Last September, the federal agency proposed listing the northwestern pond turtle and southwestern pond turtle as threatened species under the Endangered Species Act.

The Fish and Wildlife Service cites habitat loss and fragmentation, drought and predation by invasive species. The turtles have an “increased risk of extinction.”

An endangered listing would provide immediate protection for the turtles. Conservation efforts include enhancing, protecting and restoring pond turtle habitat—the opposite of the Army Corps’ erosion-control plan.

Under the ESA, actions by federal agencies—such as the Army Corps of Engineers—cannot impair essential behavior patterns, including breeding, feeding and sheltering.

Status of listing the western pond turtle as threatened is pending. “It’s a lengthy process. But if they do get listed, it’s going to be a game changer,” Stevens says.

“Food, water and shelter for northwestern pond turtles and southwestern pond turtles are becoming scarce across the western United States,” says Paul Souza, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Pacific Southwest Region.
Souza says, “We need everyone’s support to help them thrive in the wild.”

Did Fish and Wildlife forget to tell the Army Corps?

Written By Cathryn Rakich

Cathryn Rakich can be reached at [email protected]. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram: .

08/14/2024

🔹
READERS Near & Far
CHRISTINE FITZPATRICK and CAMILLE HORTON in Havana, Cuba.

Take a picture with Inside Sacramento and send it to [email protected]

08/14/2024

No Dope
Cheaters try everything, but the doctor knew best
There was a time when writing about sports meant more than watching games on TV and holding up iPhones at press conferences. Old sportswriters like me sometimes got to hang around with people they wrote about.

My top three hang outs were Jesse Owens, Bill Russell, Willie Mays and Mario Andretti. No introductions needed.

But there was another sports figure who made a big impression. His name was Dr. Donald H. Catlin. The doctor taught me lots about sports and the drive to win at any cost.

Catlin was a plainspoken physician who understood the terrible choices athletes make to win. Many are prepared to destroy themselves. Catlin spent his career trying to prevent these suicidal motivations.

Catlin died this year with dementia at 85. The arrival of the Paris Olympics made me think about his work. I wish he were around to help the Summer Games advance with fair play and sanity. Without him, the Olympics are in trouble.

Today we have the World Anti-Doping Agency, the global authority in testing. The agency’s negligence helped Chinese swimmers cheat at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. Eleven of those swimmers are in Paris.

I got to know Catlin in the 1980s, when his UCLA lab became the world’s barrier against performance-enhancement drugs. The lab tested athletes at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

Records are imprecise, but Catlin disqualified between nine and 18 Olympians. The Soviet Union boycotted L.A., no doubt lowering the numbers.

Catlin’s main targets were anabolic steroids. Eventually, the cheater’s pharmacy included compounds harder to detect and sophisticated in their impact.

I met Catlin several times. There was a brief interview at an NCAA convention in San Diego. Next came an invitation to his UCLA testing lab. He journeyed to Sacramento for several speeches.

One evening found the doctor at The Ram restaurant on Watt Avenue, where he addressed the Sacramento Section of the American Chemical Society.

At his UCLA lab, Catlin described the eternal nature of his pursuit. He said, “They’re always coming up with ways to mask performance-enhancing substances to fool the test. But we stay one step ahead.”

Before meeting Catlin, I didn’t think much about the problem of athletes using chemicals to improve strength, speed and endurance. Drugs and sports were best friends.

Baseball players went to work drunk in the early 20th century. Football players in the 1960s swallowed handfuls of painkillers. Visit many pro locker rooms in the 1970s and find cigarette butts and empty beer cans.

Catlin explained the distinction between old-school narcotics, booze and steroids. Playing drunk is dangerous. Steroids and various performance enhancements destroy athletic integrity. They force everybody to cheat.

He told me, “If the person you compete against takes enhancement drugs, you’ve got a choice to make. Either you start taking similar drugs, or you lose your job. You can’t compete against it.”

He was talking about high school kids but could have meant athletes in Paris going against Chinese swimmers. Beyond disrupting fair play, drugs impose serious health consequences. Catlin’s tests helped guarantee clean, honest games.

Then and now, coaches were a problem. Coaches play dumb, but they know when athletes use performance enhancements. Muscles, speed and attitude change in telltale ways. Catlin exposed what coaches try to hide.

Around the time I met Catlin, my newspaper published a series of stories on the scourge of drugs in local sports.

We talked to Dave Hotell, football coach at Sacramento High School. Like many coaches who began careers in the 1950s, Hotell was more worried about whiskey and cannabis than steroids.

When he confronted suspected teenage drug users, Hotell struggled to believe his athletes needed any more stimulation than pure competition.

He said, “If they admit to being on something, I thank them for being man enough to admit it and then clean out their locker. I just don’t understand it. I get 30-feet high when they’re playing the national anthem.”

Written By R.E. Graswich

R.E. Graswich can be reached at [email protected]. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram: .

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Attitude of Gratitude 🏀 Cheers to Coach Mike Brown 🏀🏀🏀🏀💜💜💜 GO KINGS

THIS COUPLE’S SIERRA OAKS HOME IS JUST RIGHT Kellie and Jeff Randle’s housing history sounds a bit like “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.” The sprawling Sierra Oaks Vista home they lived in for 16 years while raising three children was everything a family could want. But when the last child went off to college, the house felt empty. The “Papa Bear” size was too much to care for as the couple looked toward empty-nest freedom. “We love to travel and wanted to be able to lock up and head out on short notice,” Kellie says. After selling the home, the couple moved Downtown to a two-bedroom condo above the Kimpton Sawyer Hotel. They also have a vacation home in Newport Beach, so they figured the size would be perfect. When the pandemic hit, their college kids headed home. The entire family decamped to Newport Beach to ride out school closures. They couldn’t stay in Sacramento—the hotel condo was too small, and the location was less attractive as events were canceled, restaurants shuttered and riots hit Downtown. Next step was to find the right-size home in Sacramento. “We always loved Arden and wanted to move back. Our longtime friend, builder Ken Dyer, let us know he had a lot and plans to build a new home in Sierra Oaks,” Kellie says. “We jumped at the opportunity to get exactly what we wanted, from the ground up.” Construction took about a year. They moved in before Christmas 2020. Read story in OPEN HOUSE in June's InsideSacramento.com Written by Cecily Hastings Photos by Aniko Kiezel #insidesacramento #sacramento #sacamentohomes #visitsacramento #visitsac

Cool & Collected FUN AND FUNKY MID-CENTURY HOME GETS A FACELIFT Story By Cathryn Rakich Photos @anikophotos Stroll up the walkway toward an enthusiastically red front door and you know there’s something fun and funky going on inside. The clue is five extra-large round panels, mounted along the exterior pathway, displaying 1950s artwork from a book on how to date, each with a chuckle-worthy caption. That’s just a teaser of what’s to come. Get ready for an explosion of color, whimsy and humor decorating almost every square inch of this artfully wacky home. Tony and Donna Natsoulas, both avid art collectors and mid-century modern enthusiasts, had their hearts set on a retro house when they stumbled upon this 1,563-square-foot Streng Bros. home built in 1963. Read Story in November OPEN HOUSE InsideSacramento.com #insidesacramento #sacramento #sacramento365 #visitsacramento

Congratulations 🎉 to the WINNERS McKinley Rose Garden PHOTO CONTEST 2021 🌹 🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹 Sept InsideSacramento.com #insidesacramento #mckinleyrosegarden #sacramento #sacramento365 #friendsofeastsac #sacramentophotographer #loveroses

NEW EAST SAC HOME IS TRIBUTE TO ARTIST’S CREATIVITY In 1933, the United States Steel Corporation developed a very special steel. Some clever marketeer dubbed it corten, referring to its corrosion resistance and tensile strength. This steel alloy was unique in that it used oxidation to its advantage. As corten rusts, it develops a protective layer, removing the need for paint or expensive weathering treatments. Akin to terra-cotta and adobe, corten steel’s natural patina lends anything built with it an earthiness that is irresistible. The exterior of Gerald Walburg’s three-story new residence typifies the distinctive reddish-orange of “young” corten. It makes sense that he’d pick this distinctive siding—Walburg, a renowned artist, has been working with corten for longer than I’ve been alive. His 40-foot “Indo Arch” at 4th and K streets is a monument to the material’s natural beauty and durability. Since its installation in 1980, the “Indo Arch” has been weathering for more than 40 years, and has since settled into a deep coffee brown. Read Story in August InsideSacramento.com Writer: Zack Sherzad Photography: @anikophotos #insidesacramento #saramento #sacramentohomes #sacramentoartists #artistsofsacramento #lovesculpture #sacramento365 #visitsacramento #visitsac

The roses looks fantastic !! Take your best shot and enter your images to McKinley Park Roae Garden PHOTO CONTEST . Send images to [email protected] By JUNE 1st

We were unable to have a live feed to Facebook from a school campus .... here is mist of this evening’s debate between Katie Valenzuela for City Council, District 4 and Steve Hansen

CONGRATULATIONS to Winners of the 2019 McKinley Rose Garden PHOTO CONTEST ... . Names listed In order of slide show . First Place - Deborah A Lee Second - Troy Young Third - Grove McKamy . Honorable Mentions to: Erin Conti Robert Mesa Lisa Perchaz George McKamy David Schrimmer Winston AHoltkamp Doug Arnold Sylvia Lynn Stiller Dennis Wilson . . . #insidesacramento #friendsofeastsacramento #mckinleyrosegarden #sacramento #eastsac #eastsacramento #visitsacramento #thepeopleofsacramento #roses #loveroses