Our Region

The Los Rios Community College District board of trustees on Wednesday night appointed Dustin Johnson to serve as Area 1 trustee representing the northwest part of Sacramento County, the district announced.

Elk Grove Unified board members voted Tuesday night to cut all district sports programs, increase K-3 class sizes and eliminate 592 positions that include all library staff and counselors, and some vice principals and clerical positions to help slash $39.7 million from next school year's budget.

Winter storms have been closing the road through Lassen Volcanic National Park periodically, but Tuesday's snowy gales did it in for the season, said park Superintendent Darlene M. Koontz.

To encourage shopping and night life in downtown Sacramento this holiday season, streetside meters will go unread weeknights and weekends and parking in a midtown garage will be free.

The stock market may be more stable. The housing crisis could be easing. But agencies that feed the hungry in the Sacramento region have yet to see the effects of an allegedly improving economy.

No one is thrilled at the prospect of getting a mammogram, but is getting fewer of them a good thing?

Sacramento County's budget, fresh from $180 million in cuts, is primed for another $100 million hit next fiscal year because of insufficient revenues, county Supervisor Jimmie Yee said Tuesday.

For a minute or so, it looked like there might be a mystical conclusion to Tyrone Adam Palmer's murder sentencing. But it was a short minute, and in the end, he was just another killer whom deputies led out of the courtroom in handcuffs while a man in the courtroom stood up and said to him, "Rot, buddy, rot."

It was a day for lurid details Tuesday as authorities in El Dorado County began a multi-day hearing to determine if a 14-year-old El Dorado Hills girl should stand trial as an adult in the slaying of her mother, Joanne M. Witt, 47.

Sacramentans for Accountable Government – the group running Mayor Kevin Johnson's strong- mayor campaign – is climbing out of debt after taking in nearly $60,000 in donations and forgiven loans from July 1 to Sept. 30, campaign records show.

Sacramento County's third public H1N1 vaccine clinic is underway at Loaves & Fishes.

The thought of kids with runny noses sitting in Santa's lap sharing their deepest desires and germs this holiday season isn't eliciting the usual "Ho, ho, ho." It's more of an "Oh, no, no."

Winning strong backing from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sacramento real estate developer and philanthropist Eleni Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis promised today to focus on economic and energy issues if she's confirmed as President Barack Obama's ambassador to the Republic of Hungary.

Gripped by depression and job-related stress, Regina Schenck became obsessed with horses, she wrote to the federal judge who would sentence her for stealing more than $1.3 million from a prominent Sacramento law firm.

A memorial service for community organizer Mary Brill will offer participants a chance to honor her activism by volunteering with nonprofit organizations she helped found or supported.

A grant of $25,000 from President Barack Obama's stimulus package is already proving crucial to the Sacramento Philharmonic.

The game is apparently over – at least for now – for Center Court With C-Webb, the sports-themed restaurant opened three years ago by former Sacramento Kings basketball star Chris Webber.

George "Bud" Hannaford, a longtime Folsom civic leader who served twice as mayor during two decades on the City Council, died Thursday at age 84.

Students and parents interested in learning more about William Jessup University can attend a preview day on Thursday.

A 17-year-old Tahoe City youth died Saturday after being ejected from an off-road vehicle north of the Tahoe Nordic Center.

Sacramento County has scheduled free H1N1 vaccination clinics through January. Other area counties have yet to schedule clinics.

Smoke was visible Tuesday in the Cave Rock and Lakeridge areas of South Lake Tahoe as the U.S. Forest Service fuels management crews began prescribed fire operations.

A Sacramento judge has handed the city a key court victory in a dispute over the future of retail growth in downtown.

Most of the 5,000 people who showed up for Sacramento County's first public H1N1 vaccine clinic carried the hope they might shield themselves from what's becoming an aggressive flu season.

Large protests are expected Wednesday, when University of California regents vote on a plan to raise fees 32 percent over the next year and – for the second year in a row – reduce the number of students the university will serve.

Sheldon-area residents are expected to voice their concerns today with the latest proposal to link Interstate 5 with Highway 50 with a highway that limits access to Sheldon homes and businesses.

Despite the down economy, major projects designed to produce tens of thousands of new homes in the Sacramento region within the next two decades are poised to take off.

In a case that sent shock waves through the world's wine markets, a Sausalito businessman admitted in Sacramento federal court Monday that he set a fire that burned 6 million bottles of California's finest wines.

Dean McKinney Moore, a Western swing pioneer who enjoyed fame and family singing with her sister and the legendary Bob Wills, has died at age 87.

The 27th annual Santa Parade in downtown Sacramento is scheduled Nov. 28.