Lighting the Wildfires: Foresthill High School is not a big one – a few hundred students – and it's going into only its fifth year, but it now has something that some large, long-standing, urban campuses don't: a lighted football field. Friday was the first opportunity for the school's team, the Wildfires, to play under the lights, said Jim Herlehy, the coach. The players started out nervous. Very nervous, apparently. They were down 24-0 after the first quarter. They finished, though, with a comeback and a respectable 30-24 loss in front of what apparently was a big crowd. (It's miles to Auburn for other Friday night entertainment.) "For Friday nights, it's really something that's going to unify our community," said Herlehy. The lighting came through work by boosters and donations by businesses. …
Not another teen item: At the age of 17, Gabrielle Jackson wasn't looking to be an author. "I just started writing," she said. At 18, she had a book. Now 19 and a student at Rocklin's William Jessup University, she's starting to promote "Not Another Teen Rally." The title is a play on the teen flick sendup "Not Another Teen Movie," but it has a more serious bent. It's also a comment on Christian youth rallies that pump kids up but don't take them to the next step. As a young woman with strong Christian beliefs, Jackson was disturbed by what she saw with other Christian kids when she was in high school. "They didn't even know they could (express their beliefs)," she said. Jackson did the research on what First Amendment rights students have and put that in the book. Those constitutional questions have a place in her future, too. After Jessup, she's thinking about law school. …
Heart of gold and black: Cory Tapia is a longtime Roseville resident and a longtime Niners fan. But business makes strange bedfellows. When he heard that some poor, forlorn Pittsburgh Steelers fans had lost their hangout at Mark & Monica's of Granite Bay, he offered up his new Old Roseville hangout, Basic Urban Kitchen and Bar. "Trying to shelter the homeless, if you will," Tapia said. It was "a light-bulb moment," said Phil Napsha, one of the black-and-gold partisans. So they'll gather Sunday mornings – most of those Eastern games screen at 10 a.m. – at Basic. Facing Roseville's train tracks, it seems an appropriately industrial spot for Rust Belt exiles to reminisce. And if you're not one of them, Tapia's got what is allegedly an enticement: breakfast pizza. "Anything you could put in an omelet, we put in a pizza." Starting with eggs. …
Regrets: Should we be sad when a business can't hang on in the current climate? We think so. … So, we're sorry to see Lincoln's independent Rainbow Market close. We know how you feel.
Call The Bee's Carlos Alcalá at (916) 773-6847. Back columns, www.sacbee.com/alcala.
