East Area Rapist, racist science project: Here were our Top 10 local stories of 2018
2018 was a big year across California: Gov. Jerry Brown’s last year in office, midterm elections, the Golden State Warriors’ shocking repeat as NBA champions and more.
Plenty happened right here in the Sacramento area.
From major crime incidents and arrests to the deaths of influential Sacramentans, it was a busy year.
Here are our 10 most-viewed individual, local news stories from 2018, based on readership via www.sacbee.com.
10. Seven men arrested after reports of touching young girls at Roseville water park
Roseville police in May determined that seven men who knew each other “worked in a coordinated effort to inappropriately touch several female juveniles” at Golfland Sunsplash, a water park.
Seven men between ages 18 and 38 were taken into custody on suspicion of lewd acts with children under 14 years old, as well as conspiracy charges.
Witness statements and on-site security guards provided evidence against the seven men. Ultimately, the accused men were not charged.
Update: ‘All have beards that were very similar’: 7 accused at Roseville water park not charged
9. Sacramento developer Ali Youssefi, instrumental in downtown resurgence, dies at age 35
Youssefi helped build the Warehouse Artist Lofts on R Street. He partnered with the Kings, the Capitol Area Development Authority and others to build affordable housing projects across in midtown and downtown.
After a battle with stomach cancer, Youssefi died this March. He had been diagnosed the previous July, a month after he was married.
Ali Youssefi was also a close business partner with his father, Cyrus Youssefi, who immigrated from Iran and launched the family business.
Related: How Ali Youssefi left his mark on Sacramento
8. ‘It’s over, it’s a wrap, we’re done.’ Sacramento’s storied bail bondsmen say new law is ‘stupid’
California money bail was abolished in August. As a result, thousands of bail bondsmen will soon become obsolete.
Heavy opposition to Senate Bill 10, which eliminated cash bail and replaced it with a “risk assessment” system determining the likelihood that individuals would return to court, led those in the bail bonds industry to rally in opposition.
Many, including those here in the state capital, are faced with the proposition that their business will no longer exist by Oct. 1, 2019.
“It’s stupid, there’s no other word for it, it’s just stupid,” said Tony “The Tiger” Lopez, a notable Sacramento bail bondsman.
Related: How will no cash bail work in California? Here are answers to common questions
7. ‘Show me your hands.’ Police video shows death of Stephon Clark in a hail of gunfire
One of the year’s most high-profile deaths nationwide, Clark died March 18 in a highly controversial officer-involved shooting.
Clark, unarmed, was shot and killed by Sacramento police in his grandparents’ backyard after an encounter with officers.
Initially reported by police to be carrying a “toolbar,” he was found to be holding a cellphone.
A county autopsy released May 1 determined Clark was shot seven times total, three times in the back.
Police body camera footage released three days after the shooting led to increased outrage and heavy criticism from activist groups, including the local chapter of Black Lives Matter.
Protests reacting to Clark’s death disrupted Sacramento’s downtown streets and Golden 1 Center during a Kings game.
Find other top stories and videos related to the Stephon Clark shooting here.
6. East Area Rapist suspect captured after DNA match, authorities say
A 72-year-old retiree and former cop, Joseph James DeAngelo was arrested this April after DNA evidence tied him to one of California’s most infamous, disturbing series of cold cases.
Known in other parts of California as the Golden State Killer but in Sacramento primarily as the East Area Rapist, the suspect was living in Citrus Heights when, after law enforcement conducting secret surveillance collected DNA samples connecting DeAngelo to the crimes, Sacramento County sheriff’s detectives and FBI agents took him into custody.
DeAngelo is suspected of 12 murders and more than 50 rapes taking place across California from the mid-1970s through mid-80s.
Now 73, DeAngelo faces charges in six counties and will be tried in a Sacramento courtroom.
Latest: Taxpayers on the hook for defense of East Area Rapist suspect, judge rules
5. An American Airlines employee with a very appropriate surname turned out to be a hero.
Customer service agent Denice Miracle trusted her “gut feeling” that something was wrong when two Vacaville-area girls, aged 17 and 15, came to her ticket counter at Sacramento International Airport on Aug. 31.
Miracle didn’t let them fly, and while they walked away for a phone call, Miracle called the airport bureau of the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department.
A man known as “Drey” offered to pay the girls $2,000 and to fly them to New York so they could model and appear in music videos, the sheriff’s department reported. But something was amiss: Drey hadn’t bought them a flight back home.
4. Nearly half of Bay Area residents want out, poll shows. The reason why is no surprise
An advocacy group released a poll of 1,000 registered Bay Area voters in June, finding that 46 percent of them wanted to leave the area within a few years.
The reason: It’s just too expensive.
The destination: Anywhere but here. Nearly one-quarter of those who said they’d leave California.
But 5 percent said they’d likely move to Sacramento - more than any other California city.
The California Influencer Series: You asked: What to do about California’s housing shortage?
Sacramento waives fees on affordable housing projects; how much will it cost?
3. High school science fair project questioning African-American intelligence sparks outrage
A C.K. McClatchy High School student’s science fair project titled “Race and IQ” raised the following controversial hypothesis: “If the average IQs of blacks, Southeast Asians, and Hispanics are lower than the average IQs of non-Hispanic whites and Northeast Asians, then the racial disproportionality in (McClatchy’s Humanities and International Studies Program) is justified.”
It concluded that “the racial disproportionality of HISP is justified” due to the “lower average IQs of blacks, Southeast Asians, and nonwhite Hispanics.”
The topic was displayed at the high school’s annual Mini Science Fair, but removed after complaints by parents, staff and other students.
Community backlash and an investigation by Sacramento City Unified School District immediately followed.
Parents and students seek answers after ‘Race and IQ’ controversy at McClatchy High
2. Car crash on I-5 leads to a fight and deaths of both drivers
A road rage incident turned very violent very quickly on Interstate 5. On an August morning, before 4 a.m., two male drivers stopped near Del Paso Road, exited their vehicles and started to fight, California Highway Patrol officials reported.
One driver was killed by blunt force trauma, while the other was struck and killed by a passing motorist as he walked on the freeway.
“It escalated from a traffic collision to a fight to a homicide,” CHP North Sacramento spokesman Mike Zerfas said.
Two men identified in fatal fight on I-5; witnesses say one chased the other with a bat
One driver in I-5 road rage sequence had a suspended license. Other had citations in Oregon
1. Founder of Tower Records dies at 92 while drinking whiskey and watching the Oscars
Russ Solomon built Tower Records, undoubtedly the most famous company founded in Sacramento.
On March 4, the night of the Academy Awards, Solomon died of an apparent heart attack at 92.
Before Tower Records was overcome by iTunes, Amazon.com and big-box stores and eventually went out of business in 2006, its stores were a towering presence in Sacramento, with stores eventually popping up around the world.
Solomon was a Sacramento legend. At 16, he started selling jukebox records out of his father’s drug store at the Tower Theater building on Broadway. Decades later, Tower Records was a $1 billion-a-year company. Solomon was worth an estimated $310 million in the early 1990s.
Though no public memorial or funeral was held by family following Solomon’s death, local artists and businesses have paid tribute to the legend in the months since his passing.
As Tower Records grew, so did employees’ love for founder Russ Solomon
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