New Sac Bee columnist wins a Pulitzer + Rally for Head Start funding is planned
Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert!
NEW SAC BEE COLUMNIST WINS PULITZER PRIZE
Via Michael McGough...
Columnist Melinda Henneberger, who joined The Sacramento Bee this week from McClatchy’s sister newspaper The Kansas City Star, won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary for her high-impact opinion journalism centered on a retired Kansas City, Kansas Police Department detective accused of rape and a culture of corruption and cover-ups in the criminal justice system.
Pulitzer jurors recognized Henneberger on Monday, “for columns demanding justice for alleged victims of a retired police detective accused of being a sexual predator.”
Henneberger earned the award for seven opinion and commentary pieces she published in 2021 about Roger Golubski.
Henneberger interviewed numerous women who said they were raped by Golubski, the subject of a federal grand jury investigation into allegations that he used his badge to exploit and rape vulnerable Black women for years.
Allegations against the former detective, who retired in 2010, surfaced in 2017 when Lamonte McIntyre was freed from prison, exonerated after a wrongful conviction in 1994 for a double-murder.. McIntyre in a lawsuit alleges Golubski framed him.
“I’m so overwhelmed I really don’t know what to say except that this is extremely humbling and, as I may have mentioned a few hundred times before, that it’s past time for the FBI to show up with some handcuffs,” Henneberger said. “If this brings some measure of justice to Roger Golubski’s victims at long last, then that will be the best award.”
Alvie Lindsay, who joined The Bee newsroom earlier this year as California Investigative Editor, was also lauded as editor of the finalist entry for The Indianapolis Star’s series on Indiana’s “red-flag” gun laws.
RALLY FOR HEAD START FUNDING PLANNED
California Assembly Majority Leader Eloise Gómez Reyes, D-San Bernardino, is expected to speak Tuesday morning at a rally on the west Capitol steps for Head Start California.
The rally will feature parents from across the state, along with Head Start staff and board members, including California Executive Director Christopher Maricle, and California Board President Stacey Scarborough. Also attending will be Sacramento City Councilman and State Assembly candidate Eric Guerra.
In a statement, Head Start California said the event aimed to “rally support for its budget request of $50 million to support Head Start children, families and teachers.”
The rally begins on the west Capitol steps at 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, with Reyes set to speak at 10 a.m.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“Our state and voters are progressive. Just look at the millions of dollars being spent right now by corporations to co-opt our values & messaging. Pay attention to the ‘paid for’ by in the ads and see who corporate dollars are trying to sell as ‘progressive.’”
- Assemblyman Alex Lee, D-San Jose, via Twitter.
Best of the Bee:
Got your mail ballot for California 2022 primary elections? Here’s what to do next, via Hanh Truong.
Read the Pulitzer Prize-winning work of new Sacramento Bee columnist Melinda Henneberger, via Michael McGough.
“Time to act.” What’s rising from the ashes of major giant sequoia wildfires in California, via Carmen Kohlruss.