PaperSac

We were actually working on a “Yogurt Wars” story comparing Big Spoon Yogurt near East Sacramento with Yogurtopia on Freeport St.  Well it turns out the SacBee did a great job this weekend.  Of course they don’t pick sides.  We do: Big Spoon wins beacause the store is easier to navigate in, the prices are a tad lower, and they do not have the “chain store” vibe.  It *is* frozen yogurt, it’s not healthfood.  Yogurtopia evokes the feeling that they will be in every other strip mall throughout Sacramento one day.  Perhaps they can move into closed down Marble Slab locations. 

 We want Pinkberry.

photo credit: Brandon via flick’r

SACRAMENTO –

A tractor trailer hauling blocks of cheese erupted into flames early Thursday, heating some of its precious cargo into freeway fondue.No one was hurt, but hundreds of pounds of provolone, cheddar, American and other cheeses littered the side of Interstate 80 north of downtown Sacramento.

“It went pretty quick,” said truck driver Frank Barker, who pulled over at 3:45 a.m. when he saw smoke coming from under his truck.

Barker said he initially tried to put out the flames with his truck’s fire extinguisher, but the fire was too big. He gave up and rescued his dog, who was traveling with him in the cab.

Barker was driving from Salt Lake City to the San Francisco Bay area.

“At this point, I just don’t know what I’m going to do or where I’m going to go,” Barker said.

http://www.kcra.com

At long last terminal B is being replaced in a $1 billion airport expansion project that is set to begin next year.  The plans include a hotel and parking structure.  The new terminal will allow the airport to support 21 million annual passengers.

photo credit:  refractionless via flickr.

The Placer County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the massive Placer Vineyards development on Monday, a 5,200-acre proposal that could provide homes for more than 32,000 people over the next two to three decades.

http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/2007/07/16/daily8.html

Here are some excerpts of 911 calls to the California Highway Patrol’s Truckee office June 24, as the Angora fire began to burn near South Lake Tahoe. The first call was at 2:02 p.m.2:02 p.m.

Dispatcher: 911.

Male: Yeah — uh — I’m on the golf course. It’s — uh — Lake Tahoe Country Club, and we can see smoke coming off the mountain to the west of us.

Dispatcher: Uh-huh.

Male: Slide Pole Peak?

Dispatcher: Yeah. Yeah, they’re doing a control cq burn there.

Male: OK.

Dispatcher: OK.

Male: Thank you. Sorry to bother you.

2:11 p.m.

(more…)

Charles Barkley treated about 100 Lake Tahoe-area firefighters to dinner after touring the devastation of a nearby wildfire that destroyed 254 homes last month. Barkley has pledged $25,000 to the Lake Tahoe fire relief fund. To donate, go to helptahoe.com.

 “If we stay over there at the golf and casino, were not going to think anything is going on here,” Barkley said. “Thats why I wanted to come here with a camera. When you live in different parts of the country and they show you two houses burned down, you don’t get the full effect.”

What do you get when you combine a camera with a computer?

-A computer-

Foreclosure rates in Northern California could cause increased rates of West Nile.

Abandoned Pools with dead leaves and other floating debris are a breeding ground for mosquitos.  Yolo County reported it’s first West Nile case last week, and the sluggish housing market is going to make the problem worse.  It does not take a genius to figure out that many people in foreclosure abandon or cease to care for their property. 

Could this be the begining of the worst West Nile outbreak in Sacramento?  Stay tuned.

Fresno has already started a program called “Operation West Nile” that will use aircraft to identify green, abandoned swimming pools.  They have found hundreds and have begun to address the threat.  Perhaps Sacramento could do the same thing.

Here’s some excerpts from Anderson Cooper 360 show last week that imagined Sacramento flooded into oblivion:

                            ****************************

 ”This is the scenario. It’s been raining for days. The normally dry, hard ground is near saturated. But the California sun is out now, peeking through the clouds in Sacramento.

A rain cloud has at last lifted and the streets of the capital are busy again. People enjoying the outdoors.

Then suddenly, a few hours later, the storms return. The wind kicks up and the Sacramento River, already swollen from the earlier rains, now surges. Lashing at the 2,400 miles of aging, crumbling levees that snake around much of northern California.

(on camera): Here the water rises higher and higher. This is the city most vulnerable to flooding in the entire United States. Even more so than New Orleans. But the real danger is beginning to unfold just over there beyond the capital dome and the skyscrapers of downtown.

(voice-over): In sprawling tracks of suburban housing built right up to the edge of the levees, people are anxious. Can the levees hold back a flood?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It’s really blowing now.

MATTINGLY: And as the water rises, anxiety turns to fear. But the worst is yet to come. A powerful earthquake strikes. And the decrepit water-soaked levees begin to shake and start to dissolve.

(more…)