Category: Sacramento, California Local News

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — People experiencing homelessness are demanding the City of Sacramento do more after they say families were evicted at city-sanctioned shelters.

Four stories were shared on Wednesday evening from people experiencing homelessness. They were disheartened by what they say are unlivable and dangerous conditions offered through the City of Sacramento programs.

Brittany Anderson says she and her family at one shelter went outside to access the bathroom and showered outside.

“I have a five-month-old and a four-year-old. I just could not subject them to anymore,” said Anderson.

Meanwhile, Tanika Williams and her family say their belongings are being held hostage at a motel.

“The property management tried to say that we were served papers from the services step up about our exit, which we have not,” said Williams.

The Sacramento Homeless Union says this has been an ongoing issue, adding that it recently hit a breaking point when five families with 30 kids were evicted from the shelter and put back on the street.

They say the city must do a better job and do a thorough audit of the contractors they hire and make sure the services promised are being offered.

“The city has chosen to turn a blind eye to the serious harm created including physical, mental, emotional and sexual abuse,” said Crystal Sanchez, Sacramento Homeless Union.

Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg says he cannot comment on the specific cases, but the motel program houses more than 400 people every night. He provided the following statement:

“Our staff assures me that any negative exits generally result from significant rule violations and that the City works to place families who are required to leave, in our other shelters. We are working with our staff and providers to make sure that we have adequate oversight of all of our shelters and are meeting the needs of all of our guests.”

But Williams says a lot more needs to get done.

“I want to get my family off the street. I want to go back to work,” said Williams. “I want my life back.”

The families say they are speaking out, so other families can find the voice and speak up.

California Weather: Winter Storm, rain & snow update – Feb. 14, 2024

NEW YORK — Nearly four years after Harvey Weinstein was convicted of rape and sent to prison, New York’s highest court appeared torn at oral arguments Wednesday about potentially overturning the landmark #MeToo-era verdict.

Weinstein’s lawyers urged the state’s Court of Appeals to dismiss the disgraced movie mogul’s 2020 conviction, arguing that the trial judge, James Burke, trampled his right to a fair trial with pro-prosecution rulings that turned the trial into “1-800-GET-HARVEY.”

“It was his character that was on trial. It wasn’t the evidence that was on trial,” Weinstein’s lawyer Arthur Aidala told the seven-member court in Albany.

Weinstein, 71, was convicted of a criminal sex act for forcibly performing oral sex on a TV and film production assistant in 2006 and rape in the third degree for an attack on an aspiring actress in 2013. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison. Last year, he was convicted in Los Angeles of another rape and sentenced to an additional 16 years in prison.

A lawyer for the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which prosecuted Weinstein’s New York case, told the appeals court that Burke’s rulings were proper and the conviction should stand.

Weinstein’s lawyers want a new trial, but only for the criminal sexual act charge. They argue the rape charge can’t be retried because it involves alleged conduct outside the statute of limitations. Reversing the verdict would reopen a painful chapter in America’s reckoning with sexual misconduct by powerful figures. The court is unlikely to rule immediately.

If the Court of Appeals were to rule in Weinstein’s favor, he would remain locked up because of his California conviction. Weinstein did not attend the arguments but was said to be monitoring a livestream from the state prison where he is incarcerated, Mohawk Correctional Facility, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of Albany.

Allegations against Weinstein, the once powerful and feared studio boss behind such Oscar winners as “Pulp Fiction” and “Shakespeare in Love,” ushered in the #MeToo movement. His New York trial drew intense publicity, with protesters chanting “rapist” outside the courthouse.

Weinstein maintains his innocence. He contends any sexual activity was consensual.

His voice booming at times, Aidala argued that Burke swayed the trial with two key decisions: allowing three women to testify about allegations that weren’t part of the case, and granting prosecutors permission to confront him, if he had testified, about his long history of brutish behavior. Aidala also took issue with Burke’s refusal to remove a juror who had written a novel involving predatory older men.

Weinstein wanted to testify at his trial, but opted against it because of Burke’s ruling that would’ve meant answering questions about more than two-dozen alleged acts of misbehavior dating back four decades, including fights with his movie producer brother and an incident in which he flipped over a table in anger, Aidala said.

“We had a defendant who was begging to tell his side of the story. It’s a he said, she said case, and he’s saying ‘that’s not how it happened. Let me tell you how I did it,’” Aidala argued, adding that evidence of Weinstein’s prior bad behavior, “had nothing to do with truth and veracity. It was all ‘he’s a bad guy.’”

Aidala also argued that other defendants in the state were now at risk of having their cases overwhelmed by extraneous evidence because “the floodgates have been opened” by the precedent of Burke’s rulings.

The judges hearing Wednesday’s arguments volleyed between skepticism and sympathy for Aidala and his counterpart from the district attorney’s office, appellate chief, Steven Wu.

Judge Madeline Singas suggested that the circumstances of Weinstein’s case — using his power in Hollywood to have sex with women seeking his help — may have warranted Burke’s decision to allow the other accusers to testify.

But Judge Jenny Rivera wondered if the behavior the women described cleared the high legal bar for allowing additional accusers to take the stand, namely that their testimony is evidence of same motive, opportunity, intent or a common scheme or plan.

“What’s unique about a powerful man trying to get a woman to have sex with them?” Rivera asked.

Betsy Barros, a lower court judge filling in on the Court of Appeals because of recusals, appeared alarmed by Burke’s ruling allowing prosecutors to confront Weinstein about unrelated misbehavior.

“I don’t think anybody in their right mind would testify” under those circumstances, Barros observed. “So how is this a fair trial when you’re not able to put in your side of it?”

Aidala said allowing the additional accusers to testify turned Weinstein’s trial “into three other mini-trials,” burdening jurors with deciding not only Weinstein’s guilt or innocence on the charges at hand but whether he committed other alleged offenses that weren’t part of the case. Weinstein was acquitted in Los Angeles on charges involving one of the women who testified in New York, Aidala said.

Wu countered that Weinstein’s acquittal on the most serious charges in the Manhattan trial — two counts of predatory sexual assault and a first-degree rape charge stemming from actor Annabella Sciorra’s allegations of a mid-1990s rape — showed that jurors were paying attention.

The Associated Press does not generally identify people alleging sexual assault unless they consent to be named; Sciorra has spoken publicly about her allegations.

The Court of Appeals agreed last year to take Weinstein’s case after an intermediate appeals court upheld his conviction. Prior to their ruling, judges on the lower appellate court had raised doubts about Burke’s conduct during oral arguments. One observed that that Burke had let prosecutors pile on with “incredibly prejudicial testimony” from additional witnesses.

Burke’s term expired at the end of 2022. He was not reappointed and is no longer a judge.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Minutes after Kansas City Chiefs players vowed to go for a third-straight Super Bowl title, shots were fired.

Ambulances responded to the scene of the Chiefs’ Super Bowl parade, and officers rushed toward the area with guns drawn. A fire official said there were eight to ten people injured. 

“Shots were fired west of Union Station near the garage and multiple people were struck. We took two armed people into custody for more investigation,” Kansas City police shared on X, formerly known as Twitter. 

Video shared on social media showed armed officers running toward Union Station as fans scattered. 

Information about the victims was not immediately available.

Hundreds of thousands of fans were packed in downtown Kansas City on Wednesday to celebrate their third Super Bowl title in five seasons with a parade.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates. 

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WASHINGTON — Looking for a new home? An incredible villa in Florida just hit the market, albeit with an equally incredible price tag. 

The Gordon Pointe townhouse, which entered the market this week, is listed for a whopping $295 million. In fact, that price makes Gordon Pointe the most expensive property in the U.S., according to CNBC and the Wall Street Journal. 

The property is currently owned by John F. Donahue, a philanthropist who has lived there since the 80s. It’s being sold by Leighton Candler, a realtor at high-end real estate firm Corcoran. 

But what do you get in the deal? It’s quite a lot. 

The property is listed as a “private oasis located in the exclusive neighborhood of Port Royal” in Naples, Florida. The lot is nine acres, at the end of the peninsula that makes up the neighborhood.

It’s beachfront property, with 728 feet of beach frontage and 927 feet of bay frontage situated on the Gulf of Mexico. That’s always a good thing when a property comes with a private, 231-foot yacht basin and a 111-foot T-dock. 

The compound has two guest houses in addition to the main primary home, and plenty of space for expansions. Not that you’ll likely need them. The listing is approximately 22,800 square feet.

According to CNBC, the main home is approximately 11,500 square feet while each guest house is around 5,000 feet. 

For context, going by numbers from investment research site The Motley Fool, the median size of houses across the U.S. is around 2,014 square feet.

Within that 22,800 square feet are 20 beds, plus 20 bathrooms. 

But even with all that room, the price is still huge for the space. Each square foot costs about $12,900. 

But compounds like this aren’t easy to put a price tag on. The people able to buy them aren’t so much interested in the cost as they are in the property’s customization. 

The true value of the property isn’t in the square footage. It’s in the legacy of the home itself. According to the listing, Gordon Pointe is available for development, which means a new owner could add more houses or other structures to the property to truly customize it. 

And all that doesn’t take into account how likely somebody is to actually buy it at its asking price. According to a list compiled by Robb Report, an outlet focused on reporting about luxury, the most expensive home sold in the U.S. in 2023 was Paradise Cove in Malibu, California, for an estimated $190 million. 

That’s more than $100 million lower than the asking price for Gordon Pointe. And even then, Robb Report says Paradise Cove’s sale was the priciest deal ever in California, and the second-priciest in U.S. history.

According to Realtor.com, the median listing price in the Port Royal neighborhood was $24.1 million, less than 1% of the Gordon Pointe asking price. 

And CNBC found the two homes with the previous record — tying at $250 million — never sold at that price. In fact, both are still on the market more than a year later, and both have lowered their asking price to (a much more reasonable) $195 million. 

Even if you did purchase the property, it wouldn’t be without hassle. 

At today’s interest rate of around 7.75%, you’d need to put down a $59 million down payment to reach 20% of the sale price. 

Unfortunately for homebuyers looking to finance, Corcoran’s loan calculator doesn’t have any eligible loans available for that amount. So, it looks like you’ll either have to find outside funding or buy the home outright. 

And once it was in your possession, there would be a massive upkeep bill. Each year, you’d pay $1,414,500 in property taxes alone. 

But isn’t that a small price to pay to make a house your home?

SACRAMENTO, Calif — Sacramento State University alum and now university president Dr. Luke Wood is launching what he says will be the nation’s first Black Honors college at his alma mater.

“You know coming in as the new president, I’m proud that we are an Hispanic Serving Institution, which means we have a high population of students who are Latinx,” said Wood. “We have a high population of students who are Asian and Pacific Islander. In fact, we have a federal designation that says we are an Asian American, Native American Pacific Islander serving institution, an AANAPISI. But as we were looking at our data, we realized that not only are we HSI and an AANAPISI, we have the largest population of Black and African American students in the entire Cal State System. Out of all 23 campuses we serve the most Black students.”

Sacramento State indeed has the most Black students at more than 1,900 with California State University, Northridge not far behind.

“The fact that we occupy this unique space as the Black-serving institution in the state of California, why shouldn’t we start an honors college?” said Wood.

However, he admits the university has room for improvement. The four-year graduation rate for Black students at Sacramento State is 17.4% and well below the system-wide average of 23%.

 “We’re creating an institution within the institution, because our 75 year history has shown that, as a campus, we have not been as effective as we should be in serving our Black and African American students,” said Wood. “So we create this set alone experience that provides them with the dignity they deserve. Now, I should say this. It is very important. This is designed for Black students. It’s designed for people who are interested in Black history, life and culture, but there may be someone from a different background or different community who wants to apply and it’s certainly open for them to be able to do so as long as they’re interested in Black history, life and culture and they have a 3.5 GPA or above. It’s an elite specialized academic program.”

“What does it say though that we’re in 2024, and we’re still having these types of conversations?”

Another big question is about possible financial assistance.

“We have scholarship dollars that we’ve been able to identify that we’re setting aside,” said Wood. “I’ll say this. When you put everything together plus space, this is a multi-million dollar investment.”

He said the space is over 6,000 square feet with a seminar room for their lectures and classes, office spaces and a student center. 

The enrollment process has already started.

“We’re enrolling right now for fall of 2024. We’re not talking about, ‘we’re doing this five years from now’ or ‘7 years from now.’ We’re doing this now,” said Wood.

They plan to launch with 70 students this fall with hopes of growing the program to at least 1,000 students. 

J. Luke Wood starts first day as Sacramento State president