Unnamed CCI EPS...The entire Central Valley was flooded by a 45-day storm that might have been...
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Sources: NASA/JPL- Caltech and UCLA, NOAA The Sacramento Bee RIVERS IN THE AIR NASA scientists have linked the rare alignment of two weather systems in the Northern Hemisphere to the creation of an atmospheric river that they say could bring prolonged wet weather to California. The low-pressure system northwest of California directs atmospheric rivers toward the Sierra Nevada. Two high-pressure systems at higher latitudes prevent the low from drifting northward away from California. DAMAGE ON THE GROUND The potential impact of atmospheric rivers through the years: The entire Central Valley was flooded by a 45-day storm that might have been caused by an atmospheric river. 1861- 1862 A neighborhood in Del Paso Heights was inundated. At least 14 people died statewide, and floods displaced 50,000. 1986 Dry conditions before a large storm meant no major flooding, but high winds downed many trees and power lines. 2009 Sacramento History Archives Randy Pench The Sacramento Bee Lezlie Sterling The Sacramento Bee Scientists at NASA say they have identified a rare weather pattern that will help fore- casters predict when Califor- nia will experience periods of intense and potentially pro- longed wet weather. The new findings will help officials assess the possibility of floods, mudslides and lev- ee failures, the scientists say, and will prove critical to re- gions where rivers are a big part of the landscape – like the Sacramento region, where the American and Sac- ramento rivers converge. The rivers absorb run off and melting snowpack from the Sierra Nevada, where storms typically deposit much of the state’s precipitation. “We have found a strong connection between certain phases of two systems and the frequency of winter storms in California,” said Bin Guan, an earth sciences re- searcher at the University of California, Los Angeles and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Labo- ratory. Guan’s study – a collabora- tion among scientists at UCLA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – found a conclusive link between the alignment of two weather patterns in the Northern Hemisphere and the forma- tion of an “atmospheric river” headed for California. The results were gleaned in part from data provided by NASA’s 11-year-old Aqua weather satellite – one of more than 40 weather-relat- ed satellites that circle the globe. Atmospheric rivers are narrow bands of wind, often a mile high, that can pack the punch of a hurricane. As they move over the ocean, they be- come laden with water vapor – and can carry with them as United States Hawaii Asia Australia Atmospheric river The atmospheric river shown in this October 2009 water vapor image dropped almost 19 inches of rain on California’s central coast over a 24-hour period. LOW WATER VAPOR HIGH NASA sees hurricane-force culprits behind big storms By Edward Ortiz [email protected] ‘ATMOSPHERIC RIVERS’ LINKED TO STATE’S FLOODS ATMOSPHERE | Page B2 O UR R EGION Wednesday, November 20, 2013 | The Sacramento Bee | sacbee.com/ourregion B1 A common refrain from those who fondly recall John F. Kennedy was that he governed in a more innocent and hopeful time and that his assassina- tion 50 years ago this Friday shattered that dream. Many people are repeating this default setting of JFK lore – a belief that may have applied to them and their families but not to all. Those of us who are de- scendants of people from the barrios, the ghettos and the anonymous margins of 1963 America have more compli- cated feelings about the man and those times. They we- ren’t very innocent years for our ancestors fighting to gain a foothold in America when discrimination was open and overt. In California, some of us grew up hearing stories of our parents being mugged for speaking Spanish in public. Our ancestors toiled in hard-labor jobs, and our families viewed trips to McDonald’s as a luxury in the ’60s. We remember being the first in our little circles to go to college. Of being the first to confront the cultural complexities of integrated workplaces after being raised by families with little or no experience with which to guide us. Within that context, JFK is a distant figure who means less to us than he did to our parents. Within the Latino community, our parents were thrilled when JFK actually paid attention to them. They were blown away when Jacqueline Ken- nedy spoke Spanish in politi- cal ads targeting Latino voters in the 1960 presi- dential election. The night before his assas- sination, JFK addressed the League of United Latin Amer- ican Citizens in Houston. But as many scholars have written since, Kennedy did not deliver on the hope he inspired among Latinos. African American civil rights heroes also had been frus- trated with Kennedy, despite being enamored of him personally. And then JFK went to Dallas, and then he was gone. My parents always remembered him frozen in time, just before the shots rang out on Dealey Plaza. Those of us who came of age after Vietnam and Wa- tergate had a harder time maintaining such reverence, when questioning authority became what you were supposed to do. As a journal- ist today, you are called a hack for waxing poetic about any politician or person in power. It’s just not done. We have too much access to current information and a fuller history of JFK that didn’t make into the record when he was alive. JFK mentioned African Americans and Latinos in his first presidential push of 1960, for which he deserves praise. However, decades of venerating JFK should not come at the expense of an undeniable truth – many people living in America had a very hard road on Nov. 22, 1963, and beyond. For them, hope and innocence were in short supply. Hard battles still lay ahead and good intentions were not enough. They weren’t enough for JFK any more than they are for Barack Obama or any other leader to be held ac- countable by our democracy. That’s also what history teaches us – to view and accept our leaders beyond our idealized versions of them. Call The Bee’s Marcos Breton, (916) 321-1096. Opinion MARCOS BRETON [email protected] JFK lore wears thin for some When 77-year-old Johnnie Esco died in 2008 after a short stay at a Placerville nursing home, her husband of 60 years wanted someone held responsible – civilly and crim- inally. Don Esco of Cameron Park settled his civil lawsuit against the El Dorado Care Center and its owner in 2010 for $2.9 million. The criminal matter ended quite different- ly this week, with California’s attorney general declining to seek a new trial against the fa- cility’s former head nurse fol- lowing a mistrial. More than five years after the elderly woman’s death, an El Dorado County jury failed to reach a verdict in the case against Donna Darlene Palm- er, charged with felony elder abuse. Palmer, the former director of nursing at the facility, was one of two nurses charged criminally last year by the Cal- ifornia attorney general’s of- fice. At the time, Attorney General Kamala D. Harris’ of- fice had announced plans to intensify efforts statewide to bring criminal cases against nursing home administrators and employees whose failings harm vulnerable patients. In Palmer’s case, the jury tipped decidedly in the nurs- No jury verdict in care home death STATE WON’T SEEK NEW TRIAL OF FORMER HEAD NURSE By Marjie Lundstrom [email protected] TRIAL | Page B2 Trustee Cortez Quinn was not at the Twin Rivers Unified School Board meeting Tues- day night, but it didn’t stop the board and parents from calling for his resignation. Quinn, 46, was arrested Nov. 6 on three felony and five misdemeanor charges that include allegedly falsifying his paternity test and accept- ing illegal gifts from a district employee. On Nov. 8, Quinn an- nounced he would take a 90- day leave of absence from the board. But the school board and a handful of parents were clear Tuesday that they want him off the board. Ross Hen- drickx, speaking on behalf of the Del Paso Heights Com- munity Association, demand- ed that the board vote unani- mously to seek Quinn’s resig- nation. “The community is going into its third year, at least, of Mr. Quinn being an embar- rassment to the school dis- trict, rather than the example that he was elected to be,” Hendrickx said. The board voted 5-1, with Trustee Walter Garcia Kawa- moto dissenting, to approve a resolution asking Quinn to step down from his Area 5 seat immediately. Quinn rep- resents the North Natomas and Robla areas. The resolu- tion said there has been “con- Board calls on Quinn to resign ‘OUTRAGE’ OVER TWIN RIVERS TRUSTEE CITED By Diana Lambert [email protected] QUINN | Page B3 Up until the time he sat his wife down on a love seat and shot her six times in the North Highlands apartment they once shared, Daniel Weddle had hoped that somehow they could make their relationship work. He loved his wife, he said, and he couldn’t believe he drilled a .38-caliber slug through her heart. That wasn’t him, he said. It was the heat of passion, brought on by her serving him with divorce papers and then giv- ing him a dirty look that sug- gested he didn’t have what it takes to squeeze the trigger when he pulled a pistol on her. Then, after he called his mother first and the 911 op- erator second, and after he cried to the dispatcher about wanting to kill himself, and after sheriff’s deputies put him in the back seat of a pa- trol car and he sat all by him- self inside with the camera still running, Weddle, 50, had a little something to say. “I wonder,” Weddle said, “if the bitch is dead.” That remark was the sub- ject of some discussion Tues- day in the closing arguments of Weddle’s murder trial, brought on by the fatal Dec. 1, 2011, shooting of his wife, Margaret, 46, in the apartment in the 3600 block of Bellinger Court. Deputy District Attorney Aaron Miller played it as his ace card. He told the Sacra- mento Superior Court jury hearing the case that out of Jury hears closings in wife-killing trial DEFENSE: HUSBAND SNAPPED AT NEWS OF DIVORCE By Andy Furillo [email protected] KILLING | Page B4 Leslie Pinkston’s suspect- ed killer faced charges of stalking and threatening her earlier this year and was set to face trial on the allega- tions in December. William Carl Gardner III, 30, of Sacramento faced fe- lony allegations of stalking, threats to commit crimes re- sulting in death or great bodily injury and vandalism, according to information filed May 13 in Yolo Superior Court in Woodland. Author- ities say Gardner was a for- mer boyfriend of Pinkston, 32, of Winters. Gardner remained at large Tuesday. The alleged threat against Pinkston was “so unequiv- ocal, unconditional, imme- diate and specific as to ... cause that person reasona- bly to be in sustained fear for his or her own safety,” rec- ords show. Pinkston was identified as the victim by the initials “L.P.” The court issued a crimi- nal protective order to pro- tect Pinkston from Gardner in connection with the case, said Michael Cabral, Yolo County assistant chief depu- ty district attorney, who de- clined to comment further. Court records show Gardner failed to appear for an Oct. 15 Yolo Superior Court hearing related to the case. Pinkston was shot and killed at close range about 9:30 a.m. Monday as she sat in her car in downtown Win- ters. She was listed as a wit- ness expected to testify at Gardner’s scheduled Dec. 9 Winters slaying suspect was accused of stalking GARDNER FACED CHARGES OF VANDALISM, MAKING THREATS By Darrell Smith and Bill Lindelof [email protected] SLAYING | Page B4 Leslie Pinkston William Carl Gardner III
Transcript of Unnamed CCI EPS...The entire Central Valley was flooded by a 45-day storm that might have been...
Sources: NASA/JPL-Caltech and UCLA, NOAA
The Sacramento Bee
RIVERS IN THE AIRNASA scientists have linked the rare alignment of two weather systems in the Northern Hemisphere to the creation of an atmospheric river that they say could bring prolonged wet weather to California.
The low-pressure system northwest of California directs atmospheric riverstoward the Sierra Nevada.
Two high-pressure systems at higher latitudes prevent the low from drifting northward away from California.
DAMAGE ON THE GROUND The potential impact of atmospheric rivers through the years:
The entire Central Valley was flooded by a 45-day storm that might have been caused by an atmospheric river.
1861-
1862
A neighborhood in Del Paso Heights was inundated. At least 14 people died statewide, and floods displaced 50,000.
1986 Dry conditions before a large storm meant no major flooding, but high winds downed many trees and power lines.
2009
Sacramento History Archives Randy Pench The Sacramento Bee Lezlie Sterling The Sacramento Bee
Scientists at NASA say theyhave identified a rare weatherpattern that will help fore-casters predict when Califor-nia will experience periods ofintense and potentially pro-longed wet weather.
The new findings will helpofficials assess the possibilityof floods, mudslides and lev-ee failures, the scientists say,and will prove critical to re-gions where rivers are a bigpart of the landscape – likethe Sacramento region,where the American and Sac-ramento rivers converge. Therivers absorb run off andmelting snowpack from theSierra Nevada, where stormstypically deposit much of thestate’s precipitation.
“We have found a strongconnection between certainphases of two systems andthe frequency of winterstorms in California,” said BinGuan, an earth sciences re-
searcher at the University ofCalifornia, Los Angeles andNASA’s Jet Propulsion Labo-ratory.
Guan’s study – a collabora-tion among scientists atUCLA and the NationalOceanic and AtmosphericAdministration – found aconclusive link between thealignment of two weatherpatterns in the NorthernHemisphere and the forma-tion of an “atmospheric river”headed for California.
The results were gleaned inpart from data provided byNASA’s 11-year-old Aquaweather satellite – one ofmore than 40 weather-relat-ed satellites that circle theglobe.
Atmospheric rivers arenarrow bands of wind, often amile high, that can pack thepunch of a hurricane. As theymove over the ocean, they be-come laden with water vapor– and can carry with them as
United States
Hawaii
Asia
Australia
Atmospheric river
The atmospheric river shown in thisOctober 2009 water vapor image droppedalmost 19 inches of rain on California’s centralcoast over a 24-hour period.
LOW WATER VAPOR HIGH
NASA sees hurricane-forceculprits behind big stormsBy Edward [email protected]
‘ATMOSPHERIC RIVERS’ LINKED TO STATE’S FLOODS
ATMOSPHERE | Page B2
OURREGIONWednesday, November 20, 2013 | The Sacramento Bee | sacbee.com/ourregion B1
Acommon refrain fromthose who fondlyrecall John F. Kennedy
was that he governed in amore innocent and hopefultime and that his assassina-tion 50 years ago this Fridayshattered that dream.
Many people are repeatingthis default setting of JFKlore – a belief that may haveapplied to them and theirfamilies but not to all.
Those of us who are de-scendants of people from thebarrios, the ghettos and theanonymous margins of 1963America have more compli-cated feelings about the manand those times. They we-ren’t very innocent years forour ancestors fighting togain a foothold in Americawhen discrimination wasopen and overt.
In California, some of usgrew up hearing stories ofour parents being muggedfor speaking Spanish inpublic. Our ancestors toiledin hard-labor jobs, and ourfamilies viewed trips toMcDonald’s as a luxury inthe ’60s. We rememberbeing the first in our littlecircles to go to college. Ofbeing the first to confrontthe cultural complexities ofintegrated workplaces afterbeing raised by families withlittle or no experience withwhich to guide us.
Within that context, JFKis a distant figure whomeans less to us than he didto our parents. Within theLatino community, ourparents were thrilled whenJFK actually paid attentionto them. They were blownaway when Jacqueline Ken-nedy spoke Spanish in politi-cal ads targeting Latinovoters in the 1960 presi-dential election.
The night before his assas-sination, JFK addressed theLeague of United Latin Amer-ican Citizens in Houston.
But as many scholars havewritten since, Kennedy didnot deliver on the hope heinspired among Latinos.African American civil rightsheroes also had been frus-trated with Kennedy, despitebeing enamored of himpersonally.
And then JFK went toDallas, and then he wasgone. My parents alwaysremembered him frozen intime, just before the shotsrang out on Dealey Plaza.
Those of us who came ofage after Vietnam and Wa-tergate had a harder timemaintaining such reverence,when questioning authoritybecame what you weresupposed to do. As a journal-ist today, you are called ahack for waxing poetic aboutany politician or person inpower. It’s just not done. Wehave too much access tocurrent information and afuller history of JFK thatdidn’t make into the recordwhen he was alive.
JFK mentioned AfricanAmericans and Latinos inhis first presidential push of1960, for which he deservespraise. However, decades ofvenerating JFK should notcome at the expense of anundeniable truth – manypeople living in America hada very hard road on Nov. 22,1963, and beyond. For them,hope and innocence were inshort supply. Hard battlesstill lay ahead and goodintentions were not enough.They weren’t enough forJFK any more than they arefor Barack Obama or anyother leader to be held ac-countable by our democracy.
That’s also what historyteaches us – to view andaccept our leaders beyond ouridealized versions of them.
Call The Bee’s Marcos Breton,(916) 321-1096.
Opinion
MARCOS BRETON
JFK lorewears thinfor some
When 77-year-old JohnnieEsco died in 2008 after a shortstay at a Placerville nursinghome, her husband of 60years wanted someone heldresponsible – civilly and crim-inally.
Don Esco of Cameron Parksettled his civil lawsuitagainst the El Dorado CareCenter and its owner in 2010for $2.9 million. The criminalmatter ended quite different-ly this week, with California’sattorney general declining toseek a new trial against the fa-cility’s former head nurse fol-lowing a mistrial.
More than five years afterthe elderly woman’s death, anEl Dorado County jury failedto reach a verdict in the caseagainst Donna Darlene Palm-er, charged with felony elderabuse.
Palmer, the former directorof nursing at the facility, wasone of two nurses chargedcriminally last year by the Cal-ifornia attorney general’s of-fice. At the time, AttorneyGeneral Kamala D. Harris’ of-fice had announced plans tointensify efforts statewide tobring criminal cases againstnursing home administratorsand employees whose failingsharm vulnerable patients.
In Palmer’s case, the jurytipped decidedly in the nurs-
No juryverdictin carehomedeathSTATE WON’TSEEK NEW TRIALOF FORMERHEAD NURSE
By Marjie [email protected]
TRIAL | Page B2
Trustee Cortez Quinn wasnot at the Twin Rivers UnifiedSchool Board meeting Tues-day night, but it didn’t stopthe board and parents fromcalling for his resignation.
Quinn, 46, was arrestedNov. 6 on three felony and fivemisdemeanor charges thatinclude allegedly falsifyinghis paternity test and accept-ing illegal gifts from a districtemployee.
On Nov. 8, Quinn an-nounced he would take a 90-day leave of absence from theboard.
But the school board and ahandful of parents were clearTuesday that they want himoff the board. Ross Hen-drickx, speaking on behalf ofthe Del Paso Heights Com-munity Association, demand-ed that the board vote unani-mously to seek Quinn’s resig-nation.
“The community is goinginto its third year, at least, ofMr. Quinn being an embar-rassment to the school dis-trict, rather than the examplethat he was elected to be,”Hendrickx said.
The board voted 5-1, withTrustee Walter Garcia Kawa-moto dissenting, to approve aresolution asking Quinn tostep down from his Area 5seat immediately. Quinn rep-resents the North Natomasand Robla areas. The resolu-tion said there has been “con-
Boardcalls onQuinn to resign‘OUTRAGE’ OVERTWIN RIVERSTRUSTEE CITED
By Diana [email protected]
QUINN | Page B3
Up until the time he sathis wife down on a love seatand shot her six times in theNorth Highlands apartmentthey once shared, DanielWeddle had hoped thatsomehow they could maketheir relationship work.
He loved his wife, he said,and he couldn’t believe he
drilled a .38-caliber slugthrough her heart. Thatwasn’t him, he said. It wasthe heat of passion, broughton by her serving him withdivorce papers and then giv-ing him a dirty look that sug-gested he didn’t have what ittakes to squeeze the triggerwhen he pulled a pistol onher.
Then, after he called his
mother first and the 911 op-erator second, and after hecried to the dispatcher aboutwanting to kill himself, andafter sheriff ’s deputies puthim in the back seat of a pa-trol car and he sat all by him-self inside with the camerastill running, Weddle, 50,had a little something to say.
“I wonder,” Weddle said,“if the bitch is dead.”
That remark was the sub-ject of some discussion Tues-day in the closing argumentsof Weddle’s murder trial,brought on by the fatalDec. 1, 2011, shooting of hiswife, Margaret, 46, in theapartment in the 3600 blockof Bellinger Court.
Deputy District AttorneyAaron Miller played it as hisace card. He told the Sacra-mento Superior Court juryhearing the case that out of
Jury hears closings in wife-killing trial DEFENSE: HUSBAND SNAPPED AT NEWS OF DIVORCE
By Andy [email protected]
KILLING | Page B4
Leslie Pinkston’s suspect-ed killer faced charges ofstalking and threatening herearlier this year and was setto face trial on the allega-tions in December.
William Carl Gardner III,30, of Sacramento faced fe-lony allegations of stalking,threats to commit crimes re-
sulting in death or greatbodily injury and vandalism,according to informationfiled May 13 in Yolo SuperiorCourt in Woodland. Author-ities say Gardner was a for-mer boyfriend of Pinkston,32, of Winters.
Gardner remained atlarge Tuesday.
The alleged threat againstPinkston was “so unequiv-ocal, unconditional, imme-
diate and specific as to ...cause that person reasona-bly to be in sustained fear forhis or her own safety,” rec-ords show. Pinkston wasidentified as the victim bythe initials “L.P.”
The court issued a crimi-nal protective order to pro-tect Pinkston from Gardner
in connection with the case,said Michael Cabral, YoloCounty assistant chief depu-ty district attorney, who de-clined to comment further.
Court records showGardner failed to appear foran Oct. 15 Yolo SuperiorCourt hearing related to thecase.
Pinkston was shot andkilled at close range about9:30 a.m. Monday as she satin her car in downtown Win-ters. She was listed as a wit-ness expected to testify atGardner’s scheduled Dec. 9
Winters slaying suspectwas accused of stalking GARDNER FACED CHARGES OFVANDALISM, MAKING THREATS
By Darrell Smith and
Bill Lindelof
SLAYING | Page B4
Leslie
Pinkston
William Carl
Gardner III
