Two Fairfield Councilmen Die in Same Month

By Jessica Caswell

Driving down North Texas Street in Fairfield, Calif., is a constant reminder of the loss of 22-year-old Councilman Matt Garcia.

His picture with the saying, “Keep the Dream Alive” lines the streets; it is on every pole, in every window and on t-shirts that loved ones made in his memory.

Sadly, Garcia was shot and killed on Sept. 1 outside of friend’s house in Cordelia, a quiet Fairfield neighborhood.

He was rushed to the John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek after the shooting and declared brain dead on Sept. 2. He died four days later.

Garcia was one of the youngest elected officials in the history of the state and had a goal to make Fairfield a safer place to live.

"Most kids in Fairfield couldn't give a damn about this city, but Matt loved Fairfield," said his friend Ryan Kelly, 22, to the San Francisco Chronicle. "I don't know what it was, but he thought this was our place, and he was going to make it better no matter what."

Since the shooting, Henry Don Williams, 32, of Fairfield, has been arrested along with Gene Allen Combs, 45, of Suisun City.

Nicole Stewart, 33, was also arrested but was later released after a review from the District Attorney’s Office.

Stewart will be a material witness to the case. It is believed she was driving the car when the shooting took place. She is currently in protective custody.

On Wednesday, Williams pleaded not guilty for the murder of Garcia. He faces first degree murder and could be sentenced up to 51-years-to-life in prison.

Combs will appear as the codefendant in the case and is scheduled to appear in court on Monday.
The slaying of Garcia was allegedly due to a case of mistaken identity.

But sadly that’s not the end of the tragedies that Fairfield residents have faced this month.

On Sept. 20, a day after 54-year-old Councilman Frank Gardos was convicted for felony assault against his ex-girlfriend, he killed himself.

His attorney, Daniel Russo, told the Contra Costa Times that he was destroyed by his conviction and he was worried for Gardos’ children.

"I think he felt like he lost his life. All he did was talk about his kids," said Russo.

Since the charges were filed against Gardos he was fired from his assistant principal job at Armijo High School and he would have had to leave the city council by his sentencing date.

Now Fairfield City Council has the job of filling two councilmember’s seats.

For the Garcia family their confusion of why their relative was shot and killed still remains unanswered.

A Web site for Garcia, which was made for him while running for office, is now a place where mourners can leave their condolences.

“Matt, you may be gone physically but your spirit, inspiration and motivation will live in everyone you have touched and no one can take that away, no one,” an anonymous commenter wrote.

As a member of the Fairfield community, my heart goes out to both families. September has been a hard month for the people of Fairfield. Now, we can only move forward and “Keep the Dream Alive” as Garcia would have wanted.

"90210" Stars Too Thin

By Jessica Caswell

If you’ve turned on your television lately, you probably noticed a blast from the past. The modern version of the 1990s hit show “90210” made its television premier on Sept. 2 and has already got Tinseltown talking.

US Weekly released a front page story this week claiming the women of the famous zip code are too thin for television. It spotlights actresses Jessica Stroup, 21, and Shenae Grimes, 18, with a six page spread titled “Too Thin for TV.”

Both girls have leading roles on the show and neither breaks 110 pounds. Dr. Joyce Peters, a weight-management expert in Beverly Hills, told US Weekly that Stroup who stands 5- foot- 8 inches is between 100 and 105 pounds and Grimes is 5 foot-3 inches weighing a mere 90 pounds.

The pressures of Hollywood must be knocking at the actresses’ door because they look much healthier in past photos. But is the pressure really there or are these women just naturally very thin?

You be the judge. Here’s before and after shots of both women.

If you guessed underweight you were right. Both of these girls are too thin, according to the United States Department of Agriculture's weight chart.

Times have sure changed for the show in the weight department. The first show may have had some issues due to drama between the cast, but the battle of the bulge was not one of them.

“Weight was never an issue,” the earlier show’s costume designer, Jane Trapnell told US Weekly.

Trapnell even kept her original wardrobe files and revealed that some of the cast wore a size five and six. That’s a big no-no in today’s Hollywood.

It’s well known that being good looking is part of the job requirement to be a star. However, some stars may take it to the extreme. Just look at Calista Folckhart of the hit show “Ally McBeal.” She admitted to having weight issues.

“I started under-eating, over-exercising, pushing myself too hard and brutalizing my immune system. I guess I just didn't find time to eat,” Flockhart said. “I am much more healthy these days.”

If you go pick up any women’s magazine like Glamour or Cosmopolitan the front page will always have some sort of diet promising you a new and improved look.

The contradiction here is- we live in a weight obsessed world, where on a magazine it tells you how to be skinnier in every issue, but if you’re too thin- they’ll bash you for it.

However in this case, the women of “90210” do seem to be thinner than normal. So why do people care if they’re underweight? Well, because their fan base is mostly teenagers. The show is based in high school and it gives girls a false sense of what they should look like at that age.

These actresses should really think hard about their audience and help to guide young minds in the right direction.

Stroup and Grimes made no comment to US Weekly about their weight, but we’ll see in the months to come where they stand on the topic. If they pack on the pounds, then maybe they realized they are too thin. If they don’t try to gain weight, they must not care about the message they send to young teen girls who are very impressionable.

Virgin Being Auctioned Online

By Jessica Caswell

Sacramento State finally made national headlines last week. Unfortunately this time it was for all the wrong reason. "Why?" you ask. It seems the university has a money hungry student on its hands who has put a price on her virginity.

Natalie Dylan, 22, announced that she would be selling her virginity to the highest bidder to continue her education at Sacramento State's graduate school program.

Dylan is planning to lose her virginity at the infamous Moonlight Bunny Ranch in Nevada. The brothel is currently taking bids online on its Web site, and has received bids up to $275,000 according to The State Hornet.

"It’s empowering women to be the best that they can be," Dennis Hof, the owner of the infamous Moonlight Bunny Ranch brothel said in an interview with CBS13 last week about Dylan having sex for the first time at his establishment.

So if Dylan is empowering women to be the best they can be, then she should be right up there with Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton. Empowering women isn’t exactly where this moral dilemma seems to be going. Women are probably not going to stand up on the rooftops and shout, "I want to sell sex for money! Come and get me baby!"

Instead, women should be shouting, "What the hell?" and "Why is this OK?" If women can sell their own bodies legally online, then what’s stopping the prostitutes on the street? If someone’s selling sex for money, then they’re a hooker. It doesn’t matter whether someone is soliciting in the ghetto on the corner, or having sex for money in a penthouse suite in Beverly Hills- they're still a hooker.

So Dylan may be a hooker but she says she’s looking for more than just money.

"I think I’m very intuitive and I can sense if a person is being genuine or not. I’m definitely going to be looking for that," Dylan told CBS13 about the qualities she’s going to be looking for in the man she has sex with for the first time.

Using the word "genuine" in a situation where a man is going to be paying for your services doesn’t seem to go hand in hand. Someone could never be genuine when paying for sexual favors. What exactly would she want them to be genuine about if she's just looking for the highest bidder? If someone seems genuine and is only bidding $10,000 opposed to a $275,000 bidder who is not genuine, do you think she'd take the lower bid? Probably not.

Not to mention, Dylan supposedly received her degree in women’s studies and is hoping to someday become a marriage and family counselor. Maybe that’s why she’s not using her real name. If Dylan thinks she is making a good career move, then why use a pseudonym? It's because this would most likely hurt her credibility in the future. She must know this, or there would be no reason for the use of pseudonym. But, Dylan is citing "safety issues" as her reason for the fake name.

That old cliché, ‘if you got it, then flaunt it,’ may be ringing in some of your heads right about now. But this isn’t "Pretty Woman" where in the movie; a prostitute played by Julia Roberts is swept off her feet by the rich businessman played by Richard Gere. This is real life and lines need to be drawn.

Regardless of all the glorification and humorous quality this story has, there are many people out there who feel that this is wrong.

"She's just giving it to some random person. And I just think she should be giving it to someone special she loves," said one student on campus to a CBS13 reporter.

Nevada laws seem to be behind other states in prostitution laws. The New York Times ran a story about an online prostitution ring where four people were arrested in New York for online solicitation. Two of the women involved were charged with conspiracy to violate federal prostitution laws. Each faces up to five years in prison if convicted. The two other people involved were accused of prostitution and money laundering and face up to 25 years in prison. Should Dylan face the same?

Some companies out there seem to have a moral compass though. Dylan originally tried to auction off her virginity on EBay, but was turned down. However, she still managed to make our school look bad by putting us on the map for all the wrong reasons. What could be next for Sacramento State? Should it just start a huge black market community selling livers and babies? Then we’ll not only make it to national headlines- we’ll go international.

Television is Definitely Overrated

By Jessica Caswell

Have you ever wondered how your favorite television show gets rated the number one show in the country? There are thousands of programs out there, but why is that one program considered to be the best? You may not know it but, television companies are trying very hard to get you to be faithful to that special show you just can’t stop talking about. This November, television stations will duke it out during one of the most important months in television, sweeps month, to get that coveted number one spot.

Nielsen Media Research is the company responsible with the task of deciphering through all the data of the television world and crowning the winners. It measures ratings on a daily basis but, sweeps is the most important time for television stations. Basically, the more people who watch a show during sweeps, the more the television stations can charge an advertiser to run a commercial.

Television 101

First, to understand how the programs get rated number one, you have to understand what is getting rated. The three main types of television are cable, broadcast and syndication.

Broadcast television is the main channels and what I like to call the heart of television. It’s the big networks like CBS, ABC, and NBC. Also, you can usually get them at no cost by putting an antenna on top of your television. However, in February 2009 it’s going to change because all networks are switching to digital.

Cable television shows are provided by a cable company like Comcast, and customers pay a fee to get a package of channels. With cable programming, you can get the basic, which provides standard channels like CNN and Disney. But if you choose to pay more money, then you can get the premium channels like HBO and Encore.

Syndicated television is the sale of the right to broadcast television shows to multiple individual stations, without going through a broadcast network. Basically, it includes programs like “The Oprah Winfrey Show” and “Judge Judy.” The shows are not dedicated to one single broadcast network.

Inside the Rating System

OK, now that you've learned the different kinds of television, lets talk about how Nielsen actually works its magic. No, it doesn’t have magical powers and dancing fairies in your living room to suddenly make “Grey’s Anatomy” number one. It takes a lot of hard work and data analysis for the company.

According to Nielsen’s website, the company’s electronic metering technology is the heart of the rating process. It has two different kinds of meters. One is a set meter that lets the company know the channels that are being viewed and the other is a people meter that helps the company to monitor the demographics watching.

The company also measures some markets by diaries that are mailed to viewers. The viewer logs the shows he or she is watching and then sends it back to Nielsen to analyze. This is only in smaller markets like Honolulu, Hawaii.

Breaking Down the Ratings

The ratings are also separated into time slots. Ratings are measured at all times of the day but, the prime time hour slots, which are from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m., are usually the most important for television stations.

Other types of ratings data released by Nielsen are the top broadcast television networks, the top shows in the age 18-49 demographic and top syndicated shows.

All of this information may appear like a lot but, it really is quite simpler than it seems. Just think of it as a mass survey. The object is to see what shows are being watched the most and who is watching it. This is how advertisers know when to run that Ford truck commercial during the “Monday Night Football” game and the Neutrogena skin commercial during “Ugly Betty.” At the end of the day, it’s all about what you, the viewer, want to see.



On a final note, here's the shows that were big this week in television. These are the national ratings released by Nielsen for Thursday, Sept. 11 according to www.zap2it.com.

8 p.m.
1- CBS “Big Brother 10”
2- NBC “America’s Got Talent” and “My Name is Earl”
3- FOX “Hole in the Wall” time period premier

9 p.m.
1- CBS “CSI”
2- ABC “Grey’s Anatomy” rerun
3- FOX “Kitchen Nightmares”

10 p.m.
1- CBS “Flashpoint”
2- ABC “Private Practice”
3- NBC “The Office” and “30 Rock” reruns

Sex for School?

By Jessica Caswell

College is an expensive asset to have these days. So expensive, a Sac State graduate is willing to sell her virginity to continue on at Sac State for her master’s degree. That’s right everyone--her virginity.

Most people would probably say that you can not put a price on something as special as one’s first time in sack. But, 22-year-old Natalie Dylan (not her real name) thought this just might be the way to pay for graduate school. Now, the moral issue of this situation isn’t the point trying to be made. However, the fact that students nowadays have to go to such extremes to be able to pay for their college degrees is ridiculous.

Sac State students might not know some of the fees that are included when paying thier tution. If students are not aware of these extra fees, why is it OK to charge the fees without making it an option? Below is the list of fees students pay, assuming they signed up for more than six units at Sac State.

-State University Fee- $1,524
-Student Body Association Fee- $129.50
-University Union Fee- $189
-Facilities Fee- $3
-Instructional Related Activities Fee- $8
-Health Services Fee- $71
-Hornet Newspaper- $2.50

The grand total of the fees is $1927. That is up $200 from last semester.

What some of these fees are seems to be another issue for students? What exactly is an instructional related activities fee? Most students have no idea what it applies to in their college education.

“I have no clue what that is,” Sac State student Julie Tcha said. “I didn’t even know we got charged for it.”

Well, we do. Doing research on the Sac State website isn’t always the easiest of tasks either. It’s like the university doesn’t want someone to find this information.

So after all of that, the definition of the fee was even more confusing to understand. Its example of the fee was laboratory experiences, which are at least partially sponsored by an academic discipline or department and which are, in the judgment of the President, integrally related to its formal instructional offerings.

What the heck does that mean? If anybody knows please feel free to comment and help everyone understand it. This also does not include the cost of textbooks and parking fees.

Another fee students have to look forward to at Sac State, is the fee to take the writing proficiency exam. That’ll cost a student $25. Oh yeah, let’s not forget the fee to apply to graduate, which is $43. Isn’t the point of going to college to graduate? If something is mandatory to graduate, a fee will follow. The student has no choice but to fork out the cash.

What’s a college student to do in these situations? Well, there’s not much anyone can do. The fees have to be paid if the student wants to attend the university but, there are ways to help pay for college. Students should go into their college’s financial aide office to see what options are out there.

Maybe that’s the route Natalie Dylan took and nothing else seemed better than selling sex over the internet. Surely others out there would probably beg to differ.