Author: Martin Kuz

The Long Way Home

Earlier this year, Land Park journalist Martin Kuz spent five weeks in Ukraine, both as a reporter covering Russia’s invasion of his late father’s homeland and as a son hoping to better understand the forces that shaped his father’s life. He returned to Sacramento—home to the largest concentration of Ukrainian immigrants in the United States—with a profound new understanding of his complex heritage forged by war and loss. In this essay, Kuz chronicles his journey at the intersection of global history and personal identity.

Our Man Inside

For the first time since 1882, a Sacramentan will be the second most powerful politician in California. After decades of state leadership coming from the Bay and Southern California, we’ll finally have one of our own at the big table. So what will it mean for this region? And does Darrell Steinberg have what it takes to deliver?

Wayne Thiebaud
(The First 90 Years)

The Crocker Art Museum is honoring him with a major retrospective. The California Hall of Fame is about to induct him alongside Barbra Streisand and James Cameron. And The New York Times’ chief art critic says there’s “no painter in America that is more satisfying or skilled.” But on the eve of his 90th birthday, after a career that took him from Disney to the Whitney, Sacramento’s Wayne Thiebaud is hardly resting on his laurels. In fact, he’s just getting warmed up.

A Life in Black and White

He grew up knowing some of America’s greatest photographers, from Edward Weston (his namesake) to Ansel Adams. A new exhibit focuses on Kurt Edward Fishback’s black-and-white portraits of some equally famous and very colorful artists.

The Incredible Edible Eggs

What are superstar chefs like Thomas Keller and Charlie Palmer doing out in the middle of a big, dry field a few miles north of Arco Arena? Fishing. In the wake of global bans on wild caviar, one unassuming  local fish farm is basking in the worldwide culinary spotlight.

From Wags to Riches

It’s a pretty safe bet that Jim Czajkowski, aka James Rollins, is the only licensed veterinarian in El Dorado Hills whose books routinely land on The New York Timesbest-seller list. With his newest thriller out June 21, the multi-named author discusses his connection with Indiana Jones, Dan Brown and how, after eight novels, his biweekly writers’ group at Coco’s is still kicking his ass.

Waiting for Superwoman

She barely sleeps, has preternaturally thick skin, wears patent leather boots that put Wonder Woman’s to shame, and is so tough that she’s been known to eat bees (and the occasional elementary school principal). In a few short months, the most controversial public school reformer in the country will move to Sacramento where, in an order known only to her, she plans to launch a national education initiative, raise one billion dollars, forever change the face of schools in America and marry our mayor. Who is Michelle Rhee and why can’t anyone agree if she’s a superhero to our kids or just one very smiley villainess?

A Walk on the Wild Side

In 2005, while tethered to a robotic arm 220 miles above the surface of the Earth, Sacramento native and UC Davis grad Stephen Robinson made one of the most famous—and dangerous—spacewalks inhistory. His mission: to remove debris from heat tiles on the belly of the Space Shuttle to prevent the craft from burning up on re-entry. On Feb. 7, our hometown astronaut returns to space for his fourth, and likely last, NASA voyage. He’s living proof why, yes, sometimes it really does take a rocket scientist.

The Life and Deaths of Dorothea Puente

It’s been 20 years since Sacramento’s most notorious murderer, Dorothea Puente, buried seven bodies in the garden of her F Street boardinghouse. Now 80, she speaks out in a series of rare interviews on her crimes, her “relationships” with the Kennedys and the Reagans and why—in the end—the person she really wanted to kill was herself

Scholar Cornel West

Author, educator, actor, rapper—by any title, Dr. Cornel West ranks among the country’s leading intellectuals. And "Hope on a Tightrope," his new book of reflections on everything from leadership to love and faith, should keep him there. But, at heart, he’s still a Sacramento kid, returning here often to visit family, drop by Tower Café and go shopping with his mom. The prolific Princeton prof talks to Sactown about social justice, Barack Obama—and breaking track records at Kennedy High.