Sacramento Bee

KEENE, Calif. — A dozen teenage boys, nearly all Latino, spent the better part of a recent morning in a darkened room here at the Cesar Chavez National Monument, watching a film starring a man who died before they were born.

Nobody said anything. Nobody looked away or nodded off. Nobody got up to leave. Attention from this group from a foster-care center in Visalia, Calif., was rapt.

On the screen were flickering black-and-white TV images, probably as ancient as newsreel to these kids, of labor leader Cesar Chavez leading the United Farm Workers during the epochal grape strike in 1967.

It showed Chavez addressing scores of migrant farmworkers, some of them trying to hush crying babies in a packed meeting hall. It showed a grower in a suit and tie, telling an interviewer, straight-faced, “These men are extremely happy. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be coming from all over to work here.”

British thriller novelist Lee Child was on the phone from his newly acquired country house southeast of London.

“We’ve got three buildings, barns, all kinds of stuff,” he said. “It’s really for my wife, Jane. Even though she’s from New York, she loves the English countryside.”

Let’s see ... there’s that new estate, plus the home in the south of France (“An occasional vacation spot”) and an apartment in New York City, the main residence. Right?

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Baseball, Sierra College sophomore pitcher Josh Eagle says, has given him everything.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- DeMarcus Cousins wants to play for the 2012 U.S. Olympic team, but barring another series of freakish injuries to more established frontcourt stars, that isn't going to happen.

But in two years? The Sacramento Kings' center should be on Team USA's World Championship squad.

In four years?

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Despite the deaths of 11 people, federal investigations and lawsuits seeking millions of dollars, organizers of the Reno air races are moving ahead with plans to hold the event again in September.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- With momentum building to secure a downtown arena with the Kings as anchor tenants, Sacramento needs to know:

How can the current Kings owners retain control of the team and be successful?

Everyone knows that the Maloof brothers want to remain NBA owners more than anything.