3 Robbery suspects arrested

By Cameron Macdonald
Citizen Staff Writer

Authorities arrested three suspects who allegedly robbed an Elk Grove credit union on Jun. 7.
Elk Grove police say that a Sacramento County deputy located and followed a vehicle containing the suspects on Interstate-80 near Fairfield later that day.
The suspects were stopped and arrested in the Bay Area city of Hercules, Elk Grove police spokesperson Christopher Trim said.
“We did recover some money from the bank robbery,” he said.
The suspects arrested are Christopher Estes, Gary Henry and Wineka Runnell. Trim said that police believe there is a fourth suspect still at large.
The robbery occurred before noon when two men reportedly entered the California Community Credit Union store on the 4800 block of Laguna Boulevard near Franklin Boulevard.
Police said one of the robbers jumped over the teller counter and told a 47-year-old employee to get on the ground. He then stole money from the teller drawers and later entered an employee’s office. The suspects stole an unknown amount of money and fled through the front doors.
No weapons were reportedly seen and the two employees were uninjured during the incident.
Trim said that the suspects had abandoned their getaway vehicle, a silver pickup truck, near the robbery site and then got into a different vehicle.
Police explained that a deputy, who was a K-9 officer, heard about the incident through a police radio and found a vehicle used by people he believed were involved in the robbery.
Elk Grove detectives later arrived to the scene and took the suspects into custody.

Asst. Police Chief graduates from FBI academy

Ed Kelly, the assistant police chief of the Elk Grove Police Department, has graduated from the FBI National Academy. He was among 300 law enforcement officials from 25 countries who completed the academy’s 229th session.
The Elk Grove police announced his graduation on Jun. 12.
At the academy in Quantico, Va., Kelly spent 10 weeks studying subjects such as law, communication, forensic science, leadership, and behavioral science.
Students must be nominated by their agencies before being accepted, they must also have at least the rank of lieutenant.
In a press statement, Elk Grove Police Chief Robert Simmons noted that less than one percent of the United States’s police officers are accepted into the FBI academy.
“The individuals who are selected are the cream of the crop in their respective law enforcement fields,” Simmons said in a pres statement.

Citizen Police Reporter Cameron Macdonald will have a full report on Kelly's time at the Academy in the Wednesday edition of the Citizen.

Elk Grove Book clubs turns 70

By Blake Ellington
Citizen Staff Writer

Written into the original constitution and bylaws of their club, there is a restriction on bringing children and doing any type of handwork such as knitting at the monthly meetings; and this from a group of 1937 women in the small town of Elk Grove.
This group of nine educated women, who were for the most part married to local farmers at this time, started the Elk Grove Book Club which is celebrating its’ 70th anniversary this year.
The last remaining founder, Stanford University-educated Edna Sperry, passed away this February at the age of 101. Second in line, behind Sperry, in terms of tenure is chairman Olga Batey, who joined the book club in 1949.
“It is a very tolerant, well-educated group of women,” Batey said. “There is no gossip or small talk.”
The 20-member club, no more no less, meets once a month for 10 months out of the year. The meetings typically include a dessert luncheon and a business meeting where one member presents a 45-minute synopsis of a book they have read and enjoyed.
“There is usually someone waiting to grab the book after they hear about it,” said Mary Williams, a Book Club member.
Williams and Batey help sort books at the Elk Grove Library every Tuesday afternoon.
Each book club meeting is held at a different members’ house and every June, a local author is brought in to discuss one of their books or writing styles.
“It is such a pleasant afternoon, you like the people and what you talk about, you don’t want to miss one,” Batey said.
Books that are reviewed range in style and topics from biographies and social satire to politics. Batey’s favorite books are usually political; and when asked what some of her favorites are, she referred to biographies on past leaders such as Harry Truman and Eleanor Roosevelt.
“You find out Eleanor never wanted to be a president’s wife,” Batey said.
Other books that have been reviewed include: “Lazy B” by Sandra Day O’Conner; “Blind Man’s Bluff” by Sherry Santag and Christopher Drew; “An Isolated Incident” by Susan R. Sloan and “The Right Words at the Right Time” by Marlo Thomas.
The group is planning a 70th anniversary party for Thursday, June 21 at the Valley High Country Club. Though the general public is not allowed to attend, members will be inviting several family members and friends.
Since joining in 1949, Batey said very little has changed at the Book Club. The only major change since the early days of Edna and the founders is that they reduced the number of book reviews from two to one due to time constraints.
“Through the years we changed that because it became too long,” Batey said.
The anniversary party on June 21 will be a time to reminisce on the history and culture that the Book Club has provided to the women of Elk Grove.

Wanted: Photos of the Laguna High School graduation ceremonies

Do you have photos of the Laguna Creek High School graduation? If so, the Citizen is interested in looking at your photos and possibly publishing them in the print issue of the Elk Grove Citizen.
If you have photos you may want to share, contact Jeff Forward, editor of the Citizen, at the Citizen office or via e-mail.
(916) 685-3945 or via e-mail: editor_egcitizen@yahoo.com
Thanks!!

Monterey Trail fetes first graduates

Flip the tassel - First class graduates from Monterey Trail High

By Cameron Macdonald
Citizen Staff Writer

Students transferred from five high schools, and worlds, found themselves at a brand-new campus in August 2004.
They came from schools with solid traditions and rich histories such as Elk Grove, Laguna Creek and Florin. They ended up in a north Elk Grove campus near their homes on Power Inn Road with baby trees and dirt leftover from construction.
Monterey Trail High School was a blank canvas when it opened.
Student Waleed Abed had transferred to the school all the way from Galt High. He became a member of the school’s first graduating class.
“It was our job to basically build the school,” Abed said. “To set traditions and basically be the founders.”
On June. 7, Abed joined his fellow seniors at Sacramento’s Memorial Auditorium during the school’s first graduation ceremony.
As the school’s first class valedictorian, with a 4.8 GPA, he wore four medals and a near-rainbow of ribbons and sashes for his academic and athletic achievements.
The seniors knew they were making history that Thursday night.
Many of them could not stop from cheering even during the ceremony’s quiet moments when student Matt Payne sang the national anthem.
After their principal Terry Chapman declared that they were graduates, many of the students in their green gowns danced to a funky beat performed by their school band.
“I affirm that you have a foundation,” Chapman told the graduates. “What is built upon it is your choice.”
Chapman opened the campus as principal and is retiring from his career in education this month.
The theme throughout the ceremony was “Finding Our Way,” where speeches and music performances addressed the fact that many of Monterey Trail’s students were first strangers from different schools.
An ensemble of graduates sang and spoke humorous lines about the school’s early days. Some of them mentioned the students’ disappointment of attending a new school with no lockers, no pool, and small trees.
“No one was ready to accept Monterey Trail as their home…we had no sense of community,” one student said.
The ensemble later mentioned the student unity that eventually followed.
“We learned to let go of our pasts and slowly began to see that there was only us and only this,” an ensemble member said.

Read the rest of the story about the Monterey Trail graduation in Wednesday's Elk Grove Citizen.

Macdonald to have follow-up on grad party shooting

In the Wednesday Citizen, police reporter Cameron Macdonald will have a full report on the wild graduation party that morphed into a massive street brawl on June 8. Cameron was on the street at Tarbert Way on Monday talking to witnesses and getting information to add to what he has learned from the Elk Grove Police Department. A teen shot during the melee is reportedly in stable condition.

Kyo to keep blog over summer

The Citizen's summer intern, Sarah Kyo, will be writing and maintaining a blog while here at the Citizen.

A link to her blog - Citizen College Intern - has been added to the left Citizen News Links bar. Check out her blog and bookmark it for regular reading. Kyo, majoring in journalism at San Jose State University, has studied both blogging and vlogging - video blogging - and will use her skills to help enhance the Citizen's news coverage and add a personal side to our staff.

We hope you will enjoy reading Kyo's blog and will pass on any information, tips, story ideas, or comments to her. With Kyo's blog in addition to this one being maintained by me, we are trying to reach our readers in as many ways as possible. Herburger Publications, Inc. - owner of the Citizen - is working on a new Web site for the Citizen and when it is complete, we will be able to serve our readers even better.

EG Police investigating graduation party shooting

Elk Grove police Spokesman Christopher Trim reported Saturday that detectives were investigating the shooting of a 15-year-old at a June 8 graduation party in the 9500 block of Tarbert Way.
Trim said the teenager is in stable condition as of Saturday.
According to a press release from Trim, police were called to the party around 11:51 p.m. and while en route, dispatchers received more phone calls about shots being fired.
When officers arrived on scene, a 15-year-old male was found suffering from several gunshot wounds to the upper torso. He was transorted to an unnamed area hospital where Trim said he was in stable condition.
Witnesses at the scene told officers that a verbal altercation developed between groups at the party. The incident escalated to a physical fight, soon after a suspect shot the victim, Trim said.
A more detailed article on the incident will be in Wednesday's print edition of the Citizen.