All charged up

Electric cars aren’t yet all the buzz in Sacramento, but this week, recharging them just got a little easier.

The city of Sacramento, in partnership with Priority Parking and Priority Green Park, opened the first commercially owned and open-to-the-public electric-car charging station this week at Harv’s Car Wash, on 19th and L streets. This Midtown location will the first of 175 to be installed throughout the city over the coming months. Of those, 75 have been donated to the city and will be placed at locations of its choosing.

Experts estimate that driving an electric car can reduce carbon-dioxide pollution in central cities by up to 30 percent. (Nick Miller)

For the Bible tells me so

The 2010 election is almost done, but don’t relax just yet. The secretary of state’s office has a list of nine possible ballot measures for 2011 that have been cleared for signature gathering, including one that creates a special class of “free speech” for Christians.

Allan Esses, who runs the Irvine-based YesJesusIsLord.org, is the proponent of the “Free Exercise of Religion” initiative, which would exempt speech that is based in the Bible from being classified as hate speech if it involves such terms as salvation, heaven, abortion, bestiality, cross-dressing, euthanasia, gay marriage, incest, necromancy, sodomy or yoga. Seriously.

Evidently, Christians everywhere are being arrested for speaking out against these things. (Kel Munger)

Dribble your face

Want to see Tyreke Evans dribble? As part of an ongoing experiment with flexible ticket pricing, the Sacramento Kings are offering tickets on the discount website Groupon, with tickets selling for half of the price of those sold on the Kings’ main website. The Groupon deal is the latest Kings’ move toward the sliding scale of ticket prices.

And if the low prices weren’t enough, Groupon adds: “Humans have been putting spherical objects in hoops for centuries, but until the invention of the dunk, the fast break, and face dribbling, it wasn’t an activity worth watching.”

Not sure about the “face dribbling,” but the fast breaks and dunking could be compelling. For those who missed out, the team said it will decide after the Grizzlies game if more Groupon deals will be offered. (Hugh Biggar)

A poll’s a poll

The actual vote goes down this Tuesday, but let’s look at these Election Day poll numbers now and check them again come Wednesday morning to see how the surveys fared.

Here in California, Fox News and Rasmussen Reports polls have Jerry Brown up on Meg Whitman by nearly 10 percentage points. Also, U.S. Senate incumbent Barbara Boxer has anywhere from a 4 to 8-point lead over rival Carly Fiorina, according to the RealClearPolitics website. And Proposition 19, which would legalize up to an ounce of recreational marijuana for adults over 21, looks to be defeated, according to the latest Los Angeles Times/USC numbers—and this after having a hearty 8-percentage-point lead just in September.

Many polling outfits, however, don’t survey registered or likely voters via cell phone. And, of course, the proof is in the turnout; find out where to vote at www.sos.ca.gov. (N.M.)