while working for the paper. Events Sacramento Area Music Awards In 1992, the Sacramento News & Review started the Sacramento Area Music Awards (SAMMIES) to honor and promote the growing music scene in Sacramento. Winners are selected by SN&R readers in a list of musical genres, including Folk rock, Funk, Hard rock, Blues, Punk and many more. Critics vote for winners in more specific areas, e.g. Male/Female vocalist, Keyboardist, Bassist, etc. Winners of the SAMMIES include Cake (band), Deftones, Oleander (band) and others. Interfaith On the first anniversary of September 11, the Sacramento News & Review brought together musical acts from different faith groups around Sacramento for a Call For Unity Event to symbolize the city's acceptance of racial and religious diversity. Every year someone in the region was honored with a Building Unity Award for their interfaith work in Sacramento, until 2008, when the last Call for Unity event was held. In December 2015, the News & Review, in partnership with Sacramento's local Habitat for Humanity, began a Build for Unity project, where Muslims, Christians, and other faith groups came together to build Habitat houses, in part as a response to the anti-Muslim rhetoric of national politics. The project was funded in large part by generous donations from a wide range of faith groups. Noted stories Heart of the (Gray) Matter, 2004: Joel Davis was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, and wrote an award-winning first-person account of the brain surgery he underwent while conscious Breaking Away, 2002: News & Review led 30 weeklies in a national effort to cover the issue of priests who leave the Catholic Church because they can no longer live with the celibacy requirements Poor America, 1997: News & Review led a national effort of 90 weekly newspapers around the country in a conversation about welfare reform and extreme poverty in the nation Mainstream Newspapers, R.I.P., 1996: Cover story predicting the decline of daily newspapers by 2006, a prediction which has largely come true What's Up Chuck, 1996: Award-winning investigative story about the curious relationship between big insurance and the California Insurance Commissioner Chuck Quackenbush Free Speech, 1994: This issue is the culmination of a five-month censorship battle with right-wing group, American Family Association Selected awards 1st place in Best Feature Story, Best Page Layout in 2014, California Newspaper Publishers Association 1st place in Feature Writing, Arts & Entertainment Coverage, Business/Financial Story, Sports Story, Special Issue