The Scoop

Sacbee.com's Voter Guide 2012 -- the place to learn about Sacramento-area candidates and issues on the June 5 primary ballot -- launches today.

Simply go to www.sacbee.com/voterguide and plug in your address to generate your personalized ballot. See what races you'll vote in. Compare the candidates. Read about the issues.

When you're ready, mark your choices and print or email yourself a completed ballot. You can even share your choices on Facebook, if you like.

Bookmark www.sacbee.com/voterguide now and use it as a resource as the June 5 primary nears.

It's optimized for mobile, so you can use it on your tablet, iPhone or Android.

As you might imagine, it takes a good many people here at The Sacramento Bee to pull off a comprehensive guide like this. The heavy lifting was done by researcher Pete Basofin. But, as with most things, his work is never done ...

The Voter Guide will be revised for the November general election. Expect a whole host of new local races and measures, and state propositions.

RELATED COVERAGE
• Election 2012: Full local and state coverage
• President 2012: Video, Delegate Tracker, Fact Checkers, Predict the Vote
• Endorsements: Recommendations from The Bee's editorial board
• New district maps: Assembly, Senate, Congress

We're having some fun with our Sacramento Bee Facebook timeline. Maybe you've had fun with it, too. Lots of people are sharing the links and leaving comments with their own memories. We hope you will, too.

You'll find a wonderful trove of milestones in Sacramento and world history at www.facebook.com/sacramentobee.

We've added key front pages of The Sacramento Bee since the first issue was published on Feb. 3, 1857 -- the stock market crash of 1929, the JFK assassination in 1963, Princess Diana's death in 1987 and lots more.

You'll also find photos from The Bee archives, including: hostages taken at the Good Guys store, 1991; the Kings' first game in Sacramento, 1985; deadly floods that killed 74 in Northern California, 1955; the opening of Tower Bridge, 1935.

Where were you on these key dates? What do you remember? What stories have you heard? We invite you to share your memories on our Facebook timeline.

I think you'll enjoy this walk back in time -- it's kind of addicting! Thanks go out to The Bee's Kevin Rolf and Pete Basofin for their work on this project. (Read the timeline post on Pete's Sac History Happenings blog.)

Want to see where crimes occur? Sacbee.com's new CrimeMapper allows you to do just that.

This newly revamped interactive map tracks data from four local law enforcement agencies -- the Sacramento Sheriff's, Sacramento Police, Elk Grove Police and Folsom Police departments. We plan to expand it, adding more agencies as we go.

You can customize your search by type of crime, date or agency. Then click on any icon to see the details of that crime, including the location down to the block.

Viewing Sacbee.com from your smartphone or iPad? As part of this update, we also made the CrimeMapper work on most touchscreen devices, including iPhones, iPads and Android devices.

This interactive database of crimes will be updated regularly, depending on the agency, so check back for new data. For now, the record of crimes goes back to January 2012, but the history will grow too.

Thanks for the rebuilt and improved database goes to Bee senior web developer Marc Matteo.

Check out the new CrimeMapper at www.sacbee.com/crimemapper and give us your feedback: Comment here or email Digital Media Director Seán McMahon at smcmahon@sacbee.com.

Related links:
Sacto 9-1-1 crime blog: Daily breaking news
Ask Sacto 9-1-1: Bee reporters answer questions about crime news, trends, other issues
Photo gallery: Most wanted fugitives
Arrest logs: See arrests for 18 cities