Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

“Bring Trader Joe’s to Grass Valley!” reads a Facebook page that popped up this month. “As much as I love our local suppliers, I just cannot afford to feed my family at those prices! Please come, please come, please come!” one of 227 fans writes. “We should have a Trader Joe’s and not a Walgreen’s,” [...]

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No word in the local press, but there will be no Democrats table alongside the Republican and Libertarian ones at Thursday’s county-wide candidate forum sponsored by the Tea Party Patriots, The Union and KNCO. Individual members may attend or not as they see fit. Some are objecting to what they see as more of a [...]

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I wrote last month that Republican Senate candidate Carly Fiornia’s “demon sheep” ad attacking opponent Tom Campbell had caused an uproar. Since then Fiorina has released a second video video slamming Barbara Boxer, the evil, full-of-hot-air blimp. It created a buzz at the California Republican Party’s convention in Santa Clara earlier this month. “The Fiorina [...]

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Food awareness is booming, now more than ever. More people want to know where their food is coming from, how it’s grown and how it’s transported. Farmers markets are popping up all over. In the foothills and Sierra, we have farmers markets in Auburn, Truckee, Tahoe City, Grass Valley and more recently, Nevada City. In [...]

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“I never took any journalism or photography,” Nevada City photographer Bob Lickter, who died this weekend, told me recently. “But I did take a creative reading class my first year of college where they taught us how to read a real paper.” Bob thanked me for running his photographs here: In their original form and [...]

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My wife noticed this ad placement on page 3 of the Sierra Sun in Truckee on the weekend. A four-color ad for the new Ritz-Carlton in Truckee, right next to a smaller one for medical marijuana evaluations. The world is changing. From a business perspective, as more newspapers accept medical marijuana ads, they probably will [...]

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More and more “mom and pop” merchants in the foothills are turning to Facebook for marketing — building social networks and clientele. In small, rural communities such as ours social networking is an ideal marketing tool, bypassing more traditional (and costly) avenues. “The most obvious benefits are increased customer loyalty and engagement. Less obvious but [...]

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Here’s a video introducing “Sacramento Connect,” the Sacramento Bee’s Web 2.0 venture that launches from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Monday. It’s a noble attempt to create a community-wide website and bloggers network of independent voices. From our neck of the woods, the launch partners include yubanet.com, the Nevada City Advocate, Jeff Pelline’s blog [...]

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Longtime Nevada City photographer Bob Lickter — who has contributed photos to this blog and other local publications —died in his sleep Saturday morning, his daughter Kate Lickter of Santa Cruz confirmed on Sunday. Kate, who answered the phone at Bob’s house, said his death was “totally unexpected” and a memorial is planned for next [...]

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Grass Valley and Nevada City figure prominently in the Spring issue of Sierra FoodWineArt magazine — the biggest issue yet — which is being released this week. This includes an exclusive food, wine and art guide to the Amgen bike race in May as it winds through the foothills. Highlights of this issue are here. [...]

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