Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

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 rally and fundraiser for Tea Party supported candidates such as Barry Pruett for clerk-recorder and Sue Horne for assessor. Others will go.

“It was a tough decision,” Margaret Joehnck, the county’s Democratic Committee’s Executive Board Chair, told me on Tuesday. “The committee didn’t want to make it look like we were in support of the Tea Party’s agenda.

“I know the Tea Party is working to be a sincere watchdog group, but that isn’t how they come across.”

Joehnck said the Democratic Party should have been involved in the beginning to help organize the event, along with Republicans and Libertarians — a true bi-partisan effort. She also said KVMR and yubanet.com should have been invited to participate, not just The Union and KNCO. NCTV wasn’t invited either.

She expressed hope that one day that might happen here. Nevada County voted for Barack Obama for President and Charlie Brown for Congress in the last general election — both Democrats.

Joehnck said she was informed by organizers there will be an empty table at the event anyway, with the Democrats sign on it. She was not very pleased about that.

“There will be some tables out in the lobby for any literature you might want to bring,” according to an email from Elaine Meckler of the Tea Party. “There will be voter registration tables in the lobby that will be set up by the Republicans, Democrats and Libertarians.”

A journalism perspective on The Union and KNCO co-sponsoring the event with the Tea Party is here.

The Nevada County Candidates Forum will be held at 6 p.m. on Thursday, April 1, at the Grass Valley Veterans Memorial Hall at 255 S. Auburn St.

Each candidate gets up to two minutes for an opening statement. Each candidate will be asked three questions and their answers are limited to 90 seconds. There will be two minutes between races to get candidates on and off the stage.

Assessor, 6:05 p.m. — Sue Horne, Rolf Kleinhans

Auditor-Controller, 6:22 — Marcia Salter

Clerk-Recorder, 6:31 — Gregory Diaz, Barry Pruett

District Attorney, 6:48 — Clifford Newell

N.C. Council, 6:58 — Sally Harris, Duane Strauser

N.C. Sheriff, 7:22 — Keith Royal

Super of Schools, 7:32 — Holly Hermansen

Superior Court Judge, 7:41 — Candace Heidelberger

Supervisor, Dist 4, 7:50 — Hank Weston

Supervisor, Dist 3, 8:00 — John Spencer, Terry Lamphier

Treasurer-Tax Collector, 8:17 — Darlene Woo, Tina Vernon, Rick Nolle, Dai Meagher

Filed under: Uncategorized | 5 Comments »

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 camp ushered in this strange new era with two viral campaign spots that are seen by some political observers as pure genius — and by others as completely bonkers,” writes PoliticsDaily.com

So far the demon sheep ad has been viewed more than 742,000 times on You Tube.

The ad directed at Boxer is here:

Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

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 Auburn, the market is open year-round, not just in summer.

Expanding on the trend, two foothill food devotees have written a cookbook that shows you how to eat nutritious, locally grown food year-round. Called Placer County Real Food from Farmers Markets, its mantra is simple: “Healthy soil. Healthy food. Healthy people.”

“This cookbook shows that if you go out to farmers markets, you can enjoy real food every week of the year,” says Joanne Neft, founder of the Foothill Market and co-author with local Chef Laura Kenny.

One of the barriers to eating seasonally is that we can have everything all the time, which is how America eats from the supermarket, Joanne explains. Eating locally, which means seasonally as well, is about feasting on foods as they come and go.

“This book is a witness to the seasons progressing bit by bit, week by week,” Joanne says. “When there are surpluses, there is freezing, drying and canning foods.”

A similar cookbook could be written for every region in the country, highlighting what we can eat during the year in a particular food-shed, according to Joanne and Laura.

Placer County Real Food’s recipes are based on both women’s experience from shopping at the Foothill Farmers Market and cooking meals from what they found fresh for a full year. More than 300 guests dined with them at family-style dinners, providing feedback.

Local farmers can benefit from year-round farm to table cooking too.

They make the majority of their incomes between May and October. If the farmers could sell more during winter, they could afford to grow morefresh, local food year-round.

Placer County Real Food (from In Season Publishing in Loomis) will be sold at produce and book stores throughout the region. The book debuts in April at Blue Goose Produce, located in the historic Blue Goose fruit packing shed in the quaint foothill town of Loomis.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

“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 unfiltered. “You can use these if you want a little journalistic artistic flair,” he told me. For his generation, Bob was as “Web-centric” as you could get — always looking for the ideal photo gallery. It was a pleasure to work with him.

In his emails, Bob openly expressed concern about the direction of journalism — mostly around here but also elsewhere.

•He cited the journalist who is a “shrewd and manipulating business man” rather than “a newsman.” Bob said he wasn’t comfortable with editors who sat on chamber boards.

•The “grip-and-grin” journalism photographs that are becoming all too prevalent. He didn’t think it was fair to the audience.

•The election forum this week sponsored by the Tea Party Patriots and our two local media. He felt this also was a conflict.

I will hang onto Bob’s emails, because they are a reminder that residents here do care about quality, credibility and honor when it comes to the craft of journalism. You don’t have to go to journalism school to get that.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »