Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

People are not sure whether the story of a local who allegedly found a nine-pound gold nugget here — reported on the front page of The Union — belongs in National Geographic or the National Enquirer.

It is based on a “submitted photo,” and The Union has agreed not to photograph the man’s face or disclose the location of his land “for security reasons.” He is just Jim Sanders of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Locals also noted the politics of mining was mentioned several times in the article:

•”The San Francisco Bay Area businessman said he was reluctant at first to inform The Union about his find, though the land is remote. But when he thought about the tough economy here and the possible economic impact of a new gold mine, he decided to share the news.”

•”With a host of local environmentalists currently fighting the reopening of the Idaho-Maryland and Blue Lead gold mines, Sanders is under no illusions.”

“Did the paper do any fact checking?” one reader in The Union’s comments section asked.

As we all know, this gold “find” comes against the backdrop of skepticism of reopening big gold mines by many residents — not just environmentalists.

Let’s hope the situation is not somehow embellished for political gain. In the meantime, the Sacramento TV stations are in hot pursuit of the story as well.

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Congressman Tom McClintock’s rigid ideology jeopardizes our ability to land grant funding, a necessity in a rural area such as ours, as I’ve written before.

Many others are catching on: “McClintock’s refusal to consider budget earmarks hurts his district, critics say,” the Bee wrote recently.

Here’s one of most egregious examples yet, I’ve learned: McClintock’s letter of “support” for Nevada County Connected, the county’s much-publicized broadband initiative, supports the project but goes on to bash the funding program as “one of the most ill-advised acts ever passed.”

Some locals worry the letter will hurt the application — already facing intense competition. This comes after business and civic leaders here, including the county Economic Resource Council, worked tirelessly to submit the application to bring more broadband to our rural area. This should be an economic issue, not a political one.

“My support for the project should in no way be interpreted as an endorsement of ARRA, which I believe was one of the most ill-advised acts ever passed by the Congress,” McClintock wrote. “Inasmuch as ARRA must remove one dollar out of the economy for every dollar it puts back into the economy, there is no stimulus effect from its spending. Unfortunately, Congress has decided differently.”

ARRA refers to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The California Public Utilities commission has already approved 10 percent matching funds for the project and an additional 20 percent is being raised by the county Economic Resource Council.

The broadband project did not land a round one AARA grant. Round two grant applications will be announced this summer.

The letters from McClintock and Sen. Barbara Boxer are letters.

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Right-wing pundit Glenn Beck’s audience is down nearly 30 percent since the start of the year, from about 2.9 million viewers in January to 2.1 million in April, according to mediaite.com.

The website reports: “This statistic has, not surprisingly, generated some gleeful headlines from the Media Matters folks (among others) who posted a long piece about the ratings and declared that ‘making it through one of his insufferable, redundant shows feels like sitting through detention. The wow factor is long gone.’”

It adds, however: “I don’t believe that’s quite what’s happening here. I suspect the drop is more likely a symptom of a larger issue: namely that the fringe element (which turns out isn’t so fringe) in this country is, shall we say, no longer struggling to be heard.”

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Votes for the board of the BriarPatch Co-op begin this weekend amid a turnaround at the organic grocery store in Grass Valley.

“Despite the turbulence and volatility of the larger economic environment, BriarPatch experienced a return to growth in sales and profit and saw an increase in owner-members,” said General Manager Chris Maher.

Despite some well-publicized rancor in the past, other highlights I gleaned from the newsletter were:

•As previously reported, The Patch returned a dividend of $80,000 to 4,019 owner-members who made purchases during the year.

•There have been recent enhancements to the employee benefits package. A voluntary 401k retirement investment plan and employee assistance plan also have been instituted.

•The BriarPatch Community fund has given $12,000 to 40 local groups in the past nine years.

The candidates for the board are Jeff Gold, architect; Louise Jones, group and personal fitness trainer; Peter Lockyear, retired; Kerry O’Regan, office manager, summer camp educator; and Peter Van Zant, field director, Sierra Watch.

Congratulations!

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In my business I grew up with competition: At my first journalism job with the daily paper in Fort Lauderdale, we were required by the business editor — Mr. D. Kaine Stankovich — to read the competition.

In fact, we drew straws to go down to the corner drugstore and grab the Miami Herald’s “bulldog” edition when it arrived at 8 p.m. every night. Sometimes we had to return to work to chase down a story. After doing this a few times, you worked hard not to get “scooped.”

Here, I don’t see much of that — never have. Despite the competition from blogs and other news-gathering groups, The Union and KNCO still operate like they have media monopolies in a sleepy little burgh.

There’s a real arrogance to it too: Like if it didn’t get announced there, it didn’t happen. Anybody who reads this blog, Yubanet and other “alternative” media can attest that it happens regularly — including now with prominent obituaries. There also are efforts to discredit you (AKA insecurity) if you dare to bring it up. (Memo to self: more kevlar undies, please).

Here’s the latest example, involving a high-profile legal case that has spilled into the local political elections:

When I was over in Auburn on Thursday, Yubanet posted a story that parts of the AtPac lawsuit against Aptitude and the county were dismissed.

“Indeed, the complaint fails to allege any facts that would indicate what constitutes an unauthorized access of the software by County of Nevada; the complaint merely states there were limits on how County of Nevada could use it by making copies of it or disclosing it to third parties,” the suit read.

This is the same lawsuit that has stirred up dust in the clerk-recorder’s race, because candidate Barry Pruett had represented AtPac in the bidding process.

When the suit was filed in February, The Union reported it on the front page — but with a glaring omission, Pruett’s previous association with AtPac, as I noted here. It caught up later.

Yubanet posted the story about parts of this same lawsuit being dismissed at 2:53 p.m. on Thursday, so there was plenty of time to chase it down from Friday’s print edition. All it required was a visit to the web — not a trip to the drugstore as in my “cub reporter” days.

But I can’t find it anywhere in The Union, much less in the same prominent place it first appeared on the front page. Same goes with KNCO. (I did see a story about Tom McClintock winning a chamber of commerce award, however).

One of the readers on this blog has posted a comment with further information — “Placer County is eliminating the AtPac system as well,” he writes, a decision that throws cold water on Pruett’s “shop local” argument.

He also provides links to the documents, thanks to the web.

So there you have it: a “case study” in a prominent local legal dispute that shows why we need media competition, even in our small media market.

This is a management problem, by the way, that rests squarely with the paper’s Editor — not its staff. You have to set a tone as a newsroom leader (that is, if the Editor discredits the competition, the staff will too).

Let’s face it: The internet is causing a needed media revolution around here. Rather than ask what would you do without the major media, the question should be, what would you do without the rest? Change, it is a comin’.

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On his blog, Russ Steele — the “de facto” spokesman for the “far right” — is trying to discredit Pat Wynne’s description of local politics, because she is (OMG!) a Democrat.

“The Nevada County Tea Party Patriots is simply the Far Right Wing of the Republican Party in Nevada County, which in past years was the ‘old boy’ Republican elite which ran the party, and the county,” according to Pat. “They no longer have that control, as demographics have changed, with more moderate Republicans, Democrats and swing Decline to State voters moving into Nevada County.”

Some facts:

•Many long-timers on the “far right” are avid Tea Party supporters, including Russ.

•Both Pat (a Democrat) and county Supervisor Nate Beason (a moderate Republican) are supporting the same candidate for the clerk-recorder’s post — incumbent Greg Diaz — because he’s the most qualified. Many of us moderates would argue that the “far right,” not the “far left” is currently tearing the community apart.

•Obama and Charlie Brown (not Tom McClintock) carried the county in the last general election. Both are Democrats. To my way of thinking, McClintock has done his best to alienate (not embrace) the people who voted against him here, so what’s to think anything has changed?

•While it has a plurality, the GOP is losing its grip here. Democrats and “decline to state” are gaining in registration while Republicans are losing since 2000.

I would argue that candidates such as Barry Pruett are running away from people like Russ to “reach out” to the middle ASAP. But it’s going to be hard to do that, given the evidence of his past affiliations. In short, the political playbook that worked before isn’t working anymore.

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The race for a county-clerk recorder’s seat — of all positions — is becoming as ugly and contentious as some supervisor seats in the past. The following analysis, tracing our county’s political history back to the “gang of four” liberal supervisors, is interesting to think about (see italics below).

I’d only add that this time around, moderate Republicans such as Supervisor Nate Beason are endorsing incumbent Greg Diaz (his comments are at the bottom, too) — splitting up the local GOP between moderates and “far right’s” (Congressman Tom McClintock, Dan Logue et al.).

All told, I think we’re going to be more “in the middle” when all is said and done, with conservatives and progressives getting along better than in the past, with more political independence from the Placer/Yuba “GOP machine,” and the extremists on both sides back on the sidelines — where they belong. Think of it as Goldilocks, where the porridge is “just right.” This could even force the weak-kneed local media to bury their conservative bias and reach out to the community at large with a more “centrist” approach. I doubt you’ll be hearing from many “no-growthers” in coming years, either, thanks to the recession. At least that’s what I’m hoping for on both sides. “OK, Skippy,” you say. Well, let’s wait and see.

“Those long in Nevada County and familiar with politics here will recognize what is going on in the attempt by the Far Right Wing of the Republican Party here (the “Old Boy” system newcomers soon recognized as the political power structure in the county) which, as in other parts of the U S, morphed into the Tea Party movement, in their attempt to oust the independent Clerk-recorder and regain control of the Elections Office. The loss of Nevada County, which went big for Obama and Charlie Brown in the ’08 elections, was a serious blow to conservatives, who had held an iron-clad grip on the northern California counties represented now in Congress by Tom McClintock, in an otherwise liberal state. With the 2/3 rule in force in the state legislature since Prop 13, they were the tail that wagged the dog.

“Pruett’s connection to the local Tea Party Group, and to McClintock and Republican politics cannot be denied. There is too much evidence confirming it. The tactics employed in his campaign thus far, out of county money, support from northern California Republican officeholders, the lawsuit, which may not be resolved for years, timed to coincide with the election campaign, the bias shown by the major local newspaper and radio station, are all familiar to those who remember the campaigns which brought down the liberal-environmental majority of the Nevada County Board of Supervisors. Will all this work again? Perhaps Pruett’s attempt to distance himself from the Tea Party shows they aren’t doing that.

—Pat Wynne

“Greg has done an exemplary job in bringing stability, order and transparency to an office left in confusion and disarray after the abandonment of it by his predecessor. His sense of fairness and ethical conduct has been amply demonstrated by his meticulous, objective adherence to election laws and procedures and by his commitment to ensuring that voters in Nevada County enjoy unfettered access to the exercise of their rights.”

—Nathan H. Beason

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The Union’s comment section is raging with comments (all anonymous, no less) about the mudslinging clerk-recorder race, reported here.

One commenter refers to a recent letter to the editor from Tony Gilchrease, whom many people consider a “far right” local GOP’er, identifying Barry Pruett and Sue Horne (running for nonpartisan clerk-recorder and assessor seats, respectively) as “two fine Tea Party patriots.” Gilchrease is running for a local GOP Central Committee Post. The letter is here.

“Sue Horne and Barry Pruett are the people we need to help clean–up Nevada County.

Everyone knows how the very successful Sue Horne led the battle against and defeated the NH2020 liberals several years ago. Pruett will defeat Diaz, the liberal now running our voter registration office as the clerk-recorder-registrar. These two young conservatives can straighten out the lawsuit mess now facing our county because of the incompetency of our current clerk-recorder-registrar. The clerk-recorder-registrar’s office has been in chaos for the last several years. We need Sue Horne and Barry Pruett, two fine Tea Party patriots!
Tony Gilchrease, Grass Valley”

I remember that The Union publisher wrote a column about Gilchrease titled “Extreme politics will be our ruin” back in 2007, critical of Gilchrease:

“Now let’s take a look at just one example of the Nevada County Republican Central Committee when it was under the direction of Tony Gilchrease,” it read. “One morning I got an e-mail (probably by mistake) that Gilchrease sent out warning fellow Republicans that a bunch of al-Qaida operatives were preparing to meet at the county schools’ board room. He urged everyone to contact then-schools superintendent Terry McAteer to stop them from meeting. You would have thought the end was finally at hand. Turns out it was a group of Quakers wanting to meet to discuss world peace. This is the kind of Republican Logue has taken under his “right wing”?

That was then, and this is now.

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The environmental consulting firm analyzing the Idaho-Maryland Mine project here — ESA — is the same outfit that this week was on the losing end of a court judgment in a controversy for an upgrade of Chevron’s major refinery in the Bay Area.

A California appeals court rejected Chevron’s effort to overturn an earlier ruling that had blocked the oil giant from expanding its Richmond refinery without further environmental review.

The San Francisco-based First District Court of Appeal said Monday that the judge properly interpreted state environmental regulations when she ruled last summer that Chevron’s report on the expansion’s potential health and safety effects was incomplete.

The judge said the environmental report was inadequate, “failing as an informational document.”

On its own Web site, ESA discusses its involvement in both the Chevron and Idaho-Maryland Mine project.

Emgold, which manages the project, has faced some financial challenges and has been cutting costs, but it remains committed to reopening the historic mine.

The background on the Chevron court battle involving its environmental review is here.

The draft environmental report for the Idaho-Maryland Mine was criticized, and now the process is starting over again.

To be sure, ESA has done good work: It was founded in 1969, just before enactment of national and state landmark environmental laws, including CEQA.

The Bay Area firm has been ranked as a top environmental firm to work for and has been honored for exemplary environmental leadership by groups including the Climate Registry.

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Media manipulation is nothing new during political campaigns, and neither is negative campaigning. In this case, you have to wonder if The Union is being used in the effort for Barry Pruett to unseat Greg Diaz in — of all offices — the clerk-recorder race.

It’s a good venue from a campaign manager’s standpoint, having been pro-Tea Party for many months.

Pruett’s latest barb, “leaked” to The Union in emails by local Tea Party supporter Mark Mecker: Pruett is really not a Tea Party Patriot leader after all, and Diaz is “simply lying” to suggest otherwise. OK, Skippy, whatever you say.

To me the negative campaigning suggests Diaz is doing well in the race. We’re in a period of political realignment, with the GOP losing its grip, and the change is hard for many people to swallow. (I’ve been targeted just for writing about it. The cyber-attacks to discredit me — some of which disclose where my wife works and where my son goes to school — are on the rise in recent days, too. Time to bring out another pair of kevlar undies.)

The argument from Pruett and Meckler seems to hinge on interpretation of the word leader — despite Pruett’s known involvement in the tea party, including an article he wrote for CABPRO inviting people to join the group.

Next we’re going to hear that Congressman Tom McClintock (whose local staffer happens to be Pruett’s spouse) didn’t really announce it was time to get rid of that “left-wing” clerk recorder politically at a recent Tea Party rally. (The Union, by the way, still hasn’t reported this — something that should have been front-page news).

Meckler’s leaked email to The Union began:

“As you know, as the co-founder and national coordinator for the Tea Party Patriots, I have stayed out of local elections here in Nevada County. But today, I received a copy of a letter being circulated by Diaz which contains several falsehoods and attacks against the tea parties which I feel I must address.”

It added: “I’d be happy to debate him on the issue, on KNCO, or in any other live, public forum. I’m not running for office, and I’m not endorsing any candidates.”

At the same time, the newspaper “happened” to receive a campaign fundraising letter from Diaz that read:

“Recent newsreports show that political interests and organizations from outside of Nevada County are making every effort to influence the election for Nevada County clerk-recorder.

“These interests are working to elect a leader of the politically charged and highly partisan Tea Party movement and are expected to shovel in unprecedented contributions — some estimate more than $50,000 — to elect somebody absolutely unqualified to manage the Office of county clerk-recorder.”

You can decide:

•Pruett wrote an article from the CABPRO newsletter last year explaining the Tea Party. He urged people to “join the movement sweeping the nation.” It is here.

•GOP supporters from outside the county, including Assemblyman Dan Logue and Sierra College Trustee Aaron Klein have endorsed Pruett in the clerk-recorder race. They can’t vote in the race, however.

•McClintock himself has made highly partisan comments about the race. In fact, his inflammatory remarks at the Tea Party rally so upset some moderate Republicans that they wrote letters to the Congressmen to object to his professionalism. (Why hasn’t The Union reported this?)

•The next round of campaign finance reports aren’t due until many people have voted, so it’s hard to know when or where Pruett’s contributions are currently coming from. Pruett has been running online ads in The Union.

Meanwhile, the owner of AtPac Inc. of Auburn donated $1,500 to Pruett’s campaign, and $1,000 came from Auburn financial advisor Robert Ash, according to the most current report.

From a campaign manager’s perspective, The Union is a friendly venue for “leaking” this kind of story:

•The Union’s own readers have roundly criticized the paper for being pro-Tea Party: “Genuine article or Tea Party press release.” One of the articles — a softball Q&A — was written by the editor/publisher of The Union.

• The Pruetts are copacetic with The Union’s current management. Barry Pruett has been Facebook friends with the editor/publisher for a long time now, and his spouse — McClintock staffer Kim Pruett — writes: “I enjoy reading the editorials, Jeff always has a way of putting humor into them, it is a nice change.”

•The Union recently co-sponsored a candidate’s forum with the Tea Party Patriots, raising issues of journalistic judgment. Was the paper chagrin? Hardly.

“Some were concerned that the Tea Party folks might get violent, scream, shout, hold up signs and maybe throw themselves in front of shopping carts,” the editor/publisher wrote. They are, after all, mostly conservatives and conservatives just aren’t supposed to act like … well … liberals.”

You can expect more mudslinging in this supposedly nonpartisan race, because the ballots don’t go out until May 10. It’s turning out exactly how I thought it would from the get-go.

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