Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Mark Fiore created an animated cartoon, “Learn to speak Tea Bag.” The background is here.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 12 Comments »

Divine Spark, a nonprofit that provides meals to people in need, won City Council approval to serve lunch at the Nevada City Veteran’s Hall five days a week instead of three.

The Council voted unanimously on Wednesday night to approve Divine Spark’s proposal, presented by founder and organizer Tomas Streicher.

The recession has led to increased demand for Divine Spark’s service, Streicher said.

The meals are served between noon and 1 p.m. at the Veterans Hall at North Pine and Cottage streets.

Nobody objected to the plan at the meeting.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

Nevada City won’t re-coat Broad Street for the Amgen Tour of California bike race, largely because Mother Nature won’t cooperate, city officials said Wednesday night.

The nation’s biggest bike race begins in Nevada City on May 16, with 16 teams including Lance Armstrong’s Team Radio Shack.

Though the city had considered re-coating Broad Street for the race with a sand slurry overlay, the weather has been too cold and time is running out, City Engineer Bill Falconi said at the council meeting.

Race organizers, meanwhile, are gearing up for the race with bike-themed merchandise.

I noticed T-shirts with the Nevada City race logo on sale at the city’s Chamber of Commerce this week.

Nevada City Winery and Indian Springs Winery have created bicycle wine labels for the race.

Filed under: Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

“On 4/13/2010, detectives from the Nevada County Major Crimes Unit (MCU) and the Narcotics Task Force (NTF) were conducting surveillance on a residence in the 200 block of Washington St. in Grass Valley, regarding a person of interest in connection with the Kenneth Painter homicide investigation. During the surveillance, the person of interest was seen leaving the area in a vehicle. A traffic stop was initiated and contact was made with this individual who was identified as Louis Riley James, age 35, of Grass Valley,” according to a press release from the county Sheriff’s Office.

“Also during the day, members from the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office Special Enforcement Detail and the Grass Valley Police Department Special Incident Team, along with detectives from the MCU & NTF, served a search warrant at the residence under surveillance.

“During the course of the investigation, multiple search warrants were served that resulted in evidence being recovered and statements being obtained that led to the arrest of Mr. James for the charge of homicide. Evidence included a large quantity of marijuana, a handgun, and other items implicated his involvement in the homicide. Based upon information developed, it appears Mr. Painter’s death was the result of a marijuana transaction gone bad. Mr. James is currently in custody at the Wayne Brown Correctional Facility being held without bail. Further information will be forthcoming as the investigation proceeds.”

Keith Royal, Sheriff-Coroner

On 4/9, the body of Kenneth Painter was located in a remote area off of Harmony Ridge Rd., near Cooper Rd. in Nevada City. Mr. Painter was the apparent victim of gun-shot injuries, according to the Sheriff’s Office.

The latest press release and a photo of the suspect are here.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Our Congressman Tom McClintock likes to rail against government spending, but he is among the biggest spenders around when it comes to Congressional mass mailings to promote himself back home, according to an Associated Press survey.

All told, the 54 House members, including McClintock, spent more than $11 million in taxpayer money communicating with their constituents, “using it for everything from live teleconferences to postage and printing for slick, colorful newsletters,” the AP said.

McClintock spent $380,691 in Congressional mailings last year, ranking him six in Congress, according to the AP survey. This includes postage, printing and reproduction for mass mailings as well as robo-calls and telephone calls with constituents.

Our household can attest to regular robo-calls at the dinner hour.

“Freshman members of Congress are using a perk to blanket districts with mass mailings and other messages to promote themselves back home, particularly those in this year’s tightest election contests,” the AP reported.

In our district, McClintock won election in a tight race against Democrat Charlie Brown, and actually lost to Brown in our county.

The mailers sent by the Congressmen “tended to feature photos that took up much of the space. Issues were frequently dispensed within a few sentences, often in slogan-like ways familiar to listeners of campaign ads,” the AP said.

The local media subscribes to the AP news wire, but I have not seen this reported by them.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 13 Comments »

A new art gallery and co-op is opening in downtown Grass Valley for artists to display and sell their work year-round.

It is part of a growing trend, joining local galleries such as As if Studios, which is now in its third year. The county has more working artists than almost anywhere else in the state.

The Art Works Gallery is scheduled to open in mid-May. It will be located on 113 Mill Street in a 2,000 square-foot retail space. Space will be available for 35 to 50 artists.

The co-op will display paintings, ceramics, jewelry, furniture, photography and more.

The gallery is being established by five local artists, including Dan Augstein, furniture and sculpture; Linda Kaneko, jewelry design; Gail Lipson, photography; Jerry Murphy, oil painting; and Rene Sprattling, ceramics.

More information is here.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 8 Comments »

San Francisco Chronicle columnist Mark Fiore’s winning entry included “Science-gate,” which adopts the voice-over tone of a mudslinging political ad to lampoon skeptics of global warming. The portfolio that won the Pulitzer is here.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 5 Comments »