Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

John Wooden, college basketball’s most successful coach, died Friday in Los Angeles of natural causes. He was 99. An obituary is here.

Wooden’s teams at U.C.L.A. won 10 national championships in the ’60s and ’70s.

Last year, I wrote a tribute to Wooden when he turned 99. It is here.

As a youth, I went to the first annual John Wooden basketball camp at the Cal Lutheran campus in Thousand Oaks. I still have an autographed photo — and the playbook (which came with Wooden’s legendary “pyramid of success” illustration). We also attended games at Pauley Pavillion in Westwood. (Both of my parents went to U.C.L.A.)

Here’s the video of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (whom Wooden called “Lewis” for Lew Alcindor at our camp) honoring Wooden at 99. It sums up the coach well — the guy was a treasure:

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The county Economic Resource Council issued this press release:

The Nevada County Economic Resource Council (ERC) has been notified that the Nevada County Connected (NCC) wireless broadband Internet network project has been brought into the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) Round 2 due diligence process. Per the email received, “Only those applications considered to be highly qualified advance from merit review to due diligence.”

The Round 2 application for NCC was submitted by the ERC on March 26 requesting $7.69 million in federal stimulus funding for the $11.1 million project within the Comprehensive Community Infrastructure (CCI) category under the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP). This stimulus funding is provided through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA).

Nevada County Connected was recently included in Governor Schwarzenegger’s top 10 recommended CCI projects in Round 2, and has already received a California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) grant of $1.1 million — a 10 percent match predicated on the receipt of ARRA funding.

“We are quite proud that Nevada County Connected has entered due diligence, as we presented it as a model rural broadband project,” said ERC President & CEO Gil Mathew. “The next few weeks will be intense. Chip Carman and John Paul, of Spiral Internet, and myself will need to respond to questions by a four-member team from the NTIA.”

Chip Carman pointed out that “The carrier-grade technology proposed for Nevada County Connected allows us to deploy wireless services that are frequency- and technology-independent. So local Internet Service Providers, cellular phone providers, and public safety can all use the infrastructure easily. We’re ready for the future, since the network is also scalable.”

A complete list of Round 1 grant recipients and Round 2 grant application submittals can be found at http://www.broadbandusa.gov

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I thought readers would enjoy more “astute” commentary from Chris Jones, Sue Horne’s paid political consultant from outside the county over on mucho conservative Russ Steele’s blog. I thought Chris was easing up, but he just can’t resist himself — and I’m not even in the race. It’s supposed to be Sue against Rolf Kleinhans for the nonpartisan job of county assessor.

This is what Sue is getting for $4,500 — an education for all of us in today’s world of bare-knuckle politics, for an assessor, no less. The background on Chris (and his reputation for negative campaigning) is here and here.

My goodness, I’ve had people like Bill Gates get mad at me over the years: A guy like Chris Jones is a flea bite on the you know what. Good luck with your campaign, Chris.

Here you go:

Russ,

Thank you for the thoughtful, fact-based posts on your blog. They are a refreshing contrast to the idiotic and emotional garbage that is routinely spewed out by Mr. Pelline and comrades (Enos, Baja, etc.) on the Pelline echo chamber — err, I mean blog.

Sue Horne is a 3-time election winner in Nevada County. She will win again on June 8.

Keep up the great work Russ!

**********

Chris,

And just when I thought you were going to be civilized. I knew it couldn’t last. You sound very desperate.

People who comment on my blog also include moderate Republicans, such as Nevada County Supervisor Nate Beason and Auburn Council Member Mike Holmes in Placer County.

Are you going to vote for Sue for assessor? Oh, I forgot, you can’t. You don’t even live here.

You are building an outstanding reputation in our county as a mudslinging, paid political consultant.

If Sue loses, she’ll have you to blame. If she wins, it was based on her name recognition – and in spite of “supporters” like you.

I’d be sweating it out if your goal is to land any more business up here.
-Jeff

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Throughout the election season, we’ve revisited the mudslinging (and some violence) that sprung from NH2020. Readers have shared enlightening details.

But the 2008 race that pitted Sue Horne against Dan Logue for an assembly seat was no picnic, either. Here are some excerpts from a Logue mailer that show the deep split between Republicans on Horne (who lost to Logue in the race):

•”Sue Horne was censured by the Butte County Republican Party for her ‘underhanded and dishonest’ campaign. The Yuba County Republican Central Committee censured Sue Horne for distributing a ‘blatantly false, misleading and untrue’ mailer about Dan Logue.” — Yuba GOP

•”Supervisor Sue Horne broke down, cried and changed her position on a key vote after liberals pressured her in public. Don’t count on her to fight for conservative principles at the state capital.” — Robin Sutherland, former Nevada County Supervisor.

•”Sue Horne has abandoned the Republican Party and its values. She became a Republican who was easily willing to compromise Republican values for the sake of expediency.” — Greg Marks, Dick Marshall, Tony Gilchrease, former Nevada County Republican Central Committee Chairman.

•Senator Sam Aanestad said he was “disappointed in Sue Horne for making dishonest claims about Dan Logue’s record on eminent domain and personal attacks on a fine conservative.” — letter from Aanestad

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The county will hold a public hearing on Wednesday for a proposed county budget for fiscal year 2010-11 totaling about $182.7 million, reflecting the ongoing economic downturn.

The meeting is planned for 9 a.m. at the Rood Center. The document is here.

The county budget is down from the proposed 2009/10 budget totaling $185.3 million, as I wrote a year ago. (Last year’s budget also was posted here first).

Cuts also are planned in the transit services budget for 2010-11 totaling $3.6 million. The budget includes Gold Country Stage bus service and Gold Country Telecare.

The county’s budget continues to be impacted by the national recession and state budget crisis. The county said property tax receipts continue to soften — an ominous sign.

Rood Center officials have continued to make personnel reductions, as well as cutting transit routes and some other service cuts.

No increases are proposed in the major fees for building, environmental health, agriculture and planning department, according to a memo from the Community Development Agency.

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