Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

Our county is getting “high” visibility in the Cal Pot News, thanks to the publisher’s commentary in The Union and some high-profile busts.

CalPotNews.com aggregates news and opinion articles about marijuana with a focus on California. “Blogmaster Bud” chimes in from time to time. Ads include the Front Sight Firearms Training Institute.

“Jeff Ackerman, editor/publisher of The Union in Grass Valley, achieves must-read status with today’s excellent column on Prop. 19,” writes Blogmaster Bud, pointing to Jeff’s column.

Other examples:

•Nevada County bust yields 40K pot plants, tied to “Mexican nationals” is here

•Fed, sheriff raid Nevada County grow site with ties to Sacramento medical marijuana collective is here.

•Nevada County pot verdict set aside, then appealed is here.

Between the publicity our county receives in Cal Pot News and from our home-grown Tea Party co-founder Mark Meckler, we are becoming a magnet for some real “middle of the road” kind of views. Kudos to all!

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The Union’s ad director, Lynn Virgilio, has left the paper, sources in town told me. I checked the masthead on Tuesday, and sure enough, her name is gone.

Though an ad director, Lynn occupied what was once the Editor’s office when she came to the paper.

At The Union, the ad director reports to the Publisher/Editor.

Good luck to Lynn in her next venture!

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Florio’s Olive Oil Co. plans to reopen in Nevada City within 45 days after a fire closed its store in downtown Grass Valley, owner Neil Sarchett told me on Tuesday.

The store will open on 317 Spring Street in Nevada City — between Sushi in the Raw and Nevada City Winery. It’s a “hip” location.

“I couldn’t wait for construction to be completed before getting back in business,” Neil said.

Grass Valley’s loss is Nevada City’s gain. Neil is a wonderful young entrepreneur (we need more of them here), and I like his business model of olive oil bars, including a “green” strategy. If you return the bottle, you get a discount.

The concept is catching on. A “B.Y.O.B” wine shop is planned in Nevada City, too, similar to ones in the South of France, as I wrote previously. And an eco-friendly store called S.O.A.P also features a bring-your-own container strategy. I made a video here.

My son and I were in Neil’s store to buy a bottle of olive oil and join his olive oil club the same day the store burned. The fire occurred hours later. It was eerie.

The bottle is displayed prominently in our kitchen.

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The upside to passage of Prop. 19, at least to the print media, would be a slew of new pot ads.

The timing is right because the ongoing recession has slammed newspapers, TV and magazines.

The jury is out on whether the media accept the ads or not because pot is still illegal unless you have a medical marijuana ID.

KCRA-TV does not air medicinal marijuana ads, nor does the Sacramento Bee or Sacramento Magazine. Facebook bans pot leaves it its ads, including ones from the pro-Prop. 19 “Just Say Now” campaign.

Conde Nast also has declined to run ads supporting passage of Prop. 19 because it “does not want to financially benefit from this issue.”

KCRA also does not run ads for hard liquor, and it doesn’t run ads for cigarettes or escort service-type businesses.

“Attitudes about smoking marijuana have changed, but I am against its legalization,” wrote Mike O’Brien, publisher of Sacramento magazine. “As we considered what to do about accepting cannabis ads, we spoke to medicinal marijuana dispensers, lawyers, readers and advertisers, and decided not to accept the advertising.”

O’Brien told KCRA: “Dollars are always appealing, but you know, each medium has to determine their audience and ways to serve that audience — that’s our current decision.”

The Carson City-based Swift Newspapers — including The Union and Sierra Sun — have been running marijuana ads, however. I’ve never seen an explanation to readers, as O’Brien provided, the “right thing to do” journalistically.

Next week Sacramento’s FOX affiliate KTXL “Fox 40″ will air what is thought to be the first time an ad for marijuana has ever aired on mainstream television. To its credit, the TV station aired and wrote a story.

The upside can be significant for media outlets: About 15 percent of the Sacramento News & Review’s ads are for medical marijuana dispensaries, its chief executive told KCRA news.

Some outlets such as social news site Reddit are running pro-pot legalization ads for free.

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On his blog and in The Union, right-wing commentator George Rebane “pre-announced” this “pearl of wisdom” earlier in the month: “Supervisor John Spencer will soon ask the county Board of Supervisors to endorse Prop. 23. But business development outfits like the Economic Resource Council are keeping mum. Does this mean that we in Nevada County have pretty well pulled in our horns and mortgaged our future to ‘Chinese Cash from Washington’?

This bothered me on two counts: First, why wasn’t this announced by a supervisor instead of George Rebane? Second, the jury is still out on the “pros and cons” of Prop. 23. to our community, as I’ve written many times before. The hard right, led by Tom McClintock, Dan Logue, the Pruetts, George and Russ Steele, seems intent on a “my way or the highway” approach to this initiative.

Well, don’t expect the request to come before the county board of supervisors after all. (I became curious when the issue didn’t appear on the last agenda). Outgoing Supervisor Spencer had to be reminded that the board has a policy of not addressing matters such as statewide propositions that don’t directly affect the county.

In fact, they haven’t taken a stand on such an issue for about 10 years, according to my well-placed county sources.

Spencer may wind up writing an “other voices” for The Union instead. Fine, though let’s hope for a counter-point view. Logue, Rebane and others already have been given the forum to promote Prop. 23. Steve Frisch of the Sierra Business was the lone dissenter, at least so far. It’s not exactly been balanced.

As I stated previously: “The supervisors no doubt will be politic in rejecting the request to back Prop. 23, but I would argue a more forecefull denial is called for to send a message to the ‘hard right,’ who seem intent on leading the rest of us around by our noses. After all, most of us are in the middle.”

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Editor’s note: I received this email from Paul Emery, news director at KVMR:

“Hi Jeff

George (Rebane) and Steve (Frisch) will discuss Prop 23 and AB 32 live on KVMR Wednesday at 6:20, I’ll be the moderator and not take a position. This will be a discussion not a debate. Questions can be emailed to kvmrnews@hotmail.com. Questions should be for both guests and not specific to either guest.

Thanks Jeff for your help in making this happen.

Paul Emery”

Thanks Paul, and I encourage people to send their questions along to the email address that Paul has provided.

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Many regular readers are familiar with Guitar Jesus, who is not shy about stating his/her views — sometimes using profane language. But there’s no profanity this time: Here’s Guitar Jesus weighing in on John Stoos, a regular commenter here in a moderated remark.

“Stoos is more than he pretends to be. He is a Republican operative and a Christian reconstructionist. He is not just posting his opinion on blog topics but is an evangelical ‘troll,’ with an agenda and an ideology, right wing to say the least. He is part of a national campaign to infiltrate what is considered liberal opinion sites with the intent to move all conversation to the right. His high level of activity on this and other blogs would point to his being an active troll.

This blog is being used by Stoos to give his extremist views an audience he would not otherwise be able to reach. By giving him this opportunity, you contribute to the notion that his views are more widely held than is actually the case. This is not entirely your fault as this is a right-wing tactic nationwide.

John Stoos —Christian Reconstructionist and “one of the most astute Republican political strategists in California” — when speaking to Jerry Sloan, co-founder of the Tocsin Foundation.”

Here’s my response: Based on his myriad comments here, Stoos’ politics and social views and his connections to political “social conservatives” — in the Central Valley and Foothills and beyond — are no secret. And “middle of the road” people like myself would also consider many of them extreme. While I don’t agree with John on most issues, he presents them in a respectful way — unlike some of the comments that were posted by people such as Todd Juvinall before he was put into “moderation.” I don’t think anybody is being hoodwinked by Stoos or an “agenda.” To me, it’s no fun when a lot of like-minded people talk to one another. My only quibble would be with this being a “liberal” blog. Yes, liberal people comment here but so do moderates. John represents a more extreme view but it it civil. “Liberal” depends on your center of reference: Is it Russ Steele, Barry Pruett and George Rebane — or the more “real world” of California politics? To some hard right people in our county, Sue Horne was called “liberal” in her race against Dan Logue. Russ has called Meg Whitman “Arnold in a dress.” Who knows, maybe some commenters here can move John to the center, rather than the other way around! I’m not afraid of words, but I’m sort of afraid of nasty, uncivil words — some of which have been directed at me and my family. It can lead to physical actions. I hope that sharing this perspective helps explain the “mission” here (no pun intended).

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Editor’s note: Laura Tyson, a professor at the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, was chairwoman of the Council of Economic Advisers and the National Economic Council in the Clinton administration. She is a member of President Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board. In Sunday’s New York Times, Tyson argues why we need a second stimulus. It is an issue that I’ve been raising on this blog in recent weeks. Some background is here.

“Our national debate about fiscal policy has become skewed, with far too much focus on the deficit and far too little on unemployment. There is too much worry about the size of government, and too little appreciation for how stimulus spending has helped stabilize the economy and how more of the right kind of government spending could boost job creation and economic growth.

“By focusing on the wrong things, we are in serious danger of failing to do the right things to help the economy recover from its worst labor market crisis since the Great Depression.”

The rest of the article is here.

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Even if you’re not a horse racing fan, here’s an international story with local ties: California-based Zenyatta — 18-0 and whose trainer was a regular at Grass Valley’s Loma Rica Ranch in its heyday — now is poised to become one of the greatest race horses ever.

Zenyatta’s trainer is John Shirreffs, who worked the Loma Rica Ranch when it was a well-known stable for thoroughbreds. He fondly remembers his time at the Ranch with Henry Freitas, who was the manager. Once John slept in the barn to help nurse Noor, a famous racehorse at the time, back to health.

Zenyatta, owned by A&M record moguls Jerry and Ann Moss, was supposed to meet the East Coast’s Rachel Alexandra later this year in a widely anticipated race to determine the best race horse.

As 2009 Horse of the Year, Rachel Alexandra would have been Zenyatta’s most worthy foe. Even better, both horses are female in a sport dominated by male animals.

But the matchup will likely never materialize, as Rachel Alexandra was upset on Sunday by a longshot at Saratoga race track in New York.

As a result, Zenyatta reigns supreme and likely will face one more major test in the Breeder’s Cup Classic in November. Last year, Zenyatta won the race from dead last.

It’s good to be reminded that our local history includes more than gold mining. The Loma Rica Ranch is now planned to become a housing development, with an environmental impact report hearing next month, as I reported before. Some locals want to preserve the grave of Noor, who is buried on the training track. Let’s hope the city’s Planning Commission and City Council bone up on our local thoroughbred racing history and honor it.

A video of Rachel Alexendra being upset this weekend is here:

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The Union reported on Tuesday that Mark Meckler was set to appear on CBS’ Face the Nation on Sunday. “Meckler’s appearance marks the first time his group’s first exposure on a Sunday network news show,” The Union said.

When I called the network in D.C. the spokeswoman was skeptical, noting that the decision isn’t made until Thursday who will be on the show. Though the show said it had held discussions with Meckler and others, nothing was final, pending news events. And that’s what I reported.

Indeed, Teapartier Joe Miller trumped Meckler, who never appeared on the show. The transcript is here. I wrote about Miller earlier in the week.

Where did The Union get this information about Meckler appearing? Was it a Meckler family member or local Tea Partier (AKA, a “one source” story)? Was it more p.r. spin? Why didn’t they call Face The Nation in D.C. like I did to confirm whether he would appear? Why no follow up to say “we goofed”? No accountability (again).

BTW, where’s “NC Media Watch” on stories like this? That blog really ought to change its name!

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