Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

Here’s a state-wide scoop to ring in the New Year: John Laird, the former state Assemblyman from Santa Cruz and author of landmark conservation legislation, will be named the new state Natural Resources Secretary in Jerry Brown’s administration, according to my sources.

The Natural Resources Agency is charged with protecting the state’s natural, historical and cultural resources. An official announcement of the state’s head environmental official is expected as early as Monday when Brown takes office. Brown’s office has been tight-lipped about its appointments.

Laird’s appointment is a boon for the Sierra and its foothills, because the 60-year-old has longstanding ties to the region. Among them: He is on the board of the Sierra Fund in Nevada City. (Laird will need to resign from the Sierra Fund to become Secretary). Laird also is a Sierra homeowner, making him a regional “stakeholder.”

During his legislative tenure, Laird authored 82 bills signed into law, including ones to establish the landmark Sierra Nevada Conservancy and significantly expand water conservation. He also became a leading voice for sustainable building.

The Sierra Nevada Conservancy region, made up of all or part of 22 counties and more than 25 million acres, is one of the world’s most significant natural and biologically diverse regions.

(An insider’s footnote: Artwork from Photographer Elizabeth Carmel of Truckee, featured at the top of this blog, is displayed in the Conservancy’s office in Auburn; Nevada City once vied for that office).

Laird was elected to the 27th Assembly District in 2002 and was re-elected in 2004 and 2006, with more than 70 percent of the vote.

Democrat Laird ran for state Senator for District 15 this past year but lost to Republican Assemblyman Sam Blakeslee to fill the Central Coast seat vacated by Abel Maldonado.

The defeat last August (44 percent to 48 percent) kept the seat in GOP hands — a victory for the party in a Democratic state.

Laird also served on the Santa Cruz City Council and on the Cabrillo College Board of Trustees. Laird was raised in Vallejo and educated in Vallejo public schools. He graduated from UC Santa Cruz’s Adlai Stevenson College.

Laird has been active with the lesbian and gay community. In the Assembly, he served as chair of the California Legislative LGBT Caucus.

Laird lives in Santa Cruz. He is a life-long Chicago Cubs fan.

Laird replaces Lester Snow, who was appointed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Feb. 1.

“Fishing groups, Indian Tribes and environmentalists have criticized Snow, as Schwarzenegger’s head environmental official, for his support of the peripheral canal and new dams, the controversial Marine Life Protection Act (MLPA) Initiative and the annual dewatering of the Scott and Shasta rivers, key Klamath River tributaries, by irrigators,” as the Bay Area Independent Media Center reported.

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We’re gearing up for one of the biggest football weekends of the year: College Bowl games on Saturday and NFL playoff-clinching games on Sunday.

Here’s an inside look at how Wilson makes NFL footballs in Ada, Ohio, and has for the past 40 years. With a veteran staff, this is the only factory in the world that makes footballs every day. Every touchdown in the NFL is scored with a Wilson football:

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As a long-time sailor, I was glad to hear that San Francisco was selected to host America’s Cup in 2013, beating out Newport, R.I., and Italy.

“We sought a venue that fulfills our promise – to showcase the best sailors in the world competing on the fastest boats,” Richard Worth, a race official, told the S.F. Chronicle. “And hosting the America’s Cup in San Francisco will realize that promise.”

In California, San Diego hosted three America’s Cup regattas, in 1988, 1992 and 1995.

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This might be a tough pill for our local hard right blogger George Rebane to swallow:

“Estonia is just hours away from becoming the 17th member of the eurozone – the first ex-Soviet state to adopt the EU’s single currency,” according to BBC.

“The changeover from the kroon to the euro starts at midnight (2200 GMT) in the small Baltic nation of 1.3m people.

“Despite market pressure on the eurozone and the bail-outs of Greece and the Irish Republic this year, polls suggest that most Estonians want the euro.”

The rest of the article is here.

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Here are some scoops and “scoops of perception” — AKA prescient commentary — from this blog in 2010. This includes reader commentary. They’re listed in no particular order.

The local media followed up on these reports, or in some cases — such as Tom McClintock’s comment about the “left wing” clerk recorder or his “support” letter for the broadband grant, or Mark Meckler’s personal plea for $$$ — should have. The busiest day on this blog was Nov. 3, when I provided a package of election reporting.

Happy New Year!

•“How did your neighborhood vote in Tuesday’s elections”

•“Tea Party Patriot Mark Meckler’s personal plea for $$$”

•Here’s AMGEN video for Nevada City, GV, Auburn bike race!

•McClintock: It’s time to get rid of that left-wing clerk recorder?

•CABPRO drops mention of “nonprofit” from membership letter

•Grass Valley Chamber to return Tea Party petition

•How Tea Party will likely cost GOP control of the Senate

•Is it time to deport Arizona from the United States?

•Horne’s out-of-town, $$$ consultant in mudslinging assessor’s race

•CABPRO recommends Dai Meagher for Treasure

•Idaho Maryland mine seeks smaller digs; building for sale for $2.9 million

•Same environmental firm on Idaho-Maryland mine project loses court ruling

•“Gold Miners Inn strikes deal for big solar system”

•”Wolf Creek co-village housing imminent”

•The Union’s editor/publisher sues local family in tragic incident

•Green party candidate from Nevada City to run against McClintock

•Cal Organics move to downtown N.C. derailed

•JMA Ventures buys West Shore Cafe and Inn in multimillion-dollar deal

•Why S.F. buyer is an ideal fit for Grass Valley Group

•More hurdles for Citizens Bank, documents reveal

•State admits to grave error in Nevada City courthouse report

•Lamphier has walked to 3,000 homes in District 3 Supervisor campaign

•Horne files formal paperwork to run for assessor

•Owens may pull out of local assessor’s race

•McClintock letter supporting county broadband bid raises concerns

•KVMR considering new home at Nevada City tech center

•Poet Gary Snyder documentary coming in May

•Time for “new thinking” in Grass Valley

•Our “old boy” politics ignored in The Union

•Gaming parlor proposes move to Holiday Inn Express

•Has ugliness of NH2020 campaigning gone away?

•How social media reshapes elections reporting

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“From the Gulf Oil Spill to the West Virginia Mining Disaster, 2010 saw its fair share of newsworthy events putting environmental issues in the spotlight. Although we witnessed many tragedies, there were also many signs of hope, from historic steps taken by the EPA to tackle big polluters to landmark initiatives by states doing their part to combat climate change,” according to Huffington Post.

The list is here.

I also would add the passage of Prop. 23 in California.

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I grew up in Pasadena, and we used to watch the Rose Parade floats being built — an intricate process. So it was heartening to hear Todd Johnson of Foothill Flowers in Grass Valley has been volunteering to help build floats there for years, as I’ve written before.

“I’m on the tree crew — Beverly Hills, Duarte and Kaiser. Got to go to work now,” said Todd on Facebook after making the pilgrimage to Pasadena. Todd works for Fiesta Parada Floats, which is building 11 floats this year. We visit about his experiences as as a float builder regularly.

A video — “2011 Rose Parade minutes” — is here:

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This blog continues to break traffic records every month — and December is no exception. (In fact, it already has). That’s up from zero less than two years ago. More important, there are more than 16,200 signed comments. Together, we’ve built a community of intelligent discourse, probing a wide range of issues, including tackling some “sacred cows.” Thanks for your invaluable contributions.

Simply put, there’s demand for independent voices, in our community and elsewhere, and the internet provides it. Small communities such as ours long have suffered from a bottleneck of communications — the “media monopoly” as educator and journalist Ben Bagdikian put it.

The Sacramento Bee’s blogging network (of which this blog and SierraCulture.com were original members) also is celebrating continued growth in only a year. As I’ve said all along, it’s the wave of the future.

I enjoy working with the Bee. A reported called the other day for some background on the West Shore Cafe and Inn in Tahoe re-opening under the ownership of JMA Ventures (Alpine Meadows and Homewood), and he kindly credited Sierra FoodWineArt magazine — a “win win.” It’s a very collaborative relationship.

A memo I received on Thursday, illustrating the growth of the Bee’s blogging network, is here:

“In December 2009, Sacramento Connect did not exist. At that time, it was still in development, still being discussed, designed, and vetted. The idea of a newspaper creating a blog and community news network was (and still is), a rather unique undertaking.

“After launching on March 29 with a couple dozen local bloggers and community news websites, the network has grown to triple digits, with 102 Sacramento Connect partners (and another 17 in process), representing a wonderful range of interests and expertise from our region—from news, food, and gardening to parenting, politics, health, opinion, sports, pets, photography, and much more.

“Up from zero a year ago, 1,200 people “Like” Sacramento Connect on Facebook, and 600 follow us on Twitter. Since launching in the spring we have sent out 1,669 Tweets linking to your articles and blog posts. Traffic within the entire network has also steadily increased, with close to a million monthly page views.”

I would also like to reiterate a kudos to NCVoices, the local aggregation site created by resident Anna Haynes, as well as the informative Facebook pages created by many residents. For a small community, our social media is booming.

Here’s to more success in 2011!

This video sums up the trend well:

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