Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

The L.A. Times is reporting that contraband cellphone are growing in prisons — at 8,675 so far this year, up from 1,400 in 2007.

Charles Manson had one: an LG flip phone was found under his prison mattress.

“Although officials say inmates use smuggled cellphones for all manner of criminal activity, including running drug rings from behind bars, intimidating witnesses and planning escapes, it is not a crime to possess one in a California prison,” the Times reports.

In August, President Obama signed a bill banning cellphones from federal prisons and making it a crime to smuggle one in. That law does not apply to state institutions.

The article is here.

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The incoming House speaker already is proving his eloquence and statesmanship.

“Chicken crap” is the term John Boehner used to describe the middle-class tax bill brought to the floor of the House by Democrats. It only provides tax cuts for people with income under $250,000.

“So in all likelihood, what separates a tax cut bill that’s ‘chicken crap’ from a tax cut bill that’s great is its treatment of the richest 1 percent of households in Boehner’s district. And $700 billion slapped right onto the deficit,” writes the Washington Post.

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Veterans groups and military retirees are the latest group to mobilize to fight changes to their health-care system, known as Tricare, according to The Wall Street Journal.

President Obama’s bipartisan fiscal commission recommended reviewing Tricare as part of proposed cuts in federal spending.

“The heavy lifting [for this nation] is being done by the military,” Norbert Ryan, a retired Navy admiral who is president of the Military Officers Association of America, told The Joural. “They should be the last ones to give. Don’t ignore the service and sacrifice that has earned them that benefit. Don’t confuse it with Social Security. Don’t confuse it with Medicare and Medicaid.”

I will be interested to see how our local military retirees, ranging from “electeds” to government-averse tea party patriot members, react to the spending cut plans.

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Monkey see as monkey do? Not when it comes to the Tea Party Caucus and earmarks.

“Members of the Congressional Tea Party Caucus may tout their commitment to cutting government spending now, but they used the 111th Congress to request hundreds of earmarks that, taken cumulatively, added more than $1 billion to the federal budget,” according to Hotline On Call.

The 52 members of the caucus requested a total of 764 earmarks valued at $1.1 billion during Fiscal Year 2010, the last year for which records are available, according to the report.

“It’s disturbing to see the Tea Party Caucus requested that much in earmarks. This is their time to put up or shut up, to be blunt,” David Williams, vice president for policy at Citizens Against Government Waste, told the National Journal’s HotlineOnCall. “There’s going to be a huge backlash if they continue to request earmarks.”

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Despite some anticipation at this morning’s meeting, the county Economic Resource Council still has no decision on a new head for the group.

“We’re still not there yet,” I was told. The group still is considering more than a dozen candidates from a list of about 40.

It comes amid funding cuts for the ERC. “Time for county to cut ERC funding” is here and “Former county ERC head buys stake in solar firm” is here.

Gil Mathew is leaving at the end of the month.

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A campaign is underway to prompt CARB to “remove the polluter giveaways and strongly implement our global warming law.”

“In the first public referendum on climate change legislation, we crushed Prop 23, delivering an overwhelming mandate for strong climate action,” according to Credo Action, a publication of Working Assets. “Now we have to ensure that California’s top environmental officials enforce our state’s landmark global warming bill, AB 32, as strongly as we voted to protect it.”

“The potential impact of our action and leadership in California — given the astounding urgency of global warming, and the growing wave of science-denying GOP leaders in Washington — cannot be overstated.”

“Neither is best served by excessive pollution giveaways in the current cap and trade rules, to the industries that have reaped billions in profits while freely wreaking havoc on our climate. Had this plan been drafted after the resounding defeat of Prop 23, no doubt it would have been stronger. Now is our chance to help CARB do the right thing and fix it.”

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Local Artist and Reader Judith Lowry has pointed to an educational website about the Nisenan tribe of the Sierra Nevada foothills.

“Often, the indigenous people of Nevada County are labeled as ‘Maidu’ instead of the correct title, ‘Nisenan,’” the website reads. “While the label ‘Maidu’ is still used widely in Native American academia, ‘Maidu’ is actually a gross over simplification of a very complex division of smaller groups, Tribelets and Bands of Indians.

“The Nisenan have made their homes in the foothills of Nevada County for thousands of years. They were born in pre-contact villages such as Waukaudok, Woloyu, Ustomah and Kiwimdo. They were part of a perfectly balanced ecosystem which thrived on the Yuba, Bear and American river watersheds, their tributaries and the wildlife that also made this beautiful landscape their home.”

The Nisenan display has been renovated and is at the Firehouse #1 Museum in Nevada City. A writeup on the display is planned for the upcoming Winter issue of SierraCulture.com.

Some background on Judith’s paintings is here.

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“The power shift in Congress has positioned U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock to take over as chairman of the House water and power subcommittee,” writes the Auburn Journal this morning. “And that will also mean he’ll be positioned to advocate for an Auburn dam.”

The power shift in Congress has positioned U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock to take over as chairman of the House water and power subcommittee.

Auburn residends who have fought the dam as members of Protect American River Canyons said question whether the dam is financial feasible. A recent federal study put the at from $6 billion to $10 billion.

McClintock said financing the project could come through a federal loan, paid back from profits the dam would make from water and power.

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Since starting the Blueprint project in 2002, the Sacramento region has taken a new approach to addressing transportation, land use, and air quality issues. The Rural-Urban Connections Strategy (RUCS) is a look at the region’s growth and sustainability objectives from a rural perspective. In the same way that Blueprint is an economic development strategy for urban areas, the RUCS project is an economic and environmental sustainability strategy for rural areas.

An annual forum is planned to discuss the topic on Dec. 10 in Sacramento. The details are here and here.

Rural topics in the news:
•Suburban living down on the farm
•Locally grown foods continue to grow in popularity

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