Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

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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Tahoe resident Shawnte Marie Willis was found dead Thursday just outside the Alpine Meadows Ski resort after a snowboarding accident, as reported here.

Seven people have died inbounds at ski areas since Dec. 18, according to ESPN. The majority of the victims were young, male snowboarders.

The article is here.

Still, the death rate for snowboarders is about one-third lower than that of skiers, according to the National Ski Areas Association.

“I expected, along with everyone else, that the death rate in snowboarding would be higher than skiing if for no other reason than the demographic of risk —snowboarders tend to be young, aggressive males,” ski accident expert Jasper Shealy told ESNP. “So we looked into this. The primary way you die [in snowsports] is that you slide into something — a tree, for example. Snowboards act like a huge sea anchor, so they don’t have the opportunity to slide into objects as easily. Whereas skiers release from their bindings.”

In the past few decades, the number of annual ski- and snowboard-related injuries has decreased but the number of inbounds deaths has remained steady at about 40.

Helmet use is becoming more common at U.S. ski resorts.

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Raw video from the news conference about 25-year-old snowboarder Shawnte Marie Willis’ death near Alpine Meadows is here.

It provides the most detail about the three-day search and rescue and her death, including the participation of Nevada County officials in the rescue effort. It also shows the power of the internet is disseminating information — you are getting the same information as the reporters on the scene, “unfiltered.”

“She was located about 400 feet from the Pacific Crest Trail on the backside, off the Alpine Meadows property, in the Granite Chief Wilderness,” according to the Sheriff’s office official. “It appears that sometime during day one she succumbed to injuries and the weather.”

Shawnte lived in Tahoma. The West Shore, a small community, is in mourning.

You can click on this map and see that the Granite Chief Wilderness is located at the far right, upper corner of the map, off the Alpine Meadows property.

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Some voters are criticizing GOP state politician Ted Gaines for hedging his political bets and running for two offices in his Placer County district — Assembly and Senate — only months apart, according to the Auburn Journal.

A special election is being held Tuesday to determine a successor to the late District 1 state Sen. Dave Cox between Gaines and Democrat Ken Cooley.

Voters cite the costs associated with a special election, estimated at $650,000 in Placer alone.

“The election process, and the accompanying expenditure of tax dollars, is raising the ire of some over the prospects of spending more money — and having another two special elections next year if Gaines wins” on Tuesday, as the Journal explains.

Gaines already was reelected this past November for a two-year term in the Assembly, representing District 4.

If he is elected state senator, he’ll be subject to term limits after eight years. The term limit is six years for Assembly members, and he has already served four years.

Gaines said he “wishes there was a better elections methodology.”

“To my way of thinking, he should stay in the Assembly and save a lot of money,” Voter Rosalie Wohlfromm told The Auburn Journal. “I like to think maybe he has a head the size of Montana – that he’s a little narcissistic.”

The rest of the article is here.

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Some big banks are starting to increase their loans to businesses as demand and competition rise, The Wall Street Journal is reporting this morning.

“After declining steadily for most of the past two years, the amount of commercial and industrial loans held by commercial banks inched upward during the past two months, according to the Federal Reserve,” The Journal said.

“An uptick in business lending is an optimistic sign for the economy and can help to make the recovery self-sustaining.

“Until recently, a chronic lack of lending to businesses was seen by economists as one of the obstacles to healthy recovery.”

The rest of the article is here.

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“Ever been in an argument with someone and felt massively frustrated, because nothing you can say seems to change the person’s mind?” writes Point of Inquiry.

“Maybe that’s what you should expect to happen. Maybe you should get used to it.

“According to University of Michigan political scientist Brendan Nyhan, that’s how our minds work-and it’s not just that. When it comes to politics, people who believe incorrect things tend to be strongly convinced that they’re right, and moreover, often become stronger in that conviction when they’re refuted.

The rest of the article and the MP3 file for listening are here. Nyhan’s blog is here.

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