Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

Rahm Emanuel declared victory in the Chicago mayor’s race tonight, the Chicago Tribune is reporting.

‘”Thank you Chicago for this humbling victory,” a smiling Emanuel told supporters. “All I can say, you sure know how to make a guy feel at home.”

‘”It is easy to find differences, but we can never allow them to become divisions. Tonight we are moving forward in the only way we truly can. Together. As one city, with one future.”

‘”It’s you. It’s the hard-working, plain-speaking folks who share a love for their city and a determination to keep it strong,” he said. “I share that love and I am determined with your help to meet our challenges head on and to make a great city even greater.”

“Chicago’s new mayor said the city needs to confront a budget shortfall ‘not by burdening Chicago families with more taxes they cannot afford, but by reinventing city government so that city government works for the taxpayers.’

“Emanuel’s declaration came after runner-up Gery Chico called him tonight to concede defeat.

‘”We’ve elected a mayor tonight,’ Chico told supporters. ‘I want with all of my heart for Rahm Emanuel to be successful as mayor. We need that, ladies and gentlemen.’

“Emanuel needed to be above the 50 percent benchmark to avoid a runoff election and six more weeks of campaigning, and he got what he needed. With 96 percent of precincts counted, Emanuel had 54.9 percent to 24.4 percent for Chico.”

The rest of the article is here.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 7 Comments »

I watched the county supervisors meeting online on Tuesday, and it was more entertaining than Jerry Springer or Oprah — a heated property rights vs. fire safety debate that harkened back to the good old (boy) days.

The language was salty, too, with longtime resident Roger Ingram making reference to “crap through a goose” — his description of how residents would evacuate in the event of a fire (even the anti-property rights ones).

After hours of debate, our county supervisors voted 3-2 to allow a locked gate on an emergency access road for a longtime resident and former supervisor, Crawford Bost, as part of a long-running plan to subdivide his property.

Ed Scofield, Hank Weston and Ted Owens voted for the motion while Terry Lamphier and Nate Beason voted against it.

The motion was approved despite opposition from the county staff, neighbors and fire officials — who all raised public safety concerns about a locked gate on an emergency access road in the event of an evacuation. Imagine that!

The rationale of the majority: Bost was “grandfathered” in on an ordinance stating that gates on emergency access roads must remain unlocked. They also expressed optimism that the lock eventually would be removed, though there was no guarantee from Bost or his lawyer.

On the broader issue, the supervisors voted to reroute Bost’s plan to split up his property back to the county zoning administrator for further consideration. It initially had been rejected, but the supervisors expressed optimism it could be worked out.

The property rights groups were out in force to support Bost, who wants to subdivide his 60-acre parcel north of Nevada City into three parcels ranging from 11 to 35 acres.

The Bosts were supported by CABPRO executive director Martin Light, former supervisor Robin Sutherland Cayton, Robert Ingram and others. The Bosts appeared emotional at times as some of their neighbors criticized their plan.

I’m noticing that the supervisors are becoming more independent from the staff recommendations recently. It comes amid increasing political pressure from their constituents, many of whom are long-time property rights advocates and staunch conservatives. Lamphier’s win over conservative John Spencer in the Grass Valley district has rallied some of the hard-right political troops.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 7 Comments »

I’ve been in the rat race for so many years, sometimes I wake up and forget that I can arrange the day like I want to — at least once in a while.

On Friday night, I’m headed down to Cactus League spring training for a long weekend. I found a dirt cheap plane flight from Reno to Phoenix, a motel within walking distance to Scottsdale Stadium and tickets to three game: Giants vs. Dodgers, Diamondbacks and Cubs. (When I travel solo, I’m frugal — just like on business trips). To be honest, I need to do a little work from the road, but that’s what laptops are for. I’ll report back from a game or two. Here’s “The Freak” AKA Tim Lincecum warming up yesterday:

Filed under: Uncategorized | 4 Comments »

Filed under: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

Filed under: Uncategorized | 2 Comments »

BusinessInsider.com points to six reasons why small business owners should thank Obama. It points to the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010, signed into law in September.

“The law provides small businesses with incentives to invest and grow — hopefully creating jobs in the process,”according to Business Insider:

•Lump-sum equipment deductions. Businesses that buy certain kinds of equipment in 2011 are allowed to take the full tax deduction this year.

•For the 2011 tax year, businesses are permitted to claim this so-called Section 179 deduction on purchases up to $500,000.

•What’s more, certain improvements to restaurants and stores may now qualify for this all-at-once write-off treatment.

•Bonus depreciation. The Act permits businesses of all sizes to claim a bonus depreciation through 2011.

•Greater startup deductions. The Small Business Jobs Act has doubled the deduction for startup expenses to $10,000. Startup costs include everything from buying supplies to buying ads.

•Goodbye cell phone paperwork. The Act did away with the onerous documentation requirements that applied to cell phones that businesses provided to employees. The result is that deducting cell phone expenses is easier.

The rest of the article is here.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

“We’ve noted before that the automated polling firm Rasmussen Reports has had problems with bias in a statistical sense: in the election last fall, its polls overestimated the standing of Republican candidates by roughly 4 percentage points on average,” according to the New York Times.

“A somewhat different issue arises today in a poll the firm conducted on the dispute in Wisconsin between Gov. Scott Walker and some of the state’s public-employee unions.

“The poll, which included people who Rasmussen deemed to be ‘likely voters’ from across the country, found that 48 percent of respondents agreed more with Mr. Walker in the dispute, while 38 percent agreed more with “the union for teachers and other state employees.”

“That question, though, was the fourth one Rasmussen asked in the survey — and the questions that came before it may have biased the responses.”

The rest of the article is here.

It concludes: “Because of the problems with question design, my advice would be simply to disregard the Rasmussen Reports poll, and to view their work with extreme skepticism going forward.”

Filed under: Uncategorized | 6 Comments »

In his column this morning, The Union editor/publisher reminds us why a growing number of residents call his newspaper the “Tea Party Gazette.” It’s becoming a well-earned moniker.

“I wonder how those who are cheering the cowardly and very anti-democratic acts by the band of 14 Wisconsin Democrats would feel if California’s 15 Republican state senators fled to Vegas rather than vote on Jerry Brown’s proposed budget?” he writes. He called them “brats.”

I guess memories are short. The article failed to mention how five Republican “brats” — including Sen. Sam Aanestad of Grass Valley — were absent from the vote last October for a Republican governor’s proposed budget, no less — keeping the rest of us hard-working citizens in the lurch.

“With two senators officially out sick, one who didn’t show up – and one who left early for a court date Friday – the state Senate had an especially tough time staggering toward final budget votes this morning,” as the Sacramento Bee reminded us on Oct. 8 2010. The article is here.

“Legislators in both houses, however, did manage to push their colleagues into voting for amendments to the main budget and trailer bills to benefit pet projects and satisfy certain interests.”

Added the Associated Press report at the time: “The budget’s final passage was delayed in large part because the Senate was short five members. Sen. Sam Aanestad, R-Grass Valley, was absent for undisclosed reasons. Spokesman Bill Bird was unavailable for comment.”

Aanestad, a hero among the hard right here, spent his tenure in Sacramento pounding sand and complaining endlessly about the budgets.

His “claim to fame” was missing out on California’s record-long budget impasse, making Senate passage of the two-thirds majority more difficult. How “cowardly” and “anti-Democratic”!

Aanestad termed out and got whipped in the statewide race for Lt. Gov. Gee, what a surprise. We isolate ourselves from the rest of the state with our “electeds,” who are politically extreme and out in left (or in this case, “right”) field.

No bashing of the Wisconsin democrats should be complete without mentioning how Republicans turn to the filibuster to hold up actions in Congress.

Opposition Republicans used the filibuster — tool of obstruction in the U.S. Senate — at a record-setting pace since Obama has become president.

In short, delaying tactics are used by both Republicans and Democrats when they don’t get their way — like brats. Many Americans think the actions in Wisconsin are nothing more than a “union busting” tactic.

The Union editor/publisher is at his best when writing about pets, not politics. It might be a better way to grow his business.

Filed under: Uncategorized | 34 Comments »