Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

The other day, reader and local resident Bruce Levy emailed me this cool photo, which I posted on this blog. I labeled it “Endless Winter.”

credit: Bruce Levy

I got an email from the Sac Bee, which wanted to publish it on their own website. It is here in a slideshow. The title: “Bruce Levy captures winter in the foothills.” Some of the content is “reverse” published into print as well.

This is a good example of the SacBee blogging network in action. The Bee has the biggest reach of any regional website. Content from SierraCulture.com also is shown on the Bee’s website.

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Though not pleased, I’m OK with extending 2009 increases to sales, income and vehicle taxes to help California rebound. We’re going to need to mind the bottom line — and the top line — to make this work. But the “Party of No” is already digging in their heels. Like Obama, they want to see Jerry Brown fail in time for the next election.

Here’s what the Sacramento Bee is reporting:

“California Republican leaders are urging their lawmakers to stand firm against Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposal for a June tax election in the name of rebuilding their party.

“Beaten badly at the polls in November and holding barely a third of legislative seats, the GOP now finds itself divided over whether to make a deal with the Democratic governor.

“Brown needs agreement from at least two Republicans in each house to ask voters to extend 2009 increases to sales, income and vehicle taxes.

“Brown acknowledged Friday that he has met privately with a handful of Republicans in recent days. It’s not yet clear they are ready to vote for the tax extensions or that Democrats are willing to give enough to satisfy their wishes.

“But to Jon Fleischman, a California Republican Party vice chairman who runs the conservative FlashReport blog, nothing less than the future of the GOP is at stake. Only 31 percent of state voters were registered Republicans as of last October, compared with 44 percent registered as Democrats.”

The rest of the article is here.

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“NPR, PBS and local public broadcast stations around the country are hiring more journalists and pumping millions of dollars into investigative news to make up for what they see as a lack of deep-digging coverage by their for-profit counterparts.

“Public radio and TV stations have seen the need for reporting that holds government and business accountable increase as newspapers and TV networks cut their staffs and cable television stations have filled their schedules with more opinion journalism.

“In the past three years, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has invested more than $90 million in federal funds on new journalism initiatives. That includes a $10 million local journalism initiative that is paying for the creation of five regional centers that will help local PBS and NPR stations cover news that affects wider geographic areas. Also, a $6 million grant from the group expanded the PBS investigative series “Frontline” from a seasonal series with a summer break to a year-round program.

“The rest of the article is here.”

As one reader here put it: “No wonder the right wants to kill off NPR.”

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We hope you’re enjoying your weekend. The Foothills Celebration — 43 wineries with food pairings from local restaurants in Grass Valley on Saturday — was a blast, with 1,000 tickets sold. We visited with many people, including Grass Valley Mayor Jan Arbuckle at Smith Vineyeard’s handsome tasting room. One of our favorite eats: Matteo’s pulled pork sliders.

The best part of all: Lots of out-of-towners came to Grass Valley from the “flatlands” for the event. SierraCulture.com was a proud sponsor, helping to reel them up the hill. Some visitors were buying merchandise in the stores — a bonus this time of year.

This morning, we’re going to Ike’s Quarter Cafe in Nevada City for a Mardi Gras breakfast. Ike’s just turned 10 years old, as I wrote the other day. I suppose I should confess that we’re regulars at Ike’s anyway. Let’s hope it doesn’t rain on the Mardi Gras parade for the parade-goers. We’re going to pass this year, though we promoted the event in the magazine.

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