Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

Join Sierra Commons at Nevada City’s historic Stonehouse March 18th from noon to 4 p.m. for the Nevada County Economic Development Resource Showcase.

“Celebrate American ingenuity and economic opportunity. This tabling event features our premiere economic resource organizations. The Showcase is designed to promote collaboration and synergy between participating organizations and expose our local business community to the wealth of support services in Nevada County.”

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Here’s some data from Quantcast.com that I found interesting. It also shows demographic data.

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The Tribute Trail bridge went up at Stocking Flat on Thursday. “The bridge went in this morning. We will always remember this day and all the work that made it possible,” said one participant.

The project is to provide recreational, open space, wildlife, flood management, and water quality benefits in the Deer Creek Watershed.

Funded in 2005 by the CA Resources Agency with Proposition 50 bond funds, the Tribute Trail Project is a collaborative effort of local organizations including: Friends of Deer Creek, the City of Nevada City, the Tsi-Akim Maidu Tribe, the Natural Heritage Institute, the Bureau of Land Management, Nevada County Land Trust, Greater Champion Neighborhood Association, the Chinese Quarter Society and Save Our Historic Canals.

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Commenting on the administrative shakeup at NUHS this week, a school district insider and long-timer wrote: “This supports your idea that some of the ‘good old boy’ thinking is going away. This should be a wake up call to entities such as CABPRO, the BOS, NCCA, Rotary and City Councils that the old ‘tried and true’ ways are not going to work as much anymore, and they will be questioned — not only questioned but action will be taken. With social media gaining ground, communication is changing how things work around here.”

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“Nevada County residents, Lily Marie and Margaret Joehnck, are working to bring a resolution to the California Democratic Party’s convention in Sacramento in April supporting HR808, the bill to establishment of a U.S. Department of Peace. Ms. Joehnck is the chair of the Nevada County Democratic Committee, and Ms. Marie is a volunteer at the Nevada County Peace Center and an active member of the National Peace Alliance. The Nevada County Democratic Central Committee passed the following resolution in January:

WHEREAS, Representative Dennis Kucinich plans to reintroduce his proposed federal legislation to create a United States Department of Peace during the 112th Congress, which will consist of seven (7) offices: Peace Education and Training; International Peace Activities, Technology for Peace, Arms Control and Disarmament, Peaceful Coexistence and Nonviolent Conflict Resolution, Human Rights and Economic Rights, and Domestic Peace; and

WHEREAS, the Department of Peace would create a new cabinet post to research, propose and facilitate practical field-test solutions to proactively wage peaceful solutions to the problems of domestic and international conflict. Domestically, it would support existing programs and develop new programs to address domestic violence, child and spousal abuse, mistreatment of the elderly, school bullying and violence, gang violence, racial or ethnic violence, and violence against gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender individuals. Internationally, it would advise the President and Congress on the most innovative techniques and ideas for peace among nations. It would promote and protect human rights. It would work in coordination with existing government agencies and structures to prevent and de-escalate international conflict so that it does not erupt into armed conflict; and

WHEREAS, events occurring in Tucson in January of this year have jarringly brought into the spotlight the need for such research and training;

NOW THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the California Democratic Party supports and endorses the to-be-proposed federal legislation as outlined above to create a United States Department of Peace; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that a copy of this Resolution be sent to President Barak Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer.

Respectfully submitted,
Nevada County Democratic Central Committee
Passed, January 20, 2011

Since then, they have been contacting other Democratic Central Committees in for their endorsement. So far, the county central committees of Marin, Sonoma, Lake, Placer, Plumas, and Calaveras have signed on as endorsers. The rest of the county central committees in the state will be asked to endorse starting next week. Ms. Marie is also sponsoring a table at the convention to publicize this effort.”

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“The UCLA student whose anti-Asian video rant garnered millions of views online and intense backlash throughout the world is from Fair Oaks and appears to have had aspirations of creating similar videos as part of a blog,” the Sacramento Bee is reporting.

“Shortly after the earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan on Friday, Alexandra Wallace, 20, posted a three-minute video on YouTube in which she mocked Asian languages and expressed her annoyance with Asian students talking loudly in the library on their cell phones, including those calling Japan to check on relatives after the deadly tsunami.”

“After the backlash, Wallace issued an apology Monday, saying she ‘cannot explain what possessed me to approach the subject as I did.’ The video has been removed from YouTube.

“However, it seems the original video was not intended to be a one-time hit. ‘My daughter wants to start a blog,’ wrote Wallace’s dad on his Facebook page.”

The rest of the article is here.

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“The revolt in Wisconsin should have us thinking about the underlying purpose of public sector unions,” Executive Director Martin Light writes in the March issue of the CABPRO newsletter, which I got at the Robinson Enterprises gas station in Grass Valley the other day. “The obvious implications are financially motivated because if the state is broke then it’s broke.”

Then on page 18, under a column “It’s all about the money” by Fran Freedle, the newsletter ran this cartoon, suggesting that the uproar in Wisconsin is about more than “if the state is broke it’s broke.” (click for larger image):

CABPRO cites the source of this cartoon as a website called Doug@Journal. I’d never heard of it before, except that it bills itself as a site for “constitutional conservatives.” I read the site for a while. Check it out. It’s also has bigoted content if you ask me, making fun of African-American and gay people.

Here’s an image from Tuesday in Doug@Journal (click on the link and scroll down to the bottom to find it).

Sick humor

Then (below the one on the left) here’s another image from Thursday (scroll down to find it too). This one is a photo-shop of President Obama playing basketball amid the tsunami clean-up effort in Japan. It called “Japan O Hoop” in the URL code.

Let’s hope CABPRO doesn’t condone any of this distasteful imagery, even though it turns to some of Doug@Journal’s more “intellectual” content to help fill its monthly newsletter.

For background, here’s the blog item I posted the other day titled “Hate speech puts spotlight on media.”

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