Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

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Here the latest on CABPRO’s “Business Advocate of the Year” Dan Logue from the state capitol, shining a light on his leadership skills:

“Assemblyman Dan Logue was rebuked (yesterday) in the Assembly for angrily tossing 800 pages of state regulations onto the floor during debate on a bill to bolster renewable energy requirements,” according to the Sacramento Bee.

“Before littering the floor, the Linda Republican said businesses are so overregulated that many are leaving California. Increasing renewable energy requirements would make matters worse, Logue said.

“Logue tossed the papers onto the Assembly floor and said, ‘This is what you’ve done to the state of California.’

“Immediately, Logue’s comments were disrupted by Assembly Majority Leader Charles Calderon, D-Whittier.

“The request was to use materials on the floor — not to throw them all over the floor,” said Assembly Majority Leader Charles Calderon, D-Whittier.

The Assembly passed the bill, SBx1 2, and sent it to Gov. Jerry Brown.”

The rest of the article is here.

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“CNN has a new poll out showing their highest-ever level of unfavorable views for the Tea Party movement. According to the poll, 47 percent of Americans now have an unfavorable view of the Tea Party, as compared to 32 percent with a favorable one,” according to the New York Times.

“Let’s keep this simple: is the poll some sort of outlier or part of a trend?

“In the chart below, I’ve plotted all polls from the PollingReport.com database that asked people for their impressions on the Tea Party, and then plotted a smoothed regression line on top of them. Favorable or positive views are shown in blue; unfavorable or negative ones in red.

“The trend looks reasonably clear: unfavorable views are on the rise. Although the CNN poll may have exaggerated them slightly, they now register at about 44 percent, according to the trendline.”

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A central figure in the Barry Bonds trial — a big national news story this week — is a Nevada Union High School grad.

Bond’s former personal trainer, Greg Anderson, is an NU grad from the class of ’84. Greg was an infielder on NU’s baseball team in Grass Valley in 1983, according to some of his former classmates.

“He used to brag that he knew Barry as a neighborhood friend in the Bay Area in the mid to late ’70s,” one of them told me. “At that time Barry was playing at Arizona State, and we didn’t pay much attention. We all knew of his dad, Bobby Bonds.”

Anderson is refusing to testify in the perjury case against Bonds, his childhood friend. He has been jailed three times as a result. On Tuesday, Colorado Rockies slugger Jason Giambi testified that Anderson supplied them with performance-enhancing drugs, as the S.F. Chronicle is reporting. Bonds has pleaded not guilty.

“There is something deliciously defiant about a single man standing up to a federal government obsessed in its zeal to teach a prima-donna athlete an expensive lesson,” writes sports columnist Drew Sharp in the Detroit Free Press. “But though tempting to portray Anderson as a sympathetic martyr and Bonds the quarry of a government witch hunt, it’s important to remember that we should neither forget nor forgive those who feel compelled to lie before a federal grand jury.”

Bonds and Anderson have known each other since they attended a suburban San Francisco middle school. Anderson became a personal trainer.

In the past ESPN journalists have called NU to interview some of Anderson’s teammates or coaches, including Mike Cartan — the husband of NU’s superintendent — who was Anderson’s baseball coach at the time. They didn’t have much to say, except that they knew him and he was a “good kid.” An ESPN profile of Anderson is here.

PublicSchoolReview.com lists some notable Nevada Union High School alumni here:
Notable alumni

Greg F. Anderson, personal trainer
Rich Brooks, football coach
Hunter Burgan, musician
Alela Diane, musician
Spencer Havner, football player
Zach Helm, writer and director
Joanna Newsom, musician
Rick Rossovich, actor
Gabe Ruediger, mixed martial arts fighter
Chris Senn, professional skateboarder
Noah Georgeson, musician and record producer

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“Gov. Jerry Brown has abandoned his effort to negotiate a bipartisan budget, charging that Republicans were unwilling to support his plan unless he yielded to ‘an ever-changing list of collateral demands,’” as the L.A. Times is reporting

“The governor’s announcement that he is walking away from the negotiating table, made in a late-afternoon news release Tuesday, further roils the state’s finances and marks the biggest setback yet for the 72-year-old Brown. He returned to Sacramento this year for his third term as governor promising that he had the political skills and policy expertise to resolve the state’s chronic financial mess.”

The rest of the article is here.

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“It’s pretty much up to the Maloofs now,” as the Sacramento Bee is reporting.

“In a move that probably assures the Kings will relocate, the Anaheim City Council approved a $75 million incentive plan Tuesday designed to lure the NBA team from Sacramento.

“A series of 5-0 votes came as Sacramento officials all but conceded the team is gone. Although the city had hinted a day earlier that it would sue Anaheim, Mayor Kevin Johnson said Tuesday he was fine with the Kings’ departure as long as the team owners, the Maloofs, repay a $77 million debt to the city.

“Indeed, during the Anaheim council meeting, officials didn’t mention a harsh letter they had received from Sacramento Assistant City Manager John Dangberg, demanding Anaheim halt its courtship of the Kings.

“Instead, a celebratory mood prevailed, and a packed crowd of business leaders applauded the council vote.”

The rest of the article is here.

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