Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

“Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill have reached an agreement that would avert a federal government shutdown, yielding more spending cuts for Republicans while giving Democrats a key win on an issue related to abortion rights, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s office announced Friday,” according to the Washington Post

“The deal to fund the federal government for the next five months will include $39 billion in spending cuts and will drop language related to Planned Parenthood. Lawmakers still need to approve a short-term stopgap funding bill before midnight, when the federal government will run out of money and cease operations.

“The stopgap bill will allow lawmakers time to craft the longer-term, complicated budget for the rest of 2011.”

The rest of the article is here.

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Editor’s note: Thanks to Grass Valley community development director Joe Heckel for promptly returning my call earlier on Friday about the Idaho-Maryland Mine. Joe emailed the public documents we discussed. Sorry I couldn’t post them sooner but my “day job” called, as well as my son’s birthday. Please read beyond the press release — which has been posted elsewhere — and look at the background documents. (One was sent reading sideways).

“On April 8, 2011, IMMC filed updated components of their application including a Draft Executive Summary and Project Description. These sections of the revised application materials describe the proposed changes to their 2007 application.

“The revised application was filed as a ‘working draft,’ to allow City staff to review and comment upon their completeness. By or on April 20th, City staff would provide their comments on the updated information and confirm whether there is a need to supplement or further update the application materials.”

The press release is here. The background documents are IMM April 8 letter, IMM April 1 letter and IMM October.

I was expecting something more definitive by this deadline.

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“Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters Friday morning that Congressional leaders came very close to a budget agreement Thursday night, but the deal broke up in a dispute over funding to a group that provides abortion,” the Washington Post is reporting.

“House Speaker John A. Boehner (Ohio), the lead Republican negotiator in the budget impasse that has transfixed Washington and brought the nation to the brink of a government shutdown, immediately disputed Reid’s account.

“The Democrat, speaking at the Capitol, said that he and President Obama had agreed to accept $38 billion in budget cuts–$5 billion more than was on the table last week.

“But, Reid said, House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) would not budge from a demand that the budget strip federal funding from the group Planned Parenthood.

‘”We agreed on a number last night. They can spin this any way they want,’ Reid said. ‘The number’s done.”‘

The rest of the article is here.

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“A day that fans of the San Francisco Giants have waited 53 years for has finally come,” according to News10.net.

“Prior to the team’s 2011 home opener against the St. Louis Cardinals, which takes place this afternoon at AT&T Park, the Giants will raise a banner commemorating last year’s World Series championship, the franchise’s first since it moved from New York to San Francisco following the 1957 season.

“The Giants advanced to the Fall Classic by besting defending NL champion Philadelphia in six games during the League Championship Series, then took four of five tests from the Texas Rangers to capture their first world title since 1954.

“‘Everybody’s going to be waiting for that flag to go up, It’s something we’ve never seen before,’ pitcher Jonathan Sanchez told the team’s official site. ‘I can’t wait to pitch that game, because it’ll be important for us.’”

The article is here.

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“Wisconsin used to be such a predictably stolid Midwestern state. Now it may as well be Florida,” according to NPR.

“When I previously wrote, on Wednesday, about the Wisconsin Supreme Court race, JoAnne Kloppenberg, the Democratic challenger to Justice David Prosser, a Republican, had declared victory in the nationally watched race after gaining a lead of 204 votes.

“But she was apparently premature because she was actually behind by more than 7,000 votes in the race in which drew more than 1.5 million voters state-wide. The contest came to be seen as a referendum on the controversial Republican Gov. Scott Walker and his effort to reduce the power of public-employee unions in the state.”

“The city of Brookfield in Waukesha County apparently sent in its results to the county clerk who logged them in her system but forgot to save the data.

“Thus, when the county’s results were provided to the media, they didn’t include the Brookfield votes. The county official later discovered the mistake and added back the missing votes.”

The rest of the article is here.

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Here’s a “free” scooplet that I haven’t read elsewhere: The City of Grass Valley’s development review committee will meet next Tuesday to consider Starbuck’s plans to replace the vacant Arby’s in Pine Creek Shopping Center, first reported here (also for free!).

You have to have a little institutional knowledge too (such as the address): “Conceptual Development Review (11PLN-08) for Ben Donay to make exterior modifications to an existing drive through facility located at 681 Freeman Lane (APN 29-290-20) in the C-2 (Central Business) Zoning District.”

The city should have spelled out that it was about Starbucks. People might want to go to the meeting, which is in the Hullender Community Room at 9 a.m. on Tuesday.

Information like this is readily available if you read the City Hall websites. The agenda is starbucks.

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“asy access (sic)” — “read this story on (paid) The Union’s e-edition” is how our local newspaper promotes more of its stories nowadays — in this case one about the Penn Valley Chamber this morning.

I suspect The Union meant “Easy access,” with a big typo. But it raises ongoing issues about online “paywalls,” the newspaper industry’s latest attempt to recoup lost revenue. Will people pay for content, complete with typos, in their community newspaper?

•”There must be a good reason for not printing the page here where computer illiterates don’t have to try to figure out how to access the story,” wrote “Murie” under the paywall content for a story titled “Nevada City Chamber heads in new direction.”

•”Paywalls don’t work. Ad eyeballs pay,” wrote “NC Guy.”

•”Sounds more like The Union is heading in a new direction . . . good luck with that!”

An article “Online news sites charge users to stay afloat” is here. More background — including a discussion of the New York Times’ paywall — is here.

“While a revenue jolt like that is sure to grab the attention of any publisher, most newspapers in the rest of country lack the substantial body of compelling, exclusive content and the unparalleled concentration of wealthy readers that are enjoyed by the Times,” writes Alan Mutter, now a chief executive in Silicon Valley who used to be my colleague at The Chronicle for many years.

In The Union this morning there’s also a republished press release “Music in the Mountains announces anniversary season.” This story is free. It’s played prominently in print.

But I published this identical press release on my blog and Facebook page on March 23 — the same day it was issued.

The internet is changing the way we communicate, and more and more readers are wising up to all the new choices that are available — even in our small town. “Blogging reshapes the media landscape” is here.

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