Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

There’s an old saying “my brother’s in the band.” It can help you get into nightclubs. It’s literally true when it comes to Hospitality House Executive Director Cindy Maple and her brother, Josh Paul, a lead guitarist in the popular American band Daughtry.

In support of “Utah’s Place” Daughtry has donated an autographed guitar to “Build a Shelter Day’s Silent Auction.” The benefit is May 14 from noon to 8 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites/Gold Miners Inn.

Daughtry (pictured on the front of Billboard magazine) was found and formed by a former American Idol season finalist Chris Daughtry.

The first single from the album, “It’s Not Over”, was the eighth most played song across all formats on U.S. radio in 2007, and their second single from the album, “Home”, was the tenth most played song in the U.S. of 2007, according to Wikipedia.

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“McClintock was up in town tonight, to speak along with Mark Meckler at a Tea Party Patriots meeting,” writes local blogger Anna Haynes on her NCFocus. “(McClintock aide Igor Berman said the only Town Hall meeting per se that McClintock’s holding this week will be down in Lincoln Friday night).

“Afterward, I was able to speak one-on-one with McClintock for, it turned out, a very brief time. I showed him & started to narrate the ‘change in average global temperature 1920-2010′ image …which he did not want to look at, jumping in with ‘But it’s been warming since the end of the Little Ice Age’ (to which, alas, I did not give the correct ‘that was the sun, and this is fossil fuels’ response, instead a less correct ‘no, we’ve been warming since we started burning fossil fuels’ (note to blogger: practice with those flash cards!)

“He countered ’50 thousand years ago there was ice all over the northern hemisphere & we’ve been warming since then’; I countered ‘actually, that’s due to the Milankovitch cycles & we were actually cooling [slightly & gradually, before the start of the Industrial Revolution].’”

Anna’s full report is here.

Thanks Anna. I have read no other accounts from this meeting.

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“Lake Tahoe, NV – In a board room still crowded following a 12-hour hearing, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Governing Board voted to approve the Boulder Bay Community Enhancement Project. Four years in the planning, the project will replace the aging Tahoe Biltmore Casino in Crystal Bay, NV with an eco-friendly, mixed-use resort that will significantly reduce stormwater pollution and vehicle emissions associated with the site.

“’With science showing us that we can reverse the decline of Lake Tahoe’s clarity by encouraging environmental redevelopment of our town centers, the cost of doing nothing is just too high for the Lake,” TRPA Director Joanne Marchetta said. “Redevelopment projects like Boulder Bay are an important part of the public-private effort to restore Lake Tahoe.”

“Once complete, the Boulder Bay site will include a mix of whole ownership condos, hotel units, affordable housing, a small casino, a health and wellness spa, retail and dining space, pedestrian and transit improvements, and a 4-acre community park. In addition, the project plans to pursue LEED certification, a global standard for green building techniques.”

More details are here.

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I received this email from Gene Albaugh:

“The City Council of Nevada City unanimously approved a contract with David Brennan to become city manager upon the retirement of Gene Albaugh, effective June 20, 2011.

“Brennan most recently served as program manager for the Sonoma County Regional Climate Protection Authority.

“He served as city manager for the City of Sebastopol, CA from August 1999 to March 2009.

“Brennan was a former assistant county administrator and then county administrator for the County of Nevada serving from July 1993 to August 1999.

“He previously served as assistant city manager in Brentwood, CA and as an administrative analyst and assistant county administrator for Calaveras County.

“David Brennan has a B.S. degree in Community Development from the University of California, Davis and a M.S. degree in Community Development with emphasis in public policy analysis from U.C. Davis.”

Footnote:

On paper, at least, a city manager from Sebastopol is a good match for Nevada City. The two towns have much in common, including a “progressive” bent.

My father was born in Sebastopol, and both of my parents are buried in the cemetery there. So is Charles Shulz, the famous cartoonist. It used to be a more conservative town.

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“The release of the president’s birth certificate, an answer to a baseless attack heavy with racial undertones, was a profoundly low moment in American political life,” the New York Times wrote this morning.

But it gets worse: “It will not quiet the most avid attackers,” the Times added. “Several quickly questioned its authenticity. That’s because the birther question was never really about citizenship; it was simply a proxy for those who never accepted the president’s legitimacy, for a toxic mix of reasons involving ideology, deep political anger and, most insidious of all, race.”

An online poll just posted on SacBee.com’s Facebook page supports this point: It asks “President Obama released his detailed birth certificate today. Will that quiet “birther” critics? Of the 101 who have voted so far, 94 responded “no.”

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“The death toll in five Southern states rose sharply Thursday morning to nearly 200 after devastating storms ripped through the region, spawning a deadly tornado in downtown Tuscaloosa, Ala., and leaving a trail of flattened homes and buildings in an area already battered by storms,” according to the New York Times.

“Across Alabama, at least 128 people were killed — 13 in the Birmingham area alone — and more than 300 injured by storms on Wednesday, said Yasamie August, information manager of the Alabama Emergency Management Agency.

‘”I would be pretty sure about saying we’ve never had 128 people die in one day,’ Ms. August said. ‘It’s going to be difficult to get an accurate count of damage or injuries at this point. Many people can’t get to a hospital.”

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