Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

I joke about Mitch McConnell’s home state of Kentucky in political posts here, but I still like to visit. The state is home to world-class thoroughbred horse racing, including Churchill Downs racetrack.

I’ve been a horse racing fan since childhood, so it’s a privilege to go. Kentucky also is famous for its bourbon, A.K.A. Kentucky champagne.

I managed to land some prime tickets for the Breeder’s Cup this coming Nov. 4 and 5, so I’m burning some frequent-flier miles for a four-day trip to the races and to visit our friends in Indianapolis (and their newborn son).

If you go to Louisville, no trip is complete without visiting the Louisville Slugger museum and factory, drinking Woodford Reserve bourbon and eating at Jack Fry’s restaurant in the Highlands neighborhood.

I was introduced to it by a former management colleague at CNET, whose spouse is from the distiller Brown-Forman family. Later, Matthew, whose real passion is politics, helped now-President Obama win Kentucky and was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Sweden.

Now he’s going to be chair of the National Finance Committee for Obama’s re-election campaign — ironic since we never talked politics much. His claim to fame in the ’90s was snagging the “News.com” domain name and helping CNET grow.

I never book a trip this far in advance, but it’s unavoidable for the Breeder’s Cup, the World Series of horse racing.

Now I’m going to print out all the reservations, put them in an envelope and forget about them for six months. Meanwhile, here’s champion Zenyatta in last year’s Breeder’s Cup “Classic.”

She lost this race, the last of her career, but still won a record 19 of 20 races. Zenyatta won the Eclipse Award for Horse of the Year. She was bred in Kentucky and largely raced in California.

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“For the first time in Gallup’s tracking of the issue, a majority of Americans (53%) believe same-sex marriage should be recognized by the law as valid, with the same rights as traditional marriages. The increase since last year came exclusively among political independents and Democrats. Republicans’ views did not change.

“These results are based on Gallup’s May 5-8 Values and Beliefs poll, which has tracked attitudes toward legalizing same-sex marriage each year since 2004, adding to Gallup’s initial polling on the topic in 1996 and 1999.

“This year’s nine-percentage-point increase in support for same-sex marriage is the largest year-to-year shift yet measured over this time period. Two-thirds of Americans were opposed to legalized same-sex marriage in 1996, with 27% in favor. By 2004, support had risen to 42% and, despite some fluctuations from year to year, stayed at roughly that level through last year.

The rest of the article is here.

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“Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels’ shook the political world by removing himself from the 2012 presidential race early Sunday morning — a decision with wide-ranging implications for the GOP nomination fight,” according to the Washington Post.

“Daniels had become the hottest thing in the Republican race over the past six weeks, as the GOP establishment saw someone who could credibly run as a conservative in the primary and had demonstrated crossover appeal in a general election.”

“Our take on the winners — and the losers — from Daniels’ announcement is after the jump.”

Winners:
•Mitt Romney
•President Obama
•Tim Pawlenty
•Chris Christie

Losers:
•Republican establishment
•Policy wonks
•The truce. “Daniels got himself crosswise with a not-insignificant element of the Republican base when he called for a “truce” on social issues in order to focus full attention on the debt and spending issues the country faces.”

The rest of the article is here.

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I’m hearing rumblings that the local tea party contingent could be out in force complaining about — and politicizing, in my mind — the county’s ongoing lawsuit with AtPac, which is a “closed session” topic at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisor’s meeting.

Around here, it always comes down to partisan politics, and the tea party likes to make political hay out of most anything, even a clerk-recorder’s race. I happen to think its influence is waning, but we’ll wait until the next election for that. Throughout the foothills, the hard right is clashing with the moderate right, as I’ve written before.

Barry Pruett, who lost to incumbent clerk-recorder Greg Diaz, is a tea party supporter. AtPac also contributed to Pruett’s campaign, and he once represented AtPac as a lawyer. Our Congressman Tom McClintock also endorsed Pruett.

The supervisors — all but one of them conservative, I might add — have done a good job of handling this complex trade-secret case despite being hampered by the “closed door” nature of legal cases and constant political drum beating. I have yet to see how AtPac has been financially harmed. It’s been good money for the lawyers, however.

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We were watching the Amgen Tour of California bike race the other day, and the phone rang. It was none other than Dave Moller, The Union’s longtime former senior staff writer, calling from his new cell phone to visit.

I hadn’t talked to Dave in about a year, since we briefly ran into each other on the street in Nevada City. He is a reader of Sierra Foothills Report, a reminder that the internet makes our world smaller.

Nowadays Dave is Editor of the Louisiana Press-Journal in Missouri — a picturesque town on the banks of the Mississippi River — where his family has roots. All of them are doing well.

Dave, who has a real “nose for news,” remarked that there’s no shortage of news. He’s dug up — and published — some gems, often a challenge in a small town.

“Police sued for fatal shooting — wrongful death claims police threatened medical personnel with arrest,” read the front-page headline, which is offered online for $1.

More and more newspapers are erecting “pay walls” — the New York Times, for instance, was advertising theirs on TV during the Amgen bike race. The Louisiana Press Journal was promoting text alerts in a house ad.

Dave also writes a column, “The buck stops here.” In the latest one, he called for transparency in the lawsuit involving the local police. He cited the public’s “right to know.”

I learn a lot from reading small-town newspapers. In Louisiana, Mo., the school year already is wrapping up, and a page listed the high-school graduates — with a photo and a write-up of each one’s future plans. In one ad, I also learned that a spray tanning salon has come to town.

A one-bedroom apartment, furnished with new carpet and appliances, goes for only $325 a month, according to the listing. A three-bedroom house, with refrigerator and stove, was listed at $450 per month.

Dave’s experience is a reminder that the “grass can be greener,” even outside our own picturesque neck of the woods.

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The Truckee Hotel in the heart of downtown Truckee is for sale for $4.5 million, according to LoopNet.

The 4-story, 37-room hotel, at 10007 Bridge St., received the 1994 Award of Merit from the California Heritage Council for its restoration, according to the real-estate website.

“The hotel has been classified as a historic structure with the highest level of importance in a survey of the proposed historic district in downtown,” it added.

The hotel is open for business.

The rest of the listing is here.

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