Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

“Filmmaker Alden Olmsted’s effort to prevent California state parks from closing fits every known definition of a grassroots campaign,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle.

“The son of a renowned naturalist, Olmsted is visiting every one of the 70 state parks slated for closure and dropping off plastic donation buckets that were once used by a friend for storing marijuana. His goal is to collect a dollar from every Californian.

“If every California resident donated just $1, the parks would have more than the $33 million and we would be able to prevent them from closing,” he said last week as he strode into Candlestick Point State Recreation Area carrying one of his aromatic jugs affixed with a photograph of his recently departed father, John Olmsted, who once worked as a naturalist at Golden Gate Park.”

The rest of the article is here.

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“An Australian prospector claims a giant gold nugget purportedly found in Nevada County that fetched $460,000 at auction actually came from Australia’s Golden Triangle,” according to News10 in Sacramento.

“Murray Cox, 56, of Geelong, Victoria, contacted News10 after seeing a picture of the so-called Washington Nugget in a gold mining magazine.

‘”I picked up the magazine and knew in two seconds that was (our nugget),’ Cox said.

“Cox said he and a friend, Reg Wilson, 62, unearthed the giant nugget in November 1987 in a farm field near the town of Ballarat, north of Melbourne.

“Cox provided a 1987 article from the Melbourne Sun newspaper describing the event, along with a Sun photograph of the two men holding the giant nugget they called Orange Roughie because of its fish-like shape.”

The rest of the article is here.

In the past, The Union has touted its “scoop” on the nugget find.

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The local political hard right’s effort to oust incumbent county clerk-recorder Greg Diaz — led by tea party supporter Barry Pruett and endorsed by none other than our Congressman Tom McClintock — failed miserably in last year’s election.

But that hasn’t stopped our local hard right contingent from slinging mud at Diaz — a “decline to state” registered voter and a veteran of the clerk-recorder profession — over a copyright lawsuit that, to me, also has some political undercurrents.

Though the case is still underway, some of them have acted like the “judge and jury” in hard-right blog postings, even bringing up allegations of “corruption” but without proof.

Now you wonder if their next target is our county district attorney, Clifford Newell. Like Diaz, Newell was elected to a nonpartisan post (but, OMG, he’s also left leaning).

This weekend, the hard right jumped on a report in The Sacramento Bee that “Nevada County DA took special ‘hard money’ loan favors.” The article is here.

Pruett, who told us he would stop blogging, went to the trouble of posting not only the Bee article — but a “tease” of it — this weekend. The first post was last night and the second was at 1:54 a.m., when most of us were sleeping.

Russ Steele also has posted the article with a comment, “Will this corruption eclips [sic] the ongoing Diaz/County/Aptitude Solutions law suit for violating copyright laws?”

Though comprehensive, the Bee’s report is not new. Newell’s personal financial problems — including delinquent property tax payments — was reported in the local media. His involvement in “hard money” loans also has been widely discussed in the community and in court documents.

Newell did nothing illegal, though the Bee article questions the ethics. “When asked, Newell said he followed up on complaints as well as he could given his small staff of nine attorneys.

“First elected in 2006, Newell said he recently opened prosecutions against contractors who allegedly misused investor money and has carefully avoided conflicts of interest.”

The Bee ignores that Newell did help prosecute local “hard money” loan broker Thomas Hastert — a big error of omission in its investigative report. The Hastert case was one of the biggest cases of its kind in Northern California.

In fact, a joint press release of the prosecution was issued by Newell and then-state Attorney General Jerry Brown’s office. It was a major news story.

I am not defending Newell. In fact, I’ve raised questions about conflicts of interest like this before, as well as the “good old boys network” that can create an insular culture.

But I do not think it will damage Newell’s political career much, and it’s important to note how the hard right appears to be “circling the wagon” on Newell — just as it has done with Diaz.

The issues being raised are nonpartisan ones.

Barry Pruett, are you going to run for county DA next? Good luck!

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