Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

“The city and the Kings announced a tentative deal this morning to build a new arena in the downtown Sacramento railyard. More than half the money would come from leasing the city’s parking to a private operator, but the team’s owners say they’ve also agreed to pay $75 million upfront,” according to SacBee.com.

“George Maloof, the family member who pushed the hardest to move to Anaheim last year, said he believes the deal with Sacramento will allow the team to sustain itself financially for years in Sacramento, a small-market city. ‘We’re going to have a new building, we’ll be able to attract players. It will be much easier.’

‘”My family is making a major commitment. I think it is a fair deal. We gave a lot. Everybody had to give. Sometimes you have to take chances and we think this is worth taking.’

“Details of the agreement are expected to be included in a term sheet released by the city Thursday. The City Council is expected to vote on the deal at its March 6 meeting.

“A source briefed on negotiations, who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak, said the city will contribute $200 million to $250 million to the deal, primarily from leasing its parking garages to a private operator.’

The rest of the article is here.

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I noticed Distric 1 Supervisor Nate Beason’s website for re-election has launched. It is here.

I was glad to see Ed and Carol Scofield endorsing Nate, as well as Jeanette Royal. I hope Nate and Ed can help build a bridge between District 1 and the south county — the two districts have suffered from needless divisiveness in the past.

Nate’s credentials are here.

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Here are 10 reasons and predictions why our community is politically purple:

1. Despite some predictable opposition, the pro-development Grass Valley City Council will still pass the historic preservation ordinance — 20 years in the making. Keeping your community unique is a valuable business asset.

2. GOP moderate Nate Beason will defeat Sue McGuire (the latest tea party candidate) in the District 1 supervisor’s race. Nate can work with both conservatives and liberals.

3. Truckee Mayor Richard Anderson will win the District 5 supervisor race, joining Terry Lamphier as the second moderate “progressive” on the five-member board. The group continues to become more politically diverse, but it is working well together and tackling our nonpartisan county issues. Richard’s endorsements are listed here.

4. GOPer Doug LaMalfa will defeat highly conservative Sam Aanestad (whose co-chair is tea party supporter Tom McClintock) in our Congressional race — a sign that Doug is plenty conservative enough and Tom’s influence is wearing thin.

5. Our biggest far-right political ideologues (and agitators) are leaving us: McClintock will largely exit the district, and Assemblyman Dan Logue will exit it all together.

6. Tea Party co-founder Mark Meckler will drop out of the spotlight and tone down his vitriole. Mark is a happy camper now with his new book deal.

7. Grass Valley’s and developer’s ill-conceived lawsuit against the county airport land-use commission will be settled. “Many municipalities, and especially developers, do not want to see Airport Land Use (Development) Plans updated,” as CalPilots observes. “It tends to interfere with their profits and inappropriate development plans of the land surrounding airports. This commission is basing its decision on the California Division of Aeronautics written guidance.”

8. Nevada City’s new police chief is from progressive Marin County, joining the city manager from progressive Sebastopol. Coastal California continues to influence Nevada City.

9. Social media will continue to redefine how our community communicates, illustrated by efforts such as the one to keep the Yuba State Park open. There is no longer a bottleneck of communications by a handful of media with an old-guard conservative bias.

10. The county Economic Resource Council will push for a “big-box store” in Grass Valley to spur needed tax receipts. But it will be a collaborative effort and could lead to compromise on more controversial projects, such as reopening the Idaho-Maryland Mine.

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“About 20.2% of Republicans say they’d vote for Obama over Mitt Romney, with most of those (11.9%) saying they’d definitely vote for him,” according to the Republicans for Obama website. “The poll says there’s a margin of error of 3.44% here, but even if it’s twice that and 12 or 13% end up supporting the President, that’s a large rebuke of the GOP’s message and their overall strategy this election season.”

“Many quiet, well-meaning Republicans are probably also impressed that the President has fought an aggressive and balanced war against Islamic extremists, and has presided over a slowly-improving economy. The 9% of Republicans who supported Obama in 2008 probably feel that they got what they bargained for. A handful of others would have voted for him then if they knew Obama would turn out to be the centrist he claimed to be.
 
“Sure enough, 19.1% of Republicans polled said that Obama has exceeded their expectations, and 17.3% say he has performed as expected. A conservative interpretation of those numbers seems to say that almost 1 in 5 Republicans are impressed with how the President has done, in spite of the wars and significant economic challenges he’s faced.”

A commenter added: “The insanity of the right wing, and the steadiness and pragmatism of President Obama is wooing moderate and thinking Republicans to his camp.”

Meanwhile, Warren Buffett was upbeat in his letter to shareholders this weekend. You can read about it here.

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