Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

Even from South Florida, Sierra Foothills Report gets you the scoop. Though Todd Juvinall is mum tonight, except for bashing liberal “Marinites,” there is a new executive director of CABPRO.

“I have been appointed the New Executive director of CABPRO because of my strong concerns about Local Food and Farmers rights,” Penn Valley resident Chuck Shea said in an email sent to me tonight.

He included an invite to an upcoming CABPRO dinner, where Sheriff Keith Royal is speaking about marijuana. The CABPRO dinner is April 17 and a new board will be introduced, according to the flyer.

Todd had been CABPRO’s executive director since the New Year, he announced on his blog, Sierra Dragon Breathe (sic). Todd is a former county supervisor.

Chuck runs The Parsonage B&B in Nevada City and sells chickens and turkeys from his ranch in Penn Valley.

We enjoy some nonpartisan activities with Chuck: buying chickens and his carriage rides in Nevada City. He brings the chickens by the house and we visit.

Chuck can have an intellectual discussion and agree to disagree without getting personal and calling you names, often an achievement around here. He has riled people regarding the Nevada City BID (now defunct) in the past, though.

After the likes of executive directors like Todd and Martin Light, and their negative dialogue, CABPRO could use a new image. The “food and farmers rights” issue is a good one for CABPRO because it has supporters on the left and the right.

People in the middle don’t mind some reasonable regulation around food, however.

As for other issues, I doubt CABPRO will change much. But perhaps the discourse will be more civil.

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“The National Transportation Safety Board has not yet determined what caused last year’s deadly crash at the Reno National Championship Air Races, but its chairwoman recommended a list of changes on Tuesday that she said would make the races safer for pilots and spectators,” the Reno Gazette Journal is reporting.

“Photos and videos helped the agency determine two things — the sequence of events leading up to the Sept. 16 crash took about 6 seconds and the pilot was unconscious while the plane was still in the air, NTSB chairwoman Debroah Hersman said during a press conference at the Reno-Tahoe International Airport. But more work is needed before they’ll know what caused the P-51 aircraft to fly out of control, she said.

A freelance photographer from Grass Valley, Tim O’Brien, took one of the photos before the crash that was widely circulated in the media.

http://www.rgj.com/article/20120410/EVENTS05/304100039/NTSB-makes-safety-recommendations-Reno-Air-Races?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

Exit question: Will O’Brien receive an honor from the Pulitzer Prize board for his photo, which ran in The Union? The Pulitzer’s are announced on Monday.

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“We worked with Bitly and its data on millions of Web clicks to find the most influential media outlets in the country,” according to Forbes. “This map shows which news sources are read and shared at above-average levels by state. Roll over and click on the media outlets below to see where they influence readers and which stories were big hits. Updated monthly to reflect the latest trends.”

Examples: For California, the L.A. Times shows up; for Texas, it’s Fox News.

The map is here.

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