Jeff Pelline's Sierra Foothills Report

At his request, I happily wrote a letter of recommendation for Kirk Caraway, founder, owner and publisher of Carson Now, Carson City, Nev., for a prestigious Knight Fellowship at Stanford University this year. (I previously worked with some leaders of the Fellowship and am very familiar with the program. Kirk’s project is a “natural” fit).

Today, I was pleased to learn that Kirk was one of 13 who were selected out of 134 applicants.

“Caraway will test a revenue generation system for local news websites combining advertising and social media,” according to the Knight Fellowship press release.

More information is here. “The Knight Fellowships supports innovation, entrepreneurship and leadership in journalism by supporting experienced, committed journalists with ideas for improving their craft and the news industry,” as its website states.

I previously have applauded Kirk’s efforts to launch a free website at Carson Now, competing with the Carson City newspaper owned by Swift Communications (now a “paywall,” just like its sister newspaper, The Union).

The background is here.

In the past, Kirk’s efforts have been belittled by some existing Swift newspaper executives. The editor/publisher of The Union was among those who mocked Carson Now in Facebook postings.

The internet is shaking up the way we communicate in the foothills and Sierra, and Kirk’s Carson Now is a shining example.

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Editor’s note: from the League of Women Voters and posted at Yubanet:

Please join us for our second League of Women Voters Forum that will include candidates for the Board of Supervisors and Superior Court Judge.

This forum, moderated by Polly Bacich, will be held Monday, April 30 at the Board of Supervisors Chambers in the Rood Center, 950 Maidu Avenue, Nevada City from 6:30 to 9:00 p.m.

6:30 – 7:50 p.m.:

Board of Supervisors District 1: Nate Beason (Incumbent), Al Bulf, Sue McGuire;
Board of Supervisors District 2: Jedediah Biagi;
Board of Supervisors District 5: Richard Anderson

8:00 – 9:00 p.m. Superior Court Judge:

Tom Anderson (Incumbent), George Smyrnos

Incumbent District 2 Supervisor will not participate in the forum due to a prior engagement. He released the follwoing statement:

Due to the late entry by my opponent as a write-in candidate, I am unable to attend the League of Women Voters’ candidate debate scheduled for April 30.

Initially, I was not invited to participate in this forum since I was running unopposed. It was not until this past week that my opponent was declared a certified write in candidate. In the mean time, working with our County Planning team, a meeting was organized with the Home Owners of the three Associations whose properties are part of the Emigrant Trail. A large turnout is expected for this workshop, and I feel it is my duty to represent my South County constituents at this meeting.

I have great respect for the League of Women’s Voters and normally would never turn down an invitation to participate in a League event.

Thank You for your understanding. If you have any questions, you may contact me through mynevadacounty.com.

Ed Scofield
Nevada County Supervisor, District II

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Editor’s note: U.S. News and World report points out some of the tenents of “Eisenhower Republicans.” You can’t help but notice the difference between their views and that of the extremists we encounter nowadays.

2) Government is not the problem, but government can’t solve every problem.

4) Government should empower consumers with “Goldilocks” regulation of free, fair marketplaces.

Empowering consumers means that we should regulate product safety, food safety, etc. Reasonable regulations are necessary to ensure that commerce is fair, free and competitive. For example, the federal government recently announced new regulations for credit card issuers. These regulations are meant to inform and help consumers make better choices while protecting them from aggressive rate hikes on existing balances.

Don’t like regulations? Few Republicans do. But think of how free enterprise would function without regulation. The best way to think of this is to imagine a football game with no referees and no rules whatsoever. Players and coaches are expected to call their own penalties. That is laissez-faire capitalism in a nutshell. Any sports fan knows this is ludicrous and would never work.
So we concede that some regulation is always necessary.

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“Congressional scholars Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein are no strangers to D.C. politics,” according to NPR. “The two of them have been in Washington for more than 40 years.

“They came together in 2006 to write a book about dysfunction in Congress, called The Broken Branch. But their assessment of Congress today is even more dire — so dire, they’ve called their new book It’s Even Worse Than It Looks.

“The book claims that democracy in America is being endangered by extreme politics. From the first day of the Obama administration, Ornstein says, our constitutional system hasn’t been allowed to work.

The rest of the article is here.

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