Nevada City Council candidates (NCFocus scoop)

Mortgage broker (and current Nevada City Planning Commissioner) Sheila Stein and attorney Barbara Coffman are challenging incumbents Kerry Arnett and Conley Weaver for their seats on the Nevada City Council.

Mark my words, it will be an interesting race.


Disclosure: I know Barbara.

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Edited Apr 21: Added links, fixed occupation.

Welcome new residents

Updated.

Let's extend a warm welcome to the new residents of Nevada City.
(and hope they won't be staying long)

East of the freeway:
*

West of the freeway:
Monday:

Tuesday, showing ravages of age:

interesting reading...

...on editor Bruce Anderson of the Anderson Valley Advertiser. If you're local to Nevada County, you should read it.

(The Anderson Valley's on the other side of the state, but there are similarities)

Classic column, and comments

Friday update: in response to my 'trackback' email requesting corrections*, Jeff demurred ("That would only provide credibility to your efforts.") Local bloggers Sadie and Russ have contributed comments.
.
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This morning a coffeehouse friend alerted me to the most recent column by Jeff Ackerman, who is publisher of Nevada County's local paper The Union, one of the Swift Newspapers chain. If you're not familiar with Nevada County or The Union or its publisher, please read this very informative column.

Jeff also recently wrote this characterization:

...the screeching, caterwauling, howling, yelling, demanding, ranting and other noise that generally overrides any meaningful debate these days...*

Not wishing to engage in screeching, caterwauling etc, I'd like to extract what I believe to be the logic of Jeff's column. (And Jeff, or anyone else with greater skills in perception or logic than me, if I got anything wrong, please add a comment to this post, to set me straight.)
(I tried to strip out the hyperbole/strawmen/caricatures and emphasize the logical assumptions; while this does make the arguments less entertaining, it also makes their substance more visible.)

The logical statements/arguments/assumptions from Jeff's column:

• Longtime local developers who are known to be nice, good people can be trusted not to 'despoil'* a community.
  
• If one can traverse an intersection with ease at 7:15 a.m., that intersection is not a "traffic problem".
  
• For people to despoil a community, they must set out with 'despoiling' as their goal.
  
• Any project which only increases an existing problem by a small degree should be handled as though it does not increase the problem at all.
  
• People who oppose these projects should run for office, instead of trying to oppose the projects as citizens.
  
• People who oppose these projects tend not to go to community fundraisers (at least not the ones that Jeff sees his "builder and leader" friends at).
  (BTW, to anyone who missed the one for Hetty Williams' daughters...you missed something special. Thanks to the members of the Key Club and their supporters for putting this together.)

Remember, corrections in the comments to this post...I'll incorporate them if any come in.

Some comic relief in the column's comments:

Re: Builders, leaders aren't out to ruin our town
by Anonymous on Tuesday, February 28 @ 11:42:30 PST
With Jeff Ackerman's reputation in the area I sure wouldn't want him to defend me, that says a lot.

Re: Builders, leaders aren't out to ruin our town
by Anonymous on Tuesday, February 28 @ 18:23:22 PST
In order for you to know anything about my reputation you'd need to expand your circle of friends WAY beyond the little weasles who occupy this anonymous space.

This one's good too, on a more substantive level:*

by Anonymous on Tuesday, February 28 @ 08:11:28 PST
I wish I was their friend too. I could become a planning commissioner and have my house remodeled by the president of the contractors association while I recommend that his proposed development projects are approved. I guess it's not a conflict of interest if they are your friends. I guess Abramoff and Delay are just friends too, so it's ok.

Should votes be counted? (if no, skip this post)

Sun Feb 26 updates:
See Michael Hiltzik's LA Times blog post on The Electronic Threat to Democracy:

...The question is whether a determined hacker can get into the system, compromise the results, and get out without detection, and it has been shown again and again that the answer is yes....

And here's a helpful tip from Kevin Drum:

Are you dying to know how to hack into a Diebold machine? Unless your local registrar has bothered to change it, here's the key: F2654hD4. And the 8-byte password used for Diebold’s voter, administrator, and ender cards is ED 0A ED 0A ED 0A ED 0A.

So, where's the rest of the press on this issue? Or are car crashes more important.
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Something for you to do now, that might keep you from having to give your children and grandchildren some uncomfortable answers later:

Read this call to action on hackable voting software certification, and act.

Call [or email] 5 senators on CA Senate Rules Committee...requesting subpoenas on ... election industry and certification insiders who did not come forth...to testify under oath.

The Goal: Subpoena-induced sworn testimony from voting machine vendors and errant testing labs, voting machine examiners.

No, it won't take a lot of your time. Yes the call to action comes from Daily Kos, which is leftist. But if you have half a brain in your head, regardless of which half, you know that sometimes one eye perceives a danger that the other doesn't. This is a danger.

"Just because you're on their side, doesn't mean they're on your side."*

and in future, when there's no need for them to even seem to be on your side...?

Updates - proprietor, Nevada City house beverage, bloggers in meetspace, Fortress Union

Apr 21: added circumscription(?)* re Harris and Rosen.
Feb 21 update: added links and updates to the Fortress Union section of this post.
(And cursed Blogger, once again, for interpreting "Save" as "Publish")
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It is late. The proprietor is tired and has nothing to say, or at least nothing that doesn't deserve to be composed in a more alert frame of mind.

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Nevada City's drinking water for the last month or so has been delectable, a veritable fount of nectar, stunningly palatable and anodoriferous.

[the proprietor assumes that "anodoriferous" is a word, and if it isn't, it should be.]

Many thanks to those whose efforts brought about the change; your karma is riding high.



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Through the auspices of that archaic device the 'telephone', a rapprochement of Right and Left babe* bloggers was plotted and executed; and once again the blogging world turns out to be absurdly small, with Sadie being practically within rock-throwing distance of No Man's Land. Memo to self: do not rile Sadie. Ever.

The manzanita's blooming, and the wildflowers* have just begun.

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Fortress Union

Over at The Union, reporter Britt Retherford has been doing a bang-up job lately, with no-holds-barred coverage of Abramoff-related Doolittle contributions and of the cost of housing locally (insane; stratospheric). As I told editor Pat Butler in one of a number of unanswered emails to reporter, copy editors, and editor of The Union, we need to clone her.
Update, reported by PB on Feb. 15: she's leaving.*

One unanswered email went to reporter Dave Moller, asking who had taken his Jan. 23 "Climate in the Sierras is changing and boy are we screwed unless we change our ways now" story and titled it "Mixed message on Sierra climate change". Three unanswered emails to the three copy editors, asking if they could tell me who had given the story its headline. One unanswered email to new city editor on a different topic, to be blogged another day. One unanswered email to the editor, pointing out the deafening silence from his staff*.
(and yes, there is good reason to assume that the emails went through)

And one amusing editorial from The Union a few days ago, castigating the new owners of The Casino in Grass Valley for their policy of not talking to the press.

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Feb 21 update:
Apparently I'm not the only blogger unworthy of answers - Roch of Greensboro101.com is having trouble getting answers from the News and Record, John Harris of the Washington Post has dissed Jay Rosen of PressThink*, and WaPo ombudshumanoid Deborah Howell presumably continues to stonewall UC Berkeley econ prof. Brad DeLong.
And here's Daniel Ellsberg weighing in:

It seems to me there's an opportunity that didn't exist before because of the internet for local people to be going into their local newspapers and networks and saying, Here's what was on the internet, here's the coverage, how come you didn't have anything on this?
...There's a tremendous lack of self-examination by the press. Put real public pressure on them right now, to get them to do a hell of a lot better than they did last year or the year before.

It's an interesting interview, as is this piece by Carl Bernstein that it links to.

And, on the weather front: we're not in springtime anymore.

Reflections on reading

Today's theme: the re-emergence of characters from classic children's literature, more specifically from The Adventures of Pinocchio.

From Jim Kunstler's speech in Hudson, NY on peak oil last year:

I am compelled to inform you that the prospects for alternative fuels are poor. We suffer from a kind of Jiminy Cricket syndrome in this country. We believe that if you wish for something, it will come true. Right now a lot of people - including people who ought to know better - are wishing for some miracle technology to save our collective ass...

And the story's wood-based hero:

Today's State of The Union article in the San Francisco Chronicle:

BUSH: 'WE MUST KEEP OUR WORD'
ANALYSIS: New note sounded -- an appeal for harmony
- Marc Sandalow, Washington Bureau Chief

Mid-day online update at the
San Jose Mercury News:

Administration backs off Bush's vow to reduce Mideast oil imports
by Kevin G. Hall
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - One day after President Bush vowed to reduce America's dependence on Middle East oil by cutting imports from there 75 percent by 2025, his energy secretary and national economic adviser said Wednesday that the president didn't mean it literally.

one rhinoplasty (by chainsaw?) coming up...

Your tax dollars paid for Doolittle's phone spam

Update: got a callback from Mr. Pirillo,  who wished to stress that all members of Congress get funds for outreach, which was how the phone calls were funded. And folks we got ourselves a deal - he assured me that those calls probably cost less than 20 cents each,  far less than sending a letter.

(normally Congressman Doolittle uses mail service for outreach, but because this was about his recent actions to restrict illegal immigration, an issue of great concern to his constituents, it was felt that outreach via telephone was appropriate.)
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Almost a month ago, with no election in sight, the phones of Nevada County began to ring. We left our ladders, our loved ones, our schoolwork and our slumber; picking up the phone, we were subjected to a spiel from an automated John Doolittle, urgently ticking off the tough new measures he's taken to protect our border from the hazards of illegal immigration.

The measures weren't the only ones that got ticked off.

But it was legal; signing up for the Do Not Call list provides no protection from your Representative.

Curious about who paid for the calls, I phoned Doolittle's Roseville office and asked. A polite young woman took my name, question and number, but no one returned my call. Weeks passed. I tried again last week, then this week got a callback and answer from Doolittle's field representative Chris Parillo: we taxpayers are footing the bill.

Tuesday tips - finding and keeping your money

(Egads, sorry about the lapse in posting; am almost as bad as The Union's editor and publisher. Excuses: January doldrums, plus I don't think anyone makes a New Years Resolution to waste more time blogging.)

First tip comes courtesy of Floydd from Metafilter - you can find (and claim) your missing money at Calif's Unclaimed Property website. But beware, it's addictive - I found over $3000 belonging to people I know.

Second, you know those online shopping websites with seals of approval plastered all over them, that only a deranged Luddite would be afraid to order from?

Not being a deranged Luddite, I ordered, entering credit card and address info on the secure form provided. But when the order didn't go through, the co. notified me of this by forwarding an email that their shopping cart co. had sent to them, that contained all my credit card info, in plain text.

So - before you give them your credit card info, ask them if they'll be emailing it, behind the scenes. A chain is only as strong as its weakest link...

News

Sun. a.m. update - came to senses, defanged post; also added Sierra Sun link
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Looks like tomorrow's LA Times (story here; BugMeNot) is a must-see, if this Daily Kos piece is correct.

I suspect that DeLay won't be the only one stepping down.

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Some background:

SourceWatch on Doolittle, and on his wife's company

Corruption probe swells in Congress:

Julie Doolittle's attorney, William L. Stauffer Jr., said [her company] was hired ... to provide "event planning, marketing and related services, as requested by Mr. Abramoff" for Abramoff's Capital Athletic Foundation and his Signatures restaurant.
...
Abramoff frequently used the athletic foundation as a pass-through organization to run lobbying efforts and to pay for expenses, records show.

From ThinkProgress

[Abramoff's] Capital Athletic Foundation didn’t raise money for children, as it was advertised to do. "[T]ax and spending records of the Capital Athletic Foundation obtained by The Washington Post show that less than 1 percent of its revenue has been spent on sports-related programs for youths...."

Doolittle's PAC pays his wife's firm ("While Sierra Dominion's work for Doolittle's PAC is disclosed on FEC reports, Julie Doolittle's ownership of it was not known until the business' records were ...subpoenaed in connection with a grand jury investigation of a Washington lobbyist, Jack Abramoff.")

Very short background on Doolittle's involvement with Fitial/Saipan/Marianas - land of sweatshops ("Made in USA" labels and no tariffs,but without USA regs) and forced abortion.

Insider's view of Saipan, pulling no punches, here, with parallels.

Sierra Sun editor Jamie Bate's Dec 7 opinion piece on Doolittle, making the point that "You're known by the company you keep" - and that Doolittle's "unsavory buddies" don't bode well.

Lessons learned from the recent rains

For the last several weeks we've been getting one 3-inch storm after another, with no real letup ("one day of no rain in the last two weeks", I think someone said today), so the Fri-Sat 6-incher really was overkill.

But it was educational overkill, and to keep others from having to learn these lessons the hard way*, here's the knowledge bank; feel free to contribute.

• It is good to debug one's drainage system with a few 3-inch storms before trying a 6-inch storm. You will have more land this way.
  
• The best and most tangible evidence against Intelligent Design is the arrangement of rocks in a streambed. How perfectly they fit between their fellows; how could such order possibly have arisen by chance?
  
• It's not just beetles; the Acts of God also indicate an inordinate fondness for frogs.
  
• The junker cars moored on the Squirrel River should probably be moved up the bank a ways.
  
• Buy the raingear. Wear it. Umbrellas and ponchos are the equivalent of wading in thigh-deep water. Wet pants get old, fast.
  
• In contrast, under sufficiently extreme conditions caulk can regain its lost youth (from months back), at which point it becomes useless.
  
• "Medium" means something very different (and smaller) to Kmart than it does to B&C.
  
• An ounce of prevention...
  
• Big trees look a lot better in summer.
  
• The weather moves faster than the forecasts.
  
• It is now the law in Calif. that when you turn on your windshield wipers, you must also turn on your headlights. (But can you get ticketed for [not doing] this by a police officer who's a fellow violator?)
  

Bring on the smelly water!

2006 update: this wasn't a sincere request, really. Please bring the good water back.
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On Eurekalert yesterday, Natural compound from 'pond scum' shows potential activity against Alzheimer's:

A compound isolated from a cyanobacterium, a type of blue-green algae known as Nostoc, shows promise of becoming a natural drug candidate for fighting Alzheimer's and other neurodegenerative diseases...

Cyanobacteria being the blue-green algae, which are the ones in your energy pills and the ones responsible for hepatotoxins* and neurotoxins in drinking water.

So, is the glass half empty or half full*?

water project status update, temp. post

Dec. 23 update:
Finally put up the interview with Chris over at NCDocuments, apologies for the delay. And you might want to put the eye back in for now, since the below-mentioned bit of interest doesn't seem to have morphed into anything substantive.

But the story's not over yet.

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Just to let you know, there's been a bit of interest in the story so keep an eye out...

Big thanks to Chris for long phone interview this morning (and for recent water quality, which has been great, at my place at least) and to Mark for the "high priority" designation that made Chris's time available.

No bombshells; still digesting the Q&A, and need to do some research, and hear back from Mark on some quick questions; don't expect a post on it until Friday at the very earliest.

According to Chris, the smell is from Volvox and Chlamydomonas algae.

'Fishy water' collaborative journalism project update - 2 days later

[Early a.m. update: edited, with removal of some gratuitous commentary.]

Well, the experiment is not off to a roaring start. Right after publishing the original 'fishy water' post, I emailed Yubanet, The Union, NCTV(I think) and KVMR about it and about my suggestion/plea that they contribute some reporting energy to the subject; and while KVMR might possibly have done something,* the entire deluge of email-and-website replies I've received is reprinted here:

I did get one phone call from a friend pondering who at NCTV might be interested. And the water treatment plant manager and I managed to make phone contact this morning; he said he still had not received the questions which I emailed to the city manager* two weeks ago.


Fellow citizens have been forthcoming, offering information and additional questions, and generally passing the word along.

One of the most sorely afflicted by the fishy water - living further "upstream" than me - has shared what he knows in a comment on the original post.
(His neighbors don't have any problem with the water though. When asked why not, they explained* "we have a whole-house water filter.")

For reference, here's a scanned copy (PDF, big - 1.5MB) of an article on the Thanksgiving 2001 "fishy water" incident; also the Feb 2002 (pre- and post-City Council meeting) articles.

In-depth reporting on Nevada City's fishy water - an experiment in open source journalism

During at least the last 15 years, Nevada City has repeatedly suffered from poor drinking water quality. When our new city manager came onboard several years ago, he seemed to have gotten the problem under control somehow, but in the last year or so the water has reverted to its previous occasional foulness. The yearly water quality reports sent to all city residents typically report excellent water quality, and do not mention or explain the recurrent problem.*

So far, efforts to obtain a satisfactory explanation have not yielded satisfactory results. (partly due to my not following through, partly due to general busy-ness of city staff, partly due to the general entropy of communications...the point isn't to assign blame, it's to get answers.)


Hence - and in a general spirit of inquiry - I offer an open source journalism experiment and invite your participation:

Below I've laid out what I think I know and what I'd like to know. Do you have further questions? Perhaps a local weblog or newspaper or other news outlet could help to flesh out this information?

If you have questions or investigative/reporting skills to contribute, please, get to work...

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Occasionally, Nevada City's drinking water develops a problem - a "fishy" smell, an odd/bitter taste, discoloration, and (it seems to me) a strange "greasy" texture.

The problem is worst in the neighborhood around Pioneer Park (served by the water tank nearest the drinking water treatment plant?), and typically worst after a dry spell following the first rains, e.g. around Thanksgiving.

The contamination is said
(by whom? )
(and with what level of confidence? from 0% to 100%)

to be due to "cold water algae", that grow primarily in
our reservoir? the water tanks? Little Deer Creek? somewhere else enroute?
(what is the name of our reservoir?)

Has the alga responsible been identified?
(if so, when and by whom, and what's the species?)

if not -

• What attempts have been made, when and by whom?
  
• What would it cost, roughly, to get an identification?
  
• if cost unknown, how could we get a rough estimate of the cost?
  

Other questions:

• Are growths of the algae more visible, at the times when the water has this problem?
  
• On the phone, I've been told that the water treatment process gets rid of the odor by "oxidizing the compound" that causes it.
  By what means is this done?
  
• Is the problem addressed in other ways as well?
  
• if not, are there other ways that it could it be addressed? (eg. by increasing the reservoir inflow/outflow?)
  
• Is there any documentation on the web that you'd recommend, that covers the "cold water alga" issue?
  
• Have other communities encountered the problem, and if so, have they solved it or does it periodically come back to haunt them too?
  
• Would it be possible for a citizen journalist or paid reporter (and perhaps Alan Stahler,* if he's in town) to be shown the reservoir, (drinking) water treatment plant, etc?
  
• Where is the water intake location in the reservoir - does it vary, in distance from top, in different seasons?
  
• Has the raw water (when foul) been measured for microcystins?
  
• What other questions should we be asking, if we want to acquire a full understanding of the problem?
  
  

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If you can help to get answers, we who drink and bathe in the problem will thank you.