DA investigating incident at The Union

Though the newspaper has remained uncharacteristically mum (at least given its penchant for police blotter follow-ups), the recent alleged assault incident at The Union — and any action that spurred it — is continuing to generate a lot of buzz throughout the community.

The county District Attorney’s office is investigating, too, sources said. No charges have been filed.

The official police blotter report is here:

“Date/time: 10/20/2009 10:06

Location: 464 Sutton Way

“Multiple reports advising of an employee who was just assaulted by a male subject wearing a red sweatshirt. Male subject has now left in a (car) headed left onto Sutton toward Brunswick.

“Contact made at The Union who declined CA (citizen’s arrest). Contact made with (a person’s name), who was admonished not to return or face (trespassing charges).”

Zenyatta wins Breeders’ Cup from dead last

In one of the most incredible horse races ever, Zenyatta came from dead last to become the first female horse to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic in its 26-year history.

The Classic, with a purse of $5 million, is the biggest race in horse racing.

It is Zenyatta’s 14th consecutive victory. Zenyatta, named after the “Police” album and owned by record magnate Jerry Moss, will go down as one of the greatest race horses in all time. (Moss founded A&M records with Herb Albert).

We’ve seen Zenyatta race at Del Mar: Like all great race horses, she almost seems to play to the crowd with her gestures — stopping to pose, nodding or perking her ears. She’s a ham.

Watch the race:

IMM responds with own photo renderings of mine

As I wrote before, I was not a big fan of the debate over the photo CLAIM-GV rendering of the Idaho-Maryland Mine.

The front-page article in The Union should have been Dunn Capital’s criticism of the mine, and the mine’s response, exploring the issue in more depth. But it was late by days on that one.

Here are photos that Mine President David Watkinson emailed me for its proposed project (renderings and photo simulations):

The are:
minerendering
minerendering2

Watkinson also attached photos of operating ceramics plans in Tennessee, such as this one.

“Ceramics plants do not have huge plumes of exhaust,” Watkinson said.

Who won hard-fought Nevada City Chamber board race?

The ballots have been counted and the following people (in alphabetical order) were elected to the Chamber Board of Directors. They will serve a two-year term:

Jeff Ackerman
Tom Coleman
Steve Cottrell
Michelle Litton

Congratulations to the winners — with one caveat. As I’ve written before, it is a conflict of interest for a newspaper editor, who directs newsroom coverage, to sit on a Chamber board. It shows what a long way our community has to go to adopt more professional standards.

A code of ethics for the Society of Professional Journalists is here. “Journalists should be free of obligation to any interest other than the public’s right to know,” it reads in part.

Continuing Directors are:

    Dave Painter-SPD

    Duane Strawser-Tour of Nevada City Bicycle Shop

    Larry Birdsong-Associate member

    Madelyn Helling-Associate member

    Barbi Jackson-Scott Jackson’s Real Life Fitness

    Jesse Locks-Nevada City Film Festival

    Jim McConnaughay-Country Collectibles

    Karen Marinovich

    Mimi Simmons-ERA Cornerstone Realty

    Gary Tintle-Tintle Inc.

    Kirk Valentine-Nevada City Classic Cafe

    Bob Weiner-Judi’s of Nevada City

    Non Voting-City Liaison-Gene Albaugh-City Manager

Some of the board members, including former board members of the Downtown Association, were appointed, not elected by the chamber membership. This has upset some merchants.

Some board members have a real penchant for public “bad mouthing” too.

The new board has a lot of work to do in recruiting new chamber members, raising funds and addressing the legitimate criticisms that are raised about its actions.

One example: We are ideal candidates for chamber membership with a Nevada City-based venture — already promoting the city’s restaurants, shops and art galleries to visitors from outside the area, not just locals. Our venture also is a big sponsor of the city’s events such as the Farmer’s Market and SYRCL Film Festival.

We visit the chamber regularly to get information for our business, such as Fall foliage maps, walking tours of the old “Chinatown,” etc., and find the staff and volunteers friendly, helpful and professional.

As residents, we also spend much of our discretionary income in town.

But we have some of the same concerns about the chamber leadership.

Joining the Grass Valley chamber and Truckee chamber will be a much easier decision for us.

Gobbledygook Grader is unique online tool

Gobbledygook Grader checks written content for use of gobbledygook, jargon, cliches and over-used, hype-filled words.

You receive a grade together with a full report.

The site is here.

As an example, I ran Russ Steele’s column in The Union this morning through the grader.

It found six gobbledygook words and received a grade of 65 out of 100.

How much do we spend on patrol per citizen

Nevada City spends $385.23 on law-enforcement patrol and operations per citizen annually, compared with $317.18 for Grass Valley, $293.11 for Truckee and $197.99 for Nevada County, according to figures released in the Friday memo.

The county-wide figure for 2008-2009 is $234.89.

“As you can see, it is understandable with declining revenues, why Nevada City might be concerned,” said County Executive Officer Rick Haffey.

The memo also reported that actual sales activity in Nevada County were down 17.5 percent when reporting aberrations were factored out.

Adjusted for aberrations, taxable sales for all of Nevada County, including its cities, declined 23.4 percent over the comparable period, while the Far North region as a whole was down 20.1 percent, according to the memo.

The Friday memo is here: fridaymemo

Local who calls film maker Michael Moore “my uncle”

Film director Michael Moore’s niece is a junior at Nevada Union High School and helping out her uncle on the making of Capitalism: A Love Story, the film maker’s latest.

Molly Hardesty-Moore was an intern for the film, helping as part of the archival team that found old video clips, as Nevada Union Underground reports.

“Being related to Michael Moore affects how people like me or not,” she told NU Underground, an independent news source on the happenings at NU High and elsewhere. “Sometimes they decide to hate me because I am related to Michael Moore.”

“Well, I know Michael like you know an uncle, he is family, and it has never seemed any different for me than that.”

The interview is here.

I’m a fan of NU Underground, as I’ve written before. It provides a unique voice in our area with good articles, such as this one.

Giants Pitcher Lincecum busted for pot

Giants Pitcher Tim Lincecum, the 2008 Cy Young Award Winner, was cited for speeding and possession of marijuana in Washington one week ago.

“The police report said the motorcycle officer who stopped Lincecum smelled marijuana in the car and asked him to produce any drugs that he had,” as the S.F. Chronicle reported. “Lincecum acknowledged that he did have drugs and opened the center console of his 2006 Mercedes, handing the officer 3.3 grams of marijuana, just under one-eighth of an ounce, and a pipe.

He was placed under arrest, but it was determined he was not impaired. He was cited and released at the scene.

The amount of marijuana he had is about the size of your thumb, police said.

Scooplet: The Union to deliver the Bee up here

If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em: The Union will start delivering the Sacramento Bee up here starting next month, according to my sources.

The Bee had been distributed by the independent Foothill News, which also delivers The New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle and Wall Street Journal, among other publications.

We hear some of The Union’s independent delivery contractors are not happy: They didn’t work as many days previously, and the load was less. It will be interesting to monitor the “customer care” from the deal.

It’s a safe bet The Union offered The Bee a better deal to distribute their paper. The Union, in return, could make some needed “incremental” revenue.

The Fairfield Daily Republic has been delivering The Bee and San Francisco Chronicle to Fairfield residents for more than a year.

Newspaper Carrier Day on Sept. 4 honors Barney Flaherty, the first newspaper carrier (or paperboy) hired in 1833, as well as all current newspaper carriers. A lot has changed since then. This photo is circa 1910.

Putting the ‘joint’ in our joint chambers

We attended a media workshop in Auburn on Thursday and were glad to see leaders of the Grass Valley chamber (President Mary Ann Mueller) and Penn Valley chamber (Co-chair Susan George) participating, along with the others.

The two were getting the scoop on how Nevada County could better promote itself outside the county lines.

It’s tangible proof that chamber leaders — at least in this case — are working together to promote our county and all its benefits (ranging from the historic downtowns to the outdoor recreation in Penn Valley) to outsiders.

It should help quell some of the talk about chamber infighting, at least among the ones who were attending.