NC Media Watch

More insight to the Community Center funding brouhaha

Russ Steele

Josh Singer writes that Meeting leads to increased funds, May 31, 2006

Senior citizens and other concerned residents crowded the Nevada County Board of Supervisors' chambers at the Rood Center Tuesday to discuss the county's funding of nonprofit groups that provide social services.

After nearly three hours of emotional public hearing, supervisors voted to give an additional $38,000 from the county's $68,000 contingency fund to groups such as Big Brothers and Big Sisters, Del Oro Caregivers and the Gold Country Community Center.

The Union has one viewpoint, but It might be useful to understand this problem from other viewpoints. Yubanet has some insights from Supervisor Nate Beason and Francisco Lovato.  I find it interesting that The Community Center budget is $564K and the County Economic Development budget is $500K.  The folks at the Community Center wanted the County to cover a 4% short fall in their budget from the economic development budget. It does not seem to me a 4% short fall was going to close the doors, but that is the tone you get from The Union articles.  How do we get the facts if The Union reporters are not willing to provide some balanced insight?  (Edited from orginal post)

Ozone can kill you! But what can you do?

Russ Steele

One part per million of ozone, a colorless gas, can kill a person.

We have about 20-30 bad air days every summer, when the ozone gets up to 130 parts per billion. Some disclosure before we examine the Nevada County Breaths meeting. I am an asthmatic and have to take steroids to breath during portions of the year. I am also diabetic and the steroids make contol of my blood sugars very difficult. The combination is slowly killing me. I found the information presented by Dr. Kane and Joe Fish the Air Quality District representative quite interesting. In reflection, Nevada County ozone may have more of an impact on my health than I thought. 

I went to the Nevada County Breaths meeting and joined about 20 other concerned citizens worried about Western Nevada County ozone levels. Truckee is ozone threat free. According to the data presented,  Nevada county is 12th in the nation for bad ozone levels.  Yet, there is not much we can do about it, as the ozone comes from the Valley and Coastal Cities, sneaking in at night, starting in the early evening and extending well past midnight.  How much and for how long depends on weather conditions, which way the wind is blowing.  As Mike Woodman, Transportation Commission representative noted, “we could shut down all the cars in Nevada County tomorrow and it would not make any difference in the ozone levels.”   Local transit and car pools are not the solution.

The audience suggested some solutions, but most failed the practicality test. Some suggested education of the political bodies in the offending cities and counties by our Supervisors. Others wanted to ban old cars, which are major polluters, from the roads in Northern California. Others wanted the State to increase CAFE fuel standards, reducing the amount of fuel burned. [All ready in the works for 2009] Others wanted to make ozone a front page health issue in the Union.  The one action that came out of the meeting was for Dr. Kane to write an Other Voices highlighting the ozone health problem. In the end we never came close to finding a solution for eliminating the real source of the problem, the millions of cars, the industrial plants, and even the ships in the ports burning bunker oil, all producing ozone precursors. The precursors which the sun converts to ozone and the winds blow into our backyards.

One interesting idea was a reverse Sawyer Decision for ozone polution.  As you will recall in the 1800s the folks the valley got tired of dealing with the silt and slime produced by hydraulic mining and sued the North Bloomfield Gravel Mining Company, and shut down an industry. Several attendees thought a class action suit by the Sierra Counties, against the Cities and Counties requiring them to stop producing the ozone was a good idea. While interesting, perhaps not too practical.  Wiping out the valley and coastal community economies by shutting down their transportation systems could have long term impacts on our local tourist industry.  We need those coast and valley folks to bring their money to Nevada County, plus many local companies depend on their partners in these polluting communities.

I have some ideas, which may be a bit more practical, for a future post.

Off we go into the wild blue chasing transit again

Russ Steele

Dave Moller writes that  Citizens seek cleaner air in Sierra, May 30, 2006

The sub title: Meeting will focus on problem, solutions.

High on the discussion list will be Nevada County's struggle with elevated ozone levels caused by pollution from Sacramento and the Bay Area that flows to the mountains and gets trapped. Kane said the idea to expand bus service and public transportation will also be discussed.

"What would you rather do, drive or breathe?" Kane asked. "It's ultimately heading that way."

Interesting, since the ozone blows in from the Bay Area and Sacramento, where do you think those bus riders should be, here or in the Bay Area.  It does not really matter because people are not going to ride the bus.  We have written recently about public transit here. Scroll down to the bottom of the post and then download the two documents. These studies clearly show that public transit does not meet people’s needs.

While you are driving around town today, look at the buses, how many seats on the bus are filled?  How many empty seats? Right, we have very few bus riders and lots of empty seats.  But, more riders than the national studies for rural counties indicate we could expect. But, only a few.   

The Unfortunate Truth, it’s a OK to lie

Russ Steele

Al Gore in a Q and A session with Grist magazine.

Question: There's a lot of debate right now over the best way to communicate about global warming and get people motivated. Do you scare people or give them hope? What's the right mix?

Answer: I think the answer to that depends on where your audience's head is. In the United States of America, unfortunately we still live in a bubble of unreality. And the Category 5 denial is an enormous obstacle to any discussion of solutions. Nobody is interested in solutions if they don't think there's a problem. Given that starting point, I believe it is appropriate to have an over-representation of factual presentations on how dangerous it is, as a predicate for opening up the audience to listen to what the solutions are, and how hopeful it is that we are going to solve this crisis. (em added)

Over time that mix will change. As the country comes to more accept the reality of the crisis, there's going to be much more receptivity to a full-blown discussion of the solutions.

Just what does an “over representation of the facts” mean,  Is Al telling us it is OK to stretch the truth to get our attention.  Is he feeding us lies to make his point?  So what is the truth about climate change?  Apparently not what Al Gore is telling us.

All the question and answers here.

A Happy Memorial Day

Russ Steele

Ellen and I spend the better part of Memorial day with our children and the grand kids in  Roseville, at  a low key cookout in Heather and Darrin Jones’s backyard. The Maney and Enos grand kids played while we talked and munched on our burgers.  Before Ellen and I left for the valley, we stopped by my mom’s and dad’s grave and left some flowers. We were really pleased to see all the flags on the veteran's graves, including my Dad’s who was a B-25 Instructor pilot in W.W.II. We thank all who worked hard to put those flags in place. Driving through Grass Valley, we were treated to even more flags waving in the breeze. It was a wonderful sight.  Thank you all for a great day of remembrance!

Quake awake

Russ Steele

Did you feel the earth shake last night at 3:38 am?  I was a wake, wondering why Hoover our dog was so restless, getting up, rattling his collar, laying down, then getting up again. I was concerned he might need to go out.  With dinner guests, we had not followed our normal routine, and I was not sure Hoover had gone out one last time before we went to bed. While laying in the dark trying do make a decision, the house started to shake.  In a few second it was over, and Hoover settled  in to a deep sleep.  Some say that animals can detect a coming earth quake.  I have no scientific proof one way, or the other, but after the 3.7 tumbler Hoover stopped being agitated and when into a sound sleep. Could be a coincidence, or another indication that animals sense the earth is about to shake.  According to the USGS the 3.7 quake was five miles under the Sierra and twenty miles west of Truckee. Details here.

Change happens as Nevada County ages

Russ Steele

The Union editorial board is worried that Local support of youth programs [is]slipping away, May 27, 2006

It seems the future of at least some of this area's after-school programs will be left to lawmakers and bureaucrats in Sacramento, which is hardly a comforting thought.

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While we hope that the state and Proposition 49 provide money for youth programs, it is discouraging to see that we are becoming a less self-reliant community when it comes to caring for our children.

The bureaucrats and lawmakers do not know our communities nor are they invested in our communities. Their priorities are often driven by politics and circumstances that have nothing to do with Nevada County.

What did we expect, given our lack of action to deal with the underlying economic issues of affordable housing, high paying local jobs, and industrial base that reduce the need for people to have long commutes for well paying jobs.  Over 27 percent of the Nevada County work force commutes out of the County. As fuel prices climb, these commuters will start looking for homes closer to their work.

As our community grays, families are driven out due ot high housing cost and the school population declines. Nevada County has a high number of seniors, if not the highest number of seniors of any county in California. Over 22 percent of the population is over 60.  The concerns of these seniors are more focused on their own needs, they have raised their children.

A major source of income is electronics manufacturing, especially video equipment. The labor department lists video equipment manufacturing jobs as one of the top 25 jobs that will decline in the US over the next 20 years. This does not bode well for our major personal income producer in Nevada County.  We are on our way to becoming a retirement community, which does not need after school programs.  The need for, and interest in youth programs will continue to slip away.

Data sources: University of Pacific Business Forecast Center.

Some global warming conclusions

Russ Steele

The folks at Climate Science have some Fundamental Global Warming Conclusions

Memorial Day thoughts from Victor Davis Hanson

Russ Steele

As aways Victor Davis Hanson has some great insight for our Memorial Day, well worth reading.

Bloggers are journalist

Russ Steele

In resolving Apple vs Does the Appeals Court held that the website editors were journalists entitled to claim California’s Journalist Shield to prevent them from being held in contempt for not disclosing sources,  and to claim the First Amendment protections given all journalists.

I know this may upset some of our local newspaper folks, but under California law we bloggers are journalist and have First Amendment protection.