NC Media Watch

Cost of CARB: Obama keeping fuel prices up

Russ Steele

With the price of crude going sideways, the local fuel prices are mirroring similar stability. It would be nice if the price of fuel would go down, but most likely not going to happen on the Obama’s watch.

 According to a recent Heritage Foundation Report, “if the President was serious about bringing down the cost of gas, he would instruct his Administration to reduce the bureaucratic red tape on energy projects in the Gulf of Mexico. A new report from Greater New Orleans Inc.revealed that the issuance of drilling permits is down 71 percent compared to the monthly average over the past three years. … Worse still is the news that the Department of the Interior might let hundreds of Gulf of Mexico drilling leases expire, costing jobs and further decreasing production.

In other words, the president made choice after choice that hampered the ability of domestic oil producers to do what they do best — produce oil.”

From the Nevada County CEO Weekly Memo

Russ Steele

I always look forward to the Rick Haffey's weekly memo, and then do some reading between the lines. Sometime what is not in the memo that is more interesting, but this week it was this that I found interesting:

Small Rural County CEO/CAO/HR Meeting in Nevada County:

Next Friday I have invited and we will be hosting a meeting of County CEO/CAO’s and HR Directors from small rural counties like ours here at the Rood Center. So far 12 counties have indicated they will attend. The purpose of the meeting will be to discuss areas of mutual concern and interest in these difficult economic times. We were pleasantly surprised at how many counties wished to come to Nevada County and have this discussion.

Exit Questions:

1)  What County CEO/CAO and HR office holder would turn down and fully paid trip to Nevada County, especially on a Friday?

2)  How many of the County Administrator will choose to stay over and make weekend of it?

3) How much will this visit improve Nevada City's sales tax revenue stream?

Update (08-12-11, 17:15)  Here is how our left leaning local blogger views the meeting:

Rood Center shows leadership

It is real easy to lead when inviting the folks to Nevada County on a Friday to visit.  How many would come if it was a Wed meeting?  That said, it would be intersting to sit in on the meeting, but the Memo does not indicate the public will be invited.

Ackerman on a roll this morning

Russ Steele

I do not always agree with the Editor/Publisher of the Union,  but this morning you should take a peek at his weekly colum : We brought this economic mess upon ourselves

How did it all come down to … this? How did our credit rating drop too low to qualify for a used car loan?

Let's start with the rules and regulations. Federal, state and local governments have regulated most U.S. companies to death, driving up the cost of production to the point where it is far cheaper to make things in China, where companies are not bound by the same environmental and labor laws.

We don't seem to have a problem with the pollution, or slave labor, so long as it happens outside our borders.

And unions haven't helped themselves much, often bleeding the companies to the point where they can't compete in a global marketplace. We need look no further than the U.S. auto industry to see evidence of that.

We also love our gold, silver and oil, so long as it comes from mines and rigs sitting outside our borders. We're sitting on maybe 2 million ounces of gold right here in the Gold Country — at $1,600 per ounce — but can't get it. Never mind that this community was built on the backs of miners.

America could drill, mine and grow out way out of this economic mess, but we refused to help ourselves.

Cost of CARB: Fuel prices stable this week, while crude drops

Russ Steele

The current turmoil in the stock market has resulted in a drop in crude prices, but we have yet to see any drop in gas and diesel prices. They are now stable, with the average prices about $1.00 more per gallon at this time last year.  When crude is on an upward spiral, the retailers are quick to raise the price of fuel, but when they are on the down side they are much slower to adjust the price. Why, you ask? They lose some profits on the upward spiral and try to regain their losses on the down slope. If crude continues to stay low, there will be some profit taking before we see any slide in prices.

 

Local left blaming the Dow plunge on Tea Party (Updated)

Russ Steele

When ever I get a little depressed, I check out the local lefty blogs, and they never fail to provide me a few chuckles. I always feel better after reading some of their political and scientific fantasies, here is one of the latest examples

How the tea party “win” on debt deal helped restore confidence on Wall Street



Really?  It was only 512 poins today and 1,300 over the past two weeks.  According to the discussion on Tom Sullivan on KFBK today,  the real issues is what is happening in Europe. The debt deal prevented default, but it did not lower the debt. According to Stuart Varney on Fox News, it just made us look more like Europe. 

Europe is in the tank, and US investors are looking at what is happening in the European Union and realize that we are next. They are escaping to liquidity and gold. The Tea Party did not do that, individual investors did it.  Most of these investors are much smarter than our intellectually challenged local left.  We are Americans. we are not European socialist. We are not going where Obama is taking us and the market is sending him a message.

Update ( 08-06-11, 10:10) This cartoon is from the folks at Powerline, which came from the Investors Daily. 

I wonder if our local left will also blame the Tea Party for this as well.

ERC Board Meeting Notes

Russ Steele

I went to the ERC Board meeting this morning and here are some items I found interesting in my incomplete notes.

Management Changes

• The ERC Board Chair, Dawn Whitmore, left Nevada County for a job in Texas.
• The Chair Elected, Rolf Kleinhans resigned before sitting in the chair.
• Lisa Swarthout, GV City Council, was appointed as the new Chairperson
• Kimberly Parker, SNMH Foundation, was appointed to replace Rolf Kleinhans as Chair Elect.

Economic Development

•  A medical device company employing six people is planning a move to Grass Valley from Mountain View.
• ERC wants to get a better handle on home business, there seem to be a lot of them in NC.
• Fudge Bar company looking for investors
• Creative Coops a backyard chicken coop manufacture looking for investors
• Telestream expected to double work force, not all in Nevada County, as recruiting is an issue for seasoned people, need jobs for partners. 
• Aja Video has hired 25-30 engineers
•  Nevada County Business Association is looking to start a business incubator, to bring together mentors and entrepreneurs. They are responding to outside interests willing to invest in vetted opportunities. Will be patterned after one in Chico.

Other Items

• Contractors Association is still working on home business zoning regulations that impact contractor equipment storage at home. Regulation back on Planning Commission table.
• Newmont Mining Corporation has bought the North Star property and the City of Grass Valley has no clue of how they are going to use the property, according to Lisa Swarthout. The city was planning in them buying 20 acres for the mandated water processing plant, and have a Sacramento buy the rest to develop business and residential parks, but Newmont surprised everyone by buying the whole property.   
• Nevada County has $85K block grant to help the homeless,submit your grant requests to County
• EDD has developed a jobs profile for Nevada County industries with recommendations for farther growth, including green jobs. [I have requested a copy from Alison Lehman at the County]
• Housing prices are still declining, land for sale inventory increasing, housing inventory decreasing. If you do not have 20% to put down not much chance of buying with a loan.
• Penn Valley residence are seeking bus service to Yuba City for shopping trips and medical visits, efforts being made to cut this effort off at the pass.

If you have any questions, please post them in the comments.

Cost of CARB: Mary Nichols on new CAFE Rules - Fuel prices continue to rise.

Russ Steele

CARB's Mary Nichols has been commenting on the new CAFE rules proposed by the President. KQED's Climate Watch has the details on the new CAFE standards here.

Fifteen years from now, the average car in the United States must get nearly 55 miles to the gallon, according to new fuel-efficiency standards proposed Friday by the Obama Administration.  That’s a sharp increase from the current requirement that vehicles average 34.5 miles per gallon by 2016.

California officials, environmental groups, and automakers are praising the new rules, which would require a fleet-wide average for cars and light trucks of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.

Let's see, California has the second highest unemployment in the nation, with thousands of our best and brightest escaping the economic misery and the loss of freedom in the state, and our bureaucrats are proud to be part of a scam to keill more jobs in California.

“We think this is a very good deal, and we are happy and proud to have played a role in shaping it,” said California Air Resources Board head Mary Nichols.

“What California does is push the envelope.  But not just for the sake of pushing the envelope. We do this because we have a need to reduce the impact of our whole transportation system on our environment and to improve its economic performance,” Nichols said.

Right now the envelope that California is pushing is a full scale depression, all with CARB's assistance in raising energy and transporation costs.  Here are the lastest fuel prices:


I have no explaination why US fuel prices are approaching those in California

Could we have more than one GOLD mine in Grass Valley?

Russ Steele

My Uncle Fred Whitford was a mining engineer at the Empire Mine before it closed in the 1950s. The mine closed due to the low price of gold and the high cost of operations. According to my Uncle, there was still a lot of gold to be mined under Grass Valley when the Empire closed down.  That was in the 1950s. Now the price of gold is soaring and the gold still in the ground under Grass Valley grows more valuable every day.

Our local liberal blogger just announced that the Newmont Mining Corporation has closed escrow on the 740-acre North Star parcel this week Why would a mining company buy the North Star Property?   Not to build houses? According to the Newmont webpage:

Newmont Mining Corporation is primarily a gold producer, with significant assets or operations in the United States, Australia, Peru, Indonesia, Ghana, Canada, New Zealand and Mexico. Founded in 1921 and publicly traded since 1925, Newmont is one of the world’s largest gold producers and is the only gold company included in the S&P 500 Index and Fortune 500. Headquartered near Denver, Colorado, the company has over 34,000 employees and contractors worldwide.

Newmont recently acquired several gold mines in Nevada from an Canadian company.  In April Newmont  acquired Vancouver-based Fronteer Gold for roughly $2.3 billion, expanding their development opportunities in Nevada according to the company webpage:

Fronteer holds interests in three Nevada gold projects, which currently have 5.7 million ounces of measured, indicated and inferred resource. Its flagship property, Long Canyon, is located on a gold trend that is similar to the Carlin Trend in terms of its characteristics and potential. Based on exploration potential, the current 2.2 million ounces of measured, indicated and inferred resource at Long Canyon could double or triple in size.

The North Star property was originally being developed by Sandy Sanderson’s North Star/Grass Valley LLC which filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2008. Sanderson was planning a housing development.

One has to wonder if maybe Newmont has their eye on another Canadian Mining company that holds the Idaho Maryland Mine property.  There is plenty of room on the North Star property to establish a mining operation, and access the gold still under the Idaho Maryland property. More space that is avilable to IMM.

As the price of gold soars, the value of gold under Grass Valley soars as well. It is not if that gold will be mine, only when and by whom.  It may be the Newmont Mining Corporation.

Exit Question:  Did Newmont buy the property to build houses?

Note:  Comments are closed, too many stupid off topic comments. If your comment vanished, you know why!

Is this PR to rebuild reputation of Clerk-Recorder Office after the lawsuit?

Russ Steele

This is a press release that appeared in the County CEO's Friday Memo.

Nevada County Clerk-Recorder, Gregory J. Diaz, is pleased to announce that the California Secretary of State’s office has certified Nevada County Elections as an official Ballot Finisher, defined as an entity that “processes sheets or unfinished ballot cards to make ballot cards to be used in California elections.”

Certification requires:
• Knowledge of ballot creation and layout regulations
• Accurate inventory control forms and ballot security documentation
• Enforcing a high level of ballot security during the finishing (printing) process
• Ensuring finished ballots are securely transported from one location to another
• Voting System vendor testing and certification of ballot production quality
• On-site inspection

The rigorous certification process was a year-long endeavor, beginning with the creation of the ballot finishing program, requiring approval from the voting system vendor, and culminating in an on-site inspection of the facility and security measures by a representative from the Secretary of State’s office; Nevada County Elections staff successfully satisfied all these requirements.

Earning this certification allows the Nevada County Elections Office the opportunity to realize possible cost savings on ballot printing in upcoming elections. Printing ballots on demand eliminates the practice of estimating ballot inventory levels needed for an election, which will increase both efficiency and security going forward.

Special thanks to Assistant Clerk-Recorder, Gail Smith, and Clerk-Recorder Assistant I, Elise Strickler, for their hard work during the process and successful completion of Nevada County Elections’ Ballot Finishing Certification.

I wonder if this training and certification was mandated after they screwed up the numbering of past ballots?  If it saves taxpayer money, that is a good thing. After the lawsuit the County Elections Office has a lot of making up to do, if they hope to recover the tax dollers flushed down the legal drain.  Your thoughts?

The Union wins 10 awards in best newspaper contest

Russ Steele

All the local bloggers complain about The Union, especially our local lefty blogger who is a former editor of the paper.  However, The Union is more revered by their peers, winning ten awards from the National News Paper Association.  Details at The Union.

Lets hope that they excel at investigative reporting in the coming year. Our local government needs some detailed examination.