SACRAMENTO – Today, Assembly members Dante Acosta (R-Santa Clarita) and Catharine Baker (R-Dublin) introduced a resolution calling on the University of California Regents to reject their proposed tuition increase. The resolution (ACR 167) calls on the UC to focus on students and use its funding more efficiently in light of the UC Office of the President’s history of fiscal mismanagement that included lavish spending and a secret $174 million reserve fund. 
 
“It’s been less than a year since we found out that the UC administration hid about $175 million in a secret fund, then tried to cover it up,” said Acosta. “It takes some nerve to push for a tuition increase after a stunt like that. How can the Regents look students in the eye and explain this plan? UC students and faculty deserve better.”
 
“The UC needs to get its own financial house in order before it even considers asking students for more money,” said Baker. “California students and families deserve better financial management from UC, not tuition hikes.”
 
An April 2017 report by the State Auditor revealed that the UC Office of the President used misleading budget practices, paid extraordinarily generous salaries and interfered with investigators. The Auditor also reported that the Office of the President had spent more than $2 million on wasteful items like theatre tickets, luxury hotels and limo rides.
 
The proposal being considered by the UC Regents would increase in-state tuition by $342, or 2.7% for the 2018-19 school year. It follows a $336 tuition increase imposed by the Regents last year.  Last week, following outcry from students, parents and elected leaders, the Regents postponed a vote on the tuition increase until their meeting in May.
 



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The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is planning to capture numerous elk in northern California in late January and early February.


From Jan. 31 through Feb. 4, CDFW will capture as many as 43 adult Rocky Mountain elk (nine bulls and 34 cows) in Lassen, Modoc and Siskiyou counties in northeastern California. From Feb. 6 through Feb. 8, CDFW will capture up to 16 Roosevelt elk cows in Humboldt County in northwestern California.


The elk will be captured on lands managed by the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) as well as on private properties with permission from landowners. CDFW is grateful to the USFS, timberland owners and other private landowners that are providing access to their lands for the captures.


Under the direction of CDFW veterinary staff, CDFW wildlife biologists will lead the captures. Capture crews will locate elk via helicopter, capture them with net guns and restrain the captured animals for tagging.


Each elk will be ear tagged and fitted with a GPS collar. Pregnant female elk from specific herds will receive an additional transmitter that will monitor their pregnancies and aid biologists in finding their calves in the spring. The collars will provide detailed information about elk for approximately two years. This information will enhance CDFW's knowledge of current elk distribution, abundance, calf recruitment, survival and habitat use.


For additional information regarding captures in Lassen, Modoc or Siskiyou counties, please contact CDFW Wildlife Biologist Reid Plumb at (530) 598-6011. For information regarding captures in Humboldt County, please contact CDFW Environmental Scientist Carrington Hilson at (707) 445-6493.







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The Sierra County Arts Council is pleased to present Ludi Hinrichs “THE JOY OF MUSIC ACROSS THE GLOBE” as part of our Artists in Schools program.  Ludi will be performing a student assembly at Loyalton Elementary Multi-Purpose Room on Feb. 8 at 1:30pm. Ludi’s music is a reflection his own journeys to several continents, and the direct experience of performing and collaborating with master musicians and teachers from the US, India, Africa, Canada, Japan, Australia and Indonesia over the last four decades. Ludi offers our students the experience of hearing the unique beauty and commonality of diverse World cultures.
  
Ludi will perform samples of some of the World’s cultures utilizing voice, gong, harps, metallophones and wind instruments to visually and sonically open the student’s parameters of what music is, while actively requesting their participation, and at the same time enhancing the specific core elements of melody, rhythm, harmony, texture, structure and ensemble awareness.  
 
Ludi has over forty-five years of teaching and performing in public schools and venues both in the US and abroad.  Currently Ludi is lending his talents to teach our elementary students music at Downieville School.   You may learn more about Ludi at his website www.ludihinrichs.com.
 
This event is sponsored by a grant from the California Arts Council and by matching funds from the Sierra-Plumas Joint Unified School District.  Thank you to all the volunteers and to staff from our schools for making this opportunity available to our students.  Sierra County Arts Council is the State-Local Partner with the California Arts Council.  For information call B.J. Jordan at 530-289-3673 or visit the Arts Council’s website www.sierracountyartscouncil.org.
 

 
William John (67) Rescue.  Driving under the influence.  Three years probation, 2 days jail, fine $1880, attend alcohol school.
 
Mark Kisch (49) Roseville.  Hunting in zone for which he did not possess license and tags.  Fine $670.
 
Kane Knoefler (37) Downieville.  Violation of parole for not keeping in touch with parole officer.  One hundred – eighty days jail.
 
Pang Punn (49) Foresthill.  Possession of marijuana in open container in vehicle.  Fine $460.
 
Steven Reel (63) Chilcoot.  Possession of device for smoking a controlled substance.  Twenty months probation, fine $1040.
 
Brody Smith (36) Ylina Smith (33) Concord.  After a contested preliminary hearing, both defendants were ordered to stand trial on first degree (residential) burglary, committing a burglary while a person was in the residence, grand theft, and elder abuse theft.  They remain free on $100,000 bail each. This incident involved a burglary of  hotel business in Downieville.
 
Debra Hunt (33) Richard Douglas (22).  Both pled guilty to residential burglary and committing a burglary while a victim was in the residence.  They will be sentenced on February 9.  Both defendants are in custody.  Hunt is a sentenced prisoner our to Trinity County and Douglas has been in custody since the incident. 
 
Shawna Graves (33) Loyalton.  Dog at large, fine $153.
 
 
 
Ernest Suschnick (72) Oroville.  Display of license not issued for the vehicle upon which it was being displayed.  Fine $567.
 
Mark Black (47) Loyalton.  Unlawful operation of motor vehicle in closed state wildlife area.  Fine $475.
 
Sheri Wolverton (49) Yuba City.  Sentencing after a conviction of setting fire to forest land.  Five years probation, 100 days jail,  fine $1435, and  a restitution hearing is set.
 
Alfonso Ruiz-Tapia (34) and Margrito Valencia-Andrade (47), both are Mexican nationals.  Sentenced for cultivation of marijuana with an illegal water diversion.  Both were sentenced to two years state prison, after which ICE plans to deport both defendants.
 
 
 
 
 

Small Business Reacts to Governor Brown’s Final State of the State
Disappointed by glaring omission of small business from speech

SACRAMENTO, Calif., January 25, 2018 – Following Governor Jerry Brown’s final State of the State address, NFIB California State Director John Kabateck issued the following statement on behalf of our 22,000 dues-paying small business members:


“With California being ranked the worst state in which to do business more than 10 years in a row, home to the nation’s highest income tax, sales tax, gas tax, and one of the most hostile legal climates, NFIB/CA was troubled to hear more about high-speed rail and the Governor’s commitment to do ‘everything in his power’ to protect the recent gas tax increase, while failing to mention small business even once in his speech.


“While we appreciate the Governor’s rhetoric and tone toward fiscal restraint and responsibility, we wish to see more policies to support these words, rather than more taxes and spending. Although the Governor’s final State of the State address left much to be desired for small business, we hope to provide the insights of our 22,000 small business members to the Governor and Legislature in the year ahead.”


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For more than 70 years, the National Federation of Independent Business has been the Voice of Small Business, taking the message from Main Street to the halls of Congress and all 50 state legislatures. NFIB has 325,000 dues-paying members nationally, with over 22,000 in California. NFIB annually surveys its members on state and federal issues vital to their survival as America's economic engine and biggest creator of jobs. To learn more visit www.NFIB.com/california

SENATOR GAINES RESPONDS TO GOVERNOR BROWN’S 2018 STATE OF THE STATE ADDRESS
 
SACRAMENTO – Senator Ted Gaines (R-El Dorado) today reacted to Governor Jerry Brown’s 2018 State of the State address, which he delivered to a joint session of the Legislature and the people of California this morning.
 
“I’m glad that the state’s revenues are still healthy, but that will mean nothing if we don’t get our spending priorities straight and cut spending overall. Any bit of fiscal news that sounds promising for the state completely ignores the massive, looming catastrophe that is our public pension system. Our unfunded liability could be half a trillion dollars – trillion, not billion. That money we owe won’t get us anything new – not another road or dam or officer patrolling the streets. It’s for services we’ve already consumed. This debt won’t go away by ignoring it, and the Governor should develop a concrete plan to pay it down and rein in runaway pension benefits.
 
“High Speed Rail is the first transportation system to run entirely on taxpayer money, a miracle fuel that Governor Brown imagines never runs out. The ‘train to nowhere’ is such a colossal waste of cash that could be used to repair our crumbling roads or invest in our universities or any one of a thousand other, better uses.
 
“California has the highest poverty rate in the nation because the state is so expensive. Taxpayers will foot the bill for High Speed Rail, but they also pay electricity rates that are almost 50-percent higher than the national average. Our gas taxes just shot up by twelve-cents a gallon with more major increases to come. Our absurd housing costs are unaffordable to vast swaths of people. Those costs are the results of policy decisions by liberal legislators and the Governor.
 
“The federal government cut taxes to put money back into families’ pockets. California is proposing to double the state corporate tax and creating gimmicky tax schemes to keep personal taxes high. It never ends. Maybe it’s time the Golden State takes a lesson from the new Washington, D.C.”
 
# # #
 
Senator Ted Gaines represents the 1st Senate District, which includes all or parts of Alpine, El Dorado, Lassen, Modoc, Nevada, Placer, Plumas, Sacramento, Shasta, Sierra and Siskiyou counties. Follow him on Facebook.



Assembly Republican Leader Dahle Responds to State of the State
 
SACRAMENTO – Today, Assembly Republican Leader Brian Dahle (Bieber) released the following statement in response to Governor Brown’s State of the State Address:
 
“Five years ago, I came to the Legislature to make sure my family and friends could afford a better life in California. Today, while California is on the verge of becoming the fifth largest economy in the world, the state’s skyrocketing cost of living and highest-in-the-nation poverty rate prove that there is a lot of work left to do.
 
“Our leaders must remember that California is not just made of tech billionaires. We have to pay attention to the working-class people who are struggling to find the money for day-to-day necessities. We need to make California a state that ordinary people can afford.”
 
Assembly Republican Leader Brian Dahle serves the 1st district.

Assemblyman Harper Responds to
Governor’s State of the State Address
 
 
SACRAMENTO – Today, Assemblyman Matthew Harper (R-Huntington Beach) issued the following statement in response to Governor Jerry Brown’s State of the State Address:
 
"I appreciated Governor Brown’s thanks to our first-responders. As California suffered last year from terrible natural disasters, including devastating forest fires and deadly mudslides, it was our police and firefighters who answered the call to protect others, even as their own homes were in the path of danger.
 
In his final State of the State address, I was hopeful that he would put the brakes on high-speed rail. With a price tag of more than $60 billion and no completion date in sight, it is time to focus on real transportation solutions. Californians are paying the highest gas prices in the nation and not seeing any improvements on our roads. We should use transportation funds to add lanes to reduce traffic on our congested freeways and make it easier for hard-working Californians to get to their jobs.
 
While Governor Brown painted the picture of California’s economic prosperity, most Californians are struggling to live here. My legislative priority for 2018 will be to lower taxes and support bills that streamline building regulations to help reduce housing costs. I look forward to working with the Governor to make California a more affordable place to live. ”
 
Assemblyman Matthew Harper represents the 74th Assembly District; he is the former Mayor of the City of Huntington Beach. The 74th Assembly District includes the cities of Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, Newport Beach, Irvine, Laguna Woods & Laguna Beach.
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LOYALTON CITY COUNCIL met January 16th. Discussion and possible action regarding CalPERS retirement for former employees was taken off the agenda and later stated because it was just a static item and there was no discussion.

Farr West Engineering gave a presentation regarding development and maintenance of a Geographic Information System (GIF) database and web-based interface of the City’s Utility Infrastructure, approved by USDA with the scope of work. It was stated there’s still $40,000 of the USDA grant.

Names are being taken for nomination of the Richard Meder Community Leadership Award.

There was a lot of public comment over the lack of a committee to work with the sheriff’s office on abatement of the trailers illegally parked around town. 
Sheriff Tim Standley gave a history of the trailer park, having to have authority and it having no owner. 
From the audience, Mark Lombardi argued it was “unacceptable;” the need to demand it as “a nation of laws,” it was “inexcusable, lame excuse and insulting.”
Sheriff Standley told of the Friday court hearing where the judge granted another phase of funding, going to a funding source for cleanup of the mobilehome park and hoping for clean up by the end of the month. He told of the talk about the wind and debris, rain, mold, rats and rodents, ferel cats and debris piling up. “The sooner removed, the better for everybody,” he said.
The City’s code had been printed in the Sierra Booster and there was some disagreement with audience members whether or not a committee was now needed but can be formed at the special meeting.

Paul Rose of  a Reno firm introduced himself, has toured the City’s wastewater plant and is a licensed operator with a wastewater consultant on staff and 
was interested in helping with the city’s operational needs.

For the Loyalton Volunteer Fire Department Report, Assistant Chief Robert DeMartini told of a mutual aid call to Scotts Road for a structure fire with its water tender and four volunteers. It is partnering on a grant with Sierra Valley, Sierra City and Downieville and told of a grant for a water tender needed for outlying areas. He called the Timberline fire residue “the mess” hopefully to be cleaned up.

There was discussion over the City’s last attorney bill total from July to December of $104,080 and Bookkeeper Tracy Smith explained $86,850 and $9,650 were for the Cox and Cox wastewater settlement. From the audience, former Council member Brooks Mitchell questioned why it cost the City and stated it should have come out of the settlement.

Jackie Mitchell, curator of the museum, told of Craig Sheridan’s high school woodworking class building a garage for the little fire engine 15’ x 7’ with a back door and big plexiglass window and using $3,000 from her museum fund. It is to be started in September. Under question, she said it would be built on the gravel  where she couldn’t put the old equipment due to community protest.
Libby Ryan questioned why Jackie hadn’t called her about the museum committee and Jackie answered she won’t start a committee.

The Council approved conveyance of real property from the City to the County for Health and Human Services facilities.

The Council was ready to appoint a new member with Allen Tidwell, Brooks Mitchell and Colby Russell applying. The ad in the Sierra Booster gave applicants until February 19th to apply so it was appropriately postponed.

A SPECIAL meeting Jan. 24th saw approval of an exclusive $25/month lease agreement with the archery club for the swimming pool building with the tenant building a $6,000 floor and making repairs, including rust on the beams, with permits and paying utilities.
Farr West Engineering gave a presentation on the Loyalton Utilities Church Stret Sewer Rehabilitation project, which is categorically exempt from CEQA.
After heavy discussion led by Council member Joy Markum and clarification of the City Ordinances read by Sheriff Tim Standley, it was approved Joy could serve abatement letters on illegal camping trailers, camper shells, RVs  or mobile homes within the City.




 

A Cattlemen’s Clinic was held the afternoon of January 19 in Loyalton at the Social Hall.
Tracy Schohr, University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE) Livestock and Natural Resources Advisor for Plumas, Sierra and Butte counties is shown giving the welcome. Ken Tate, Ph.D., University of California, Davis gave a report on Best Management Practices at the Ranch to Promote Water Quality.

Topics discussed were Ranching with Predators: Tools and Impacts with Leslie Roche, Ph.D., University of California, Davis and Dan Macon, UCCE, Livestock and Natural Resources Advisor Placer-Nevada-Yuba-Sutter Counties; 
Reporting Predation Locally – Tracy Schohr; 
Beef Cattle Marketing: Are Your Investments Paying Off? by Tina Saitone, Ph.D., UCCE Specialist and UC Davis Lecturer; 
A Practical Approach to Herd Health and BQA Bret McNabb, DVM, Assistant Professor with the Livestock Herd Health and Reproduction Service, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine; 
Prevention Works - New Vaccines on the Market Shane Strickler, Regional Sales Manager, Boehringer-Ingelheim.
Beef Quality Assurance certification was available at the event for producers.

A second Clinic will be held Saturday, January 29th at Feather River College, Golden Eagle Avenue in Quincy.

​IN LOYALTON, the former bakery building is nearing remodel completion and Jill and Josh Makoutz are looking forward to opening early summer.
Josh works at a family lawn care business in Reno with his dad and five siblings.
Jill is a former teacher who has taught English as a Second Language in Croatia during college and now home schools their three children, Ruby, 10, Dylan 7, and Sawyer, 4.
Jill and Ruby held a 4-H bake sale downtown and sold out which helped them realize the need for fresh baked goods.
Both Jill and Josh love to cook.  In Wisconsin, from where they moved, they ran a cafe together and featured coffee and crepes. Yes, crepes - that type of very thin pastry with those savory and sweet variations. Think buckwheat with breakfast fillings and from Ham, Gouda, Spinach, Egg, Pesto, Scrambled Eggs and Mozzarella. 
Jill knows all about the sweet and elegant crepes that dress up any occasion and make it special like Lemon Curd with whipped cream, Nutella, Raspberry. This may all be offered along with other food items.
So, once thought to become a pizza parlor, they now think of featuring a regular Pizza Night but opening week ends as a cafe.

By Assembly Republican Leader Brian Dahle

For people like me who don’t live near city centers, quality internet service is hard to come by. This digital divide for people in rural areas has major consequences including a lack of jobs which depend on a strong internet connection and a lack access to education. I have worked to solve the problem in California and the federal government just lent a welcome helping hand.  
Last year, the Governor signed my bill to help close the internet gap. The measure more than doubles the amount of money used by the California Advance Services Fund to pay for broadband infrastructure projects to underserved areas. Internet access is dependent on infrastructure and rural areas will now have more money for building things like modern communications towers which can provide fast and reliable wireless internet. 
Along with my bill, President Trump recently issued an executive order to help rural Americans get faster internet. The executive order streamlines approvals and allows internet service providers to use US Department of Agriculture land and facilities for building new broadband towers.
There’s no single easy solution to increasing broadband access, but putting federal assets to use to serve neighboring communities will remove a major roadblock to improving rural networks.
Faster internet access is a necessary tool for growing the economy. Companies who depend on downloading and uploading large amounts of data will be able to set up operations outside of cities. Architects, for example, depend on transferring large digital blueprint files. With access to broadband internet, they will have the flexibility to do business in rural areas, bringing jobs and opportunity to the community. 
Higher internet speeds will also allow rural students to access online courses and educational videos. This year’s budget commits funds to develop the state’s first online community college. The growing trend of online education makes it more important than ever to make sure young people have access to the same to high speed internet as the rest of the state. 
Broadband internet is no longer a luxury, it’s a necessity. In the California economy, information travels at the rate of megabytes per second. For most of the state, internet speeds have kept up with the pace of technology. For the forgotten few in rural communities, the internet is not available at all or only provided at slow speeds. With my bill and the new executive order, rural Californians will finally have the same access to education and job opportunities as the rest of the state. 
Assembly Republican Leader Brian Dahle serves the 1st district in the California State Assembly.