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THE MONEY TREE — The fundraising frenzy is underway in two of the three Placer County supervisorial races that will be on the June ballot. District 5’s Bruce Kranz leads the pack with almost $90,000 in the till as of last New Year’s Eve. His largest contributor, Royal Gorge LLC, which kicked in $15,000 in earlier reporting periods, was not mentioned in the latest financial report. Squaw Valley Ski Corporation leads the most recently posted data with $10,000. There were $5,000 contributions from Placer Vineyards, Tom Winn of Lennar Communities and Jim Regas of Oak Brook IL (who kicked in plenty to Alice Dowdin’s abortive supervisorial race in 2004); a $4,000 gift from developer Jim Conkey; and $3,000 contributions from Nella Oil Company and Auburn Manor Holding; and lesser contributions from United Auburn Indian Community, Alpine Sierra Ventures and the CDF Firefighters Union. One of Kranz’s possible opponents, Jennifer Montgomery of Soda Springs, reported receiving $15,699 as of December 31, much of it from owners of Serene Lakes properties opposed to Royal Gorge LLC’s plans for a huge development in that area. She also got dough from State Probate Referee Kevin Eckard and retired Appellate Judge Bill Newsom...District 4 Supervisor Kirk Uhler reported taking in $45,265, most of which came from Placer Ranch and other development interests. District 3’s Jim Holmes reported that as of December 31 his campaign treasury contained a mere $3,096, with $1,000 from Baxter Grade rancher Mike Baxter the largest contribution. Unlike Kranz and Uhler, Holmes is expected to be unopposed for a second term.
WHAT’S UP WITH CHARLIE BROWN? — With all the fuss about the Doug
Ose-Rico Oller major league matchup for the GOP nomination in the 4th
Congressional District, little is being heard about Democrat Charlie
Brown, who came within three whiskers of knocking off Rep. John
Doolittle in 2006 and has been campaigning for a rematch ever since.
But there’ll be no rematch because Ol’ John is retiring and Charlie
will have to face a Republican he can’t accuse of being corrupt. Well,
along comes Auburn’s Trish Grenfell, who reports that on Sunday,
February 24th, there’ll be a volunteer kickoff party for Brown from
2:30 to 5 p.m. at the Health For All Center at 4065 Grass Valley
Highway north of Dry Creek Road in North Auburn. Rob Haswell, the
Democratic Assembly nominee in 2006 and maybe again this year, will
emcee the affair, which will include music and refreshments. Call Trish
Grenfell at (530) 887-8873 and tell her you’ll be there....Hey, the
mention of Doug Ose prompts me to report that Richard “Buck” Robinson,
the onetime Placer High cage star who later worked as staff director
and chief apologist for Rep. Doolittle, is overseeing the campaign of
Ose, who is viewed as a moderate Republican as opposed to Mr. Oller, a
far-right graduate of the Doolittle School of Take No Prisoners
Politics. Yes, Virginia, there is such a thing as redemption....And as
for Theodore Terbolizard, the pleasant Republican congressional hopeful
I treated to a four-star lunch at Mary Belle’s a few weeks ago, he got
popped by Grass Valley cops on a DUI charge early the other morning.
Rather than say he screwed up, the 39-year-old candidate and former
public relations whiz wisecracked, “So what? There was no collision. I
didn’t hurt anybody.” He also said the pinch will not affect his
campaign and will actually net him some name-recognition. Ted spent a
few hours in the Nevada County Jail before being released on his own
recognizance. Stay tuned.
BILL LIPSCHULTZ SALUTED — At least 400 people showed up at the Gold
Country Fairgrounds last Sunday to celebrate the life of our town’s
Bill Lipschultz, who died January 22 at age 78. Jim Merrill did a
masterful job emceeing the tribute and the speakers included Bud
Richardson, Harrison Goodwin, Tom Leupp, Dirk Amara, Bruce Cosgrove,
Mitch Hanna and Paul Ogden, all of whom represented chunks of Bill’s
professional career and community endeavors. Singing by a barbershop
quartet — Bill was a basso — concluded the impressive event.
KOVACICH
UPDATE — Don’t even fake surprise when we report that there’s been
another delay — the hundredth maybe? — in the case against Paul
Kovacich, the pensioned Placer County sheriff’s sergeant accused of
murdering his wife Janet a quarter century ago and dumping her body in
Rollins Reservoir on the Bear River. Judge Mark Curry, the county’s
newest jurist, now has the case and has it tentatively set for trial in
late August. Let’s hope that Judge Curry drops the gag order Judge Dick
Couzens slapped on the case soon after Paul’s arrest in September of
2006. It’s about time the public is allowed to know just what the
prosecution has in the way of evidence against this guy who remains
free on $1.5 million bail.
ROUNDABOUT — Senior Chief Petty
Officer Ralph Chavez will speak at this Monday the 18th’s dinner
meeting of the Placer County Council of the Navy League in the Auburn
Veterans Memorial Hall on East Street, starting at 6 p.m. Chavez will
talk about the Navy’s role in the civilian action projects underway in
war-torn Afghanistan. The tariff is $12 payable at the door and you
need only be a supporter of the naval services to attend. Call (530)
823-2820 for details...Looks like City Manager Bob Richardson is
getting rave job reviews from his city council bosses and is in line
for another pay raise. I guess this scotches reports that he’s been
job-hunting elsewhere...Show no surprise when the November re-election
bids of Sierra College Trustees Scott “Mini-Me” Leslie and Aaron Klein
are vigorously opposed by supporters of Kevin Ramirez, the Sierra
president whose early retirement they helped engineer a couple of years
ago...My dear friend Charlotte Brooks, who specialized in Asian history
at Yale and earned a doctorate at Northwestern, is now a professor at
City University of New York’s Baruch College. A 1989 graduate of Placer
High School and the daughter of Dick Brooks and the late Peggy Brooks,
Charlotte is due to appear on the PBS show “History’s Detectives” this
summer and provide background on early Chinese settlements along the
Sacramento River...Mike Glennon, the former Applegate resident and
ex-UC-Davis law instructor who toyed with the idea of running against
Congressman Doolittle a while back, has surfaced as a professor at
Tufts University’s prestigious Fletcher School of International Law.
And how do I know this? I saw him on C-SPAN the other day testifying
before a House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee...From old friend Donna
Howell comes word that Carol Cramer, the retired Placer Hills School
4th grade teacher and local history buff, will speak at the March 7
NOON program of the Auburn Friends of the Library in the Auburn
Library’s Beecher Room. She’ll be talking about Claude Chana, Charles
and Marie Tuttle, Eliza Elliott, Eliza Caruthers and other “famous”
early Auburnites. What, no mention of moi?
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Pete