The Insatiable Beast

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3 Responses to The Insatiable Beast

  1. Michael Anderson says:

    I used to be a regular subscriber to the hard copy versions of the San Francisco Chronicle, as well as the New York Times and Sacramento Bee, when I first moved to Nevada County in early 1988. Also The Union, the Endeavor, and a host of others as they came and went, such as the Nevada City News and I think an iteration of the Nevada City Independent but I am sure Steve Cottrell will set me straight on that one.

    Anyway, over the years, all of that has changed. I stopped the Sac Bee and the NYT hard copies once they went to the Internet and I could get them for free online, and I finally gave up on the Chronicle around 2004. The Endeavor was run out of town by Sheriff Tobiessen around 1998 if I remember correctly, but that’s a great story that should be told by someone with a lot more institutional knowledge.

    Anyway, the reason I bring all of this up in this comment is because the only hard copy subscription I still continue is with The Union, and that is because it is a great community newspaper, and one of the crown jewels of where I have lived for now almost 30 years. That being said, I still occasionally–like once a month–buy a hard copy of the Chronicle, and I sit at the counter of one of our many comfort food diners in Grass Valley or Nevada City, and I absorb the paper like I used to do when I was a younger man. This is quicker and easier to do these days since the Chronicle is so much thinner than in my youth.

    So, this is the long way of me describing my experience at lunch today when I opened up my San Francisco Chronicle and found on Page 3 one of the most abject apologies I have ever read from a public utility. PG&E was completely forthcoming about the San Bruno disaster: the cost, their culpability, what they were doing to make amends, and a very sincere apology. And yet, when I tried to find its equivalent online, I came up short. This apology was for print only.

    Not only that, Earl’s editorial cartoon is about who is bearing the cost. Yup, it’s the rate payers, and the CPUC is asleep as the switch. Got hypocrisy, un-accountability, and craven messaging?

    The big question is this: who pays for deferred maintenance, the users or the holders of the note? Dear Oroville Dam bond people, can we liquidate your holdings to finance the fix? That would seem like the right thing to do.

    Get back to me…

    • steve cottrell says:

      Mike:

      The sheriff in 1998 was Troy Arbaugh. I believe he served 1996-2000, then lost to Keith Royal in the 2000 election..

      The Independent went out of business in the summer of 1982, but was soon purchased by the Mountain Messenger (at that time they published both Sierra County and Nevada County editions).

      The town’s weekly then became the Independent-Messenger and it published until just after you moved to Nevada City in ’88.

      The Nevada City News first published in early 1990 and, if my aging memory cells are correct, we lasted 75 or so weeks.

      Trying to keep a small-town weekly afloat can be a real challenge, as RL knows, so glad that the Advocate is around on at least a monthly basis.

  2. rl crabb says:

    It’s a shame that energy de-reg was botched so badly back in the nineties. Now the only other option is to invest in solar, which is great but not feasible for some.

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