Opinion

Forestry decision: A day late and a dollar short?

After what one party termed “an obscenely long” period of time, the courts are nearing resolution on one of the key forestry battles of recent years: The question of which set of management rules, the 2001 Sierra Nevada Framework or the 2004 Framework, should govern the 11 national forest throughout the mountain range.

Family Farm Preservation Act is critical to the future of agriculture

Mike Emigh
Chairman
Agricultural Council of California

11/4/2009

The estate tax has for years compromised a family’s ability to successfully transfer its agricultural businesses to the next generation of farmers or ranchers.
The estate tax was originally passed as part of the Emergency Revenue Act of 1916, and was part of the nation’s preparation for World War I.

Taxpayers need to demand accountability from PDH

Robert T. Herr

Chief Financial Officer

Executive Vice President

Plumas Bank

10/28/2009

I attended and spoke at the community meeting last Thursday night regarding the construction of the new Plumas District Hospital building. Like most of the hospital district residents, I would like to have a new medical facility in order to better serve the community.
The problem I am having is with the unfair distribution of the burden on the district taxpayers to repay the debt being incurred that will last for the next 30 years and the lack of accountability required on the part of the hospital during that time. I think it is time to step back and review the project from conception to the present and encourage the hospital board to do the right thing.

Boom and bust is a well-worn cycle

18th Century Economics My Turn ALL
Joshua Sebold
Staff Writer
10/21/2009

   Many of the experts on TV who talk about the current economic downturn argue that the financial devices that led to our downfall, like credit default swaps, were too new for people to understand and that rapid progression in the way we conduct commerce led to the downturn.
   I’m not interested in arguing whether or not that is true, but I would like to point out our tendency to allow our economy to be decimated by investment schemes has been going strong for some time.
   It seems the original idea of investment was to give money to someone who you thought would be more effective than you in making something useful with those funds.
   You give some of your money to the kid who used to conduct science experiments in his backyard, and hope he invents something with it that you couldn’t think up yourself.

Big Win for Forest Service and QLG

10/7/2009

Sam Wilbanks

Retired Forest Service District Ranger

Member of Quincy Library Group

Members of the Quincy Library Group are cautiously celebrating what will likely turn out to be a seminal victory in the ongoing litigation over how to manage the national forests of the Sierra Nevada.

On Thursday, Oct. 1, District Court Judge Morrison England issued a “tentative ruling” at the federal courthouse in Sacramento, rejecting arguments made by Sierra Forest Legacy and other environmental groups, who claimed that the rules adopted in 2004 for management of these forests in the Sierra Nevada would cause irreparable harm to the environment. They wanted the previous rules of 2001 reinstated.