The Tuolumne County Board of Supervisors will likely begin the process of finding a new District Attorney this week.  

The topic is on the agenda for the board’s Tuesday meeting, where supervisors are scheduled to discuss their options and choose a course of action.

Permits to climb Half Dome by cable will be required seven days a week in Yosemite National Park this summer.

This is an extension of the interim permit system implemented in 2010 to address crowding and safety issues on the cables leading to the summit, said park spokeswoman Kari Cobb.

The next six weeks promise to be lively in the ongoing proceedings of the Trinitas golf course bankruptcy and its related federal cases.

Modesto federal bankruptcy court Judge Ronald Sargis postponed a hearing previously scheduled for Wednesday to Feb. 22 on his order to show cause why a $12 million civil rights suit by course owners Michael and Michelle Nemee should not be dismissed.

Ken Foley, the San Andreas attorney representing the Nemees, could not appear on Wednesday due to a previously scheduled trip. Sargis agreed to push back the hearing on a suit filed Oct. 7 against Calaveras County, former Interim Community Development Director Brent Harrington, former county planner Shaelyn Strattan and up to 20 John and Jane Does.
  

A little more than a week after prospective candidates began to pick up paperwork for an electoral bid, each Calaveras County race in the June 5 primary appears to be contested.

The most crowded field remains the Board of Supervisors District 2 race with the field of three who announced early last week, now joined by West Point business owner Bryce Randall, 54, and Thomas Swartz, 60, who has owned Club Paradiso and the California Street Cafe in Valley Springs.
  

A brush fire near Groveland yesterday burned about 4 acres of land before it could be contained.

The blaze off Ponderosa Way was reported at 1:48 p.m. and took fire crews until 6 p.m. to contain.

Three engines each from Groveland Fire Protection District and Cal Fire, along with three hand crews from Baseline Fire Camp, worked through the afternoon to extinguish the flames.

No structures were threatened.

Crews will work throughout the day to extinguish any hot spots, according to Cal Fire.

A cause has not yet been determined.

Cal Fire spokeswoman Lisa Williams said it’s not typical for the area to be so dry in January, making leaves and vegetation quicker to ignite.

“It has been an extended dry weather season and the winds we had in early December made everything more dry,” Williams said.

2012 COPYRIGHT UNION DEMOCRAT

"I said, ‘Oh, I still have trains. Let’s put them under the Christmas tree,’ ” Zach, 62, a tax preparer, said on Thursday. “It’s been downhill ever since.”

Downhill and uphill, at least for the trains. Zach has been building a miniature replica of the Sierra Railroad with model trains for more than 20 years. In the basement of his Twain Harte home, he has a three-level working representation of the engines and locomotives that hauled timber from the Central Sierra Nevada mountains to the rest of the country.
  

 Cal Fire’s Tuolumne-Calaveras Unit announced late Thursday it has suspended all outdoor burning as the Mother Lode goes through one of its driest winters on record.

The lack of precipitation coupled with dry winds have created fire danger levels that are more typical of mid-summer than January, according to Cal Fire.
   

The Sonora City Council on Tuesday will hear a presentation detailing the effects of the California Supreme Court’s decision to uphold legislation that eliminates all local redevelopment agencies in the state.

 City Administrator Tim Miller will give the presentation at the meeting, which was moved to Tuesday from its regularly scheduled date in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The council will also vote on whether to approve scheduling a special meeting Jan. 30 that will outline the necessary actions needed to dissolve the Sonora Redevelopment Agency by the Feb. 1 deadline as mandated by the legislation.
 

The Modesto Irrigation District voted on Tuesday to negotiate a water sale agreement with the City and County of San Francisco.

The move allows the MID general manager to continue ongoing talks over an initial agreement to sell up to 2,200 acre-feet of water from the Tuolumne River annually to San Francisco. The two parties also will continue working on a long-term agreement that could lead to an annual water transfer of up to 25,000 acre-feet.

If it eventually happens, the water sale is expected to raise about $1.5 million annually for MID, which pulls its water from the Tuolumne River at Don Pedro Reservoir.

MID officials have said the money would go toward $115 million in improvements to the district’s water system and the costly relicensing process for the Don Pedro dam.

Mother Lode Fair directors must decide whether to continue letting some community events be held at the fairgrounds for free or at reduced prices.

In the past, events such as the annual Tuolumne County Health Fair, Ag in the Classroom programs, a holiday party for underprivileged children and an annual career and job fair were given special deals because they serve the community and don’t make money.