The Calaveras County Fair and Jumping Frog Jubilee is just over two months away.

Preparations are well under way for the May 16 through 19 event in Angels Camp, and the general public got a sneak peek Wednesday night at the fairgrounds’ Frogeteria building.

Faith is important in the life of Murphys resident Ray Morris. Maggie Beck / Union Democrat, Copyright 2013.

But that’s just a “sidebar,” if you ask Morris.

Did you think it was unseasonably hot yesterday? You’re right. 

Sonora met its record-high temperature for the date yesterday — the thermometer hitting 78 degrees. The record was set in 1934. 

A 77-year-old man who allegedly stole a motorized shopping cart from a Sonora grocery store last month failed to appear in court Wednesday on a felony auto theft charge.

John Charles Mathews, of Columbia, was scheduled to be arraigned in Tuolumne County Superior Court but was being held in Calaveras County Jail at the time of the hearing.

Thousands of Tuolumne and Calaveras county residents commute across county lines for work, according to data recently published by the U.S. Census Bureau.

About 15 percent of employed Tuolumne County residents, and nearly half of working Calaveras County residents, commute to another county for work, the data showed.

The Tuolumne County Sheriff’s Office on Wednesday released the names of nine businesses where clerks allegedly sold alcohol to minors during a Saturday sting operation.

Six minors attempted to buy alcohol from 47 businesses in the county that are licensed by the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

If you see smoke pouring out of Sonora High School’s Centennial Hall and humanities buildings Saturday, don’t panic — it’s all part of a senior project. 

Sonora High student Austin Lunde has coordinated a drill for Tuolumne County emergency personnel to take place from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday.  

The U.S. Census Bureau released its population estimates for 2012 today, with both Tuolumne and Calaveras counties continuing the multi-year trend of population loss.

According to the Census statistics, Tuolumne County has a population of 54,008, down 1.2 percent from 2011 and 2.4 percent from the numbers reported in the 2010 census. In Calaveras County, the bureau reports an estimated a loss of 44,724 people, down almost 1 percent from 2011 and almost 2 percent since the census.

Supporters of Columbia College President Dennis Gervin questioned Yosemite Community College District trustees Wednesday on their recent decision to fire him. 

The Board of Trustees has not released information on the reasons for Gervin’s dismissal Feb. 28 beyond citing an “extended process of performance evaluation.”

The Ratto Ranch outside Sonora would be preserved from development under a plan now in progress. Amy Alonzo Rozak / Union Democrat, Copyright 2013.

The 238-acre Ratto Ranch appeared on the silver screen’s 1936 “Charge of the Light Brigade” starring Errol Flynn, the 1943 picture “For Whom the Bell Tolls” and 1952’s “High Noon,” each starring Gary Cooper, and several times in the 1970s and 1980s on Michael Landon’s TV series “Little House on the Prairie” and “Highway to Heaven,” among other productions.