*According to a press release from the Amador County Sheriff’s Department, yesterday, Monday January 29, 2007 the forensic examination of Joshua Hampton Hoehn was conducted at the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office.  The examination revealed no visible evidence of trauma from the altercation prior to his death or any pre-existing medical conditions which could have caused his death.  The cause and manner of death is pending the results of neuropathology and toxicology results which will take several weeks to complete.*-update1-31-07

On Saturday January 27, 2007 at approximately 11:43 pm, the Amador County Sheriff's Office received a 911 call related to a 17 year old male, not breathing, at a residence on Eldel Road in Pine Grove.  Amador County Sheriff's Deputies, American Legion Ambulance and personnel from the Amador Fire Protection District and the California Department of Forestry responded. The teenager was found unresponsive and was transported by American Legion Ambulance, with CPR in progress, to Sutter Amador Hospital in Jackson where on January 28, 2007 at 12:44 am he was pronounced dead.

A state commission will consider this week whether eight California sites, including one located right here in Amador County, a Palo Alto garage where Hewlett-Packard began and a Big Sur whaler's cabin -- should become part of the National Register of Historic Places. Members of the State Historical Resources Commission will discuss the sites at their meeting February 2nd in Placerville and will then make recommendations to the Federal Department of the Interior. The sites could be listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the country's official list of cultural resources worthy of preservation.

It what could be a landmark case involving how school district’s hire coaches for their sports teams, a Mother Lode League team has been sued by their teachers association. The Summerville Union High School Federation of Teachers is suing the district, claiming school officials are not following California Education Code for filling their coaching positions. The issue arose after a teacher sought any varsity or freshman-sophomore basketball coaching position at Summerville High school in October. At the time, the district responded that there were no coaching positions available.

Amador County, and the rest of the greater Sacramento area, is on its way to breaking a rainfall record set more than 100 years ago: The record for the driest January since at least 1888-89. “Right now, we stand at .07 (inches). If we don’t see at least eight-hundredths of an inch between now and the 31st, we will break the record for the least amount of precipitation in the month for the month of January,”  Jared Leighton of the National Weather Service in Sacramento told News10.According to Leighton, the reason for the dry weather is a meteorological bumper or balloon sitting right along the California coastline, blocking wet weather systems from moving into the region. “There’s a high pressure ridge just off the coast of California that is pushing all the moisture coming out of the Pacific to the north, in turn, keeping us pretty dry,” said Leighton.

Assemblyman Jim Beall, D-San Jose. Has proposed a new piece of legislation to help the middle class more easily afford college tuition for their children. Beall has proposed legislation to allow people to pay at today's prices for tuition they will use far in the future, when prices are likely to be higher. Contributors could add dollars into specified accounts at any time. The goal of Beall's bill, Assembly Bill 152, is to provide a hedge against inflation for middle-class students who do not qualify for financial aid but are squeezed by skyrocketing tuition. "For a huge number of families, these programs are a tremendous opportunity," said Jackie Williams, chairwoman of the College Savings Plans Network, a nonprofit group. UC tuition and fees have nearly quadrupled since 1991 -- and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed an additional $500 increase for the University of California and $252 for California State University. Beall's bill is patterned after a successful program in Washington State that has attracted more than 70,000 participants in nearly a decade.

These days we hear a lot about zoning and planning and the new General Plan Updates. Traffic, housing density, oak woodlands protection, light pollution and so much more are being discussed in every corner of the county but perhaps the least known part of the General Plan for the County is the subject of energy. The General Plan Committee recently released their working paper on energy. Why is energy being studied? The answer to that question according to the energy paper is that a review of energy data is essential to understanding the energy needs of County residents and thereby accomplishing the vision to conserve, enhance, use and protect mineral, water, air, soil, and other natural resources. The working paper on energy itself will serve as a foundation for updating or creating goals, policies, and programs related to energy and its use in the Amador County General Plan.

Mule Creek State Prison appeared on the Board of Supervisors agenda again on Tuesday and it appears that the wastewater situation hasn’t improved with a reported increase in the prison’s inmate population. Supervisor Forster introduced the item and said he was concerned about information he received that very morning from Ione Mayor Jerry Sherman. “Mayor Sherman indicated to me this morning that the prison inmate count has gone up to about 4500.  We need to verify that,” he stated. Forster stated “I thought we had an agreement with the warden that he would call us if there were any substantial changes in the count or issues that occurred… That will affect substantially their sewer capacity.” Forster continued by saying that, “if ARSA and the city of Ione are trying to work with Mule Creek to resolve the issue and they just keep putting more prisoners in there, that’s not, to me, good faith and we need to make sure that we are operating in that good faith type of relationship.”

A workshop was held this week to discuss the Regional Transportation Plan and the policies and fees that are being charged for transportation issues to new developments in the county. Who pays for what and why? How much should developers pay?- that was the hot topic in the workshop that was deemed needed because of controversy over a proposed development in the Pine Grove area. In that case the developers have requested a new zoning that would allow multiple commercial buildings, specifically 12 condo type businesses. The development would include mixed commercial and light industrial businesses. The issue centers around what the Regional Traffic Plan formulas dictate for fees and the traffic mitigation fees for this project; nearly 6 million dollars.

Controversy in the community continues to swirl around a specific recommendation that the Social Services Transportation Council made to the Amador County Transportation Commission for an “Unmet” transportation need in the community. Once a year ACTC holds a hearing to discuss transportation needs of the community and then prioritizes for the expenditures under the states “Unmet Transportation” needs program which is funded by a ¼ of a percent sales tax returned to the county from the state. This year ACTC is looking to allocate dollars and discussions have centered around 5 basic recommendations that center around providing night time and weekend transportation services through a taxi voucher system, increasing awareness in the community about the Amador Regional Transit System, or ARTS, and its services, adding new routes and perhaps the most controversial- a snow bus to Kirkwood for skiers and snow boarders on Saturdays.