Call from the Congressman: Jared Huffman; movie alert

     The mayor received a phone call from Jared Huffman, Conressman from Northern California's 6th District.   He was holding a Town Hall Meeting in a novel style: a phone tree established connections with a large number of constituents who were invited to participate.   The Congressman explained current legislative efforts and answered questions as listeners posed them in order.   It was very effective, although somewhat limited in outreach.  Actual numbers of participants were not available to listeners.  Topics included the drought and the debate in Congress over what action to take; the NSA activities that led to the leaking of secret data by contractor, Edward Snowden; veterans Affairs;
continuation of Federal unemployment benefits; ACA- health insurance plans,etc.; and the retirements of Democrats from California, George Miller and Henry Waxman from L.A.   He covered other topics and came across as well spoken, well informed, and well able to handle the method as presented to the public.  A novel way to take the pulse of the district.

      The Weather- Now you see it, Now you don't.
      Well, the forecasters got some of it right: we did get snow in the basin, but not much.  Most of it fell on the west slope, with little actually making it to the lake level.   Maybe this is the beginning of our 'lost' winter.  Maybe not.

Movie:
   MONUMENTS MEN 
  This is not a review, but it is a heads' up.   This new movie, directed by George Clooney, comes to theaters next week(after Super Bowl Weekend).   It features an all-star cast and id based on a book written 20 years ago about a US Army unit in Europe composed of art historians, linguists, archeologists,  museum curators, and other experts who were assigned the task of finding and returning art works looted by the Nazis when they conquered Western Europe in 1939-40.   With the war winding down and the Russians breathing down their necks, these daring men managed to recover millions of pieces of stolen art.   It promises to be a good film.

UNBROKEN-The Movie
      Heard by the vine that the film version of the biography of Louis Zamperini, the Olympic runner, WW II P.O.W. survivor is in production, with filming going on in Australia with the help of Lucas Films from San Francisco's Presidio campus.