The last thing Franceska Alexander ever imagined when best friend, business partner and long-term companion John Mowen died on Jan. 12 was that she’d be spending the Christmas holidays 11 months later not only grieving his loss, but also rebirthing his Nevada County art gallery legacy. “I’ve spent every Christmas with John for the last 11 years,” said Alexander of Mowen, a stone sculptor and former proprietor of the Mowen Solinsky Gallery at 225 Broad St. in Nevada City.

The Curious Forge, Nevada County’s version of a ‘makerspace, ” is not only thriving, but looking to double in size.

This weekend’s 11th annual Nevada County Nutcracker ballet is more than just another magical holiday show. With co-producer Santia Enos Kroes and her extended family of cast members and devoted fans leaving after this season, it’s like a swan song farewell to “Mom” and the warmth of a family circle.

A Nevada County judge on Tuesday denied a defense motion to suppress evidence in the case of holistic physician Harvey Bigelsen, setting the matter up for a three-day trial starting Jan. 27. She was referring to a March 20 raid on Bigelsen’s Biological Health Institute in Nevada City, shutting the clinic down and confiscating two high-powered microscopes that Bigelsen had used to examine live blood cells.

Pass the truffles, ice cream and cookies, please. It’s (fill in the holiday), after all. No problem, says Barry Friedman of Grass Valley, author of the upcoming book, “I Love Me More Than Sugar.”. Friedman, 52, a four-time world juggling champion, Dancing With Our Stars 2014 award winner, entertainment business coach, long-distance swimmer and proud father and husband, is not trying to push people to go to the church of sugar-free.

A Nevada County judge delayed ruling Thursday on a motion to suppress evidence in the case of holistic physician Harvey Bigelsen. Superior Court Judge Candice Heidelberger, citing a need for more time to analyze the multiple briefs filed in the case in recent days, said she would rule at a 9 a.m. hearing on Nov. 25, or earlier in written form if possible.

Nevada County residents, leaders, volunteers and other stakeholders in the issue of housing the homeless came out in force this week to hear a proposal for a microhousing village in Nevada City. “Half the damn town is here,” said Nevada City Councilman Robert Bergman, surveying the crowd of almost 300 people that filled the Nevada City Elks Lodge Monday night.

Nevada County District 3 Supervisor Terry Lamphier is the subject of a criminal investigation pertaining to the alleged possession of child pornography on county-owned computers, according to the Nevada County Sheriff’s Office. In response to a joint public records request filed by The Union and YubaNet.com, sheriff’s office officials Tuesday night released an Internet search history and webpage view history that was allegedly discovered on Lamphier’s computer.

An up-and-coming Nevada County tech startup will be on national TV Thursday night from Denver — but it’s their product you will see, not their faces. No matter what the airplane does or how it moves, GSS’s five-axis gyro-stabilized camera lens will remain steady to a thousandth of a degree — meaning that no movement is detectable to the human eye.

On San Juan Ridge’s Jackass Flats, a gravel road that starts across the intersection from where James Berardi now sits, a moon-like expanse of jagged, exposed rock shrouds the view on one side, lasting for more than a mile. As far as Berardi, superintendent of Twin Ridges Elementary School District and principal of Grizzly Hill School, is concerned, the rocky acreage might as well be the second door of doom.

Nevada County Superior Court Judge Sean Dowling denied a petition late Friday from Measure S backers to stop distribution of ballots for the Nov. 4 elections, saying it was too late to have them reprinted without significantly disrupting the election process. “Ballots have already gone out and some have been voted and returned,” Dowling said, referring to 330 overseas and military ballots sent out before Sept. 20.

Who: Speakers from Washington D.C. and from Kansas City, first site of Google Fiber. Nevada City-based Spiral Internet is poised to secure a $15.2 million grant from the California Public Utilities Commission to build an underground fiberoptic network offering high-speed Internet access in South Nevada County.

With accusations flying faster than drones over Syria after this week’s side-by-side forums, Measure S proponents and opponents have now agreed to a real, actual face-to-face debate next month. The debate on Measure S, the proposed revised medical marijuana cultivation ordinance on the Nov. 4 ballot, will be organized by the local chapter of League of Women Voters.

Robert and Carol Hamilton are frequent donors to area nonprofits and often host fundraisers at their home on Lake Wildwood. So it’s no surprise that singers from Music in the Mountains and InConcert Sierra were the pop-up impromptu entertainers at last week’s 87th birthday party for Robert Hamilton and celebration for the couple’s 45th wedding anniversary.

A North San Juan dentist filed the initial complaint that led to the arrest of holistic physician Harvey Bigelsen and the closure of his Nevada City clinic March 20, court records indicate. Robert Dickter filed the complaint on Jan. 20, 2012, according to an investigation report prepared by the Medical Board of California and submitted to Nevada County Assistant District Attorney Anna Ferguson.

A vocal medical marijuana advocate and strong proponent of Measure S, the upcoming ballot measure proposing revisions to the Nevada County medical marijuana cultivation ordinance, was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of criminal charges by Nevada County Narcotics Task Force agents. Peceimer, whose bail was set at $10,000 for the felony and $750 for the misdemeanor, is expected to be released Thursday, said his attorney Stephen Munkelt.