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WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 29, 2010 Breaking news at: www.redbluffdailynews.com See Below RED BLUFF Local Author Writes Memoir Tuesday Night Lights SPORTS 1B Few showers 49/33 Weather forecast 6B DAILYNEWS TEHAMACOUNTY DAILY 50¢ T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Open for business DUI sweep nets 2 more arrests By JULIE ZEEB DN Staff Writer Tehama County Avoid the Five made two more arrests Monday including one following a crash and another made during a DUI checkpoint in Corning. This brings the total arrested for driving under the influence during the 2010 Avoid the Five Win- ter Holiday Anti-DUI campaign to 23. In 2009, there were 18 people arrested during the same 12- day period. The California Highway Patrol arrested Shelly Dean Smith, 40, of Red Bluff, following a crash at 4:25 p.m. Monday on Trinity Avenue, north of Antelope Boulevard. While Smith was uninjured, her vehicle had minor damage. Smith was going south on Trinity when she made a u-turn, hit a white vinyl fence on the side of the road and drove away, going north on Trinity Avenue, without contacting anyone. Smith was contacted by Red Bluff Police prior to CHP arrival. According to Red Bluff police logs, Smith’s vehicle was seen swerving and had stopped and See DUI, page 5A Daily News photo by Andrea Wagner Holbrook’s Clearance Center, based in Chico, opened a new showroom on Walnut Street in Red Bluff in December. Chico furniture store expands to downtown RB By ANDREA WAGNER DN Staff Writer Calling itself “The North State’s #1 Furniture Liquidators,” a Chico- based discount furniture dealer has set up a second location in Red Bluff. Holbrook’s Clearance Center added a Red Bluff store in Decem- ber, making the business a chain after 21 years in business in Chico. Celebrating with a grand opening sale Dec. 18, the store at 418 Wal- nut St. actually opened Dec. 11. Manager Doug Clift said it has been a project in-the-making for almost a year. “The timing and the place were right,” Clift said. Former Red Bluff furniture stores, McMahan’s Furniture & Appliance at 840 Main St., and R&R Furniture at 585 Antelope Blvd., both closed in the last year or so. Despite recession woes, the busi- ness is doing well, he said. Clift worked with the stores’ owners to open in Red Bluff because they saw a need, he said. Customers from Red Bluff kept coming to the store in Chico. Part-owner Jim Maxwell worked with Clift to find the right deal. “We were already here all the time,” Maxwell said. “We delivered Storm bringing wind, rain to state LOS ANGELES (AP) — A powerful new storm pushed into California from the north on Tues- day as parts of the water- logged state were still cleaning up mud and damage from a siege of record rains last week. Gale warnings went up along almost the entire coast, flood advisories and watches were posted in parts of the North Coast and the Central Valley, and warnings for heavy snow were issued for the length of the Sierra Neva- da. The National Weather Service said the storm was fueled by subtropical moisture from the north of Hawaii, combined with low pressure over the Northeast Pacific. The previous storms were fed by a similar plume, but it originated from south of the Hawaiian Islands and rained most heavily in the southern half of the state. The new rain wasn’t expected to arrive in Southern California until late Tuesday, so shovel- toting volunteers took advantage of sunny weather to clear mud from around dozens of homes in the San Bernardino County community of Highland, which was among areas hit hardest last week. About 700 volunteers from Highland and neigh- boring cities turned out, meeting at a Baptist church where they were assigned to teams and bused to properties, said Bill Peters, a spokesman for the California Depart- ment of Forestry and Fire Protection. ‘‘It was an awesome response,’’ Peters said. Some 100,000 sand- bags were placed to pro- tect the community in case of a repeat of the mud flow that belched from local mountains, overwhelmed a drain channel and surrounded or inundated homes with mud several feet deep. The sandbag walls were built up to the height of that flow. ‘‘We’re pretty positive See STORM, page 5A 7 5 8 5 5 1 6 9 0 0 1 9 Red Bluff Outdoor Power here two times a week.” It was just a matter of where and when the prime location would open up. “This is somewhere we want to stick,” he said. “We plan on being here a long time.” Since opening, Clift has seen positive responses from customers. They don’t have to drive to Chico now, he said. Customers who paid for delivery from Chico before will be able to have same-day delivery for much less, Maxwell said. Red Bluff cus- tomers who bought furniture at the Chico location had to wait some- times several days for delivery. The owners, Maxwell, and Garry and Sherry Holbrook, opened the See OPEN, page 5A Alleged burglar of Chico vet’s office caught immediately Wanted in Tehama Co CHICO — A Chico man wanted on warrants in Tehama County was arrested early Thursday morning on suspicion of burglarizing Mangrove Veterinary Hospital on Mangrove Avenue. A Chico police officer was approaching the busi- ness in an alley about 2:44 a.m. and saw a man riding toward him on a bicycle. The officer stopped the rider, who identified him- self as Gary Delmont Marley, 28. Property belonging to the veterinary hospital, including syringes, was found in his pockets. An investigation showed the hospital had been entered through a window above an air con- ditioning unit. Marley has outstanding arrest warrants in Tehama County for failure to appear on drug possession charges and driving under the influence. It wasn’t immediately determined if Marley may be connected to other area burglaries. Author turns early woes into memoir By TANG LOR DN Staff Writer While most children her age would probably prefer to stay home, 12- year-old Braedon Kuts pleaded with her mother to enroll her in school. School was a haven from her mother’s anger, a place where she would be fed or could at least dig through the trash for scraps to sustain her always empty stomach. Pulled from school in the third grade because her mother did not believe in the value of education and did not want her chil- dren to have a social life, Kuts spent her childhood illiterate, hungry and high on one drug or another, all the while trying to steer clear of her mother’s tantrums and demands. Kuts, now 28, tells her story in a self-published memoir, “The Absent Embrace.” “My story is really a story of transcendence,” she said. “It’s about how I’ve become a successful person despite not being put in school and being illiterate.” Even though she want- ed to do well and attempt- ed to do her homework every night, Kuts couldn’t keep up and dropped out of school after only a month in seventh grade. It wasn’t until sopho- more year in high school that she began attending school regularly again. Even then, with a less than third grade educa- tion, school was difficult, she said. “To be that age and not be able to order off a Burger King menu or do homework assignments because I wasn’t educated enough to read, it was like being in a foreign country and not knowing the lan- guage,” she said. After an incident, Kuts Daily News photo by Tang Lor Braedon Kuts with her book, “The Absent Embrace,” a memoir about growing up neglected and illiterate. 2011 CELEBRATION BULLRIDING & DANCE FRIDAY DECEMBER 31, 2010 Pauline Davis Pavilion Tehama District Fairground Red Bluff, Califorina Doors open 6:30 pm Pre-Rodeo 7:30pm Opening Cememonies 8:00pm For info, reserve seats, or charge by phone Diamond W Western Wear 181 E. 2nd St. Chico 530-891-1650 was uprooted from her Bay Area home in Oakley so her father would not find her and gain custody. She battled push-pull emotions of yearning to be loved but feeling not deserving of love until she eventually found friend- ship in a much older See AUTHOR, page 5A PHYSICIAN REFERRAL A FREE SERVICE PROVIDED FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE 1-800-990-9971 CHW North State Region