Red Bluff Daily News

December 06, 2013

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FRIDAY REACH gives DECEMBER 6, 2013 Breaking news at: www.redbluffdailynews.com Dependable Dorsey Education See 4A Sports 1B DAILY NEWS RED BLUFF Rain/Snow 42/30 Weather forecast 8A TEHAMA COUNTY DAILY 50¢ T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U NTY S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Mammoth proposal Jackson elected Red Bluff mayor By RICH GREENE DN Staff Writer Daniele Jackson is the new mayor of Red Bluff. The Red Bluff City Council elected Jackson to the position for the upcoming year after outgoing Mayor Wayne Brown nominated her to the post. Brown said even though he often falls on different sides of issues than Jackson, he has gained a lot of respect for her during her three years on the City Council and the tenacity she has fighting for her causes. Councilman Rob Schmid seconded the nomination, while Councilman Clay Parker was the lone no vote against her election. Raymond Eliggi was Illustration courtesy the Ndovo Foundation This artist's illustration incorporates a pond on Diamond Ranch and what it might look like with a elephant tent camp. Group pitches elephant reserve in Tehama County By RICH GREENE DN Staff Writer A group of philanthropists and animal researchers believe Tehama County would be the ideal location for — of all things — an elephant reserve. Representatives from the Oakland Zoo and Ndovo Foundation shared their vision Thursday at a Tehama County Planning Commission meeting of a 4,900-acre facility that at peak capacity would house around 50 African elephants. The proposed site would be at Diamond Ranch, located northwest of Bowman Road, about 1,400 feet north of State Route 36W within the unincorporated area of northern Tehama County. The proposal includes several accessory uses such as a large barn, housing quarters for research and security personnel, out buildings, specialized fencing, feed storage areas, veterinary services and internal and external education and research facilities. Don't expect Earth's largest terrestrial animal to begin roaming Tehama's rolling hills anytime soon. The project's leaders said the entire plan would be developed in three phases that would take between 50-100 years to compete. Roger McNamee, a founding member of the Ndovo Foundation, said it "If you don't want it here, let us know." — Ndovo Foundation founder Roger McNamee would take at least three years of planning and construction before the reserve was ready to house its first elephant. The reserve would then begin with a handful of elephants that would take up just a small portion of the Diamond Ranch property, about 540 acres. Thursday's presentation in front of the Planning Commission was informational only, as the group moves forward with the process of meeting with local stakeholders to share their own vision as well as explain the benefits they foresee coming to Tehama County. McNamee said there is only one timetable he has for the project and it has to do with getting an answer quicker than later on whether his group should begin looking elsewhere. "If you don't want it here, let us know," McNamee said Thursday. McNamee said he hopes the county would get excited about the project and develop a sense of pride in the elephants over the years as home to a oneof-a-kind reserve in America. McNamee said he has endowed the project with enough money to cover the first two phases and plans to have everything fully funded. Oakland Zoo CEO Dr. Joel Parrott said his organization would maintain care of the elephants. Parrott is also a founding member of Ndovo, which borrows its name from the Swahili word for elephant. Parrott said Tehama County would benefit from the reserve through the educational experiences that could be offered to local schools. Those educational advantages, he said, would extend beyond K-12 and into local college's veterinary programs. The reserve would also become a sought after destination for other schools in the Bay Area and Northern California, which would be part of the added economic activity that would be brought to Tehama, he said. He said economic activity would further increase through local staffing, product purchases and construction of the facility. That construction would include two sets of fences — one 8-feet high to keep humans away from the elephants and a second elephant barrier. The latter would not be electric, but would require extensive work, enough to employ around 10 people at a time See GROUP, page 7A Daniele Jackson unanimously elected to Jackson's former position of Mayor Pro Tem. "You really think I'll have enough experience," See MAYOR, page 7A 2 students arrested after gang fight The first few days on the job for Vista Preparatory Academy's new gang resistance school resource officer have already been eventful with a gang-related fight resulting in the arrest of two high school students. The Red Bluff Police Department assigned Officer Sean Baxter to Vista on Monday beginning an extensive Gang Resistance Education And Training (GREAT) program being funded through a national grant. On Wednesday several students at the school reported to Baxter that a group of four older juveniles had come onto the Vista campus to the fence surrounding the track and field and challenged several students to a fight, according to a department press release. The students reported the older juveniles claimed to be gang members, were dressed in gang attire and threw gang signs. See GANG, page 7A Red Bluff man arrested with dozens of stolen credit cards A 32-year-old Red Bluff man was found with more than 40 stolen credit card numbers after he checked into a motel room using one of them Wednesday morning. The Red Bluff Police Department responded to a report around 10:30 a.m. that a stolen credit card had been used to rent a motel room at the America's Best Value Inn., according to a department press release. Officers learned the man that had rented the room at 210 S. Main St. was Michael David Hency. The investigation led officers to find additional property that had belonged to the victim of the stolen credit card inside the motel room and on Hency. Officers also found numerous other credit cards See CARDS, page 7A Nelson Mandela, South Africa's peacemaker, dies JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Nelson Mandela was a master of forgiveness. South Africa's first black president spent nearly a third of his life as a prisoner of apartheid, yet he sought to win over its defeated guardians in a relatively peaceful transition of power that inspired the world. As head of state, the former boxer, lawyer and inmate lunched with the prosecutor who argued successfully for his incarceration. He sang the apartheidera Afrikaans anthem at his inauguration and traveled hundreds of miles to have tea with the widow of the prime minister in power at the time he was sent to prison. It was this generosity of spirit that made Mandela, who died Thursday at the age of 95, a global symbol of sacrifice and reconciliation in a world often jarred by conflict and division. 7 5 8 5 5 1 6 9 0 0 1 9 Mandela's stature as a fighter against apartheid — the system of white racist rule he called evil — and a seeker of peace with his enemies was on a par with that of other men he admired: American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. and Indian independence leader Mohandas K. Gandhi, both of whom were assassinated while actively engaged in their callings. Mandela's death deprived the world of one of one of the great figures of modern history and set the stage for days of mourning and reflection about a colossus of the 20th century who projected astonishing grace, resolve and good humor. Dressed in black, South African President Jacob Zuma made the announcement on television. He said Mandela died ''peacefully,'' surrounded by family, at around 8:50 p.m. ''We've lost our greatest son. Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father,'' Zuma said. ''Although we knew that this day would come, AP file photo Nelson Mandela is seen at his home in Qunu, South Africa in this file photo taken Aug. 6, 2012. nothing can diminish our sense of a profound and enduring loss.'' At times, Mandela embraced his iconic status, appearing before a rapturous crowd in London's Wembley Stadium soon after his 1990 release from prison. Sometimes, he sought to downplay it, uneasy about the perils of being put on a pedestal. In an unpublished manuscript, written while in prison, Mandela acknowledged that leaders of the anti-apartheid movement dominated the spotlight but said they were ''only part of the story,'' and every activist was ''like a brick which makes up our organization.'' He pondered the cost to his family of his dedication to the fight against the racist system of government that jailed him for 27 years and refused him permission to attend the funeral of his mother and of a son who was killed in a car crash. In court, he described himself as ''the loneliest man'' during his mid-1990s divorce from Winnie Mandela. As president, he could not forge lasting solutions to poverty, unemployment and other social ills that still plague today's South Africa, which has struggled to live up to its rosy depiction as the ''Rainbow Nation.'' He secured near-mythical status in his country and beyond. Last year, the South African central bank released new bank notes showing his face, a robust, smiling image of a man who was meticulous about his appearance and routinely exercised while in prison. South Africa erected statues of him and named buildings and other places after him. He shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize with F.W. de Klerk, the country's last white president. He was the subject of books, films and songs and a magnet for celebrities. In 2010, Mandela waved to the crowd at the Soccer City stadium at the closing ceremony of the World Cup, whose staging in South Africa allowed the country, and the continent, to shine internationally. It was the last public appearance for the former president and prisoner, who smiled broadly and was bundled up against the cold. One of the most memorable of his gestures toward racial harmony was the day in 1995 when he strode onto the field before the Rugby World Cup final in Johannesburg, and then again after the game, when he congratulated the home team for its victory over a tough New Zealand team. Mandela was wearing South African colors and the overwhelmingly white crowd of 63,000 was on its feet, chanting ''Nelson! Nelson! Nelson!'' It was typical of Mandela to march headlong into a bastion of white Afrikanerdom — in this case the temple of South African rugby See DIES, page 7A

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