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WEEKEND APRIL 9-10, 2011 Breaking news at: Make a Difference Day USA Weekend www.redbluffdailynews.com See Inside RED BLUFF Jr. Giants & Giants SPORTS 1B Weather forecast 10A Mostly sunny 68/43 By ANDREA WAGNER DN Staff Writer 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 Triathlon jeopardized by gov’t shutdown ‘We’re rather optimistic. We still have Athletes competing in the 2011 Black Butte Triathlon were facing more than sweat and endurance tests Friday. Race Director Brandon Drew found out that a U.S. government shutdown could have halted the event mid- way. Drew was working on con- tingency plans, but was hop- ing for everything to proceed as normal Friday afternoon. A budget deal was passed at the last minute around 9 p.m. “We’re rather optimistic,” Drew said. “We still have an event as far as we’re con- cerned.” The sporting event, in its second year, started Friday. It canvasses the Black Butte reservoir southwest of Corn- an event as far as we’re concerned’ Race Director Brandon Drew ing through Sunday, includ- ing a vendor expo, mountain biking, running and swim- ming. The U.S. Army Corps of Epic ride Documenting historic ride of Red Rock By ANDREA WAGNER DN Staff Writer Red Bluff is known for its bull. Not just any bull, Red Rock from Red Bluff was a national legend. Bucking off 311 riders in his rodeo career, he was known as unridable. That was until he came out of retirement to face another rodeo legend, bull rider Lane Frost, in The Challenge of Champions. Red Bluff ’s unde- feated bull was bested by Frost’s 8-second ride in four out of seven rides in an event put together, in part, by Red Rock’s owner John Growney of Red Bluff. “The Challenge of Champions,” a film documenting the lives of the two legends, will be shown twice today at the State Theatre by the Tehama County Arts Council in honor of the 90th Annual Red Bluff Round-Up. “The story of Lane Frost and Red Rock is really a story of Red Bluff,” said Melissa Mendonca, an Arts Council member who suggested showing the film. Red Rock was a “hometown bull” and gentle outside the arena, she said. He would visit schools and let children ride on him. Engineers Sacramento Dis- trict sent a preliminary notice Friday to plan for a possible shutdown, beginning Satur- day, that would include clo- sure of Black Butte Lake. All Corps-operated camp- grounds and day-use parks in California would have been affected if the shutdown of the federal government went into effect. Brad Long, the park man- ager at Black Butte, was on the phone with his national group Friday afternoon to figure out what the shutdown See GOV'T, page 9A Casino hotel bomb threat is only hoax A bomb threat forced evacuation of The Lodge Vagabond Inn at Rolling Hills Casino just before 6 a.m. Thursday. An employee reported that someone had called in the threat and hung up before giving any further infor- mation, according to Tehama County Sheriff’s logs. See HOAX, page 9A CHP rounds up distracted drivers By JULIE ZEEB DN Staff Writer The Red Bluff area California Highway Patrol cited 12 people over the two-day period of its Distracted Driving campaign— a statewide enforcement effort that started Mon- day. Photo courtesy of Sue Rosoff and suerosoffphotography.com Bull rider Lane Frost and local bull Red Rock are featured in the film “The Challenge of Champions,” a documentary showing twice today at the State Theatre as part of the 90th Annual Red Bluff Round-Up. Frost and Red Rock made history in 1987 — Frost, the Professional Rodeo Cowboys Asso- ciation World Champi- on bull rider, and Red Rock, the bucking bull of the year. The following year, Growney helped create The Challenge of Champions. Lawmakers barred from having guns in State Capitol SACRAMENTO (AP) — The speaker of the Cal- ifornia Assembly is blocking permission given to four lawmakers to carry concealed weapons inside the state Capitol. John Vigna, a spokesman for Assembly Speaker John Perez, said Friday the speaker believes the job of provid- ing security is best left to Assembly officials and the California Highway Patrol, which guards the Capitol. He says Perez asked the Assembly’s chief sergeant-at-arms to rescind the permits. The Assembly would not release the names of the four lawmakers who had sought the permis- sion. Sergeants-at-arms in the Assembly began car- rying .40-caliber semiau- tomatic handguns full- time this week in response to recent threats against state lawmakers and the shooting of a congress- woman in Arizona in Jan- uary. The Senate’s chief 7 5 8 5 5 1 6 9 0 0 1 9 sergeant, Tony Beard, says no senator has asked to carry a weapon. Separate from the rodeo with seven match-ups, in which only Frost would attempt to ride Red Rock, the event drew fans from the rodeo cir- cuit as well as those outside of rodeo. “Suddenly the nation would look at rodeos,” Mendonca said. Frost was later killed at age 25 at the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo in Wyoming on July 30, 1989, while dismounting from an 83-point ride on the bull Takin’ Care of Busi- ness. His story was fea- tured in the 1994 film See RIDE, page 9A By TANG LOR DN Staff Writer The artwork of young artists from throughout Tehama County will be on display as part of the Round-Up celebration. The idea for the art show stems from the Tehama County Arts Council’s annual Art- walk that is usually held in the fall. The Round-Up Asso- ciation had asked for a rodeo artwalk, but with the short time frame, arts council members could not put together a proper artwalk, project coordinator Melissa Mendonca said. Orga- nizers came up with the idea of using student art from the Small Schools Art display at the Tehama County Depart- ment of Education. Of the 12 cited, eight were cited for talking on the phone without hands-free devices. “Anyone driving around Red Bluff can tell there’s a problem with people driving while they’re on the phone around Red Bluff,” said CHP Offi- cer Phillip Mackintosh. The remaining four citations were issued for other issues that cause people to drive poorly due to becoming distracted, including eating while on the road and putting on makeup, Mackintosh said. Driver distraction is a significant and growing problem in California and was especially deadly in 2009, when 116 people statewide lost their lives in acci- dent in which at least one driver was distract- ed, a CHP release said. More than 200 agen- cies across the state par- ticipated in conducting enforcement efforts for the month of April, which is National Dis- tracted Driving Aware- ness Month. “When you’re behind the wheel of a vehicle, any distraction can be serious, even life- threatening,” said CHP Red Bluff Commander Todd Garr. “Texting, especially while dri- ving, is not only illegal, it’s just not a good idea. Most of these crashes can be prevented if the drivers change their behavior and focus on driving.” In addition to putting themselves at risk by multitasking, drivers are increasing the risk of injury to their pas- sengers, bicyclists, pedestrians and other innocent victims, Garr said. The CHP has received a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Adminis- tration. “OTS is proud to both help provide CHP with additional resources they need to See CHP, page 9A Student art on display for Round-Up week Daily News photo by Tang Lor Pottery from Corning High School students are just some of the artworks on display at the former Fidelity Title building during Round-Up week. The student art show will be held in the for- mer Fidelity Title build- ing on the corner of Main and Pine streets. The historic building itself is gorgeous, so to have student artwork adorn its walls is a com- plementary blend, Men- See ART, page 9A