Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/30523
4A – Daily News – Saturday, April 30, 2011 Opinion Newspaper D NEWSAILY RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY 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 Editor: Not always do I pick up the local paper or for that matter any papers. Most of the news is bad. Yeah, I know bad happens. Although, so does good most times it seems we forget that. I do have to say lately that I am Greg Stevens, Publisher gstevens@redbluffdailynews.com Chip Thompson, Editor editor@redbluffdailynews.com Editorial policy The Daily News opinion is expressed in the editorial. The opinions expressed in columns, letters and cartoons are those of the authors and artists. Letter policy The Daily News welcomes let- ters from its readers on timely topics of public interest. All let- ters must be signed and pro- vide the writer’s home street address and home phone num- ber. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and cannot exceed two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section of those submit- ted will be considered for publi- cation. Letters will be edited. Letters are published at the discretion of the editor. Mission Statement We believe that a strong com- munity newspaper is essential to a strong community, creating citizens who are better informed and more involved. The Daily News will be the indispensible guide to life and living in Tehama County. We will be the premier provider of local news, information and advertising through our daily newspaper, online edition and other print and Internet vehi- cles. The Daily News will reflect and support the unique identities of Tehama County and its cities; record the history of its com- munities and their people and make a positive difference in the quality of life for the resi- dents and businesses of Tehama County. How to reach us Main office: 527-2151 Classified: 527-2151 Circulation: 527-2151 News tips: 527-2153 Sports: 527-2153 Obituaries: 527-2151 Photo: 527-2153 On the Web www.redbluffdailynews.com Fax Newsroom: 527-9251 Classified: 527-5774 Retail Adv.: 527-5774 Legal Adv.: 527-5774 Business Office: 527-3719 Address 545 Diamond Ave. Red Bluff, CA 96080, or P.O. Box 220 Red Bluff, CA 96080 getting very discouraged in buying the paper. Between blurring pic- tures, typos and now pages out of place. I send articles to my military pen pals, so this is outrageous. Paula Loucks, Red Bluff Jesus Editor: I hope everyone had a happy and safe Easter. A lot of people forget that Easter represents Christ being risen from the dead. I would expect all kids like the eggs and candy better. My husband and I left church and went shopping. On our way home we see a young man about eight standing on the corner of Washington and Willow streets holding a sign that read “Honk for Jesus.” It brought tears to my eyes how a boy on Easter spends his time on the cor- ner spreading the word. I held my horn down and waved and he waved back. Now that was a beau- tiful site. I called friends and family and asked them if they go out to please drive by and encourage this young man. That is a site you don't see everyday. If your parents read this, I just want you to know you touched my heart on Resurrection Day. Thank you. Angela Perry, Red Bluff Meth is problem Editor: While our Board of Supervi- sors mulls over the decision of whether to or not to regulate or ban marijuana dispensaries, the clandestine laboratories manu- facturing meth amphetamine in Tehama County have pretty much gone unchecked. Yes, law enforcement col- lects miniscule as well as large amounts of this horrendous, overpowering drug. Why not go after the laboratories that process this soul killing drug? Sure marijuana is a major issue now, but marijuana actu- ally does good for those that truly need it while metham- phetamine is the devil’s dust and destroys lives. And not just the users’ lives but the families of the users as well. This drug is the most negative drug on the planet in my opin- ion. Yet our officials choose to avoid the issue of a truly danger- ous drug. I would like someone to enlighten me as to why? J.W. Ostrowski, Red Bluff AB 109 Editor: As I read this great paper every morning, I notice the issue of realignment grow until it landed on the front page April 7, which has prompted me to offer a point of view that has thusfar been over- looked. That is the view from inside looking out. In July of 2010 I was found to be in possession of $10 worth of drugs — magic mushrooms. Your Turn Because I worked two jobs at the time and have never hurt another living thing, I and my family, who all work and live in the county, believed a just sentence would include a lengthy rehabilitation program and some community service, maybe speaking at schools about the dan- gers of drugs. Alas in August I was sentenced to 6 years in state prison. What’s worse, because Califor- nia prisons are so full, with inmates forced to sleep on the floor, I have been sent to Arizona to do my time. So the question at hand is would you like your tax dollars spent on local jobs to deal with local problems or spent in other states, such as Arizona, to deal with their problems? Because AB109 only affects offenders sentenced after July 1, Gov. Brown is not asking county officials to take back hordes of criminals. He is simply asking officials not to send every single offender to prison. Sounds reasonable to me. Jerame Clark, Red Bluff Your officials STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Jim Nielsen (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 6031 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 319-2002; Fax (916) 319-2102 STATE SENATOR — Doug LaMalfa (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 3070 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 651-4004; Fax (916) 445-7750 GOVERNOR — Jerry Brown, State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 558-3160; E-mail: gover- nor@governor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Wally Herger (R), 2635 Forest Ave. Ste. 100, Chico, CA 95928; 893-8363. U.S.SENATORS — Dianne Feinstein (D), One Post Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94104; (415) 393-0707. Fax (415) 393-0710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111; (415) 403-0100. Fax (202) 224- 0454. Rank rankings rankle Commentary There is a big difference between being rank and having rank. In fact, “rank” is an interest- ing word if you like to play with words. “Being ranked”, “being in the ranks”, “rank and file”, “rank amateur”, “rank has its privileges”, “rank odor”, and “J. Arthur Rank” all come to mind (if you old enough to remember British black and white movies that were intro- duced by a muscular man hitting a large gong). Most recently there have been several rankings of the quality of life in our neighbor- hood; most of them do not reflect well on our county or our city. We have a lot of work to do before we brand ourselves if we want to avoid being accused of false advertising; keep reading and you’ll see why. There are 58 counties in Cali- fornia. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in cooperation with the University of Wisconsin ranked 56 of those counties based on health outcomes and health fac- tors. We do not compare well with the rest of the state, or with the United States. For example, the proportion of our population who are adult smokers, have adult obe- sity, are killed in motor vehicle crashes, have sexually transmitted infections, and give birth while still in their teens are so high that we rank 45th out of the 56 coun- ties surveyed in the health factors portion of the survey. Only five counties had a high- er violent crime rate than Tehama County. Our score was 670 versus a statewide average of 520. Only five counties had higher rates than we did: Alameda, San Francisco, Alpine, Sacramento, and San Joaquin. Yes, our violent crime rate was even higher than Los Angeles County. Our motor vehicle death rate was 24; the statewide average was only 12. Our teenage birth rate was 52; the statewide average was 40; sur- prisingly to me the highest teenage birth rate of any county was found in Kings County with 72; I was shocked that San Francisco Coun- ty came in at “only” 23. Only Tuolumne County had a higher percentage of smokers than Tehama County. Only four coun- ties surveyed had a higher rate of single parent households than Tehama County; those were Trini- ty, Del Norte, Mariposa, and Alpine counties. The Robert Wood Johnson sur- vey of healthy outcomes ranks our county 48th out of 56. They used measures of premature death and morbidity to determine this. The survey states Tehama County has 26 percent of its chil- dren living in poverty; the statewide average is 19 percent. Nine counties had higher rates, with the highest three being Trini- ty, Tulare, and Fresno counties. The Robert Wood Johnson sur- vey reported that we have only one mental health provider for each 15,000 people in our county. Only Glenn and Merced had worse sta- tistics, and our ratio of people to mental health providers is almost nine times the statewide average. Maybe that explains the “Odd” items used as fillers in our paper. There is much more data avail- able at the website www.county- healthrankings.org. You might find the survey interesting. Cer- tainly our local leaders should. If we truly want to make our com- munity a prime destination for vis- itors and tourists, we need to attend to the issues brought out in this survey. We want to be truthful when we tell people what a won- derful place we live in, and we should not feel like we should advertize disclaimers and warn- ings about coming here. Before the Robert Wood John- son rankings were released, we learned that the City of Red Bluff is number one. Red Bluff ranks number one among 102 comparison cities accord- ing to the March 18th edi- tion of the Red Bluff Daily News; we are num- ber one for the frequency of “alcohol involved automobile collisions, vehicle versus pedestrian collisions involving chil- dren age 15 and younger, and vehicles versus bicy- clist collisions involving children age 15 and younger.” We dropped to fourth in the rankings for traffic accident rates. The Red Bluff Daily News also reported that violent crime was up 20 percent in Red Bluff; domestic violence was up 27 per- cent. “Gang activity is on the rise, as evidenced by the amount of vandalism and graffiti throughout the city.” munity. Red Bluff Police Chief Joe Nanfito is looking into a police reserve program and a volunteers in police services program. These are first steps. Neighborhood Watch groups might add to the mix, creating a more alert citizenry. Last week I wrote about Blues for the Pool and the need to keep the City Pool open; clearly the demise of the City Pool would not reflect well on whatever the “Red Bluff Brand” turns out to be. Harrop While fiscal resources may be scarce, on paper, it appears we have time on our side. We have a Interestingly, even with crime growing, the number of arrests and citations are down. This is because of reductions in law enforcement staffing triggered by the California state fiscal meltdown. There was a recently well publicized flurry of citations for driving while distract- ed, but that did not seem, to this observer, to make much difference in the drivers around me. Of course driving while distracted is a serious issue, but with crime flow- ing and budgets ebbing we will need to think of some more cre- ative ways to make our communi- ty safer. It will take all of us to accomplish this. One thing we will need to rely on even more is civic minded vol- unteerism; we have to rely on our- selves to make this a better com- large population of retired individ- uals with rich backgrounds who could be tapped for a variety help in times like these. One out of six of us is over 65; this is higher than the state average of one out of nine. Surely those of us in this age range are capable, with a little leadership and training to provide a few hours each week to make Red Bluff a positive brand name. Certainly the some of the one out of six unemployed people in the labor market might be available for a little civic volunteerism; as long as it doesn’t take away from job searching, it might help with self respect in these difficult times. A wise man said there is a lot of difference between saying “some- thing must be done” and saying “I must do something.” Joe Harrop is a retired educator with more than 30 years of service to the North State. He can be reached at DrJoeHarrop@sbcglobal.net.