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Friday, October 28, 2011 – Daily News 9A Obituaries JOY ORSON Joy Orson, born June 3, 1935 passed away October 26, 2011 at the age of 76. She leaves behind her husband of 35 years, Larry Orson of Red Bluff, son John Thornton and daughter Susan Stewart, step-sons Joe, Rod and Scott Orson, step-daughter Kathy Adams. She was a member of the Women of the Moose and enjoyed bowling. A memorial service to be announced at a later date. UNION Continued from page 1A SYLVIA CECELIA BIZARRO Sylvia Cecelia Bizarro, age 51, was a resident of Red Bluff, passed away on October 6, 2011. She is survived by husband Ricardo, 5 daughters, one son, 3 sisters, 5 brothers. She will be missed by many, and was rich with many friends. Services will be held at the Catholic Church on Saturday, October 29, 2011 at 1:00 pm. Death Notice Joy Elaine Orson Joy Elaine Orson died Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011, at St. Elizabeth Community Hospital in Red Bluff. She was 76. Red Bluff Simple Cremations and Burial Ser- vice is handling the arrangements. Published Friday, Oct. 28, 2011, in the Daily News, Red Bluff, Calif. CUTS Continued from page 1A high-cost state?'' Many doctors have stopped accepting Medi- Cal patients because the reimbursements don't meet the cost of overhead and supplies to treat those patients. Doctors' efforts to maintain or improve pay- ments are not inspired by greed, but are intended to protect patient access to quality care, Mazer said. If the cuts go through, Mazer predicts emergency rooms will be flooded with Medi-Cal patients seeking primary care ser- vices because they can't find primary doctors will- ing to see them. That will cause reduced access to vital, speedy care for all patients, he said. Anthony Wright, exec- utive director of Health Access California, agreed that the cuts will affect care for millions of Cali- fornians, but he identified a silver-lining in Thurs- day's announcement. Some of the state's pro- posed cuts were rejected by the federal government Thursday, including 10 percent cuts to services for children, home health ser- vices and other facilities. Other cuts to long-term care facilities are still under review. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services also has yet to rule on Gov. Jerry Brown's requests to require Medi-Cal patients to pay $5 copays for physician visits, $50 copays for emergency room visits and limit most beneficiaries to seven doc- tor visits a year. The governor says those changes would save the state more than $550 million, but doctors say it's unlikely that low- income families will be able to pay the co-pays, which will mean more financial burden for their practices. Arrest made in two-county car theft ring By GREG WELTER MediaNews Group WILLOWS — A man authorities have been search- ing for since June in connection with a wide-ranging auto theft ring was arrested Saturday by Willows police. A search warrant was served about 2:30 p.m. at the home of Cheng Kong Yang, 23, in the 1200 block of Green Street. A sweep in late June by law enforcement agencies from Corning to Willows identified several people sus- pected of participating in the theft of vehicles in Glenn and Tehama counties, then stripping them for parts. Yang's home was visited, but he wasn't located. Willows Police Chief Bill Spears said the suspect left the area, but recently returned. He was booked at the Glenn County Jail on two arrest warrants alleging possession of stolen property and mak- ing terrorist threats. He also allegedly violated the terms of his probation. Willows police requested a bond enhancement, and Yang is being held at the Glenn County Jail in Willows in lieu of $170,000 bail. Spears said Yang is a long-time Willows resident and was well known to police. Spears said the investigation leading to Yang's arrest, and that of others, was a coordinated effort between several agencies in Glenn and Tehama coun- ties, including sheriff's offices, the California Highway Patrol, and city police from Red Bluff, Corning, Orland and Willows. Dr. Andrew PomazalD.O. Physician & Surgeon General Medicine Saturday Appointments Available • High Blood Pressure • Diabetes • Joint & Muscle Pain • Lung Problems We offer Osteopathic Manipulation 530 528-2066 2050 Main St, Red Bluff Accepting New Patients the offer since they already voted it down. The union has 27 mem- bers, with 10 employees being paid out of the Gen- eral Fund and the remain- der being paid through the Enterprise Fund. Any con- cessions made by the Enterprise funded employ- ees would have been con- sidered a gift. In the union's first set- tlement offer, the employ- ees asked for a $97 raise for all employees, which would be gifted back to the city. The council rejected the offer because it did not create the $45,000 of savings the Budget Committee had requested. In the second offer, employees said they would give back $50 per ALERT Continued from page 1A lights, confusion and sleepiness. Newborns and infants may not have a stiff neck, but may appear slow, inactive, irritable or stop act- ing or eating normally. As the dis- ease progresses, patients of any age may have seizures. If any of these symptoms should develop, parents should take their child immediately to a physician or the emergency room to be evaluated for possible meningitis. Antibiotic treatment of the disease is usually successful, especially if it is started early. You are at increased risk if you FARM Continued from page 1A ture," Sutton said. "It's our primary industry. Without water, we can't farm." There are benefits to keeping the water rights protected including 16,000 jobs regionally, he said. "Tehama County pro- duces $25 million in crop product and contributes $100 million to the local economy," Sutton said. In September the gates went up for what is likely the last time. In May 2012, the new pumping plant is expected to come on line to take care of irrigation needs for some 150,000 acres. The plant, which is 25 percent state funded and 75 percent federally fund- ed, will cost about $230 million for infrastructure, which is below the $260 million originally project- ed, Sutton said. The TCCA will be operating and maintaining things, which means it should be done at a cheap- er rate. Participants also toured the Driscoll Nursery at the Mills Ranch in the Bend area where Foundation and Breeding Nursery Manager Melissa Macfar- lane spoke about the nurs- ery end of Driscoll. "I make sure we have the plants the breeders need," Macfarlane said. "I manage the developing of varieties and make sure there are clean stock vari- eties available for our growers." The family-owned operation has 97 seasonal employees at the Mills Ranch, which is the head- quarters for the low-eleva- tion nurseries for the 850 acres contracted in the local area. It is also the headquarters for US nurs- eries, Macfarlane said. At Bengard Ranch in the Lake California area of Cottonwood, manager Greg Long showed off cat- tle, prunes and two vari- eties of walnuts — Howard and Chandler. The ranch was bought 18 years ago and has about 300 acres of irrigated pas- paycheck. The council rejected that offer and lay- offs were implemented for 10 employees. No one has openly talked about what the third offer would have been. Fire Department Administrative Assistant Sherryl Arend, one of the 10 employees affected by the layoffs, said she was absolutely in favor of going to the council with the third offer but was out- voted. Without stating what the offer was, she said, "Personally, I thought it was a great idea and a win- win situation." The layoffs have creat- ed a financially difficult situation for her, and she has had to cancel her health insurance because she is no longer consid- ered a full-time employee, Arend said. Other employees who were contacted by the Daily News said they have personal opinions about why the third offer was voted down, but declined to go on the record stating fear of retribution from the council and city adminis- tration. Frolli said he is still pursuing legal action against the city to dismiss the layoffs. The union has main- tained that despite the city's choice to call the reduced hours layoffs, they are really furloughs and should be labeled as such. Frolli has passed on the paper work to the union's in-house legal counsel who will decide on the appropriate charges to file with the Public Employ- ment Relations Board. City Manager Martin Nichols said had the union presented an offer that cre- are a close contact of someone who has meningitis. Close contact means living with or having intimate con- tact with this person. People in the same household and persons work- ing in the same setting as a patient are considered close contacts. Close contacts can also include anyone who shared oral secretions, such as kissing, or shared food, drink, water bottles, cigarettes, lip- stick, etc. Antibiotic treatment and vaccine (Menactra) is advised for all close contacts of meningitis patients. For people who are not close contacts of an active case, the risk of infection is extraordinarily low. For them, antibiotics are not advised. Menactra vaccine is routinely given to persons 2 through 55 years ated the $45,000 savings, he would have recom- mended the council to adopt the offer in lieu of the layoffs, which were approved on Oct. 4 and went into effect last week. The layoffs will create some changes in service and hours of operation at City Hall. Starting Nov. 4, the front counter will be closed every other Friday. Those who need to do business with individual departments will still be able to contact the appro- priate person through phone but will not be able to do business at the counter. City Hall will be closed Nov. 11 and 25, but those closures are due to holi- days, not layoffs. ——— Tang Lor can be reached at 527-2153, Ext. 110 or by e-mail at tlor@redbluffdailynews.co m. of age for active immunization against meningococcal disease (meningitis) caused by the most common types of N. meningitidis serogroups A, C, Y, and W-135. These are the serogroups that have been found in our community. Vac- cination with Menactra is also rec- ommended for control of meningo- coccal disease outbreaks. Menactra vaccine will not protect against any of the other types of bacterial meningitidis. For additional questions or infor- mation regarding your child's immunizations and/or meningococ- cal disease, please contact Tehama County Health Services Agency, Public Health Division, at (530) 527-6824 or 1-800-655-6854. ture and between 400 and 500 acres of dry land. About 5,000 to 6,000 pounds of walnuts are pro- duced per acre and about 6 dry tons of prunes, Long said. At the Shasta Livestock Auctionyard, manager Matt Norene and Kevin Devine, with Western Video Market, spoke about auctions. In its best year, the auc- tion yard moved about half a million head of cat- tle via Internet sales, Devine said. The information on the cattle is published on wvmcattle.com about two weeks before along with video of the cattle. While people can watch online or on Dish Network, the auc- tion is a live auction at the yard. People can bid at the auction yard, online or to the auction's phone bank. Close to 100,000 cattle come through the auction yard a year, while about four times the amount are sold through the Internet auctions which can feature videos of cows at their The governor also wants current ranch. Those who missed the Farm-City Bus Tour can still make the Farm-City Night where awards including Volunteer of the Year, Senior Citizen of the Year, Woman of the Year, Young Farmer of the Year, Outstanding Public Ser- vice, Teacher of the Year, Board Member of the Year, Business Person of the Year and Farmer of the Year are given. Tickets are $25 in advance or $30 at the door for the event, which will be Monday, Nov. 7 at the Red Bluff Community Center, 1500 S. Jackson St. Social Hour and Taste of Tehama Trail is at 5:30 p.m., CR BBQ will pro- vide dinner at 6:30 p.m. and awards at 7:30 p.m. For more information, call the Farm Bureau at 527-7882. ——— Julie Zeeb can be reached at 527-2153, extension 115 or jzeeb@redbluffdailynews. com. Calif. proposes hybrid pension plan for new hires SACRAMENTO (AP) — Gov. Jerry Brown unveiled details of his pension proposal Thursday that seeks to move new California state workers to a hybrid system where guaranteed benefits are combined with a 401(k)- style plan and would raise the retire- ment age from 55 to 67 for civil work- ers, as union leaders lined up to oppose his plans. The Democratic governor's plan calls for trimming generous public employee pension benefits that have saddled California and local govern- ments with billions of dollars in unfunded liabilities. He is asking the Legislature to put a measure on a statewide ballot so the changes would impact both state and local govern- ment employees. Brown's plan deals mostly with new state hires by raising the retire- ment age from 55 to 67 for civil work- ers. Public safety officials who can now retire as young as 50 would have to work longer, but the calculation would be based on their ability to per- form. and new hires to start paying a greater share of pension costs; some con- tribute nothing toward their benefits. By shifting to a mandatory ''hybrid'' system, employees with at least 30 years of service would replace about 75 percent of an employee's salary through retirement funds and Social Security, according to the draft. ''I tried to do something that's legal, that will save a hell of a lot of money going forward and that I think is fair,'' Brown said Thursday. Brown said he went as far in scaling back benefits as he believes is legally possible, blaming lawmakers over the decades for gradually increasing bene- fits and approving ''very generous and unaffordable ground rules that then the collective bargaining process took advantage of.'' Public employee unions already were lining up to oppose Brown's pro- posal, which the administration esti- mates would save about $900 million annually. Dave Low, chairman of Californi- Red Bluff Simple Cremations & Burial Service You DO have a choice in the Red Bluff area. Caring & Compassionate Service Full traditional burial service or cremation 722 Oak Street, Red Bluff, FD Lic. 1931 527-1732 ans for Retirement Security, said the governor's proposed changes would undermine retirement security for pub- lic employees who have already agreed to ''hundreds of millions of dollars in pension concessions at the state and local level.'' ''Workers across California have negotiated contributing more to their pensions and two-tier benefits,'' Low said in a written statement. ''We sim- ply cannot stand for imposing addi- tional retirement rollbacks on millions of workers without bargaining.'' Brown's plan would require approval from the Legislature, where union-allied Democrats are likely to balk at some of the significant roll- backs, and where Brown failed to win consensus on pensions with Republi- cans last spring. Sen. Mimi Walters, R-Lake Forest, a member of a newly formed Senate- Assembly committee on pensions, said Brown was ''moving in the right direction'' by recommending a mandatory hybrid system and raising the retirement age.