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Gunman wounds 2 teens at Bay Area church RICHMOND (AP) — Authorities say two teenagers were shot and wounded when a man opened fire at a church service in the San Fran- cisco Bay Area. Richmond police Sgt. Bisa (BEE-suh) French says three men in hooded sweat shirts walked into the church at about 12:30 p.m. Sunday and one of them fired a gun, hitting a 14-year-old boy in the shoulder and a 19-year- old man in the leg. Both were hospitalized and are expected to survive. The three men fled and no suspects have been arrested. French says there were about 100 people inside New Gethsemane (geth- SEH'-muh-nee) church in Richmond at the time. There were no other injuries. French says investiga- tors believe the gunmen were targeting someone in the church but don't know if the two that were hit were the intended tar- gets. 4.1 quake shakes desert COSO JUNCTION (AP) — A magnitude-4.1 earthquake has shaken California's eastern desert, one of many small temblors that have struck the state in recent days. The Inyo County Sher- iff's Department says there are no reports of injury or damage from the Sunday quake near Coso Junction, about 75 miles northeast of Bakersfield. A report from the U.S. Geological Survey says the quake came at 4:10 p.m. in a sparsely popu- lated area in the upper Mojave desert frequently hit with small and moder- ate quakes. The USGS says it was centered five miles north- east of Coso Junction and 140 miles north of Los Angeles, at a depth of 1.3 miles. A magnitude-2.6 after- shock followed about three minutes later. Plans for Golden Gate suicide nets SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Directors of the agency that oversees the Golden Gate Bridge have moved a step closer to approving a suicide barri- er along the historic span. The board voted 16-0 to approve an environ- mental impact report that examines the conse- quences of hanging steel nets 20 feet below the bridge deck on each side. ''The mood in the room was that we did the right thing,'' said Mary Currie, bridge district spokeswoman. About 25 people per year die in jumps from the bridge. Suicide preven- tion activists have long pushed for the barrier, while detractors have argued the money would be better spent on mental health services. More than 1,200 have plunged to their deaths from the bridge since it opened in 1937. The district broke a decades-long deadlock in October 2008 when offi- cials voted overwhelm- ingly in favor of the net system. The impact report approved Friday said the gray steel netting should remain unpainted and that 8-foot fences should be erected for short stretches where the net would have stuck out. The bridge district still needs $50 million for the project — $5 million for a detailed design and $45 million for construction. Officials are pushing for changes to make suicide barriers eligible for feder- al transportation funding. The board also moved forward Friday with a first-ever plan to charge a toll to carpools crossing the bridge. The 16-0 vote favored charging carpools $3 — half the regular $6 toll. Officials will hear public comments on the plan in May. The proposal would also charge trucks $5 an axle. Officials contend the toll increases are needed to help erase a $132 mil- lion debt. Cal company expands meat recall MONTEBELLO (AP) — A Southern California meat-packing firm has expanded its recall of ground beef and veal that might be contaminated with E. coli. The Department of Agriculture's Food Safe- ty and Inspection Service said Friday the recall now includes approxi- mately 4.9 million addi- tional pounds of meat products by Montebello- based Huntington Meat Packing Inc. under the Huntington, Imperial Meat Co. and El Rancho brands. The original recall, announced Jan. 18, was for 864,000 pounds of meat. E. coli is a potentially deadly germ that can cause bloody diarrhea, dehydration and, in the most severe cases, kidney failure. Renovation for California Theater to be put to bid PITTSBURG (AP) — A landmark theater in Northern California is a step closer to being ren- ovated after inspections of its structural rein- forcement were com- pleted. Pittsburg City Man- ager Marc Grisham says a renovation project for the historic California Theater will be put to bid later this month. The bidding process comes after city leaders last fall agreed to put $4.5 million toward ren- ovation of the theater. City leaders and resi- dents have sought to transform the long- vacant theater into a community performing arts center. The theater opened in 1920 and closed in 1954. Pittsburg bought the property in 1970, but the building has been in disrepair since 1991. It's hoped the project, which includes a seis- mic retrofit and restora- tion work, will be fin- ished by 2011. Monday, February 15, 2010 – Daily News – 7A N EWS D AILY RED BLUFF TEHAMA COUNTY 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 PHONE: (530) 527-2151 FAX: (530) 527-5774 545 Diamond Avenue • P.O. Box 220 • Red Bluff, CA 96080 Support our classrooms, keep kids reading. DONATE YOUR VACATION newspaper dollars to the Newspaper In Education Program HELP OUR CHILDREN For more details call Circulation Department (530) 527-2151 sional and helpful in his treatment of any requests that we have brought to him," wrote John Crosby on behalf of the Paskenta Band of Nomalaki Indians in a letter to the corpora- tion endorsing the award. "He has been a wealth of information regarding planning and any potential issues that could arise in various situations. We appreciate the objective approach he takes as he looks at the various issues in the community." Jon Halfhide, president of St. Elizabeth Commu- nity Hospital, endorsed Robson as well. "St. Elizabeth depends on the growth of jobs in our community, and I feel that George understands this. He makes sure that proponents of these pro- jects that create jobs are encouraged to bring them forward. George works tirelessly for the benefit of our community and deserves to be recognized as the Person of the Year." Other groups supported the selection of Robson for the honor, including BR Enterprises, Walmart Distribution Center and Sierra Pacific Industries. The Person of the Year award is given to an indi- vidual who has lead the county in job creation. This person must have had a hand in helping make the county better, Moule said. Traditionally the award is given to businesses, and Robson is only the second individual to receive the award. The other individ- ual recipient was commu- nity philanthropist Orville Jacobs. Robson, who has worked in his capacity for nearly 36 years, is over- whelmed and happy about the recognition, he said. "I am proud and happy to be selected, though I didn't expect this," he said. "I have always been inter- ested in the economic well- being of the community because it means having a certain quality of life." The award will be pre- sented to Robson at the Seeds of Opportunity con- ference in March. The annual county economic forecast conference will feature three speakers who will talk about economic development. The state of the county and city address- es will be given as well. ——— Tang Lor can be reached at 527-2153, Ext. 110 or by e-mail at tlor@redbluffdai- lynews.com. Continued from page 1A MAN some California residents who buy insurance on their own, after reach- ing a deal Saturday with state regu- lators. The new rates were supposed to start on March 1. Anthem will delay the hike until May 1, giving the state time to review the increase with the help of an outside consul- tant. Only about 5 percent of non- elderly Americans have individual insurance, compared with 60 per- cent who are covered by their employers. The remainder is almost evenly divided between those whose care is shouldered by government and those without any insurance at all. The cost of employer-sponsored health insurance at big companies rose 7 to 10 percent this year, said Tom Billet of Towers Watson, a ben- efits consulting firm. Preliminary estimates for next year call for roughly the same increase — much lower than the ones set out by Anthem and other individual insur- ers. ''The individual market is sort of its own animal, so to speak,'' he said. At first glance, WellPoint's rate hike affects only a small group — some of the 800,000 people in Cali- fornia who buy its individual cover- age. But it's also about many more, since just about any American is — or, given the uncertainties of the economy, can be — a candidate for individual coverage at any time. Millions in group plans have lost jobs and the insurance they count on as a benefit. People in individual plans are trying to keep up with escalating premiums. Some without insurance do so to save money, but as they get older may decide it's not worth the risk. WellPoint defended the hike as a response to the economy. More con- sumers are tight on money and, as a result, those who are younger and healthier are dropping out or taking on pass on individual insurance, leaving a pool of less healthy people requiring more costly care. Without younger, healthier consumers, Anthem said, the remaining cus- tomers had to shoulder the costs of their own care. ''The result is an insured pool that utilizes significantly more ser- vices per individual than under bet- ter economic times,'' the company wrote in a letter sent to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, defending the hike. ''The economic thing makes some sense, no doubt about it,'' said Gary Claxton, an expert on the pri- vate insurance market at the Kaiser Family Foundation. ''If people don't have as much money they're not going to be as many people who can afford to buy insurance ... and the ones who are more likely to do that will always be the healthier ones.'' But Will Dow, a professor of health economics at the University of California, says the rate hike reflects an individual insurance mar- ket that is fundamentally broken. Anthem has a reputation for cherry- picking healthier consumers and trying to shake sicker ones, he said. ''Individuals who are in ill health and don't have access to an employ- er-provided health insurance policy are subject to the mercies of this market, which does not work well for sick people,'' Dow said. That problem is not limited to California or the economic environ- ment of 2010. In Oregon, multiple insurers have convinced state health officials that rising costs justified big jumps in rates the last few years. In Maine, Anthem's request to raise rates for some people by up to 38 percent last year and 24 percent this year have angered some politicians and consumers. Lou Herchenroeder, a pastor in Westfield, Ind., who learned in December that the premium on his Anthem policy would jump 31 per- cent, is frustrated. He said he's seen increases like this a few times over the past six years. In fact, he got into the high-deductible plan two years ago because premiums in his other plan rose too much. But the cumulative increases are taking their toll. Herchenroeder said his family is healthy, with no chron- ic conditions like diabetes or high blood pressure, although he just had his gall bladder removed. But at 53, he yearns for the days when insur- ance was a choice he could afford. ''If I was in my 20s, I wouldn't have a plan like this,'' he said. ''I'd take my chances.'' But the sick don't really have the option of dropping coverage. Pre- existing conditions allow other insurers, who otherwise would pro- vide competition, to decline to cover these individuals. Jeanne Morales of Encino, Calif., was outraged when United Health- Care Inc. jacked up the premium of the PacifiCare individual plan cov- ering her and her husband. Back-to- back hikes in October and Novem- ber raised the couple's monthly pre- mium from about $1,450 month to $2,432, a combined increase of 68 percent. Morales wants to drop the policy, but says there's no where else to go. She had a partial hysterectomy to remove a non-cancerous ovarian cyst a month ago. She said her insurance broker told her she has to wait at least a year to be symptom free before she can even think about finding another individual insurance product. ''That's all there is to do. There's just not any choices,'' she said. ''We have thought about just not carrying insurance at all, but it's scary for us.'' Continued from page 1A HIKE FDA sees budget increase, but advocates want more WASHINGTON (MCT) — The Food and Drug Administration was sitting pretty, winning a significant budget increase while many other federal agencies faced the prospect of cut or frozen budgets for 2011 as the Obama administration confronted a 13-figure deficit. But a sprawling coalition of public interest advocates, patient groups and major health care industry interests reg- ulated by the FDA had a swift and negative message for the White House: It's not enough. "We are disappointed in the president's budget request and ... will seek to increase" it, said Steven Grossman, deputy executive director of Alliance for a Stronger FDA, which lists seven former FDA commissioners and several of the largest and most influential consumer, food and pharmaceutical trade groups among its 180 members. The Alliance traces its efforts to increase FDA funding back about five years, a span during which the agency's overall budget has more than doubled, to a proposed $4 bil- lion for 2011 from $1.86 billion in 2006. Lobbying for still more money for a regulatory agency in the face of a projected trillion-dollar deficit may seem counterintuitive, especially when many of those doing the pushing include food, drug and medical equipment inter- ests that have not always welcomed FDA oversight. "The regulated want to starve the regulator. That's eco- nomics 101," acknowledged Grossman. "But the FDA is different." That's because the FDA's role in ensuring the safety of food, drugs and medical devices also has huge implications for the economy, influencing everything from the price of produce to the marketability of high-tech medical goods, said Grossman, a health care consultant and lobbyist. "If there's a problem, or a perception of a problem, everybody suffers, not just the company with the problem. Having the fewest problems is in everybody's interest," Grossman said. Caroline Smith-DeWaal, director of food safety for the Center for Science in the Public Interest, said that while her organization and other public interest groups in the Alliance "generally worked on opposite sides of the issue" from the food and drug industries, both sides were alarmed by "mission failure" at FDA due to chronic under-funding. Any one of a number of high-profile food recalls in recent years cost businesses in excess of $100 million, Smith-DeWaal said. "If that "$100 million went into the FDA budget, it could prevent five recalls, or maybe 10 recalls," she said. What troubles the Alliance isn't so much the overall size of the FDA budget but the shrinking percentage of it that's coming from tax coffers. The fastest-growing part of the FDA budget comes from user fees, paid by businesses that need an FDA service, such as drug and medical device companies seeking pre- market approval of new products. Those user fees have more than quadrupled, mush- rooming from $369 million in 2006 to a budgeted $1.5 bil- lion for 2011. All told, for 2011, the administration is seeking a 23 percent budget increase for the FDA. But 80 percent of that would come from fees, including a proposed brand new set of fees to be paid by food producers and generic drugmak- ers. The part of the budget that comes from tax money is slated to increase by $146 million to $2.5 billion. That's only a six percent boost, which the Alliance dismisses as "a simple inflation increase." That may not be how Congress sees it, however. Connecticut Democratic Rep. Rosa De Lauro, chair of the appropriations subcommittee that oversees the FDA and a staunch advocate for more funding for the agency, said in a statement that considering the federal govern- ment's bleak finances, the 6 percent increase is "reassur- ing." STATE BRIEFING