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Community.....A3 Opinion............A4 Sports..............B1 Lifestyles........B3 Comics............B4 Weather..........B6 Index...............## INDEX Have a great day, Mary Murphy GOOD MORNING U DowJonesIndustrial 19,945.04 (+11.23) U Standard & Poor's 2268.88 (+5.09) U Nasdaq 5487.44 (+24.75) BUSINESS Fisher died Tuesday a er falling ill aboard a flight last week. She was hospitalized since Friday. PAGE A5 OBITUARY 'StarWars'actress Carrie Fisher dies at 60 Check out what's going on in your neighborhood and the community. PAGE A2 LOCAL CALENDAR SomeSun High: Low: 59 33 PAGE B6 By Heather Hoelscher hhoelscher@redbluffdailynews.com @DN_Heather on Twitter RED BLUFF A tractor trailer big-rig carrying a load of lumber collided with the center divider on Interstate 5 at 3 a.m. Tuesday near Hooker Creek Road, shutting down the freeway's southbound lanes for about six hours. The truck's load of lumber spilled onto the roadway's southbound lanes causing the lanes to be closed for cleanup. The driver of the truck, whose name was not released as of Tuesday afternoon, was div- ing southbound on I-5 north of Hooker Creek Road when he drifted off the road into the cen- ter divider, said Troy Somavia, public informa- tion officer for the Red Bluff California High- way Patrol. The tractor trailer continued in the center di- vider for several hundred feet before the driver over corrected and lost control, sending the truck into a side skid, Somavia said. The trailer jack- knifed during the incident. There were no injuries resulting from the in- cident. Lanes were reopened around 9 a.m. Tuesday. INTERSTATE 5 Semi spills lumber load By Heather Hoelscher hhoelscher@redbluffdailynews.com @DN_Heather on Twitter RED BLUFF New and updated traffic safety laws passed by legislature and signed by Governor Ed- mund G. Brown, Jr. will take effect Sunday, in- cluding updates on child safety seat laws, elec- tronic device usage and school bus safety. The new laws include requiring children 2 years or younger to be in a rear facing child car seat, motorists are no longer permitted to hold a wireless telephone or device, DUI offenders are required to install ignition interlock devices, mo- torcycle lane splitting remains legal if it is done safely and school bus and charter bus safety laws have changed to increase safety, according to press release issued by the California Highway Patrol's Sacramento office. One law that go into effect Sunday but was passed during the 2015 legislative session is the child safety seats law, which requires children less than 2 years of age to ride rear-facing in an appropriate child passenger safety seat. Children weighing 40 or more pounds, or standing 40 or more inches tall, are exempt. California law continues to require all children SAFETY Newtrafficlaws to take effect the firs t of t he y ea r A report states the fatal clot occurred a er the comedian developed blood clots in his legs. PAGE A5 AUTOPSY Garry Shandling died from blood clot in heart By Scott Smith The Associated Press FRESNO It's too soon to declare an end to Califor- nia's five-year drought de- spite the heaviest rain in three decades falling early in the wet season, officials said Tuesday. The Sierra Nevada snow- pack, which provides roughly one-third of Califor- nia's water supply, measures at 72 percent of normal for water content, according to the state's Department of Water Resources' electronic monitors. The weather during next the three months will deter- mine if California enters a sixth year of drought that has led residents to let their lawns turn brown and left some farmers without water to irrigate their crops. "California needs sus- tained above-average pre- cipitation and a decent snowpack to overcome the previous years of drought," State climatologist Michael Anderson said in a state- ment. California had the wet- test October in 30 years with heavy rains in the north end of the state, raising hopes of a robust wet season to fol- low. December delivered a rebound from below-average rain in November, he said. Forecasters, however, say that they'll know better if California is rebounding from the yearslong drought by April 1, when the snow- pack is typically its deepest and wettest. State water monitors say they will trudge through the Sierra snowpack — now standing at 10.5 inches deep — to perform a manual sur- vey of the snowpack Jan. 3. DROUGHT Mountain snowpack low, but it's early By Heather Hoelscher hhoelscher@redbluffdailynews. com @DN_Heather on Twitter RED BLUFF The City Coun- cil on Dec. 20 approved funding for the replacement of two Red Bluff Municipal Airport perimeter gate op- erating systems for safety purposes, as a supplemen- tal appropriation from the airport impact fee fund in the amount of $11,764. The council awarded the contract to The Door Com- pany, which will replace the gate operators with new chain driven gate operators, card readers and associated equipment. This will allow for quicker access to get inside or outside the airport in the event of an emergency, said Robin Kampmann, interim Public Works director and city engineer. Safety con- cerns are the main reason for the replacement of the gates. "When the gates are not functioning correctly it be- comes a safety issue as emergency vehicles can- not access the airport run- way and airport users can- not safely exit the facility," Kampmann said. Over the past two months there have been many in- stances when the gates along the north and south perim- eter of the airport property have not been functioning properly, Kampmann said. City staff has addressed the problem with the gates as they arise but due to the age of the gates keeping them functional is becom- ing more difficult. The north gate, at the north end of the restau- rant parking lot next to Air- port Boulevard, is not oper- ational, Kampmann said in the agenda report. This gate is typically used by fixed- based operators, frontline hanger lessees and emer- gency vehicles, including Life Flight. The south gate is just south of where Airport Bou- levard intersects with Vista Way, Kampmann said. This gate is operational but re- quires frequent mainte- nance. The fence next to the south gate was recently hit by a vehicle, damaging the gate post to gain access, Kampmann said. The south gate is also used by FBOs, pilots and hanger lessees and for emer- gency vehicles. RED BLUFF CITY TO REPLACE GATE SYSTEMS AT AIRPORT HEATHER HOELSCHER — DAILY NEWS One of the two gates that will be replaced at the Red Bluff Municipal Airport. So ut hb ou nd l an es s hu t down for about six hours The Associated Press SACRAMENTO With six new gun control bills signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in July, sales of semi-automatic ri- fles have more than doubled in California over last year. The Santa Rosa Press Democrat reports that the California Department of Justice shows 364,643 semi-automatic rifles had been sold by Dec. 9 whereas 153,931 rifles were sold last year. Rifles with bullet buttons for the quick swap of ammu- nition magazines and other soon-to-be banned features have also skyrocketed. State- wide sales are up 40 percent by early December. The new gun controls re- classified semi-automatic rifles that have certain fea- tures as assault weapons. The features added to the prohibited list include a pro- truding or forward pistol grip, a thumbhole stock, a folding stock or a flash sup- pressor. Assault weapons have been banned in Cali- fornia since 1989. Nearly one million fire- arms were purchased in California as of Dec. 9, the most recent state data avail- able, compared to more than 700,000 guns sold in all of 2015. Sales have likely soared beyond one million guns since then, the news- paper reported. Steven Serna came into Pacific Outfitters sporting goods store in Ukiah last week to buy a semi-auto- matic rifle before new gun control legislation limits the gun's features in California. He wanted to purchase an AK-47 rifle but there weren't any to be found at the store. FIREARMS State gun sales up ahead of new limits GUNS PAGE 5 TRAFFIC PAGE 5 » redbluffdailynews.com Wednesday, December 28, 2016 50CENTS AN EDITION OF THE CHICO ENTERPRISE-RECORD CattleWomen's Corner Beef taco pop tarts recipe for New Year's Community A3 Salisbury High Community steps up for local students Lifestyles B3 FollowtheDailyNews on Twitter to keep pace with breaking news and events @REDBLUFFNEWS FOLLOWUS ONTWITTER Volume132,issue27 7 58551 69001 9 Online Find more news on our website. redbluffdailynews.com