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THURSDAY APRIL 1, 2010 Breaking news at: Children’s theater returns Pastimes www.redbluffdailynews.com See Page 4A RED BLUFF Baker Beats Panthers SPORTS 1B Partly cloudy 62/39 Weather forecast 8B By JULIE ZEEB DN Staff Writer CORNING — A 22-year- old Lodi man claims he was shot early Wednesday morn- 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 Man says he was shot at truck stop ing at the fuel island of the Petro Truck Stop, 2151 South Ave., in Corning. Alberto Vasquez Diaz said he was a passenger in his friend’s pickup truck, which had stopped at the truck stop at 1:27 a.m., and had just got- ten out of the vehicle when he heard a gunshot and felt a sharp pain in his right thigh. Corning Police were sent Big bang at 2:33 a.m. to St. Elizabeth Community Hospital, where Diaz was treated and released for a non-life threatening wound. Diaz told officers that he had looked down upon hear- ing the gunshot to discover he had been shot and his friends had taken him to St. Eliza- beth. He also said neither he See SHOT, page 7A Gerber educates before fire season By JULIE ZEEB DN Staff Writer GERBER — CalFire and Gerber-Las Flores Community Service District board members launched an educational outreach for the weed abatement program in Gerber on Wednesday. “I’m just really happy they’re here to help train us,” said Board Chairman Larry Long. “We’re vol- unteering our time (to do primary inspections) to help save CalFire some time and money.” Long and fellow board member Tom Humphreys spent Wednesday in training, tagging along with CalFire personnel as they informed residents of the rules of the Weed Abatement Program. With CalFire taking over fire protection, resi- See FIRE, page 7A Weather continues to delay search for Shasta climber Daily News photo by Geoff Johnson A Shasta County Bomb Squad member searches a shed for explosives Wednesday afternoon on Corning Road. At least four dynamite sticks were recovered from the property, along with several stolen ATVs and a stolen tractor. Dynamite detonated at Corning home By GEOFF JOHNSON DN Staff Writer CORNING — Police blew up several sticks of dynamite Wednesday afternoon on Corning Road as they continued searching a home linked to a number of local thefts. Luke Nathan Coleman, 35, Corning, was arrested Tuesday morning on suspicion of possess- ing stolen property after Tehama County Sheriff’s Deputies, fol- lowing a tip, found several ATVs and a tractor, all which had been reported missing from the neigh- borhood in the last month or so, Sheriff Clay Parker said. “I’m not saying he stole them,” Parker said. “I’m saying they were found on his property.” There were enough stolen items to constitute four or five acts of grand theft, but as of Wednesday afternoon it was not immediately clear whether Cole- man himself was responsible for stealing the goods. As deputies searched the heav- ily-fenced property, they found sticks of old, capped, potentially unstable dynamite in a container in a shed on the property. Posses- sion of dynamite is a felony, Parker said. The Shasta County Bomb Squad detonated some of the dynamite Tuesday, according to See BANG, page 7A needed to protect fish FRESNO (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday turned down farmers’ emergency request to lift water pumping restrictions in California’s delta, saying continu- ing with current pumping levels risked killing chinook salmon. The decision by U.S. District Judge Oliver Wanger means regulators will cut back the amount of water pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta starting at midnight. The restrictions were put in place to protect endangered salmon and steelhead as the fish migrate through the delta into the Pacific Ocean, but farmers argue that the cutbacks are causing devastating crop losses. The sweeping San Joaquin Valley grows most of the country’s fruits and vegetables, but a three-year drought and restrictions on pumping from the freshwater estuary have hammered the region, creating drastic job losses and other economic woes. The pumping restrictions are part of a plan by federal biologists to safeguard endangered salmon. Environmentalists and fishermen have sued to get those protections in place, arguing that the collapse of one of the West Coast’s biggest wild salmon runs two years ago fore- told the extinction of related species. Farmers, environmentalists, as well as state and federal biologists, will be back in court Thursday to present more evidence before Wanger as the hearing continues. POWER PRODUCTS DOLMAR Red Bluff Outdoor Power Have a news tip? Call 527-2151, Ext. 112 7 5 8 5 5 1 6 9 0 0 1 9 MOUNT SHASTA (AP) — Rescue teams planned to make another attempt Thursday to find a climber stranded near the top of Califor- nia’s Mount Shasta after bad weather hampered search efforts Wednes- day for a fourth straight day. Poor visibility pre- vented a helicopter crew from completing a reconnaissance flight to the top of the 14,126- foot mountain near the California-Oregon bor- der, according to the Siskiyou County Sher- iff’s Office. Rescuers have been trying to reach 26-year- old Thomas Bennett of Oakland since Sunday, when his friend called 911. Bennett collapsed near the summit after he and Mark Thomas were trapped by severe winds as they tried to descend the summit. Thomas, an engineer from Berkeley, was res- cued Monday after he climbed down by him- self. Thomas told authorities his friend was unconscious and he believed he could be dead. Thomas told authori- ties he left Bennett in a snow cave with water, candy bars and granola. He was able to show authorities Bennett’s location on a map. Rangers had been prevented this week from conducting a See SHASTA, page 7A Judge: Pumping limits Herger praises Tea Party group By GEOFF JOHNSON DN Staff Writer Tehama County Patriots may consider themselves a non-partisan group, but members found plenty to like Tuesday in a visit from Rep. Wally Herger, R- Chico, whose statements reaffirmed some of the group’s better-known beliefs. “We’re in a battle for our country,” Herger said. “We’re in a battle for our Constitution.” The Congressman, who brought up the idea of attending a meeting to group leaders, stopped by a weekly meeting Trinity Landmark Missionary Church. Speaking to an audi- ence of about 160, Herger was featured for about 90 minutes of the two-hour event. Early in the evening, he advised the audience to stay civil and law-abiding. He urged those in atten- dance to choose their words carefully, in case the “mainstream liberal media” uses the words against them. “They want to picture Daily News photo by Geoff Johnson Les Wolfe, center, talks to Rep. Wally Herger, R-Chico, during at a Tehama County Patriots meeting Tuesday night at Trinity Landmark Missionary Church. you as extremists,” Herger said. Expressing nothing but praise for the movement, Herger encouraged the group to continue its week- ly meetings and draw inspiration from the troops of the American Revolu- tion and George Washing- ton, who continued in the face of adversity. “What you are doing is so incredibly important,” he said. Herger spent the better part of his speaking time downplaying recent Democratic legislative victories. Even with a See HERGER, page 7A