Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/100608
Wednesday, December 26, 2012 ��� Daily News CITY Continued from page 1A fiscal year. However the general fund balance still increased by around $45,000 to $472,905 because of $244,674 in financing from other sources. The city spent the majority of its expenditures, about $3.7 million on police public safety. The city collected RATE Continued from page 1A jobs since the economic recovery began in 2010. ������The job gains have been fairly widespread,������ said economist Jerry Nickelsburg, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. ������We���re finally seeing an increase in construction, particularly single-family housing.������ He added that such signs are ������continued evidence that California���s economy is growing and is recovering.������ Experts say growth in single-family housing and construction are good indicators of recovery because they signal increased wealth, relatively high-paying blue-collar jobs, and general optimism. The danger of a downturn still lurks, however, most immediately in the form of the impending ������fiscal cliff.������ Business SHOP Continued from page 1A ���This helps save money not just on the work done, but the $78 a day it would cost if they were in jail through cost avoidance,��� Chief Probation Officer Richard Muench said. ���It also eases up the overcrowding.��� The men, who undergo urinalysis testing to be a part of the program, work their eight hour day and then from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. return home with GPS bracelets to monitor them, Muench said. Those who are in the program are those who have shown an interest in it and undergone a process to get into the program, Ryan said. ���It���s a privilege to be here,��� Ryan said. ���They were selected because they showed an interest, submitted an application and had an oral interview at the jail. They punch in and out on a time clock just like a real job.��� Participants to have to take part in mandated classes of moral reconation therapy, which is a cognitive based behavior modification program, Muench said. The Sheriff���s Department-run program is one that is ���all positive���, he said. ���It���s saving the county money, helping them pay back to society and learn a skill while gaining experience to become a productive member of society,��� Muench said. By productive member of society, he means someone who pays taxes and has a job, he said. Since July, about 20 people have taken part in the program with eight in it now, Ryan said. Of those, while there have been three who failed and were returned to custody of the jail, at least one person is now employed in the community as a result of his work at the shop, Sheriff Dave Hencratt said. Ryan, who is a licensed journey mechanic and worked for Nissan for 15 years prior to being hired by the Sheriff���s Department in 1995, thought he would $2.6 million in sales tax, $1.3 million and property taxes and another $2.3 million in intergovernmental revenue. The city had around $48.6 million in capital assets at the end of the fiscal year. Of that $36.8 million was in infrastructure, another $11.1 million was in improvements and $1.2 million was in land. and government officials have warned that fallout from ongoing budget negotiations at the nation���s capital could halt California���s recovery. Without a deal, automatic spending cuts will slash local government budgets and raise tax rates for workers as the nation struggles to get over the effects of the Great Recession. Also, unemployment benefits for 400,000 Californians would expire next month without an agreement from Congress and the president. Also, despite the gains indicating one of the nation���s fastest growing economies, California still lagged behind the national unemployment rate of 7.7 percent. About 14.4 million Californians were working last month, and the recovery varied significantly across the state. Imperial County had a whopping 26.6 percent unemployment rate, while rates in many inland counties have to baby sit participants, but that is not the case, he said. ���It wouldn���t work without these guys and the way they���ve been learning,��� Ryan said. ���They compete amongst each other to be the best and have been really successful.��� The program started with oil changes and has gone on to do bigger jobs including brake jobs, transmissions and body work, he said. Averaging about 64 hours of work a day, they���ve quickly gotten around to the maintenance for the entire Sheriff���s Department fleet of vehicles, including 330 oil changes this year, and moved onto other county departments, Ryan said. So far the Probation Department, District Attorney���s Office and Tehama County Health Department have taken advantage of the new program, he said. One accomplishment Ryan is proud of is that his group has been able to do oil changes for about $13 per vehicle, which used to cost around $30 and they���ve been able to drastically reduce the cost of outfitting patrol vehicles with light bars, he said. ���It���s been really successful,��� Ryan said. ���This place will pay for itself three times over.��� Muench said he knows his department has saved quite a bit of money using the program, which was about $45,000 for the least, tools and other start-up costs. ���It���s definitely saved more than it cost,��� Muench said. ���It���s saved my agency about $10,000 and I���m just one of 20 county agencies with only 25 cars.��� In recognition of all their hard work and as a Christmas present, Ryan presented the eight working at the shop, affectionately dubbed ���the class of 2012��� sweatshirts and hats that read AB-109 Auto Shop on Thursday. ��������� Julie Zeeb can be reached at 527-2153, extension 115 or jzeeb@redbluffdailynew s.com. Follow her on Twitter @DN_Zeeb. CUBA Continued from page 1A W.H. Norris and Master Knud Mortensen. ���It was a four day journey and we kind of became like a family,��� Crow said. Landing in Norfolk, Va. it was considerably colder and the evacuees were glad to see Red Cross and other Navy personnel on hand with warmer clothing, he said. remained in the double digits. Expansion in high-paying technology jobs helped the San Francisco Bay Area remain the state���s growth leader, said Stephen Levy, a senior economist at the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy. The unemployment rate was 5.8 percent in Marin County, while San Francisco and San Mateo counties hovered above 6 percent. The information sector, meanwhile, showed the biggest percentage gain in jobs over the last year, up nearly 6 percent. Growth in San Diego County also has been strong, Levy said. Los Angeles County and others nearby also have joined the recovery, while the Central Valley is slowly regrouping. The capitol region, where government is a large employer, still is lagging, Levy said in an email. ���It was so warm in Cuba no one had coats with them,��� Crow said. ���The Red Cross and the Navy had a warehouse full of clothes to outfit the families.��� His family flew to Utah to stay with his sister, he said. For the first 25 years following the event, it was something you just didn���t talk about, Crow said. Now, having not talked to his classmates and other evacuees for quite some time, Crow said he is Government employment showed the biggest losses in Friday���s report, down 34,500 jobs in the last year, indicating an overall decline in spending. The contraction has meant less money for public projects like road construction, said Skip Brown, owner of road contractor Delta Construction Co. in Sacramento. Brown said he hasn���t taken a paycheck from his own company in five years, and his salaried employees have eaten pay cuts up to 40 percent. Meanwhile, stricter air pollution standards mean most of his heavy diesel equipment will be illegal to use in California in coming years. Brown said if he can���t sell the 69-yearold firm started by his father, he���ll close the doors once he can no longer operate his paving and grading equipment. For Brown, ������There���s no rebound at all.������ interested in reconnecting with them. He is also eager to connect with anyone who has ever lived at the base in hopes of learning more about what has changed there and if the house he lived in is still standing, Crow said. At least one classmate has returned since there are no direct flights to Cuba as it is illegal for United States citizens to fly there, he said. ���I hope, one of these years, to go back,��� Crow 7A said. ���The Cuban people, at least when I lived there, were so friendly. They���d give you the shirt off their backs.��� Anyone wishing to talk with Crow about the base and being an evacuee can contact him at (530) 3842578. ��������� Julie Zeeb can be reached at 527-2153, extension 115 or jzeeb@redbluffdailynews. com. Follow her on Twitter @DN_Zeeb. Report: Lawmakers save by using personal cars SACRAMENTO (AP) ��� Taxpayers save thousands of dollars when California lawmakers use personal cars for legislative business rather than state-leased vehicles. The Sacramento Bee reviewed records and found taxpayers saved $240,000 over the past year, when legislators started filing reimbursements for miles driven instead of using state-leased cars. The Bee���s findings contradict a two-year-old joint legislative study that predicted some long Capitol commutes and work in large districts would make a permile reimbursement as-or-more costly than leased vehicles. The Bee found that district size did make a difference in reimbursements, as some lawmakers compiled thousands of dollars in mileage, and others just hundreds. Some lawmakers did not file for any mileage reimbursements, saying voters made it clear they wanted lawmakers to pay their own way for transportation. ��������� Information from: The Sacramento Bee, http://www.sacbee.com Calif. ban draws interest in using hounds SACRAMENTO (AP) ��� Gary Ramey and his adult daughter traveled 2,500 miles to hunt California bears with hounds last month, eager to take part in what he calls a time-honored tradition. It���s one that won���t be legal after Jan. 1, when the nation���s most populous state outlaws the use of dogs to hunt bobcats and bears. ������When you think about it, hunting with dogs is probably the oldest hunting in history. I���m sorry to see it end,������ said Ramey of Gainesville, Ga. Other supporters reported an increase in interest in the final months of the practice that critics contend is cruel and unsportsmanlike. ������This may be the last opportunity for them to use hounds to go bear hunting,������ said Josh Brones, president of California Houndsmen for Conservation, which opposed the new law. Houndsmen use dogs to track a bear and chase it up a tree, where hunters can get a good shot at the stationary target. However, for many houndsmen and their dogs, the thrill is in the chase, and they release the bear unharmed. Democratic state Sen. Ted Lieu of Torrance, whose bill, SB1221, banned the practice, equated killing a bear in a tree to shooting a bear in a zoo. The animals can be chased to exhaustion, packs of dogs can tear apart bobcats, and bears can injure or kill the hounds that pursue them. Seventeen states still permit the use of hounds to hunt bears, while 15 ban the practice. The other 18 do not allow bear hunting at all, according to the Humane Society of the United States, which pushed for California���s law. California and other states allow the use of hounds to hunt other animals, ranging from birds to feral pigs. A judge in Wisconsin has temporarily banned using dogs to hunt wolves there before he issues a permanent ruling next year, while Nevada game officials are considering a petition to ban hunting bears with hounds. California���s bear season was declared closed on Tuesday, 2 1/2 weeks early, after hunters reached their limit of 1,700 bears. Fewer than half were tracked with dogs, according to preliminary figures, about the same as most years. California has an estimated 70,000 bobcats and issued about 4,500 permits to hunt bobcats last year. About 11 percent of the bobcats were killed with the use of dogs. State wildlife officials estimate California���s black bear population is about 26,000, an increase from about 10,000 in the 1980s, though some critics question the accuracy of that figure. Brones believes lawmakers will rethink the ban if there is a surge in troublesome bears as the population increases. Lieu and Jennifer Fearing, the Humane Society���s California state director, said they aren���t surprised by the late surge in interest in the practice. ������We���re just relieved and heartened that this is the last bear season where this cruel and unethical practice can be utilized,������ Fearing said. Ramey bid on his trip at a charity auction 18 months ago, before the hounding ban was enacted, because ������it just sounded intriguing.������ He had never before seen a bear outside a zoo. Holly Heyser, who teaches journalism at Cali- 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 527-1732 722 Oak Street, Red Bluff, FD Lic. 1931 fornia State University, Sacramento, and blogs about hunting, signed up two weeks ago to experience a hunt while she could. She said there is a negative stereotype even among other hunters of lazy people who let their dogs do the work for them. She and Ramey said their hunts upended those stereotypes as they followed the baying dogs. ������It was up and down ravines, cliffs, you name it to get there,������ said Ramey. ������It was physically exhausting.������ He and his daughter, Grace, 20, each killed a bear, but only after sparing three others. It seemed unsporting to shoot a bear that was cornered in a culvert, he said, and they didn���t feel right about shooting a mother and young bear treed together. Ramey and Heyser said using hounds to track bears let them be more selective about what to shoot and seemed more sporting than luring a bear with bait, which also is banned in California. Both argued that shooting treed bears let them make clean kills, and in separate interviews each equated it to using dogs to flush pheasants. ������The difference is no one feels sorry for pheasants,������ Heyser said. ������They���re really pretty, but they���re chickens.������ THE PASSING PARADE (From Dave Minch���s I Say column of August 1958) Fifty years ago this was an exciting time of the year for country children. It was the last week in August and time to get ready to go back to school. Each mother gathered her brood together and took them to town. First were haircuts which were needed very badly. Then was the trip to the general store to be fitted for school clothes. Jeans or bib overalls were not the answer. The boys were fitted with knee length pants and long, coarse ribbed black stockings that were fastened just above the knee. When the boys were still quite young, these stockings were fastened with women���s garters. Then came the worst chore of all which was to encase the feet that had been bare all summer long. I can well remember, after school was over for the day, I would take my shoes off and walk the mile home in my bare feet. After being fitted out as a little gentleman, the next item was a square metal lunch box with nothing inside as thermos bottles were not invented until years later. The last item was a contraption called a ���companion���. It was usually made of wood and measured 6 inches long, 2 inches deep and 3 inches wide. What was in it depended upon what your folks could afford. The cheapest ones had a couple of lead pencils, a plain pen and maybe an eraser. The more fancy and expensive ones contained several different colored pencils, crayons and fancier pens, paper clips and so forth. It was therefore easy to tell the rich kids from the poorer by the quality of their ���companions���. Needless to say my ���companion��� reflected our family worth at the time, which was not great. *** Scientists waste a lot of time trying to harness the energy of a rising and falling tide or from the sun. I think they are on the wrong track. If they could discover where all the energy expended by young children, who can run all day long without stopping, comes from, the scientist would have it made. *** The safest driver on the highway is the grandparent who is entrusted with taking his grandchild for a ride. *** After having our meat plant phone number as 186 for 30 years, it has now been changed to LA 7-2121. *** We were out at Seals Stadium to watch the Giants take on Los Angeles. It was a beautiful day, and even though our boys were behind 3 runs, a roar went up from the crowd of 18,000 as Willie Mays walked confidently up to the plate. Willie took a savage swing and fouled the ball high up into the stands. However, he stood still as the umpire called two more strikes on him...and the Giants lost. But it was a nice day to be alive and I found myself whistling as I walked back to the hotel. Dave Minch 1900-1964 The Passing Parade is brought to you by by Minch Property Management, 760 Main Street specializing in commercial leasing and sales. 530 527 5514