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MONDAY JUNE 14, 2010 Breaking news at: Insurer battles obesity in kids Vitality www.redbluffdailynews.com See Page 4A RED BLUFF NBA Finals Game 5 SPORTS 1B Mostly sunny 96/64 Weather forecast 8B 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 County eatery Downtown says ‘Thanks’ reports go up on the Web By GEOFF JOHNSON DN Staff Writer Want to know if your favorite restaurant keeps clean counters? The results of nearly 570 restaurant, grocery store and school cafeteria inspections are available online at co.tehama.ca.us, a service provided by the Tehama County Environmental Health Department that can give the public restaurant info without the stigma of A, B and C ratings. Requiring a restaurant to put a “B” in a window can damage business, and a “C” can create a reputation that lingers long beyond any improvements the owners may make, Environmental Health Director Tim Potanovic See WEB, page 7A Supe’s to hear Bend report By GEOFF JOHNSON DN Staff Writer As a bill to upgrade the status of nearly 18,000 acres of public land winds its way through congress, Tehama County residents will have the opportunity Tuesday to learn just how the Bureau of Land Man- agement has treated it in the past year. An advance copy of Natural Area Manager Kelly Williams and Red- ding Field Manager Steve Anderson’s presentation on the last year’s work at the Sacramento River Bend Area reveals the duo plan to highlight the construction of miles new of fencing, fish stocking in area ponds, new trail construction and the application of herbicide to 80 acres of yellow star thistle and silverleaf night shade. Available to the public for decades, the Sacramen- to River Bend Area made headlines in recent years as local debate heated up over whether congress should raise its status to a Nation- al Recreation Area. Residents of nearby Bend fought the designa- tion, arguing it would increase traffic and endanger neighbors, while others have battled the proposal for fear stricter regulations on the area would accompany its increased funding. Eventually, the Board of Supervisors voted in May to endorse the desig- nation, 3-2. Without the approval of Tehama County, officials said the bill would have likely died in congress. The Tehama County Board of Supervisors meets 10 a.m. every Tues- day in its chambers at 727 Oak St. More information is available by calling 527-4655 or visiting co.tehama.ca.us. Daily News photo by Geoff Johnson Bob Kelley, 88, Red Bluff, took a B-17G on 25 bombing runs in World War II. He stopped by Veterans Appreciation Day Saturday, an event he called a “marvelous thing.” By GEOFF JOHNSON DN Staff Writer Red Bluff resident Bob Kelley, 88, has at times been a teenage runaway, a fruit-picker, a meat salesman, a bomber pilot and a 70-year-old Shasta College student. “In my generation, you didn’t go to college unless you were rich,” he said. Kelley can trace his military lineage all the way back to the American Revolution, and is unafraid to speak his mind. “Did it hurt me bombing civilians? Hell no, because they started it,” he said. When Veterans Day rolls around, Kelley has to head south 20 miles to Corning, where the nearest parade is held. Rodeo’s next generation of stars By GEOFF JOHNSON DN Staff Writer CORNING — The sheep tore out of the gate Saturday at the Corning Jr. Rodeo and took Bailey Elderkin with it. The girl clung to the animal like velcro but, yards later, the sheep shook her off, dumping her into the dust. “That arena dirt only tastes bad for a minute, sweetheart,” announcer Norm Oilear said. Elderkin did not seem to mind. The 4-year old Red Bluff resident was beaming, minutes later, dirt still on her chin. Elderkin wants cow- boy chaps, she said. With ponies on them. On Saturday, Elderkin became a rodeo competi- tor, watched by an audi- ence in the hundreds that packed into bleachers for the weekend, drooped cowboy boots off the back of pick-up tailgates and, depending on their ages, held snow-cones or Bud Lights, all fixing their attention on the arena at Estil C. Clark Park. Daily News photo by Geoff Johnson A youngster rides a sheep Saturday during the Corning Jr. Rodeo’s mutton bustin’ competition, open to boys and girls ages four to six. Even before she could 7 5 8 5 5 1 6 9 0 0 1 9 begin kindergarten, Elderkin was riding in her parents’, the team-roping couple Gary and Crystal Elderkin, hoof-steps. Not all the competitors at the rodeo were the chil- dren of rodeo athletes. But most were like Elderkin, in that they got their starts early, some too early to remember that first taste of dirt. Wyatt Brown, 13, Red Bluff, has been doing rodeo since he was a baby, he said. Living on the Antelope Creek Cattle Ranch, Brown practices daily. He reserves some time for other sports, like basket- ball, but after years of rodeo, no sport has las- soed him the way his first has. Someday Brown hopes to go professional. “I’ve been doing it my whole life. It’s all I do, everyday,” he said. For 17-year-old Misti Zimmerman, of Gerber, the big chance came when, about a decade ago, her mother, a horse-lover, wanted to share the joy of horse ownership with her child. Zimmerman was introduced to Buttercup, and she has been riding ever since. Saturday, Zimmerman See RODEO, page 7A But on Saturday, the parade came to Kelley. About 150 people turned out Saturday for the Sec- ond Annual Veterans Appreciation Day in downtown Red Bluff, an event combining a pancake breakfast, speeches and the “Walk of Gratitude,” in which every- one marches in a display of appreciation. “Our veterans are most often forgotten,” said Mayor Jeff Moyer. “However, when we hold events like this we show them they are not...we remind everyone of how important a sacrifice they have made for this coun- try.” Those reminders went beyond Washington Street, where the main event was held. Up and down Main Street, the town’s typical window shoppers were greet- ed by biographies, photos and news clippings of See THANKS, page 7A Bill to minimize oil spill damage SACRAMENTO (AP) — When state Assemblyman Jared Huffman introduced a bill in December to improve the containment of oil spills, he could not have imagined the calamity that would occur four months later in the Gulf of Mexico. But the Deepwater Horizon explosion and resulting spill — the worst in U.S. history, with no end in sight — will be very much on state lawmakers’ minds Mon- day as the Senate Environmental Quality Committee takes up Huffman’s AB234. The bill would require ships that transfer oil to another vessel within state-regulated waters to deploy a floating barrier known as a boom before and during the fueling operation. Current state regulations dictate how much boom should be released after a spill occurs, but they do not require that booms be deployed as a preventive mea- sure. Supporters of the bill, modeled after a similar law in Washington state, say pre-booming allows for the max- imum possible containment in the event of a spill, lim- iting ecological and economic damage. Over the past two years, California experienced 13 oil spills during vessel-to-vessel transfer operations along its coast, according to Huffman’s office. The most recent, the Oct. 30 Dubai Star spill, leaked 400 gallons of bunker fuel into San Francisco Bay. The Dubai Star did not deploy boom before the spill. ‘‘You continue to learn every time there is a tragedy,’’ said Huffman, D-San Rafael. ‘‘If we’re not learning, that’s just another layer to the tragedy.’’ The Gulf crisis is evidence of just how bad things can get in an oil spill scenario, he said. A U.S. govern- ment panel of scientists released findings on Thursday estimating that more than 100 million gallons of crude may have poured into the Gulf’s fragile waters since April 20. Huffman said he hoped the disaster would ‘‘provide See BILL, page 7A