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MONDAY AUGUST 9, 2010 Breaking news at: www.redbluffdailynews.com iPhones and doctors See 5A Vitality RED BLUFF Cahill wins again Sports 1B Sunny 91/61 Weather forecast 6A 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 Heartfelt help Corning to host retriever show The Master National Hunting Retriever Test is scheduled to be held in Corning in mid October. The event is being hosted by the Lassen Retriever Club and will bring about 300 of the best hunting dogs and their handlers from around the U.S and Canada to the area. The Master National Retriever Club, Inc. is formed to hold an annual event to showcase the talents of hunting retrievers. The MNRC is committed to the hunting tradition, and devoted to the promotion, breeding, training and the best interests of retrievers. In order to carry out the commitment, dogs that have earned their Master Hunter titles and qualified in a minimum of six events during the previous year will be tested annual- ly in a non-competitive manner at the Master National Hunt Test to the maximum of the standard set out by the Ameri- can Kennel Club. “The event is the highlight of the year for many dogs and their handlers,” said MNRC President Janet Peters. “In addi- tion, the event allows friends from across the nation a 1- to 2-week period where they can spend time together dis- cussing mutual passions — dogs, competition and hunting. You will find a strong bond between most of these folks and a lot of camaraderie and good fun.” The testing starts Oct. 10, but the MNRC Board and the local club member will begin preparation for the event start- ing about Oct. 3. In addition, many of the participants will begin arriving to acclimate their dogs to the local conditions and train on similar terrain to what they might expect during the event. The testing will take place at the Clear Creek Sports Club and is open to the public for viewing. The event headquar- ters is the Rolling Hills Casino. According to the MNRC, the event has always been well Daily News photo by Geoff Johnson Maliachi Villaba, 6, Corning, gets ready for a firetruck ride Saturday as part of a Walmart Heart fundraiser. By GEOFF JOHNSON DN Staff Writer It was past eight on Saturday morn- ing when 7-year-old Landon Touvell heard the news at his Capay home. He leaped into action, dressed in minutes and climbed atop a 15-and-a- half-foot beast of a motorcycle cloaked in animal skins and covered with dozens of signatures from across the country. His mother Christina Touvell had kept Saturday’s events a surprise for months, up until the last minute. Around the same time in Corning, an unlikely convoy of Walmart ship- ping trucks, motorcycles waving full- size American flags and a firetruck pulled up outside the house of Malachi Villaba. The 6-year-old boy fitted his plas- tic fireman’s hat and was as ready to go as quickly as a CalFire engineer responding to a report of a structure fire. His mother would recall she had tears in her eyes from that moment on. The boys lived as strangers until Saturday, residing in different coun- ties with different families. But they both suffer from chronic illnesses: leukemia for Touvell and a congenital heart defect for Villaba. More than just life-threatening and traumatizing for families, the diseases are a drain on family resources. The North State is not equipped to treat the boys and health insurance covers nei- ther the gas money nor the hotel costs the families invoke as they travel to Sacramento, Palo Alto and San Fran- cisco for medical help. Walmart truckers, reaching out through the Walmart Heart program, sought to ease the boys’ burden Satur- day by bringing their dreams to life and by holding a fundraiser for the families. received by the local communities. In addition to the head- quarters, participants will be staying in various locations See SHOW, page 3A PBR offers free tickets for designated drivers By JULIE ZEEB DN Staff Writer When Professional Bull Riders comes to town Aug. 27, Mesa Productions will be rolling out a new program in coop- eration with Anheuser-Busch that rewards those who are responsible. “The cornerstone of our effort is Good Sport,” said Angie Gurrola, of Mesa. “Established as a result of our partnership with Anheuser-Busch, Good Sport is a comprehensive action plan that continues the tradition of PBR being enjoy- able, family entertainment.” The package includes a fourth ticket for the good sport who is the designated driver and is free when three general admission tickets are bought together, Gurrola said. Those registered as a good sport will be put into drawings Daily News photo by Geoff Johnson Landon Touvell, 7, Capay, gets ready for a ride on the Long Rider motorcycle on Saturday with Pete Vandekoolwyk, a member of the Missing in America Program. The program helped with Saturday’s Walmart Heart fundraiser. They were joined by members of the Missing in America Program (MIAP), which seeks to identify unclaimed remains of American vet- erans, who provided an escort for the boys as they traveled from their homes to Red Bluff. After an Apache blessing from MIAP member Pete Vandekoolwyk, the boys rode on their choice vehicles east on Solano Street, north on High- way 99W up to the Walmart Distribu- tion center and pausing before taking a trip to Walmart and back, the second accompanied by the last-minute addi- tion of about 10 cars from the Red Bluff Friday Knights Car Club. See HELP, page 3A that take place throughout the night for a variety of prizes, including a pair of tickets for October’s PBR finals in Las Vegas or a pair of tickets to a Built Ford Tough Series Event of the winner’s choice. “Part of our commitment to the community is to promote responsible behavior when it comes to drinking,” Gurrola said. “Good Sport is a program that ensures fans attending the PBR Bull Bash at the Tehama District Fairground will have a good time, but not at the expense of others.” In addition to providing a free ticket for sober drivers, the program focuses on influencing its fans to act responsibly by highlighting three areas, Gurrola said. The areas include making sure concession workers are trained in responsible serving and verifying identification presented. Workers will be trained in recognizing signs of intoxication and responding to the situation in a non-con- frontational manner. The other two areas include messages that promote responsible fan behavior throughout the event and imple- menting a safe ride campaign promoting the use of desig- nated drivers. “The vast majority of the hundreds of fans who attend a typical PBR event are responsible drinkers and Good Sport provides a tool to possibly prevent someone who may have had too much to drink from driving,” Gurrola said. “It’s a rock-solid nationally recognized program.” Gurrola said the program requires a team effort. See PBR, page 3A Lawmaker seeks to cut cost of sex-predator bill SACRAMENTO (AP) — A state lawmaker who wants to put certain child molesters in prison for life after a first offense is trying to reduce the cost of his bill, which comes with a sky- high price as the state strug- gles with persistent budget deficits. Republican Assembly- man Nathan Fletcher of San Diego has offered several amendments to the legisla- tion, some of which would save money elsewhere in state corrections spending. One includes allowing many people convicted of petty theft to serve their time in county jails, rather than being sent to prison. ‘‘We want to focus on people we’re afraid of and not people we’re mad at, and we need to prioritize,’’ Fletcher said. The bill is to be consid- ered by the Senate Appro- priations Committee this week. 7 5 8 5 5 1 6 9 0 0 1 9 The legislation also adopts recommendations from the state’s Sex Offend- er Management Board for improving the monitoring of paroled sex offenders, including the routine use of polygraph examinations. It also would base the treat- ment and supervision of sex offenders on the crime they committed and the likeli- hood they will re-offend. Fletcher said those reforms would cut costs by reducing the number of parolees who commit new crimes. The bill, Chelsea’s Law, is named after Chelsea King, a 17-year-old who was murdered this year in San Diego County. A con- victed child molester is serving a life sentence for raping and killing King and 14-year-old Amber Dubois. The nonpartisan Leg- islative Analyst’s Office determined the increased prison terms and lifetime parole monitoring under Fletcher’s original bill eventually would cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars a year. The state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation put the cost at tens of millions of dollars annually after the first decade. In response, Fletcher amended AB1844 to offset its cost. California faces a $19 billion deficit and remains without a budget more than a month into its new fiscal year. His bill now reserves life-without-parole for adult offenders who kidnap, drug, bind, torture or use a weapon while committing a sex crime against a child. Fletcher also limited the bill’s lifetime parole provi- sion to habitual sex offend- ers and those convicted of such crimes as aggravated sexual assault on a child. Those convicted of other sex crimes involving chil- See BILL, page 3A EARN EXTRA MONEY work your own hours, quick pay, must be 18 yrs+, have drivers license & insured vehicle. (866) 906-8036 Job Ref#26044 Deliver new telephone directories in the Glenn-Tehama area. FT/PT,