Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/147993
FRIDAY Hospitalist Program Debuts AUGUST 2, 2013 Giants Rally Breaking news at: www.redbluffdailynews.com See Below SPORTS 1B DAILY NEWS RED BLUFF Sunny 94/63 Weather forecast 8A TEHAMA COUNTY DAILY 50¢ T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U NTY S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Pot farm pollution Motorcyclist killed on 99W By ANDRE BYIK DN Staff Writer A motorcyclist died after being run over by a flatbed truck that failed to yield to oncoming traffic at State Route 99W and Gyle Road near Gerber about 1:15 p.m. Thursday, officials said. The motorcyclist, whose name, age and residence have been withheld pending notification of next of kin, was traveling northbound on 99W south of Gyle Road when the driver of a 2000 International truck, traveling westbound on Gyle Road, entered the intersection. The motorcyclist, driving a 2012 Kawasaki Ninja, attempted to brake and laid his bike down in an effort to stop but was unable to do so, California Highway Patrol Officer Phillip Mackintosh said. The motorcyclist, who was wearing his helmet, was run over by the right rear tires of the truck and was pronounced dead at 1:24 p.m. See 99W, page 7A Accountant tosses hat into council ring By RICH GREENE DN Staff Writer AP Photo/Butte County Department of Public Works In this undated photo released by Butte County Department of Public Works, marijuana grading violations are seen off of Crystal Ranch Road in the Feather Falls area in Butte County. Too dangerous to deal with? SACRAMENTO (AP) — With parts of Northern California's scenic hillsides illegally gouged by bulldozers for marijuana grows, frustrated local officials asked the state for help to protect streams and rivers from harmful sediment and the chemicals used on the pot plants. They hoped to charge growers under federal and state clean water regulations with tougher penalties than the infractions local officials could impose. But they were rebuffed. It's too dangerous, the state agency in charge of protecting the region's water said in a letter to county supervisors. ''We simply cannot, in good conscience, put staff in harm's way,'' wrote Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board Executive Director Paula Creedon. As in many rural counties in California, marijuana farms are becoming more and more plentiful. They proliferate in the high Sierra, where armed Mexican cartel operatives clear wilderness areas, divert creeks and poison wildlife. Other smaller gardens are planted by people operating as collectives by pooling dozens of permits under the state's medical marijuana laws, though many of those are traffickers attempting to skirt the law. State law allows a person with a medical permit to grow roughly a dozen plants. Butte County Supervisor Chairman Bill Connelly — frustrated that even photos of illegally scraped and terraced hillsides in sensitive watersheds didn't convince the water quality board to act — accused the board of not applying the law equally. ''My concern is that legitimate business people get harassed (by the agency), but illegal people will not be harassed because they get a pass,'' he said. ''They go after the timber industry and farmers.'' Penalties can range from ceaseand-desist citations to fines of $5,000 for each day of the violation to more than $1 million, said state water board spokeswoman Kathie Smith. The issue of large-scale marijuana enforcement and the damage some pot farms cause is not new in a region known as the Emerald Triangle, for the marijuana that has been produced there for decades. Marijuana is the state's biggest cash crop with an estimated $14 billion in legal and illegal sales annually. California wildlife wardens and hikers in the state's remote backcountry occasionally happen upon gunmen guarding multimillion-dollar pot farms. It's one of the reasons the California Department of Fish & Wildlife recently issued its wardens more powerful weapons. Those growers, when caught, are charged criminally in federal courts. But at the local level, counSee POT, page 7A K e n n R i e d e r s recently moved to Red Bluff, but that h a s n ' t stopped him Rieders from tossing his name out as a possible replacement for resigned City Councilmember Robert Sheppard Jr. The City Council is scheduled to appoint a replacement Aug. 6. Rieders, 53, moved to Red Bluff after living in Truckee for 25 years. In between he had a brief stay in Proberta. He is a self-employed accountant, with a Masters in Business Administration. In Truckee, Rieders said he actively advocated issues concerning the local school board and sewer district. He unsuccessfully ran for the Truckee Town Council twice. Rieders is one of four men who filed applications with the city to replace Sheppard, joining retired mechanic Raymond Eliggi, retired education administrator Joe Harrop and former City Councilman Larry Stevens. Daily News: What experience do you have that would help you if you joined the council? Rieders: I'm a good listener. I like to network with people who listen to them and listen to their issues. What is a town or a city? It's the people. It's not what's going on nationwide — that's for the big dogs. I know how to focus my attention to city matters and I listen to staff. I know how to take the staff's recommendations and weight it with the ideas of the public and then work with council to come up with solutions. I have a long accounting background. I'm an accountant, (with a) Master's degree in Business See COUNCIL, page 7A Fair board unable Hospital launches hospitalist program to hold a vote By ANDRE BYIK DN Staff Writer A Tehama District Fairground board meeting Thursday to discuss and possibly vote on an agreement to join forces with the county was canceled because of a lack of directors present to form a quorum. Fairboard President Ray Bianchi said the board failed to satisfy the fivedirector threshold to convene a meeting, and after about a five-minute wait the board's ad hoc committee receded into a closed impromptu meeting with the county's ad hoc committee to further discuss a Joint Powers Authority agreement. Board members present were Bianchi, Pete Dagor- 7 5 8 5 5 1 6 9 0 0 1 9 ret, Andrew Meredith and Linda Durrer. Bianchi said directors Farrell Shatswell, Joan Kaiser Bell and Jorge Lomeli had communicated beforehand that they could not make the 1 p.m. meeting time at the fairgrounds. Bianchi said he received no communication from director Andrew Alejandre. The fairboard scheduled the meeting after tabling a vote July 16 on a JPA agreement with the county that could advance the process of moving the fairgrounds out of state control. Instead, the board's ad hoc committee, which is comprised of Fair CEO Mark Eidman, Bianchi and Meredith, was to discuss the JPA agreement with Deputy Attorney General Jeremiah Blair, who sent the board of directors a memo expressing concerns about the agreement. See VOTE, page 7A St. Elizabeth Community Hospital has partnered with Lassen Medical Group's Lassen Hospitalist Group, Inc. to offer in-patient Hospitalist patient services. "This program is important to all inpatients of the hospital in that they will be provided continuity of care from the hospitalist if their primary care physician is not available, or they do not have one," Hospitalist Group Medical Director Lisa Cheung said. A new addition to the community and the medical staff is a full time hospitalist participant, Dr. Joshua Crose, a member of the hospitalist panel of physicians. Other physicians with active privileges at St. Elizabeth will be participating in the program. "Dr. Cheung will oversee the program while our team will work with the Hospitalist program physicians, like Dr. Crose, to provide hospitalist coverage 24 hours a day 7 Courtesy photo Joshua Crose, DO, hospitalist, left, and Lisa Cheung, MD, Lassen Hospitalist Group, Inc. medical director. days a week," said Lassen Medical Executive Director Ryan Lown. Crose is a California native and a graduate of Touro University College of Osteopathic Medicine. Crose completed his formal training in Internal Medicine at the University of New Mexico residency program. His philosophy of care is a balance between science and art. He believes that proper diagnosis and treatment must balance the physical, spiritual and mental aspects of humans. He is See HOSPITAL, page 7A