Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/18068
Tuesday, October 19, 2010 – Daily News – 9A Death Notice Ron Frank Ron Frank died Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2010, in Cot- tonwood. He was 39. Hoyt-Cole Chapel of the Flowers is handling the arrangements. Published Tuesday, Oct. 19, 2010, in the Daily News, Red Bluff, Calif. BUDGET Continued from page 1A Third, accept the county’s offer to share our city plan- ner saving up to half of his salary. Future savings might be found in implementing PG&E energy savings throughout the city. The energy bill was $38,458 this month. Projects implement- ed already have reduced this cost. Can we trim the bill fur- ther? Our city is part of a solar city consortium. We need to continue toward solar. Our medical insurance is $20,000 per month. Are there other choices for insur- ance? Lower salaries for future employees, changing vendors for supplies? These are solid ideas. Together staff should look for things we can reduce or do without. Ken Prather I would run a cost effec- tiveness summary of all city management personnel, department expenses and city staff positions. Consolidate departments and personnel where pru- dent, then reassess the fees the city charges, including fire department annual inspection fees for commer- cial and residential business- es we currently do not have. We as a council need to raise revenues by generating new business opportunities and less restrictive ordi- nances that will invite manu- facturing and distribution centers to locate here. Our city needs a qualified grant writer to work on gov- ernment grants for city improvements. Small business tax refund incentives that disappear over a period of a few years, to help establishment in a small community. There are many ways to compensate a budget deficit besides just making cuts to jobs. John Richards I will be fiscally responsi- ble and will work to reduce the city’s budget. One thing to look at would involve reducing the overhead (i.e., management costs) within the city. We need to ensure that we always get competi- tive price quotes from multi- ple vendors on tools, equip- ment, office supplies and other purchases, something that I believe is not always the case. Another option to look at is to have employees pick up their own share of the retirement (PERS) pro- gram premiums. In this eco- nomic turn down all depart- ments (police, fire, public works and City Hall) must continue to look for ways to make cuts while improving and maintaining service to the citizens of Corning. Mayoral candidates Dean Cofer I co-authored and pre- sented a budget proposal on June 15, 2010 to the Corning City Council. It produced annual savings of $870,704. Adoption of this proposal would have closed the bud- get deficit confronting the City. The current mayor invit- ed the public to submit bud- get cutting ideas, but when he didn’t like what was pre- sented (i.e., cuts of top heavy management positions, salaries and benefits) he immediately back pedaled and indicated that he only wants to look at staff propos- als. City Councilwoman Parkins even went so far as to tear the proposal up during a council meeting and said “this is what I think of this proposal.” If elected, I will immedi- ately move adoption of major budget cuts. In this troubled economy we can no longer continue to place sacred cows off limits. City finances and spend- ing must be brought under control and reallocated for the benefit of all Corning res- idents. Gary Strack The first items that I would like to see is the City Manager and Police Chief’s offer to go half time accept- ed, and that with the employ- ees’ 10 percent wage cut would save the city $400,000 a year. We now have a proposal from the county of Tehama to share our Planning Direc- tor, which would save up to $35,000 this year. These items plus what department heads will save by watching their individual budgets will allow us to end the year with $500,000 sur- plus. If the council had not been intimidated by the con- cerned citizens group and made the appointment, we could have adopted a budget and been working on ways to increase revenue and improve Corning. A positive attitude and not a negative one, that is always finding fault or blame, is the way to make it through tough times. Border Patrol arrests fall 17 percent in 2010 SAN DIEGO (AP) — Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said Monday a 17 percent drop in Border Patrol arrests this year shows heightened enforcement is slowing illegal immigration. The Border Patrol made about 463,000 arrests during the federal government’s fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, down from 556,032 the previous 12 months. It marks the fifth straight year of declines. Border Patrol arrests are down 72 percent from nearly 1.7 million in 2000. The agency typically makes about 97 percent of its arrests along the 1,952-mile border with Mex- ico, with nearly all the rest coming along the Canadian bor- der. Napolitano said the weak economy helps explain why fewer people are getting caught crossing the border illegal- ly, and she also credited enforcement against employers. But she said a big reason is enforcement under President Barack Obama — including bringing the Border Patrol to an all-time high of 20,500 agents and dispatching 1,200 National Guard troops. ‘‘The manpower, the technology, the infrastructure all has enabled us to be able to really slow that flow of illegal immigrant traffic,’’ she said at a news conference at the San Ysidro border crossing with Tijuana, Mexico. Napolitano also said more drugs, weapons and illicit cash were being seized along the Mexican border. ‘‘We now have a border more secure than ever before, and these efforts are only going to continue in the weeks, months and years ahead,’’ she said. Peter Nunez, a former U.S. attorney in San Diego who advocates a more restrictive immigration policy, noted that border enforcement has been building for 15 years. In the mid-1990s, President Bill Clinton launched a crackdown in San Diego and El Paso, Texas, that pushed migrants to remote mountains and deserts and made Arizona the busiest corridor for illegal crossings. President George W. Bush doubled the size of the Bor- der Patrol to 20,000 agents and, at one point, had 6,000 National Guard troops assigned to the border. Courtesy photo A house at 15 Wiltsey, directly behind Bud’s Jolly Kone, as it appeared around 1938. The house was burned to the ground Monday as part of a CalFire training. STATE BRIEFING $21K to find shooter of Sacto-area cabbie SACRAMENTO (AP) — Authorities are investi- gating the fatal shooting of a taxi driver in Sacramento County, and there’s a $21,000 reward for informa- tion leading to the person who did it. The coroner’s office has identified the victim as 54- year-old James Walker. He was found dead shortly after 3 a.m. Monday in the driver’s seat of his taxi parked at an apartment com- plex off Interstate 80 north- east of Sacramento. Sher- iff’s spokesman Sgt. Tim Curran says he had at least one gunshot wound in his upper body. Nearby residents told investigators that they heard two shots, but Curran says no one witnessed the shoot- ing. Yellow Cab of Sacra- mento is putting up a $15,000 reward finding the killer, Yellow Cab of San Jose is putting up $5,000 and authorities are adding another $1,000. Octomom fertility doc’s license hearing begins LOS ANGELES (AP) — Nadya Suleman’s fertili- ty doctor implanted a dozen embryos in the pregnancy that gave her octuplets, a state attorney said Monday, a number that another doc- tor said was unheard of and surpasses Suleman’s asser- tion that only six embryos were implanted. Dr. Michael Kamrava’s action endangered the moth- er and violated national standards of care, Deputy Attorney General Judith Alvarado said at the Medical Board of California’s hear- ing to consider revoking or suspending the Beverly Hills physician’s license. Kamrava ‘‘knew that a 12-embryo transfer was unsafe,’’ Alvarado said in her opening statement. National guidelines issued by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine specify no more than two embryos are to be used in in vitro treatments for a healthy woman under 35. Suleman was 33 at the time of her last treatment. Year after year, Suleman, now 35, was implanted with too many embryos in her unabated attempts to become pregnant, said Alvarado. For the pregnan- cies prior to her octuplets, she was implanted with between four and seven embryos. Dr. Victor Y. Fujimoto, an expert witness for the medical board and director of the University of Califor- nia San Francisco In Vitro Fertilization Program, testi- fied Monday that 12 embryos, or blastocysts, being transferred into a uterus is unheard of. ‘‘I cannot imagine any colleague of mine transfer- ring that many embryos,’’ said Fujimoto, adding he had never transferred that many himself. High-order multiple births can result in long- term developmental delays, cerebral palsy and various life-threatening ailments. There are no hard-and- fast rules, but fertility spe- cialists have criticized Kam- rava’s methods, saying he endangered Suleman’s health and the long-term health of the babies. Sule- man’s babies, born nine weeks premature in January 2009, are the world’s longest-surviving set of octuplets. Increase in child deaths in LA County LOS ANGELES (AP) — A published report says the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services has seen a steady increase since 2008 in children it monitors who have died from abuse or neglect. The Los Angeles Times says in a story Monday that the number of maltreatment fatalities rose from 18 in 2008 to 26 in 2009 to 21 in the first eight months of this year. The deaths are detailed in confidential documents obtained by the Times that the department has said will eventually be released to the public but have taken longer than expected to process. The records show the majority of deaths came while the children were under active supervision or had recently had a visit from a social worker. SF lawyers: Prop 8 was to remove stature SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Lawyers for the city of San Francisco are firing back at gay marriage oppo- nents who want a federal appeals court to overturn the judge who struck down Cal- ifornia’s voter-approved ban on same-sex unions. In a brief filed with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Monday, the city attorney’s office said Propo- sition 8’s sponsors had failed to make a constitutionally sound case for excluding gay Californians from mar- riage while leaving intact their rights to raise children. They are arguing that the 2008 ban’s only purpose was to strip same-sex cou- ples of ‘‘the honored stature’’ of marriage and to avoid having anyone ‘‘view gay relationships as ’OK.’’’ Lawyers for two same- sex couples who successful- ly challenged Proposition 8 were scheduled Monday night to file their own answer to the appeal. A 9th Circuit panel is scheduled to hear arguments in December. State issues warning on Channel Islands seafood SANTA BARBARA (AP) — The California Department of Public Health is warning people not to eat shellfish and a few other seafood varieties caught by sport fisherman off the Channel Islands. The department said Monday that elevated lev- els of a toxin called domoic acid has been found in recent samples of mussels, clams and scal- lops and in the internal organs of lobster and crab. The warning does not apply to fish sold commer- cially. Symptoms of domoic acid poisoning include vomiting, diarrhea, cramps, headaches and dizziness and it can lead to coma and death in severe cases, but there have been no known human cases in California. The Channel Islands are a chain of eight islands off the Southern California coast. Crystal Cathedral megachurch files for bankruptcy GARDEN GROVE (AP) — Crystal Cathedral has filed for bankruptcy in Southern California after months of trying to over- Located in Chico, CA Combining Quality and Low Cost is what we do. 529-3655 www.affordablemortuary.net come mounting debt. The megachurch, birth- place of the ‘‘Hour of Power’’ televangelist broadcast, announced its filing Monday as it deals with a $55 million debt. The Orange County- based church, founded in the mid-1950s by Robert H. Schuller, earlier this year ordered major lay- offs. It also cut the number of stations airing the ‘‘Hour of Power’’ and sold property to stay afloat. In addition, the 10,000- member church canceled this year’s ‘‘Glory of East- er’’ pageant, which attracts thousands of visi- tors and is a regional holi- day staple. Fresno mom gets 15 years to life for baby drowning FRESNO (AP) — A Fresno woman who pleaded no contest to drowning her infant daughter in the bathtub is heading to prison for 15 years to life. Prosecutors say 33- year-old Lisa Brown drowned 7-month-old Jil- lian Engelman on Christ- mas Eve 2007 and told authorities that she did it because the baby was possessed by demons. Brown’s lawyer main- tains that she is bipolar and suffered from post- partum psychosis at the time of the drowning. Attorney Roberto Dulce says his client is remorse- ful for what she did. Brown pleaded no con- test to second-degree murder in August. If con- victed at trial, she would have faced 25 years to life behind bars. The Fresno Bee reports that Brown thanked her lawyer and the prosecutor after her Monday morn- ing sentencing.