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THURSDAY OCTOBER 21, 2010 Breaking news at: Ribs, Rods and Rides Balloon Fest www.redbluffdailynews.com See Below RED BLUFF Cougars Caged SPORTS 1B Partly cloudy 73/48 Weather forecast 10A By GEOFF JOHNSON DN Staff Writer After all but suspending the Williamson Act for a year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has signed a bill restoring the act to a quarter of its former funding for the 2010-2011 fiscal year. Assemblyman Jim Nielsen, R-Gerber, who pushed for the 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 Williamson Act restored, sort of funding, announced the news Wednesday in a press release. “California agricultural lands remain protected and Cal- ifornia farmers will continue to be able to farm,” Nielsen said. “This is especially important to future generations.” ‘If, in fact, the governor put $10 million in there for a year, that’s good. (But) that’s about a fourth of what we should have’ The funding boost follows the adoption of a Nielsen- authored bill allowing Califor- nia counties to shorten existing Williamson Act contracts from Supervisor Charles Willard Bare pantry 10- and 20-year agreements to 9- and 18-year agreements respectively. Nielsen said the move will make the contracts more palatable to cash-strapped counties. Introduced to promote farm- ing, the act awards subsidies to counties that agree to reduce See ACT, page 9A Man arrested in Lake Calif rape Authorities arrested a 19-year-old Lake Califor- nia man Tuesday on suspicion of raping a 15-year- old girl. The victim walked into the Tehama County Sher- iff’s Department Tuesday and told authorities she had been sexually assaulted in Lake California around 2 a.m. Sunday morning, according to a press See RAPE, page 9A Corning to mull disciplinary action for top official By JULIE ZEEB DN Staff Writer Daily News photo by Tang Lor Al Bloomster evaluates the shelves of the Salvation Army pantry. The food left on the shelf was expected to be gone by early next week. By TANG LOR DN Staff Writer The Salvation Army is known for helping people in their most desperate times, but now it desper- ately needs help from the community. Starting next week, if the Salvation Army does not get more food dona- tions, its food pantry will be empty, Community Volunteer Coordinator Fran Fazio said. “We’ll have to start turning people away if we don’t get more food,” Fazio said. “We’ll have to Most 2-year college students never finish SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Most students seeking degrees at Cali- fornia’s community col- leges neither complete them nor transfer to a four-year university with- in six years, according to a study that spells trouble for the state’s economic future. Nearly 70 percent of degree-seeking students who enrolled in commu- nity college during the 2003-2004 school year did not transfer or earn a degree or certificate by 2009, according to the report released this week by the Institute for Higher Education Leadership & Policy at Sacramento State University. It found most of the students who didn’t com- plete degrees or transfers dropped out. The study, which tracked more than 250,000 students, found a wide disparity among racial groups in the per- centage of community college students who earn degrees or transfer. The study found the rate was 37 percent for white stu- dents, 35 percent for Asians, 26 percent for blacks and 22 percent of Latinos. The low rates of col- lege completion could hurt California’s economy as other states and coun- tries send more people to college and increase their levels of educational attainment, said report co- author Nancy Shulock, who heads the higher edu- cation institute at Sacra- mento State. ‘‘We’ve got to try to increase the educational attainment of California, or we’re going to lose jobs and our stature as a lead- ing economic power- house,’’ Shulock said. ‘‘California is falling behind the rest of the states. And the rest of the states are falling behind the rest of the world in terms of educational attainment.’’ The report, which was sponsored by the nonprof- See 2-YEAR, page 9A 7 5 8 5 5 1 6 9 0 0 1 9 Red Bluff Outdoor Power shut down ‘til December.” The Salvation Army’s 53-foot offsite trailer and its onsite storage box are empty. Inside the Salva- tion Army headquarters, the pantry shelves that should be overflowing are empty on the bottom row and only a week’s supply of food remains on the upper shelves. It is not unusual for the food pantry to run low around this time of the year, but the last three years it has been increas- ingly tougher to keep the See PANTRY, page 9A CORNING – The City Council will meet at 6:30 p.m. tonight in a special closed session to discuss what actions will be taken in regards to City Manag- er Steve Kimbrough. City Attorney Mike Fitzpatrick previously confirmed that the matter involves a tax to fund fire dispatch, which was approved 3-1 for the bal- lot at an April 27 meeting with Councilman Ross Turner voting no, that never made it onto the November ballot. Mayor Gary Strack has said that Fitzpatrick will be drawing up documents to define what action is to be taken, but declined to discuss the matter further. The agenda posted to Balloon fest ready for take off Ribs, Rods and Rides launches Saturday in Corning www.corning.org lists only that it concerns pub- lic employee discipline, dismissal or release. Mayoral candidate Dean Cofer brought up the fact that the tax had not made it to the ballot at the Sept. 28 meeting, when Councilman John Leach and Turner voiced displeasure that the issue had not been brought back to the public. The reason the tax did- n’t make it to the ballot was a lack of time and it was Kimbrough’s lack of communication that caused problems with the council, he said. While the matter was not brought back to a pub- lic meeting, it was brought up to the council in the Aug. 6 edition of See CORNING, page 9A Daily News file photo Balloons launch during the 2009 Ribs, Rods and Rides event at Rolling Hills Casino. Special to the DN CORNING — Tehama County’s most uplifting festival combines a rib cook off, classic car show and hot air balloon rides to raise money and awareness for local charities in Tehama and Butte counties. “We're looking forward to another exciting event,” said Kate Grissom, Rolling Hills director of Marketing. “Last year we were amazed with the turnout for all three events.” Hosted by Rolling Hills Casino and the Red Bluff-Tehama County Chamber of Commerce, the Second Annual Ribs, Rods and Rides will begin at dawn Saturday, Oct. 23, with the launch of 20 hot air bal- loons at the casino. “This year we’ve upped the ante by offering more balloons, more ribs and more cars and we’ve added indoor activi- ties that include live music and a market place featuring local arts, wines, foods and crafts,” Grissom said. Hot air balloon rides continue on Sun- day, weather permitting. See FEST, page 9A Daily News Saturday print delivery will be late due to football coverage …but now you can read the Saturday paper online after 8:00 am Saturday mornings www.redbluffdailynews.com Click on Digital Edition