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4A Daily News – Saturday, October 5, 2013 Opinion DAILY NEWS RED BLUFF TEHAMA COUNTY 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 Greg Stevens, Publisher gstevens@redbluffdailynews.com Chip Thompson, Editor editor@redbluffdailynews.com Editorial policy The Daily News opinion is expressed in the editorial. The opinions expressed in columns, letters and cartoons are those of the authors and artists. Vegetation along Interstate 5 Editor: You may have noticed the new vegetation and bark patterns in several different locations along Interstate 5 in Tehama County. Caltrans District 2, along with Robert Frank Construction from Redding, has been installing the bark patterns in more than a dozen locations along a 42mile stretch of the interstate. Members of the California Conservation Corps are planting hundreds of native plants from just south of the Liberal Avenue overcrossing in Corning to Bowman Road in Cottonwood as part of a project made possible by funds from the Federal Transportation Enhancement Program. Plants like the valley oak, blue oak and coffeeberry are very economical and only need to be watered for the first three years. They will also take the place of grass in many locations along I-5, thus reducing the state‚s usage of water, fuel and electricity for things like mowing and spraying. Caltrans has had success with this same type of vegetation in Shasta County at Knighton Road and Riverside Avenue where they have had a 95 percent success rate of growth. The project also includes storm water detention basins at Bowman Road and Liberal Avenue that are designed to look natural with rock edging. This design will improve runoff water quality. It is our hope that motorists driving through our district will appreciate Caltrans‚ efforts to maintain the aesthet- ic beauty of our region, while cares more about carrying out using the most cost-effective, the will of the President then he environmentally friendly does about listening to and carmaterials available. rying out the will of the people. John Bulinski, Redding It is time for equality under John Bulinski is the law. District 2 director for Rick Boutin, Your CalTrans. Red Bluff Listen to America Editor: The House of Representatives already sent four government funding bills to the senate. A majority of legal American citizens don't want Obamacare. Even our elected officials and unions don't want to participate in it. The Obama administration awarded big business with a participation delay. Harry Reid is refusing to negotiate with Congress — he Letter policy The Daily News welcomes letters from its readers on timely topics of public interest. All letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and cannot exceed two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section of those submitted will be considered for publication. Letters will be edited. Letters are published at the discretion of the editor. Mission Statement We believe that a strong community newspaper is essential to a strong community, creating citizens who are better informed and more involved. The Daily News will be the indispensible guide to life and living in Tehama County. We will be the premier provider of local news, information and advertising through our daily newspaper, online edition and other print and Internet vehicles. The Daily News will reflect and support the unique identities of Tehama County and its cities; record the history of its communities and their people and make a positive difference in the quality of life for the residents and businesses of Tehama County. How to reach us Main office: 527-2151 Classified: 527-2151 Circulation: 527-2151 News tips: 527-2153 Sports: 527-2153 Obituaries: 527-2151 Photo: 527-2153 On the Web www.redbluffdailynews.com Fax Newsroom: 527-9251 Classified: 527-5774 Retail Adv.: 527-5774 Legal Adv.: 527-5774 Business Office: 527-3719 Address 545 Diamond Ave. Red Bluff, CA 96080, or P.O. Box 220 Red Bluff, CA 96080 Turn More doodling Editor: Fear of Obamacare? What's the cost benefit ratio? How important is it? How many people believe it will change the system from seeking a cure to practicing preventative medicine? How many people perceive it as an attempt to prove the statement "If all men were rich, all men would be poor" to be true? Reality, budget needs to be passed, balanced, best, timely too. Steve Kelsey, Corning Your officials STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Dan Logue, 1550 Humboldt Road, Ste. 4, Chico, CA 95928, 530-895-4217 STATE SENATOR — Jim Nielsen, 2635 Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico, CA 95928, (530) 879-7424, senator.nielsen@senate.ca.gov GOVERNOR — Jerry Brown, State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 5583160; E-mail: governor@governor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Doug LaMalfa 506 Cannon House Office Building, Washington, DC 20515, 202-2253076. U.S. SENATORS — Dianne Feinstein (D), One Post Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94104; (415) 393-0707. Fax (415) 3930710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111; (510) 286-8537. Fax (202) 224-0454. Commentary Follow the water, I mean the money My father always had interesting stories to tell my brother and me about when he was growing up on a dust farm in Kansas. Recent events have recalled one of his more graphic tales. It seems the cat got into the chicken coop; my grandfather raced into the house, grabbed the already loaded shotgun, opened up the chicken coop, scooped up the offending cat by its tail, tossed it up in the air, and shot it. For two young boys raised in San Francisco and who had a pet cat the story seemed cruel and harsh; on the surface we couldn't understand my grandfather's anger or the need to kill the cat for merely sneaking into the chicken coop. After the shock settled in my father told us that my grandfather knew that once that cat had tasted what was available in the chicken coop there would be no way it would stay away, and the chickens represented an important source of food for ten members of my father's family. What triggered that memory was the appointment by Governor Brown of Laura King Moon of Woodland to be the Chief Deputy Director of the State Department of Water Resources. Tom Stokely who recently visited Red Bluff to brief us on water policy, specifically the controversial "twin tunnel" plan espoused by the Governor, remarked, "This appointment [of Moon] is just more of the fox guarding the hen house." By "fox" he is referring to "big water." Stokely did not say our former Governor Moonbeam, that is our current Governor Brown, was struck by lunacy, but the message is clear, Brown has had water on his brain since 1982 when voters shot down his push for a peripheral canal to shuttle water to the southland, where, coincidentally, the votes and political money reside. In 1982 voters rejected Proposition 9 which would have funded the peripheral canal to funnel water from Northern California to Southern California; as purported by supporters the canal would be fiscally self-supporting. The Legislative Analyst's office officially stated in the voter pamphlet that: "If [the proposition] is approved by the voters and all of the projects listed in Table 1 are undertaken, the state construction expenditures would be increased by a minimum of $3.1 billion plus interest over a period of several decades. The revenues from user charges would increase and thus offset the increased expenditure." Sounds a little like the fellow who would like to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge. Much of the current discontent between the north state and the south state was also very evident during the campaign for and against Proposition 9. The proposition was a veto initiative to block legislation passed by the state. We still hear echoes from that conflict, and an analysis of the contributors who supported Proposition 9 revealed that major contributions to the campaign came from the same sources backing the twin tunnel project, aka the usual suspects. According to California Agriculture Magazine, "[in 1982] The Metropolitan Water District was central in organizing support for the Peripheral Canal...using political strategists and lobbyists." The signs decrying Congress for limiting the amount of water the south valley is "entitled" to proliferate along I-5; I guess those signs can grow in dry soil. We were driving to Phoenix this week, and it occurred to me that Congress can't even keep the government running, let alone failure. Talk about flushing the water. The signs reinforced money and water down the my concern that those folks drain! New Department of Water influencing water policy have a Resources Chief singular agenda that is Deputy Director not in our best interests Laura King Moon in the North State. was conveniently on We take water for leave from the State granted. The presence, Water Contractors absence, and distribuAssociation where tion of water impacts she was a lobbyist economics, politics, and and Assistant Genersociety in general. al Manager from One of the underly2000 to 2011; she ing causes of much of was on loan to the the conflict in Syria is a Department of result of water issues. Joe Water Resources to The country suffered assist in the complethrough many years of tion of the to the Bay drought; farmers were Delta Conservation ruined; livestock dwinPlan, aka the Twin dled; hundreds of restless people migrated to the Tunnels project. According to its website: cities; unemployment and poverty exploded. The regime "The State Water Contractors is gave out water drilling permits a non-profit association of 27 to members of favored sects. public agencies from Northern, This caused resentment and Central and Southern California animosities as well as the that purchase water under conmushrooming of illegal drilling tract from the California State and the depletion of the Water Project. Collectively, the aquifer…and the spiral contin- State Water Contractors deliver water to more than 25 million ues. Closer to home, the Bridge- residents throughout the state water School in Humboldt and more than 750,000 acres of County had to cancel classes on agricultural lands." Barbara Barrigan-Parilla, the Tuesday after Labor day because someone had stolen Executive Director of Restore 20,000 gallons of water from a the Delta, was quoted as saying storage tank. And even closer to the appointment of Moon was home we debate the proposed another example of the "revolvincrease in the height of Shasta ing door of water insiders Dam, allegedly to protect the whose political agenda has salmon. Across the river in nothing to do with protecting Antelope some people claim water, our state's most importheir wells are not reliable any- tant resource." When Tom Stokely spoke to us he gave more. Further south we think of the several other examples. It almost makes you want to so-called Las Posas Basin and Recovery Project which secede. attempted to create an underJoe Harrop is a retired ground lake holding enough water to serve 600,000 people. educator with more than 30 That project, which has cost years of service to the North over $150 million and counting, State. He can be reached at leaks and most likely will be a DrJoeHarrop@sbcglobal.net. Harrop