Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/268765
6A Daily News – Friday, February 28, 2014 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. Letter policy The Daily News welcomes let- ters from its readers on timely topics of public interest. All let- ters must be signed and pro- vide the writer's home street address and home phone num- ber. 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 submit- ted will be considered for publi- cation. Letters will be edited. Letters are published at the discretion of the editor. Mission Statement We believe that a strong com- munity 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 vehi- cles. The Daily News will reflect and support the unique identities of Tehama County and its cities; record the history of its com- munities and their people and make a positive difference in the quality of life for the resi- dents 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 Opinion The ballot in June will ask registered voters to choose from a slate of applicants for a posi- tion on the Board of Supervisors. Two women are vying for a seat in District 4 and this is good news for those of us who have long lobbied for more females to be elected to positions of authority...starting with the President of the United States, for example. One such candidate is S. Price, former city manager of the city of Red Bluff. I was well acquainted with her tenure at City Hall several years ago. At the time, it was felt that she had usurped too much authority and the council was serving at her pleasure rather than the other way around. When Susan emailed me of her inten- tion to run for supervisor, I replied that council members had delegated, by default, much of the power she had acquired, which was probably more their fault than hers for allowing her to call more and more of the shots while virtually run- ning City Hall. And so I asked how she would handle the job if elected. She replied, "If I am elected, you can be assured those county man- agers, or anyone else, will not escape my detailed questions, which are a hallmark of my personality." I think this is a good trait in this instance...which suggests she would not have put the county secession issue on the ballot if she had been on the board at the time. *** In a rare public presentation recently, which was sadly not reported by the Daily News, I urged members of the Tehama County Planning Commission to be decisive and alter the Gener- al Plan regarding a commercially zoned parcel to state that a taco truck vendor can only dis- pense on private property with the permission of the owner. Seems a simple request, and they should procrastinate no longer. *** S.F. Giants news: Barry Bonds named spring training batting coach. His first tip to hitters? "Start your morning off with juice". *** That last downpour several weekends ago produced much needed water but also caused ceiling tiles to fall in one of the properties we manage. Investigation showed that many of the roof drains on the large building we manage were full of pigeon droppings. I had noticed that a flock took wing every time I toured the prop- erty, but didn't think they could clog things up in such a short time. They may be pigeons or the more recently squatting Mourning Doves. Are they "mourning" or "morning?" Google suggests they are "Mourning Doves" also known as "Turtle Doves." Whatever the termi- nology, I asked City Hall if they had a bird abatement program. They answered no...and they also mentioned it is illegal to fire a gun in the city limits. What's a mother to do? Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. I under- stand the doves are good eat- ing. As the late Herb Caen referred to pigeons as "feathered rats," they don't sound as palat- able. *** CONSTABULARY NOTES FROM ALL OVER (From The New Yorker) Oak Harbor Washington News Times: At 7:48 a.m. a caller reported being assaulted near the intersection of SW Fort Nugent Avenue and SW Union Street. Then she said she was in a car accident in South Carolina. After that, she changed her story to say that she had an abortion three weeks ago. Then she said she was asked to leave the house. She finally said she just wanted a ride to work. *** In "The Autobiography of Mark Twain," Volume Two, the author discusses his encoun- ters with fellow author Brett Harte, and his dis- dain for Harte's deportment, his treatment of his wife and family and the borrowing of money Harte never repaid. In that chapter, Twain tells of an obituary that Harte, employed at the time by a newspaper in Yreka, edited in an unsatis- factory and ultimately hilarious manner. The obituary was compiled by relatives and com- plete with superlatives relating to the deceased, a Mrs. Thompson. Unfortunately, one line con- tained a typo which Harte attempted to correct. It read "Our loss is her eternal gain. Even in Yreka her chastity was conspicuous". Of course "chastity" was a misprint and "charity" was the word relatives were searching for. In attempting to clarify, Harte drew a black line under the word "chastity"and in the margin placed a question mark in parenthesis. Howev- er, there is a proof reader axiom that states, by drawing a line under a word, the type- setter should reinforce the word by putting it in italics. And when Harte read the cor- rected obituary the next day which read, "Even in Yreka her chastity was conspicuous (?)" he knew the widower would be after him with a gun… and abruptly left town. *** Last week's quiz was apparently in the reader's wheel house (as we say in baseball when a batter hits an up ball) and many responded such as J. Bauer, C. Hinton and N. Rick, who knew that Istanbul was once called Constantinople, that Burt Reynolds appeared discreetly nude in the Cosmopolitan maga- zine...and Lady Godiva rode through Coventry in her birthday suit. This week's quiz: What 4-letter word ends in "eny." Nervous, grievous and mischievous all end in "ous;" name a fourth word with the same ending. Suspicion and coercion end in "cion:" name a third such word. *** A defense attorney told his client he had bad news and good news. He said, "The bad news is that your blood test came back and your DNA is an exact match with the sample found on the victim." "Oh, no," said the client. "I'm finished. So, what's the good news?," gasped the defendant. "Your cholesterol is down to 140." Robert Minch is a lifelong resident of Red Bluff, former columnist for the Corning Daily Observer and Meat Industry magazine and author of the "The Knocking Pen." He can be reached at rminchandmurray@hotmail.com. Musings on the Board of Supervisors' race Commentary N EWS D AILY RED BLUFF TEHAMA COUNTY 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 Robert Minch I Say STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Dan Logue, 150 Amber Grove Drive, Ste. 154, Chico, CA 95928, 530-895-4217 STATE SENATOR — Jim Nielsen, 2635 Forest Ave., Ste. 110, Chico, CA 95928, (530) 879-7424, senator.nielsen@sen- ate.ca.gov GOVERNOR — Jerry Brown, State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 558- 3160; E-mail: governor@gov- ernor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Doug LaMalfa 506 Cannon House Office Building, Wash- ington, DC 20515, 202-225- 3076. U.S. SENATORS — Dianne Feinstein (D), One Post Street, Suite 2450, San Francisco, CA 94104; (415) 393-0707. Fax (415) 393- 0710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111; (510) 286-8537. Fax (202) 224-0454. Your officials More than a year in the works, the redesign of all Northern Cali- fornia newspapers managed by Digital First Media has begun — the Chico Enterprise-Record launched earlier this week. The Daily News will launch its new look with Tuesday's edition — God willing and the creek don't rise, which may be more than an expression after Wednesday night's downpour. I've mentioned the new look in previous columns and now it's upon us. I won't pretend everyone will love the more updated design, but I'm excited about having a bet- ter looking product. I may be many things, but an expert design- er is not on the list. In conjunction with the redesign, the layout of the paper will be handled at a central design hub for all the company's North- ern California papers. That hub is in Chico and will serve papers from as far south as Monterey up to Eureka. In recent years and through Sat- urday's edition, all pages of each day's paper were built by me, the production department and the sports editor. Having pages built elsewhere will free up resources here in Red Bluff and allow us to devote more time to coverage. There are also efficiencies cre- ated by having multiple newspa- pers built in one place. For exam- ple, most of the papers run a page of world and national news briefs. Each day, designers in 11 different newsrooms sit down and spend whatever time it takes to build a page of briefs. Moving forward, one designer in Chico can sit and produce the page for all 11 news- papers. Of course, this doesn't work with local news, which is different in each newspaper. That won't change. Does this mean we're losing local control of what appears in our newspaper? Not at all. Every edition will continue to have the same local news, community news, high school sports and local opinions. As a bonus, the whole thing will look a lot nicer. Even before the launch, we're looking into the possibility of adding content that has been cut due to staff reductions in recent years. A good example is the sports agate — scores, standings, sched- ules, etc. for national sports. Laying out a page of agate can take hours and we haven't had the personnel to devote to it for some time now. The design hub will be build- ing a sports agate page every day — all we have to do is say we want it in our edition. *** With the redesign comes a switch in the system by which we manage stories and pho- tos. That means having to change how we've done things for years and, initially, a lot more work. A colleague from southern Cal- ifornia, whose paper made the switch last year, during a training session last week said of the new system, "You'll hate it because it's different, but if I came back a year later and wanted to replace it with something else, you'd tell me it's wonderful." I ask you to bear with us as we put in long days and nights learning the new sys- tem. *** We're not alone. As mentioned, the E n t e r p r i s e - R e c o r d launched earlier this week and we're second in line, along with the Paradise Post starting next week. The Record-Searchlight has been built at a design hub for years. All of Digital First Media's southern Cali- fornia papers moved to a design hub last year. While having a local paper designed off site may take some getting used to, it's quickly becoming the industry standard. Chip Thompson can be reached at 527-2151, Ext. 112 or by email at editor@redbluffdailynews.com. Follow him on Twitter @EditorChip. New look, same Daily News Chip Thompson 545 Diamond Ave.