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ANDRE BYIK — DAILY NEWS A fire in the early-morning hours Friday at 237 Main St. in Red Bluff heavily damaged a vacant building being used for storage. Officials said the blaze was most likely human caused. Fire suspected to be caused by transients By Andre Byik sports@redbluffdailynews.com @TehamaSports on Twitter RED BLUFF » The Red Bluff Fire Department suspects a fire in the early-morning hours Friday that heavily damaged a vacant com - mercial structure on Main Street was human caused. City firefighters responded at 3:19 a.m. to the 237 Main St. prop - erty, described as an old residential structure that was converted to a commercial property, and found the structure "fully charged with smoke," according to a department press release. Reports conveyed the possibil - ity of a person trapped inside the building, but a search found noth- ing but evidence of recent occupa- tion by squatters, said Matthew Shobash, division chief with the fire department. "There have been transients liv - ing in the structure," Shobash said. "There's evidence of that all over the place unfortunately." Fire crews contained the fire, which burned the structure's floor, rear interior and back walls, in about 10 minutes, according to the release. The building wasn't supplied with gas or electric service, and entry doors were unlocked or missing. Shobash said the fire was more than likely human caused after rul - ing out all other possible causes, but wouldn't speculate on whether it was a case of arson. Shobash added the property owner said he has had problems with transients breaking into the building, which had most recently been used for storage. A look through the back of the PUBLIC SAFETY Pre-dawn blaze damages vacant Main St. building By Rich Greene rgreene@redbluffdailynews.com @richgreenenews on Twitter RED BLUFF » A consumer finance website's study on the best cities for automobile insurance in Cali- fornia shows on average residents in Red Bluff enjoy one of the state's cheapest rates. The study by ValuePenguin. com ranked Red Bluff as having the 20th cheapest auto insurance amongst 210 cities. On average Red Bluff drivers enjoy an annual premium about 19 percent less than the state average. The cheapest rates in the state were found in cities with generally low claims incidents rates. The five cities with the cheapest rates were found to be Calexico, Lewiston, Yreka, Bishop and McKinleyville. The most expensive cities for au - tomobile insurance were Glendale, Los Angeles, Inglewood, Culver PERSonAL FInAnCES Red Bluff enjoys cheap California auto insurance rates By Rich Greene rgreene@redbluffdailynews.com @richgreenenews on Twitter RED BLUFF » The City Council de- nied a request by the Red Bluff- Tehama County Chamber of Commerce Tuesday night to in- crease the city's financial contri- bution to the organization for the remainder of the budget year. Chamber Chairwoman Darlene Koontz had asked the City Council in a letter to consider lifting an an - nual cap on the city's contribution of Transient Occupancy Tax reve- nue it provides the chamber. The additional revenue, estimated be- tween $20,000 and $32,500, would have been used for the chamber to host the annual Crawdad Festival. The chamber took over sponsor - CITY CoUnCIL Chamber funding request denied Crawdad Fest financing in limbo By Rich Greene rgreene@redbluffdailynews.com @richgreenenews on Twitter RED BLUFF » Job losses in the trade, transportation, utilities, government and farm indus- tries led Tehama County's un- employment rate to climb to 11.3 percent in January. While the jobless rate across California continued its down - ward trend dropping to 8.1 per- cent, numbers released Friday by the Employment Develop- ment Department showed Te- hama County's rate increased 1.2 percentage points from De- cember to January. Tehama County's civilian la- bor force grew by 360 workers in January to 25,270 and, while 40 more workers were employed in January than December, there were 320 more potential workers unemployed than the previous month. The trade, transportation and utilities job sector showed a loss of 70 jobs as did govern - ment jobs. The farming indus- try showed a monthly loss of 50 jobs. The one industry that gained jobs was financial activities, which showed a net gain of 30 positions. The 11.3 percent January un - employment rate is still consid- EConomY Local unemployment rises Trade, transportation, government jobs see monthly losses Tehama County at 11.3 percent compared to 7 percent country-wide Community ..... A3 Opinion ............A4 Obituaries ....... A9 Sports.............. B1 Faith ................B3 Puzzles............B5 Index ............... ## InDEX Live comedy show at 7:30 tonight at the State Theatre for the Arts. Tickets $10, pro- ceeds to benefit the theater. ComEDY TonIGhT Wild Oak Anniversary Hootenanny Israel is the only nation in history to be restored aer two millennia of exile and obliteration. Faith B3 GoDTALk Israel — the plumb line of the world New computer-based stan- dardized tests expected out this spring aer dispute with feds comes to end. PaGE a9 EDUCATIon New K-12 testing plan OK'd for California Lawmakers push for Crimea secession from Ukraine, say region would be welcome in Russian sphere. PaGE B4 UkRAInE Upcoming Crimea vote has world on edge "There have been transients living in the structure. There's evidence of that all over the place unfortunately." — Matthew Shobash, Red Bluff Fire Department Division Chief FIRE » PAGE 9 11.3% Tehama County January unemploy- ment rate +1.2 Percentage point increase from De- cember 2013 -2.6 Percentage point decrease from January 2013 8.5% State of California January unemploy- ment rate by the numbers AUTo » PAGE 9 ChAmBER » PAGE 9 EConomY » PAGE 9 » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, march 8, 2014 $1.00 FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS 7 98304 20753 8 Volume 129, issue 76 Today's web bonus » Robin Thicke's year. redbluffdailynews. BASkETBALL Lady Spartans play for title Sports » B1 JEAn BARTon RDF TV American Rodeo Farm » A6 FoRECAST high: 73 Low: 50 » a10 Follow the Daily News on Twitter to keep pace with breaking news and events @REDBLUFFNEWS FOLLOW US ON TWITTER