Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/288630
Greg Stevens, Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor Editorial Board How to have your say: 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 no more than two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@red bluffdailynews.com Phone: 530-527- 2151 ext. 112 Mail to: P.O. Box 220, 545 Diamond Ave., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FaCEbook.CoM/ rbdailynEwS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @rEdbluFFnEwS You bet. Case in point. How a money-orientated San Fran- cisco professional fishermen's group aided by Bay Area Si- erra Club-type groups' lawyers succeeded in the elimination of Lake Red Bluff during the 10 weeks in summer, and the af - termath of their meddling. Federal judge Oliver Wanger first dismissed their attempts citing ocean global warming and other environmental issues. De - termined not to take no for an answer, they paid lawyers to hound through litigation to try to maneuver this judge with de - batable, slanted information into a ruling which has had an ad- verse effect on Tehama County. The main focus being on in- creased incomes for profes- sional fishermen and to prove their point. With no regard towards Te- hama County or its citizenry, its environment, its culture or the long term effects of the rul- ing they paid to push through their mandates with their un- limited money resources. We now have to live with what the Bay Area has mandated for us. Also questions now arise concerning flood control and the agricultural benefits of the dam, justifying its original con - struction and its intended us- age and questioning its pro- posed removal. Compounded by shortsighted statements from the head of the Tehama Colusa Canal Au - thority, and a passe city man- ager and council that laid down, we now have the aftermath of our city's leadership's blunder of not standing up to these Bay Area paid bureaucrats, lobby - ists and their lawyers. Now we have a burned out eyesore behind Burger King that is also a shantytown that used to be Lake Red Bluff. Loss of about $3 million in revenue from the boat drags. Closure of the riverside restaurant. E's locker room with a fraction of it's customers. Closure of Hal's Eat 'em Up. No marina or boat - ing at the Elks Lodge. No fire- works at the park in July. And the economic losses to busi- nesses in summer is anyone's guess. And that's not even men- tioning, what the boating meant to children and families for rec- reation. I urge citizens, ranchers, fraternal organizations, civic groups and business owners to demand that the city institute legal proceedings to challenge and demand a compromise, which prior to their unwanted intrusion we had, to this Bay Area intervention regarding Lake Red Bluff. Take away the control the bay has established over our city, which has had such an ad - verse effect in many ways, on our once beautiful river city be- fore San Francisco decided to try to run things for us. — Terry Van Dyke Red Bluff State of Jefferson The idea of a 51st state by splitting California is not a new idea. I remember my uncles talking about it when I was a kid. That's been 70 years ago. The concept of a new state is certainly a long shot, but, one I'm sure is worth pursuing. The name of this new state doesn't have to be Jefferson, we can de - cide on the name when the time comes. Some of the people I've talked to don't say they are from California, they say they are from Northern California. North California is a name we might consider. That sounds good to me. There are many advantages with a new state. One of the most important advantages is with our children and their ed - ucation. We can rid ourselves of the bloated and ineffective Department of Education and Teachers Union. Many people in the field of education will see the benefit of revamping our ed - ucational system. The screams we hear from the rest of these people will be deafening, but they are not the important ones. Our children and grandchildren are. — Gary Broughton Red Bluff Thanks to the Browns A note of thanks to Wayne and Larry Brown. All of you at Tru-Value are missed. Thank you for your years of service to our community. Your folks are proud of you. — Sam Collins Red Bluff Roads response In response to a letter pub- lished March 27 submitted by Mr. Joseph Ostrowski regard- ing street repair in Red Bluff, I would like to make clear that subject has already been on the city council agenda and has been addressed as well a map that was presented to council by the city showing the streets to be repaired. The 0.25 cent sales tax will go to support the Red Bluff police depart - ment. Our community should be proud of our police depart- ment as the officers are highly trained, dedicated and profes- sional. The chief of police is al- most always at the council meetings and is very forth com- ing in keeping the city informed of its needs and expenses. I have attended city council meetings the last several years and perhaps Mr. Ostrowski as well as others should consider attending. It's informative and interesting to learn what is hap - pening in our city. You also can address the city council during the community time to speak. The meetings are the first and third Tuesdays of every month at 7 p.m. in the council chambers at city hall. City council elections will be coming up soon, perhaps Mr. Ostrowski would consider throwing his hat in the arena. — Sharon Eliggi Red Bluff Nobody's talking about desalination Everybody, meaning all the politicians, are talking about raising dams, building new dams, recycling, conservation; but along the entire California western edge is a huge source of water called the Pacific Ocean. Nobody but me is talking about desalination, utilizing so - lar energy and mining the min- erals in the water and selling the water to the end users. I suppose that right now de- salination would be expensive, but then all new technologies are expensive. But, after enough plants have been built to supply our thirsty orchards and swim - ming pools it will suddenly be- come cheap. Face it. Desalination is the only real solution to California's long term water needs, and rais - ing Shasta dam, pumping the Sacramento River into the cen- tral valley through a new tun- nel system, and building a rail- road than no one will ride is just a huge waste of money that can be better spent. — Fred Boest Red Bluff letters Bay Area should not be in control of Red Bluff Cartoonist's take Ah, springtime has finally ar- rived in Washington, D.C. The National Cherry Blos- som Festival is beginning. The cherry trees, 3,700 of them given to America by the Japanese in 1912, will soon be in full bloom. It reminds me why Americans are so wary of Washington. In the spring of 1999, you see, some culprits had been chopping down cherry trees. The National Park Service, in a state of high alert for days, finally identified the tree fellers: three beavers, who decided to con - struct a dam in the Tidal Basin. In a normal city, this situa- tion would have been dealt with swiftly. The beavers would have been trapped, transported to an- other location and released. In fact, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), not known for common sense so - lutions, suggested exactly that. But Washington is no normal city. No sooner was PETA's idea floated than experts began crawl - ing out of the woodwork. One said it would be tragic to separate the three beavers, since they're likely from the same family. Another said you can't move beavers to a new colony because the new colony — beavers are Republicans? — would reject the freeloaders. Besides, what's the point of being a beaver if you don't have any buddies to plug up storm sewers with? A third expert said that, all things consid - ered, the most humane solution would be to euth- anize the beavers. Boy, did the public re- act negatively to that sug- gestion. This is because bea- vers are cute. Their cud- dly television presence clouded the public's ability to address the problem rationally. The fact is that if beavers looked more like their pointy- nosed cousins, rats, even PETA would have lined the banks of the Tidal Basin with rifles and shot - guns to take out the varmints before they felled more beloved trees. By that point, PETA returned to form. It demanded the beavers be allowed to continue damming the Tidal Basin — to hell with the cherry trees and the fact that "Tidal Basin" would need to be renamed "Tidal Wave." The hullabaloo went on for some time before the Park Ser - vice finally hired a professional trapper. The trapper caught the beavers and they were carted off. You'd think that would have been the end of it. But not in Washington. Activists, suspicious of what the Park Service really did with the beavers — Guantanamo Bay? — demanded their location be di- vulged. That prompted the Park Ser- vice to issue a statement. It said that, due to the publicity sur- rounding the case, the beavers were moved to a "safe house," which, apparently, is some kind of beaver witness protection pro - gram. The beaver incident illustrates how convoluted and confus- ing things can get in Washing- ton — simple ideas and solutions that work everywhere else are twisted and contorted and made unrecognizable there. That's why the fellows who founded this country had the right idea when they sought to keep most of the decision-making out of Washington — keep it among the people and within the states. But the birds running the gov - ernment right now don't see it that way. They have Washington butt- ing into every aspect of our lives. Alas, springtime has arrived in Washington. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping and the cherry trees are in full bloom. And all I can do is worry about what that nutty town is going to meddle with next. Tom Purcell, author of "Misadven - tures of a 1970s Childhood" and "Comical Sense: A Lone Humorist Takes on a World Gone Nutty!" is a Pittsburgh Tribune-Review humor columnist. Send comments to Tom at Purcell@caglecartoons.com. tom Purcell Springtime in Washington, D.C. the idea of a 51st state by splitting California is not a new idea. i remember my uncles talking about it when i was a kid. that's been 70 years ago. SCottSdalE, ariz. » It's not a clean sweep, but it's a move in the right direction. Major-league players who aren't using performance-en - hancing drugs are no longer in- terested in defending or cover- ing for cheats. A year ago as the Biogenesis scandal water-drip tortured the game with the leak- ing of names, anger surfaced. Rockies outfielder Michael Cud- dyer and the St. Louis Cardinals' Matt Holliday were among the most outspoken. Cuddyer was tired of the sport receiving a "black eye." Holliday reiterated in January that "ev - erybody wants a level playing field that's not using it." Both advocated stronger pen- alties for PED users. As new union boss Tony Clark visited camps this spring, he realized they were not the minority. Major League Baseball an - nounced stiffer penalties for PED use Friday. The first-time offense is now an 80-game suspension, a 30- game increase, with a season- long suspension for a second in - stead of 100 games. A third strike? Lifetime ban. This isn't perfect, but it is a deterrent. That is at the crux of this movement. The pendulum has swung from the days when spring training was populated more by players who were sus - pected of using than weren't. The union once fought test- ing on privacy grounds. Then it resisted blood work. A decade later, many are furious that their colleagues are getting paid while skirting the rules. Melky Cabrera's two-year, $16 million contract last win - ter didn't go over well. Cabrera shaped the National League West race, won All-Star Game MVP honors and was connected to a fake website that tried to get investigators off his trail. He cashed in as a free agent. He was in line for much more, defenders said, but he was also on the fringe of being out of baseball before his alleged use. Johnny Peralta's four-year, $53 million deal with the Cardinals will likely be looked back on as the tipping point for stiffer pen - alties. His value didn't take any hit, leading Arizona Diamond- backs reliever Brad Ziegler to tweet, "We thought 50 games would be a deterrent. Obvi- ously it's not. So we are work- ing on it again. It pays to cheat. … Thanks, owners, for encour- aging PED use." Stronger penalties won't pre- vent lawbreakers. Any occu- pation that involves egos and money will always have those who look to cut corners. But the 80-game and full-season bans would strike a stronger chord and resonate more deeply, espe - cially with the player losing his entire salary during season-long suspensions, as reports indicate. It doesn't mean there isn't room for forgiveness. Players can still want a clean game and accept a player who has served his ban. Tougher rules, however, will create pause and should in - clude a broader amendment. Any team that has a player on its 25- man roster suspended for PEDs should have to forfeit two games. The idea? Make the stakes higher for employing suspected or former cheaters. The risk must outweigh the reward for meaningful change. Cheaters are stealing jobs and money from deserving players. Taking away both from them represents a significant step to - ward a cleaner game. Troy E. Renck covers Major League Baseball for Digital First Media at The Denver Post. Follow him on Twitter @TroyRenck. troy E. rEnCk MLB can take additional action to prevent performance enhancer use Tom Purcell OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Wednesday, april 2, 2014 » MORE AT FaCEbook.CoM/rbdailynEwS AND TwiTTEr.CoM/rEdbluFFnEwS a6