Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/310107
GregStevens,Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIALBOARD 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 500words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@red bluffdailynews.com Phone: 530-527- 2151ext. 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 HIT Some650athletes,men- tors, volunteers and educators turned out Tuesday for the Te- hama County Special Olympics at Red Bluff Union High School. Athletes from 23 schools in four counties were cheered on by high school athletes in an event so well organized and supported by the community it appears ef- fortless. We know how much work it must take, and that's a testament to our community's strength and work ethic. MISS Over the top claims in public meetings. In recent weeks members of the public have called the Tehama County Board of Supervisors mur- derers and compared one de- cision they made to the Holo- caust. What issue brought up such outlandish claims? The board's decision to increase the registration fee for mari- juana cultivation. A few months back during discussion of a zon- ing change, some at the meet- ing claimed Chinese-style sky- scrapers would be going up on Baker Road. We understand that some folks get emotional over certain issues, but perhaps toning down the rhetoric a few notches might help them to be taken more seriously. HIT Tehama County leads the North State in agricultural sales. With $240 million in ag sales reported in 2012, Tehama outpaced the next two coun- ties down the list by $17 mil- lion and $91 million. The fig- ure represents a jump of more than 68 percent in sales over the last five years. Want a sam- ple? Tehama Trail's fourth an- nual Passport Weekend is just around the bend, June 7-8. MISS Despite clear direction from voters over how Tran- sient Occupancy Tax revenues should be invested — to pro- mote tourism —three on the City Council decided Tues- day they would put the reve- nue in the general fund where it will make up, at least in part, for employee raises. The bigger miss, though, is the expectation the city can recover financially by gutting an entity that brings revenue into the city. HIT Unlikely hero. Greenwaste employee Hector Dominguez was making his rounds Monday morning when he was flagged down by a homeowner whose kitchen was on fire. Dominguez was able to put out the fire with an extinguisher before firefight- ers arrived. The fire was con- tained to the stove and nearby cabinets and counter top. Hats off to Dominguez for his quick thinking and action. MISS Overgrown vacancies. It's sad to see so many vacant commercial properties around Red Bluff, but this time of year the eyesore is compounded by owners who don't maintain the grounds. The transition from spring rains to warm, sunny days means these lots and buildings become overrun with weeds. Not the best way to at- tract tenants, much less new- comers to town. HIT The Red Bluff Lady Spar- tans softball team entered Fri- day with a 17-game win streak. The streak included perfect tournament performances in Redding and Susanville. The win streak was put to the test Tuesday during a doubleheader against Shasta. Trailing 6-0 in the second game the Lady Spartans battled back and eventually won the game 10-9 in extra innings. MaxPreps has Red Bluff ranked as the North- ern Section's top team with one more week left in the regular season and the Lady Spartans will be considered a favorite to once again reach the title game. HIT Winners in Stonyford. Clint Brewer of Los Molinos and Roy Owens of Red Bluff teamed up May 3-4 for first place in team roping at the Stonyford Rodeo. Other local notables were Jerry Brewer of Los Moli- nos and Mike Byrne of Red Bluff who were fourth in team roping, Ty Pogue of Corning who was third in novice barrel racing and Kidd Norton of Red Bluff who scored the wildest ride during Sunday's Mutton Bustin'. Hits and misses Aspecial community indeed There's good news and bad news about Obamacare. The good news is some 8 mil- lion Americans have signed up for health care, and the national uninsured rate is dropping. The bad news is an estimated 5 mil- lion "working poor" Ameri- cans can't get insurance because they're considered too poor. Oth- ers can get stuck in bureaucracy. Meet a San Diego friend who I'll call Tim Parker. In early 2013, he suddenly had problems walk- ing up a little hill from his place of residence to a bus stop. As the year progressed he found he couldn't walk far because his legs felt heavy and would explode. He was in enormous pain. He was a heavy smoker. Parker's job doesn't pay much, and on top of what little he makes he pays child support. By spring 2013, he desperately sought insur- ance, but insurance agents said treating his pre-existing condi- tion was out and could be a dis- qualifier. His pain and loss of leg mobility worsened. He has no car and had to arrange for friends to drive him to and from work be- cause if he walked to the bus stop he'd have to stop frequently, and would be in excruciating pain. A friend referred Parker to a top chiropractor who feared something grave, such as Lou Gehrig's disease. Tests showed nothing. He went uninsured to an emergency room, which did a lim- ited number of tests. They told him it was probably smoking re- lated, wrote down a specialist's name, and sent him home within hours. He was told to sign up for Medi-Cal. He put in the paper- work and got no response. Fast forward to the Obam- acare sign up deadline. Parker got errors on the Obamacare website, and was only able to complete part of an application on Covered California before the site froze up. I personally called the offices of California's two Democratic Senators on his be- half and told them his condition was worsening and he needed to get health insurance ASAP. Each office took information and asked him to send them an email. One helped him get his application in to Covered California -- which af- ter a few weeks sent him a let- ter saying he didn't qualify and they'd refer his case to Medi-Cal. He couldn't get confirmation from Medi-Cal that his papers were re- ceived. Parker's legs were getting worse. He was getting thin and gaunt. I made calls back to each Senator's office and it was clear they felt their job was done. One referred me to Parker's Republi- can state Senator's office, which said they couldn't help him -- and referred him to an advocate. The advocates referred him to Medi- Cal. He left a phone message for Medi-Cal but got no answer. The California Governor's office told him to fill out a constituent re- quest form on the website, which could take a month or more to be taken up due to the backlog. Parker continued to work and started having leg muscle spasms. One day his legs finally gave out, causing him to fall. He briefly lost his vision and could barely lift one leg. Parker's wife finally took him to a different hospital's emergency room this month, where doctors discovered major smoking damage: gravely clogged arteries, shockingly high blood pressure and a big blood clot near his hip. The hospital got emergency Medi-Cal coverage and did major surgery. They told him he had been within a hair of having his leg amputated. So, in the end, Parker got temporary Medi-Cal coverage through the back door by hav- ing to go uninsured (and gravely ill) to the emergency room -- de- spite a year of desperately trying to get insurance. Not one elected official's office had followed up to make sure his case was totally re- solved. They all passed the buck. So I've made a decision: I'll pass on ever voting for these spe- cific politicians from both parties. And I'll screen out talk about how anyone who needs health insur- ance can now get it if they sign up — because Obamacare didn't help Tim Parker one iota. How many other Tim Parkers are out there? And how many died while fruitlessly trying to get insurance — or trying to find a politician's office that actually cared? JoeGandelmanisaveteranjournal- ist who wrote for newspapers over- seas and in the United States. He has appeared on cable news show political panels and is Editor-in- Chief of The Moderate Voice, an In- ternet hub for independents, cen- trists and moderates. He also writes for The Week's online edition. CNN's John Avlon named him as one of the top 25 Centrists Colum- nists and Commentators. He can be reached at jgandelman@themoder- atevoice.com. Joe Gandelman How many have died while trying to get some help? Cartoonist's take CityCounciladopts budget Editor: One paper shows that the city's budget was approved with the following highlights: 4.5% pay raise for police, fire and mis- cellaneous personnel; 2.5% cut in police and fire spending — not miscellaneous personnel spend- ing — and then a couple days later the headlines show that the police are a seeking a $1 million grant to curb crime. One way to help reduce crime is by not cutting their budget. I am guessing that they did not cut miscellaneous spending be- cause they are the ones writing the grants. In my humble opin- ion, if the personnel are miscella- neous, then cut them. I never see them on the streets. Because I am a senior citizen, my so-called raises are based the COLA for last year. Maybe the city should use the same COLA numbers for implementing raises for the city personnel, especially for the miscellaneous personnel. Works for me. In case someone has not fig- ured it out yet, it is all tax money. How can they give raises and then tell the police and fire to cut and go seek money somewhere else? Grant money is still tax money. For what it is worth category, I do not have any more money for taxes. What are the options if the police cannot get the $1 million. This is a perfect math ques- tion for Common Core. I am sure that the county is thinking along the same lines. — Ken Swanson, Red Bluff Polson should stick to what he knows Editor: Don Polson gave us a real laugh-out-loud moment in his May 6 column. In a carefully worded sentence, he noted the states between the Rockies and the Pacific, which gained state- hood after the Civil War, were part of the Louisiana Purchase. Sorry Don, not true. Arizona, Utah, Idaho and Washington are all west of the Rockies and east of the Pacific and were all ad- mitted to the Union after 1865. Yet, none were part of the Louisi- ana Purchase. Arizona and Utah came to us from Mexico. Idaho and Washington were areas of competing claims between Brit- ain and the U.S. until the Oregon Treaty of 1846 settled the matter. In a more serious breach of fact, Polson "doubts" that when the 1934 Taylor Grazing Act was passed there was any thought given to reducing grazing from "traditional and sustainable lev- els previously agreed." It's obvi- ous Polson failed to do his home- work here, as well. The Grazing Act was passed after decades of mismanagement of range lands. Colorado Con- gressman Edward Taylor, the pri- mary author of the legislation and for decades a committed foe of Washington's western land poli- cies, finally saw the light in 1934. Though a champion of local control, he had witnessed years of drought and ever worsening range conditions. He noted local- ities and states had proved inca- pable of handling the task. Taylor said, "I saw waste, competition, overuse, and abuse of valuable range lands and watersheds eat- ing into the very heart of (the) western economy." The 1934 Tay- lor Grazing Act represented a complete repudiation of all prior grazing policies and practices. Don Polson should stick to his brand of bombastic, extremist rants. They're easy and he's good at it. Should he again venture into the realm of reality, let's hope he bothers to get the facts straight. He didn't this time. — David Janott, Red Bluff Separation won't help us Editor: World-wide unemployment caused by robots and computers, increased by China's elimination of jobs is a Titanic problem, but both Democratic and Republican parties are not helping. The Dems are rearranging the deck chairs while the Repubs deny there are any problems except a black pres- ident, too high taxes on the mega rich and too much money for the poor — change this and every- thing will be wonderful. Also the mega rich beneficia- ries are lobbying against solu- tions so our lives are out of con- trol, and voila, the Tea Party and the Jefferson separationists arise. Of course, they want the mirage of simpler days. The cur- rent situation is similar to the great depression; and there were similar groups back then. The German Nazi party arose under the same situations. But what our country did to end that 1930 depression caused by farm machinery displacing more than a third of the population, was fantastic. Shasta Dam is just one of those accomplishments. Punishing the unemployed when there aren't enough jobs and starving poor people was not what solved the Great De- pression. Taking care of our peo- ple and facing the real problems helped make us the world leader. Obviously, separating from the state with the industries of the future such as the world larg- est battery factory, Silicon Val- ley, Space X, best public univer- sities, ninth largest economy in the world, will not help us with poverty. — Diana Thompson, Red Bluff Your opinions I'll screen out talk about how anyone who needs health insurance can now get it if they sign up — because Obamacare didn't help Tim Parker one iota. MaxPreps has Red Bluff ranked as the Northern Section's top team with one more week left in the regular season and the Lady Spartans will be considered a favorite to once again reach the title game. OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, May 10, 2014 MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4