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Friday, May 27, 2011 – Daily News 9A Obituary JOHN R. CATHEY, JR. in early May, 2011. He is preceded in death by his pa- rents. John has an extended family and even more with the count of his friends he choose to be his family. John’s immediate family will be hosting a gathering and barbeque in his honor on Saturday, May 28, 2011, 11:00 am to 4:00 p.m. at Cone Grove Park, outside of Red Bluff, Ca. RSVP to his sister Twalla at (530)632-4419. SUV Continued from page 1A ence of drugs and causing injuries to another person, a CHP press release said. “The CHP would like to remind everyone to exercise all caution in con- struction zones and as the holiday weekend approaches to be on the lookout for impaired dri- vers,” said CHP Officer SEX Continued from page 1A A team of parole officers and other department employees will oversee the program and work with local law enforcement agencies to see if parolees’ GPS-tracked movements can help solve crimes. California tracks more paroled sex offenders with GPS than any other state, at a cost of $60 million a year. While each offender has been strapped with an ankle bracelet since January 2009, the corrections department began requiring agents to do even more remote supervi- sion of parolees in response to their failure to catch Gar- rido. The released sex offender kidnapped Jaycee Dugard and fathered two children with her while imprisoning her in a backyard shack of his home in Antioch. Subsequent reviews detailed how parole agents ignored hundreds of alerts that showed Garrido violated his curfew, tampered with his bracelet, let the battery run low or that the device lost contact for hours each night. He was caught in 2009 after campus police at the Uni- versity of California, Berkeley, became suspicious of his behavior. Parole agents were put under more pressure in 2010 when another paroled rapist was arrested for the rape and murder of a 17-year-old girl in San Diego County. John Albert Gardner later pleaded guilty to that crime and to a previous rape and murder of a 14-year-old girl in the same area. Since the more stringent monitoring policy has been in place, the sheer volume of GPS alerts has overwhelmed the department’s parole staff. Agents responded to an average of 50 automatically generated alarms in a month, including some on what were supposed to be their days off, according to the internal review obtained by AP. ‘‘These guys are in such information overload, I think they can’t see the forest for the trees at some point,’’ said parole officer Melinda Silva, who heads the Parole Agents Association of California. Paroled sex offenders generated 1.5 million alarms from GPS-linked ankle bracelets during the first two years of the state’s electronic-monitoring program, from January 2009 through December 2010, according to data compiled for the AP in response to a state Public Records Act request. Corrections department data said the ankle bracelets generate 63,000 GPS alerts per month, or an average of nearly 10 alerts for each of the 6,600 parolees wearing the devices. The state Department of Corrections and Rehabilita- tion said it does not keep statistics on how agents respond to the alerts, although supervisors are supposed to make sure alarms are not ignored. In a report released late last year, the corrections department’s Sex Offender Supervision and GPS Moni- toring Task Force said the call for more computer moni- toring of GPS alerts has left agents spending more time at their computers and less time in the field directly super- vising paroled sex offenders ‘‘This new information comes at a price,’’ the report said. It did not examine whether parolees have been com- mitting crimes because agents have less time to directly supervise them. None of the alerts is an automatic parole violation, and some may be caused by weak signals, interference with buildings or inadvertent damage, the department said in response to the AP’s records requests. Yet any of the alarms can signal potential danger from a parolee or merely that the parolee is careless by, for instance, damaging the ankle bracelet or letting the bat- tery run low. Agents said a pattern of lapses can mean a parolee isn’t taking his supervision seriously. According to the data provided to the AP, 58 percent of the alerts came when parolees left a restricted area, typically a certain radius around the parolee’s home. Tampering with the device or its strap triggered 23 per- cent of the alerts, while 13 percent signaled that the ankle bracelet’s battery ran low. Five percent were because the bracelet could not connect with a cell phone signal to transmit its tracking data. Entering a restricted area, such as school grounds or a victim’s neighborhood, caused 1 percent of the alarms. The number of alerts peaked at nearly 74,000 in November 2009. The corrections department in part attributes the decrease since then to improvements in the technology and construction of the ankle bracelets. The task that recommended California’s new system of monitoring sex offenders advised the department fol- low the example of Florida and Michigan by creating a monitoring center to evaluate all the warnings triggered by the GPS ankle bracelets, leaving agents free to respond only to the most serious. Red Bluff Simple Cremations & Burial Service Family owned & Operated Honor and Dignity 527-1732 722 Oak Street, Red Bluff, FD Lic. 1931 Phillip Mackintosh. Animal Control was called for a year-old female pit bull that was pregnant and about to go into labor and was involved in the accident. No further information was available about the dog. ——— Julie Zeeb can be reached at 527-2153, extension 115 or jzeeb@redbluffdailynews. com. John R. Cathey, Jr., born 3/12/1956, passed away quietly SEARCH Continued from page 1A end of Gilmore Ranch Road on a private ranch. The man again fled on foot from the vehicle. The driver, Torijean Grace Bess, 34, of Grants Pass, Ore., was arrested and booked into the Tehama County Jail on charges of possession of a metham- phetamine pipe, conspira- cy to commit robbery and accessory after the fact. Back at the motel, two more people were arrested in connection with the events. Heath John Chaf- fin, 28, and Ashley Nic- GREAT Continued from page 1A The summit kicked off with Gar- cia and Kate Grissom talking about where the movement has been and what it is. “It’s different today from what it was,” Baker said. “It’s emerging. Last year, it was a seed we planted, but today it’s a journey.” Garcia and Grissom shared a seg- ment of mini-commercials they called Pecha Kechus, which is Japanese for chit-chat, in which about 20 images were accompanied by success stories of the last year. Adrian Hernandez, a senior at Los Molinos High School who is ASB president, talked about his journey to a decision to attend Cali- fornia State University, Chico and the connection with College Options that resulted in a $10,000 College Options scholarship. Lauren Tingley and Karissa Morehouse of College Options talked about all the activities the program has put on, trips taken and scholarships given to Tehama Coun- ty. “We had 5,934 contacts in Tehama County alone,” said More- house, College Options assistant director. “Everything from class- room presentations and individual advising to field trips and talking to the parents. College Options was also able to give out $72,500 in scholarships just in Tehama Coun- ty.” Sally Tollison and Clementina Torres of Corning High School spoke about the new tassels 47 out about 200 seniors graduating in the class of 2011, who completed all the college prep course work the school offered, will wear. Shasta College student Robert Sperou spoke about making connec- tions and his involvement with the AgMarketing Team at Shasta. His involvement with the team, which took first at a competition at hole Turner, 24, both of Red Bluff, were charged with possession of a methamphetamine smok- ing pipe, the release said. Antelope Elementary School was on temporary lock down as students arrived Thursday morning, said Superintendent Todd Brose. Tehama County Sher- iff’s deputies alerted school officials at 7:40 a.m. that officers were in pursuit of a suspect in the orchard directly across Antelope Boulevard from the school, Brose said. Sheriff’s deputies helped search for a male suspect on Vestal Ranch at the east end of Gilmore Ranch Road but were unable to find him, said Assistant Sheriff Phil Johnston. As Antelope students arrived, they were ushered into the cafeteria before being dismissed to class, but were not allowed out- side, Brose said. The lock down was lift- ed at about 8:30 a.m. when the California Highway Patrol updated the school that the area was cleared, Brose said. The search never entered the school grounds and was far away from the school, but administrators were asked to be cautious, he said. “The kids did good,” he Fresno State, helped broaden his horizons and Sperou is thinking of transferring to California State Uni- versity, Fresno after he finishes at Shasta. Amanda Wigno of Next Tehama, a group that helps young profession- als get involved in the community, gave an update on the group’s T- shirt project. The project, which came out of the 2010 Expect More Education Summit, was to collect T-shirts from colleges and universities for all eighth grade students in Tehama County. “We met our goal of 800 shirts for all the eighth-graders in Tehama County and started our distribution two weeks ago,” Wigno said. While meeting the goal is excit- ing, the group is still not sure what its plan is for next year, she said. “We’re hoping some schools or parent groups will adopt schools in the future to help,” Wigno said. Part of the group’s success in get- ting shirts was individuals, non- profits and businesses coming alongside them, Wigno said. Marilyn Long adopted all the eighth grade students at Lassen View Elementary, Wigno said. The group partnered with National Public Radio, which did a pledge drive focused on Tehama County. Those pledging $75 or more had the option of donating a shirt to the project in lieu of gift, with the Olive Pit in Corning underwriting the shirts. “We got 360 Chico State shirts, which was the huge push we need- ed,” Wigno said. Participants Thursday heard from Roadtrip Nation, an organization that provides curriculum for stu- dents to explore career opportunities by watching videos put together by other students. “A lot of students don’t know what options are available beyond school,” said Annie Mais, Roadtrip Nation director of Education. “With our curriculum they don’t just learn Bill to limit gifts to California lawmakers dies SACRAMENTO (AP) — A state Senate committee has killed a bill that would have prohibited lawmakers from receiving free spa treatments, sports tickets and rounds of golf. Sen. Sam Blakeslee focused Senate Bill 18 on certain gifts lobbyists and special interests can currently give to lawmakers. The Republican from San Luis Obispo also included tickets to theme parks, concerts, gift cards, and skiing or fishing trips. Blakeslee’s bill was held in a Senate committee on Thursday. Alicia Trost, spokeswoman for Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, says majority Democrats are wait- ing while the watchdog Fair Political Practices Commis- sion considers its own rules on giving or accepting gifts. A separate committee shelved another one of Blakeslee’s bills. Senate Bill 17 would have required all budget bills be made public 72 hours before a vote. Assembly limits using immigration check in arrests SACRAMENTO (AP) — Democrats in California’s Assembly joined other states Thursday in questioning the federal system that uses fingerprints to check the immigration status of people picked up by police. The Assembly approved AB1081 on a 43-22 party line vote after heated debate over public safety and whether the measure would help or hurt it. The bill would add new restrictions and let counties opt out of the state agreement on use of the Secure Com- munities automatic fingerprint program to screen for citizenship and criminal background. The legislation now moves to the state Senate. Independently owned Telephone: (530) 824-3792 Over 50 years of serving Tehama County said. “It always reminds us to update safety plans and keep doing our drills.” Parents were given automated calls when the lock down was lifted. Meanwhile, the search continued toward the river area. Air support was called in just before noon to search the slough area along Sale Lane while officers searched on the ground. The incident is still under investigation. ——— Andrea Wagner can be reached at 527-2153, extension 114 or awagner@redbluffdailyne ws.com. about a career but how the person got there.” A final project of the curriculum is to go out and interview someone in the student’s community who is in a career in which the student is interested. “They learn about themes like self confidence and having to go to work versus wanting to go to work and how that applies to their lives,” Mais said. “Part of it is money is important and having enough to live, but also about being passionate about what you do. We want to inspire and empower you to be there to support each other and to help the students find their own road in life.” The program costs $25 per stu- dent at the basic level. For more information visit roadtripnation.org. Participants split into groups after the Roadtrip Nation presenta- tion to discuss what ideas they had for things they could accomplish in the next year. “There was definitely some good energy in the room,” Garcia said. “One of the biggest things that came out of this is we want to work on increasing parent involvement and there are many different venues for that.” One idea was to hold an Expect More Tehama Festival as a way to provide a fun atmosphere for mak- ing connections, Garcia said. “We want to find where parents aren’t involved,” Garcia said. “We know that it’s harder to stay involved as children get older, espe- cially in high school, and we want to find what are comfortable ways we can get the parents involved.” Another idea was Roadtrip Tehama, a small-scale version of Roadtrip Nation, she said. For more information on Expect More Tehama, call Garcia at 529- 7000. ——— Julie Zeeb can be reached at 527-2153, extension 115 or jzeeb@redbluffdailynews.com. STATE BRIEFING Other states have taken similar steps amid complaints the program is supposed to help deport convicted felons but has also swept up crime victims, witnesses and peo- ple who were arrested but never convicted. Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, argued that his bill would protect public safety because immigrants would be more willing to report crime if they didn’t fear deportation. The fingerprint program ‘‘has actually harmed public safety and seriously undercut community policing strategies,’’ he said. Comparing fingerprints against federal records under the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement pro- gram led to the deportation of nearly 36,000 undocu- mented immigrants from California from October 2008 through February 2011, according to an analysis of the bill by legislative staff. However, 27 percent were not criminals, and 41 per- cent were considered low-level offenders.