Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/357128
painttheparkingspaces. Delegationofstreet and parking area closures Council members will consider modifying the role of the city's Technical Advisory Committee, giv- ing it the authority to close portions of city streets and parking areas "to accom- modate celebrations, pa- rades, local special events, and other purposes" when deemed necessary. The City Council on July 15 voted 3-2 to introduce a resolution and adopt an ordinance that city staff said would streamline the process of street closures for routine events such as the Christmas and Round-Up parades. The City Council currently takes on those duties. Mayor Daniele Jack- son and Councilman Rob Schmid voted against the action. Jackson said she fa- vored a more streamlined process, but didn't want council comment and ap- proval taken away. Schmid said the plan would create more bureau- cracy. All new events and sub- stantial changes, city staff said, would still be consid- ered by the City Council. The Technical Advi- sory Committee, which meets regularly, com- prises the community de- velopment director, the public works director, the fire and police chiefs and "other staff as deemed appropriate by the City Manager," according to the ordinance. Boat FROMPAGE1 Hetlano:RobertJohn Hetlano, 60, of Red Bluff died Monday, July 28in Red Bluff. Arrangements are under the direction of Red Bluff Simple Cremations & Burial Service. Published Saturday, Aug. 2, 2014in the Daily News, Red Bluff, California. Norris: Ethel Alice Norris, 73, of Rancho Tehama died Wednesday, July 30in Rancho Tehama. Arrangements are under the direction of Red Bluff Simple Cremations & Burial Service. Published Saturday, Aug. 2, 2014in the Daily News, Red Bluff, California. Deathnoticesmustbe provided by mortuaries to the news department, are published at no charge, and feature only specific basic information about the deceased. Paid obitu- aries are placed through the Classified advertising department. Paid obituar- ies may be placed by mor- tuaries or by families of the deceased and include online publication linked to the newspaper's web- site. Paid obituaries may be of any length, may run multiple days and offer wide latitude of content, including photos. Death notices Professionally Designed Business Website for only $399? Details online at h ttp://tinyurl.com/pwvymz7 or call your Daily News Account Executive (530) 527-2151 Built by Wehrenberg Design, a national digital design firm, certified by The Daily News. By Juliet Williams The Associated Press SACRAMENTO A state appellate court ruling has given new momentum to Gov. Jerry Brown's $68 billion high-speed rail project by providing the state with a substantial funding source and lifting one cloud over a plan that has been widely criticized for its cost, route, construction plans and environmental reviews. The 3rd District Court of Appeal on Thursday overturned two lower court rulings that had prevented the sale of $8.6 billion in voter-approved bonds and created uncertainty about financing of the project to link Northern and Southern California with high-speed trains. The Sacramento County Superior Court judge had also ordered bullet train officials to write a new funding plan specifying how the state would pay for $26 billion in work it has not yet found financing to cover. The appeals court ruling is "probably the most important news that's been received in the last several years," said Rod Diridon of the Mineta Transportation Institute at San Jose State University and a former member of California's High-Speed Rail Authority board. "What it does is signal to the rest of the world that the California high-speed rail project is legally sound and is going ahead." The ruling came on the heels of a budget deal Brown brokered for long- term funding. It gives the project $250 million this year from the state's greenhouse gas emissions fund and a quarter of the fund's revenues in the future, which could eventually be billions of dollars a year. BU LLE T TR AI N Co ur t gi ve s ne w li fe t o hi gh -s pe ed r ai l pla ns The Associated Press PORTLAND,ORE. Buildings have burned, but there are no reports of injuries from a wildfire that was touched off by lightning along the Oregon-California border and led to the evacuation of ranch families east of Ash- land, a fire spokesman says. Air crews over the fire re- ported the damage to mul- tiple outbuildings, which could include barns, sheds and other uninhabited structures. There was no estimate of how many people fled. "It's not a whole lot of people because not a whole lot of people live out there," said Brian Ballou of the Oregon Department of Forestry. Gov. John Kitzhaber in- voked the state's Emer- gency Conflagration Act on Friday, requiring the state police and fire marshal to mobilize equipment, fire- fighters and other person- nel from around the state. The Oregon Gulch fire doubled since Thursday night to about 17 square miles, or just over 11,000 acres. It erupted in the Cas- cade-Siskiyou National Monument on Thursday amid swirling winds and dry conditions. Ballou said Friday that the wind died down a bit overnight, and firefighters made progress on contain- ment lines. Those evacuated live along Copco Road, which leads south from Oregon 66, known as the Green Springs highway. It links Ashland and Klamath Falls. The fire location is north of the Copco dam and reser- voir in California. More than 2,000 light- ning strikes in the region Wednesday touched off doz- ens of fires. OR EG ON Ra nc h fa mi li es fle e wi ld fir e ea st o f As hl an d "We encourage people to come by and take a peek in the door so you can actu- ally see us working," Sun- seri said. "See the monks crushing grapes and press- ing, and we really enjoy people's involvement and curiosity." Visitors who took in Fri- day's ceremony were treated to tours of the winery, and wine tasting. The New Clairvaux Vineyard is located at 26240 Seventh St. in Vina. The tasting room is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Wine FROM PAGE 1 By Linda Deutsch The Associated Press LOS ANGELES The last of seven former city officials involved in a multimillion- dollar corruption case in the tiny Los Angeles sub- urb of Bell, California, was sentenced Friday to a year in jail, most of which he has already served. The sentencing of former Councilman Victor Bello marked the end of the larg- est corruption case in Los Angeles history, according to prosecutors who spent four years taking it through the courts. Superior Court Judge Kathleen Kennedy, who pre- sided over the Bell trials, ac- knowledged that Bello was less culpable than other de- fendants who were arrested in 2010 after it was discov- ered they were illegally di- verting millions of taxpayer dollars to pay themselves huge salaries, a scheme that nearly bankrupted the blue- collar city. Prosecutors said the scam cost Bell more than $5.5 million and drove a city where more than a quarter of the residents live below the federal poverty line to the brink of bankruptcy. Bello was sentenced to one year in county jail but was given credit for 340 days of time served while awaiting trial. He was placed on five years of pro- bation, ordered to do 500 hours of community ser- vice and must pay restitu- tion of $177,600. A prosecutor who argued for a four-year prison term said he was glad the case was over. "Hopefully now the peo- ple of Bell can move for- ward and begin to heal," Deputy District Attorney Sean Hassett said outside court. But he expressed dis- appointment that Bello did not get the maximum four- year sentence agreed upon when the defendants en- tered no-contest pleas. None of the five former council members were hit with the top sentence. All received some prison time, except for one councilman, who received 180 days of home confinement with an ankle monitor. All were ordered to pay six figure restitution amounts to the city, but whether they would be able to comply with that was uncertain. Bello's lawyer said he is indigent. Former Mayor Oscar Hernandez is living in a trailer, and pros- ecutors said they would try to seize property he owns. The judge said she hopes Bello can make restitution, but "the people have not demonstrated that he has some vast amount of money that he's squirrelled away." Bello's attorney, Leo Mo- riarty, said his client is on disability due to a signifi- cant depression and other psychological problems which render him "unem- ployable." He said Bello was on suicide watch during his entire time in jail. The judge ordered the 56-year-old Bello to seek schooling and employ- ment. In a sentencing memo- randum, Moriarty offered a letter from a Bell police sergeant who helped ex- pose the financial scandal. "The person who assisted me relentlessly and coura- geously was Victor Bello," the sergeant said. But Hassett, the pros- ecutor, noted that Bello, who earned $434 a month as a councilman in 1998, was receiving $100,000 a year when he resigned. In her remarks from the bench, the judge placed heavy blame on former City Manager Robert Rizzo and his assistant, Angela Spaccia, calling them "the architects" of the financial scam. Rizzo is serving 12 years in prison and was ordered to pay $8.8 mil- lion restitution. Spaccia is serving a sentence of 11 years and eight months and must pay $8.2 million restitution to the city. Others under sentence are Vice Mayor Teresa Ja- cobo and former council members George Mirabal, Cole and Hernandez, con- victed of stealing nearly $1 million. COURT Ex-city official sentenced in Bell corruption case By Matt Hamilton The Associated Press RANCHOPALOSVERDES,CAL- IFORNIA A search-and-res- cue team pulled a rare half- ton whale fossil from a Southern California back- yard Friday, a feat that the team agreed to take on as a makeshift training mission. The 16- to 17-million- year-old fossil from a baleen whale is one of about 20 ba- leen fossils known to exist, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County pa- leontologist Howell Thomas said. Baleen is a filter made of soft tissue that is used to sift out prey, like krill, from seawater. The fossil, lodged in a 1,000-pound boulder, was hoisted from a ravine by Los Angeles County Sher- iff's Department search- and-rescue volunteers. Us- ing pulleys and a steel trol- ley, crews pulled the fossil up a steep backyard slope and into a truck bound for the museum. Gary Johnson, 53, first discovered the fossil when he was a teen exploring the creek behind his family's home. At the time, he called an- other local museum to come inspect the find, but offi- cials passed on adding it to their collection. In January, a 12-million-year-old sperm whale fossil was recovered at a nearby school, prompt- ing Johnson to call the Nat- ural History Museum. "I thought, maybe my whale is somehow associ- ated," said Johnson, who works as a cartoonist and art director. Thomas wanted to add the fossil to the county mu- seum's collection of baleen whale fossils, but was puz- zled over how to get the half-ton boulder from Ran- cho Palos Verdes, located on a peninsula about 25 miles southwest of downtown Los Angeles. The sheriff's department search-and-rescue unit de- clined to send a helicopter, but offered to use the fossil recovery as a training mis- sion. The volunteer crew typically rescues stranded hikers and motorcyclists who careen off the freeway onto steep, rugged terrain, search-and-rescue reserve chief Mike Leum said. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Rare whale fossil pulled from backyard RINGO H.W. CHIU — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Members of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department Search and Rescue team roll a 16-17-million-year-old fossil lodged in a rock weighing about 2,000pounds up a steep hillside on a customized cart in Rancho Palos Verdes on Friday. DONALDJAMESLANDINGHAM November 27, 1932 ~ July 25, 2014 Beloved husband, father and grandfather passed away July 25th, 2014. Don was born on November 27th 1932 in Maples, Kansas to Robert & Elsie Landingham. He was preceded in death, by both his parents, two sisters and two brothers. Don moved with his family when he was a young boy to Tehama, CA where he attended school and graduated from Tehama Elementary and then Los Molinos High School. He went on to serve in the US Army where he became a Heavy Equipment Infantryman. He was award- ed a National Defense Service Medal, Good Conduct Medal and Army Occupation Medal (Germany). He worked for many years in the Bay Area in pipe construc- tion and then went on to work for the Tehama County Road Department. After retiring he worked part-time for the City of Tehama, the town he loved and grew up in. He is survived by his wife Patricia and six children; Carl Landingham & Mary of Tehama, Darrell Landingham of Tehama, Donnie Landingham & Renee of Los Molinos, Sandy Valdivia & Al of Red Bluff, Cindy Landingham of Tehama and Dino Landingham & Jennifer of Tehama. Brothers Lavern of Orangevale, CA, Earl of Vina, CA, Joe of Corning, CA and sister Lavon, 12 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren also survive him. Don was a very kind man, he loved to garden and you could always find him in the evenings tending to his plants. He also loved baseball and played in city league for many years with his sons & daughters. Rarely do we cross paths with such an amazing person, we were lucky enough for that person to be our Dad, and he always went without so we could have! You are going to be greatly missed, we love you Dad! A private graveside service is planned for Aug 8th at Tehama Cemetery. His celebration of life memorial will immediately follow at Mill Creek Park. In lieu of flowers the family is asking you make donation to the Central Tehama Little League. Obituaries SATURDAY, AUGUST 2, 2014 REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM | NEWS | 9 A