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Alford:SharonAlford,76,ofRedBluffdiedSunday,Nov. 16at her Red Bluff home. Arrangements are under the direction of Hoyt-Cole Chapel of the Flowers. Published Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2014in the Daily News, Red Bluff, Calif. Robinson: Foster Robinson, 77, of Red Bluff died Monday, Nov. 17at his Red Bluff home. Arrangements are under the direction of Hoyt-Cole Chapel of the Flowers. Published Tuesday, Nov. 18, 2014in the Daily News, Red Bluff, Calif. Deathnoticesmustbeprovidedbymortuariestothe news department, are published at no charge, and fea- ture only specific basic information about the deceased. Paid obituaries are placed through the Classified ad- vertising department. Paid obituaries may be placed by mortuaries or by families of the deceased and in- clude 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, in- cluding photos. DEATHNOTICES are welcome to have their seats checked by certi- fied technicians. Replace- ment seats are available if needed. No penalties will be issued at these events for any car seat violations. Car seat education classes are held every month in Red Bluff or Corn- ing. Call Jodi Putnam at 527-6824 for information and registration. Grant FROM PAGE 1 court's victim-witness ad- vocate departments. Bealer's attorney, Shon Northman, said the de- fense preferred Sacramento County. Northman said because of its size, the case could end up consuming most of Yuba County's judicial re- sources. Garaventa said his deci- sion would be made on dis- tance, convenience and the administration hearings. Outside of the court room, Northman was asked about Bealer's outburst. "Q(uentin) is frustrated," Northman later said of his client. "He's been sitting in custody a long time and there's certain parts of the process that take a long time. It's a murder case and these things don't get wrapped up quickly. It's not as if he walked into Walmart and stole a candy bar and he's on video — it'd be over and done." Northman himself was already scheduled to be back in court Dec. 1 for a reconsideration of mone- tary sanctions ordered on him by Garaventa Oct. 10 after a filing deadline was missed. At a hearing last week, Garaventa read back tran- scripts of every delay the case has had since the first felony arraignment on March 6, 2013 to North- man. Northman had said in his defense of missing the deadline, he had felt pres- sure to meet certain dead- lines during the course of the trial. "I've never heard of a sit- uation where a defense at- torney is sanctioned for not filing a brief on time, let alone the court cross exam- ining the attorney on state- ments made in the hearing itself and then further hav- ing a reconsideration of the initial sanctions," North- man said. Bealer is charged with killing Nichols in Febru- ary 2013. She was last seen near Red Bluff Union High School and her body was discovered two days later in a wooded area just south of the campus. Bealer FROM PAGE 1 canned foods, pasta, baby wipes, cleaning supplies, shampoo, blankets, toilet paper and paper towels. "I want to meet those basic needs," said Jessie Woods, owner of the Gold Exchange. "So that any do- nations, or anything like that — that (the organiza- tions) get — that can be spent toward other things that the nonprofit needs." In all, about 15 organi- zations and institutions are included on the Christ- mas for a Cause wish list. In addition to those ba- sic needs on the list, orga- nizers are seeking to col- lect 200 to 300 toys. Toys are asked to be between $5 and $10, unwrapped and for children between the ages of 1 and 12. "Together we can ac- complish great things," Woods said. "By holding hands we create miracles. This is a good example of holding hands." Donation boxes are at the Gold Exchange, 413 Walnut St. in Red Bluff. Serving FROM PAGE 1 she said. "It's going to hap- pen." "I love him," she added. "I'm with him. There's all kinds of things." Burton gave an inter- view a year ago to Rolling Stone magazine in which she said she and Man- son planned to marry. But Manson, who became notorious in 1969 as the leader of a roving "fam- ily" of young killers, was less certain about tying the knot. "That's a bunch of gar- bage," Manson said in the December 2013 interview. "That's trash. We're play- ing that for public con- sumption." Asked Monday about those comments, Burton said, "None of that's true," adding that they're wait- ing for the prison to com- plete their paperwork. California Department of Corrections spokes- woman Terry Thornton confirmed to the AP that the license had been trans- mitted to the prison. Thornton said each Cal- ifornia prison designates an employee to be a mar- riage coordinator who pro- cesses paperwork for an inmate's request to be wed. In most cases, she said, the department of corrections approves of such weddings as "a tool of family reuni- fication and social devel- opment." But Manson is a unique case. Burton said the wedding might have happened ear- lier if Manson did not have "some situations" at the prison. Thornton explained that in February, Manson had three violations for posses- sion of a weapon, threat- ening staff and refusal to provide a urine sample. Burton said the prison holds marriages on the first Saturday of each month. She expects to be mar- ried in an inmate vising room at the prison. Thornton confirmed that Manson can have a wedding at the prison and invite an officiate from outside the prison to per- form the ceremony. He and his prospective spouse also would be al- lowed to invite 10 guests who are not inmates. However, as a life pris- oner with no parole date, he is not entitled to fam- ily visits, a euphemism for conjugal visits. Why marry Manson un- der those conditions? Bur- ton said it would allow her to get information not available to non-relatives. " 'There's certain things next of kin can do," she said. She said she believes Manson is innocent and will get a new trial. Manson has been incar- cerated since 1969 in the infamous Tate-LaBianca murders. He was a habit- ual criminal before that and spent most of his life in prison. He and two women fol- lowers, Leslie Van Houten and Patricia Krenwinkel, remain imprisoned. An- other follower, Susan At- kins, died of cancer be- hind bars. They were convicted in the gruesome killings of actress Sharon Tate and four others at her estate on Aug. 9, 1969, and grocers Leno and Rosemary LaBi- anca, who were killed the following night. Manson would not be el- igible for parole until 2027. Manson FROM PAGE 1 By Michael R. Blood The Associated Press PRIMM, NEV. The largest solar power plant of its type in the world — once pro- moted as a turning point in green energy — isn't pro- ducing as much energy as planned. One of the reasons is as basic as it gets: The sun isn't shining as much as ex- pected. Sprawling across roughly 5 square miles of federal desert near the California- Nevada border, the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System opened in Febru- ary, with operators saying it would produce enough electricity to power a city of 140,000 homes. So far, however, the plant is producing about half of its expected annual output for 2014, according to cal- culations by the California Energy Commission. It had been projected to produce its full capacity for 8 hours a day, on average. "Factors such as clouds, jet contrails and weather have had a greater impact on the plant than the own- ers anticipated," the agency said in a statement. It could take until 2018 for the plant backed by $1.6 billion in federal loan guarantees to hit its annual peak target, said NRG En- ergy Inc., which operates the plant and co-owns it with Google Inc. and BrightSource Energy. "During startup we have experienced ... equipment challenges, typical with any new technology, combined with irregular weather pat- terns," NRG spokesman Jeff Holland said in a state- ment. "We are confident that Ivanpah's long-term generation projections will meet expectations." The technology used at Ivanpah is different than the familiar photovoltaic panels commonly used for rooftop solar installations. The plant's solar-thermal system — sometimes called concentrated-solar thermal — relies on nearly 350,000 computer-controlled mir- rors at the site, each the size of a garage door. The mirrors reflect sun- light to boilers atop 459- foot towers — each taller than the Statue of Liberty. The resulting steam drives turbines to create electric- ity. When the $2.2 billion complex opened, Energy Department Secretary Er- nest Moniz called it a "sym- bol of the exciting progress" in renewable energy. While the agency still says the project remains in good standing, Kait- lin Meese, an analyst at research firm Bentek En- ergy, said its early produc- tion figures "do not paint a strong picture for solar- thermal technology devel- opment." The operation of such plants is highly dependent on weather conditions, and predicting when and how strongly the sun will shine is not a perfect science. A little bit of inefficiency with mirrors can translate into a loss of power out- put ranging from small to significant, said Dr. Neil Fromer, executive director of the Resnick Sustainabil- ity Institute at the Califor- nia Institute of Technology. Problems could include getting the thousands of mirrors pointed in pre- cisely the right direction, especially in the cool early morning, or keeping them clean in the dusty Mojave Desert. Operators initially ex- pected to need steam from gas-powered boilers for an hour a day during startup. After operations began, they found they needed to keep boilers running more than four times longer — an average of 4 hours a day. LARGEST OF ITS KIND Huge solar plant lags in early production JOHN LOCHER — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE An array of mirrors at the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating site in Primm, Nev. The largest solar power plant of its type in the world, promoted as a turning point in green energy, isn't producing the expected energy and one of the reasons is as basic as it gets: The sun isnít shining as o en as expected. By Linda Deutsch The Associated Press LOS ANGELES A man con- victed of killing two Chi- nese graduate students was sentenced Monday in Los Angeles to multiple life terms in prison by a judge who denounced him for showing no remorse and smiling while a grief- stricken victim's father spoke in court. Javier Bolden made no comment during a lengthy hearing during which the mother of one victim sobbed and the father of another called him "human trash" and "a monster." The killings drew inter- national interest and fu- eled concerns in China about the safety of students abroad. Bolden, 22, was found guilty last month of shooting Ming Qu and Ying Wu as they sat in a double-parked car about a mile from the Univer- sity of Southern California campus, where both were graduate students. His sen- tence includes two consec- utive terms without possi- bility of parole. Superior Court Judge Stephen Marcus said the killings had put a stain on the reputation of the uni- versity and on the city of Los Angeles. "Nothing will erase the pain you have caused," he told Bolden. "This is truly one of the saddest cases I have presided over." Wan Zhi Qu, the father of Ming Qu, said, "Our two outstanding children are gone, but the monsters who took their lives are still alive." A co-defendant, Bryan Barnes, who shot into the locked car where the stu- dents sat, pleaded guilty in February to two counts of first-degree murder and was also sentenced to life without parole in a plea deal to avoid the death pen- alty. Authorities said Bolden told a cellmate that he shot the engineering students. The cellmate was a police informant and secretly re- corded Bolden discussing how he and his friend had planned to steal the cou- ple's BMW. Bolden also was con- victed of attempted mur- der and assault with a fire- arm in earlier shootings that wounded two men and a woman. "You have committed heinous crimes against our families and the judgment you have received is not fair," said Qu, suggesting the two convicted killers should have received death. "This is humiliating to the people of China," he said. "We have received no comfort or consolation from the responsible par- ties. As a society that is very particular about hu- man rights and justice, do you think this is rational and fair?" He asked that the men be required to apologize to the families because, he said, until then their dead children could not rest in peace. USC's urban campus is within a mile of gang- plagued neighborhoods with historically high crime rates. Since the 2012 killings the Los Angeles police de- partment has assigned about 30 more officers to the university community. MULTIPLE TERMS Life sentence in Chinese students' slayings By Kristin J. Bender The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO Wildlife biologists at the Oakland Zoo are working to save the highly endangered yellow- legged frog. Oakland Zoo manager Victor Alm called the con- servation work a "race against time." The yellow-legged frog is on state and federal en- dangered species lists. Pop- ulations of the frog have dropped roughly 90 percent in the past decade, in part due to a skin fungus that thickens the frog's skin so they can't breathe. "The Sierra Nevada yel- low-legged frogs along with the southern yellow-legged frogs are some of the most endangered amphibian species in North America," Alm said. Biologists helped acquire and transport a group of 26 adult yellow-legged frogs from labs and other zoos, including San Francisco Zoo in August. In Septem- ber, 18 tadpoles were cap- tured in lakes and streams south of Yosemite and north of Kings Canyon in the southern Sierra Nevada, where planted fish and fun- gus have ravaged the frog population. The zoo isn't currently breeding the frogs, but spokeswoman Nicky Mora said it's prepared to do so if the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and California Fish and Wildlife make that call. Mora said the idea is to breed tadpoles the zoo can raise into strong healthy frogs so they can be re- leased back into the wild where they were originally collected. Frogs are being kept in a quarantine area that is cli- mate controlled at the zoo's new biodiversity center, a breeding, research, and ed- ucation facility devoted to the conservation of endan- gered and threatened ani- mals, plants and habitats. The biodiversity center houses and displays current and ongoing research and programs focused on study- ing, managing, protecting and restoring threatened and endangered species in- cluding the Western pond turtle, California condor, mountain lion, and moun- tain yellow-legged frog. With the tadpoles, zoo caretakers bathe them in antifungal medication and house them in tanks of fil- tered water before miner- als are added back at frog- friendly concentrations. Oakland Zoo Conserva- tion Director Amy Gotliffe said amphibians are indica- tors of the health of an eco- system. 'RACE AGAINST TIME' California zoo works to save endangered frogs TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 2014 REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM |NEWS | 7 A