Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/420675
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 Tuesday was one of those days when it hardly seemed worth getting out of bed. Before I set foot in the building I received word of a couple of errors in that day's paper — a source was misidentified in an extracted quote from a story and about 500 copies featured a page from the Chico Enterprise- Record rather than the opinion page. Botherrorswereeasy enough to get to the bottom of. A designer used what we call a pull quote to spruce up a front page article and mistak- enly identified the source, the leader of a motorcycle club, as the leader of a different mo- torcycle club. The press crew shorted our run by about 500 copies before replating the press to run the ER. When someone realize the error, it was replated again for the Daily News but one page was missed. Sloppy, yes, but we're all human and make mistakes. Some are just more public than others. Understandably, the leader of the motorcycle club was hot under the collar over being as- sociated with a club of decid- edly different reputation than his own. I thank him for gra- ciously accepting my apology and a correction ran in the next edition. The missing page was some- what more prickly. The logical step would be to run the omit- ted page in the next day's edi- tion. All but 500 of our cus- tomers would view this as an error, despite an editor's note explaining the move, but we felt we owed it to the readers who were shorted. I learned long ago that put- ting out as much information as we do day after day and now relying on a number of people in different locations to do so means that mistakes will sometimes happen. Most readers understand this and are satisfied with an explana- tion and apology. I'm grateful for this. Wheretostart? For some time now we have included a half-page package on page A2 each day called "Start your day here." It in- cluded celebrity news, sam- pling of Internet trends, an in- teresting photograph, an ab- breviated "Today in history" listing and lottery numbers. Since its debut, we've heard nothing but complaints about it. By that I mean I don't recall receiving even one positive re- view. We were told by our par- ent company that we had to run the feature, whether we thought it made sense for our readers or not, because ads be- low it would be sold nationally. That never came to pass and we have finally been told we can abandon the package. This begged the question of what would go in its place. We opted to keep the history and lottery numbers, as those are of interest to readers. The rest of the page will include an ex- panded community calendar that runs a day or two forward to help readers plan ahead. The calendar has been run- ning on the Lifestyles page as space allows. In Wednesday's paper this meant there wasn't even enough room to include all of Wednesday's events much less Thursday's and Fri- day's. With the space available on A2, readers will see more of these extra events. Statham's take Readers will notice a new columnist on Thursdays — for- mer Assemblyman and Chico anchor man Stan Statham. I've enjoyed getting to know Stan and reading his columns. His experience in Sacramento and in the news business gives him a refreshing perspective on current events and cultural and political shifts over the last four decades. Stan is eager to hear from readers about not only his col- umns but topics of interest that he can address in future submissions. Good morning, readers Borrowing from the ER's play book, the top of your front page features a greeting to a different subscriber each day. This replaces what used to be a referral to an expanded, non-local feature at redbluff- dailynews.com — typically a photo gallery or video. Those expanded, non-local features at redbluffdailynews. com have been scaled back dramatically over the last year due to changes at the com- pany. We don't consider this a huge loss, as most of you visit the site for local content. There are still photo galler- ies and videos on the site in the Media Center, and I hope readers check them out when they spark interest. But we won't pretend anyone is going to our site specifically for that kind of non-local content. The Internet's a big place where you can find just about anything you want. When you want to know what's going on in Tehama County, you'll go to redbluffdailynews.com. Back to the daily greetings, I'm told by my colleague in Chico that, on rare occasion, we will greet a reader who has recently passed away but whose subscription is still ac- tive. We'll do what we can to avoid this but, as I said ear- lier, it's impossible to put out a paper every day without the chance for error. Good fortune I broke open my fortune cookie after lunch today and discovered the following gem, which seemed particularly apt and has earned a spot on the wall next to a handful of com- ics that strike a chord. "Humans invented language to satisfy the need to com- plain." ChipThompsoncanbe reached at 530 527-2151, Ext. 112 or by email at editor@red- bluffdailynews.com. Follow him on Twitter @editorchip. 545 Diamond Ave. What a way to start the day Cartoonist's take As a result of the recent na- tional elections, the Republi- cans took control of both the Senate and the House of Repre- sentatives. The New Yorker had a cartoon on the cover of a recent issue which de- picted an enor- mous elephant sit- ting primly on a couch in the oval office, and a very small President hiding be- hind his desk. One might think, with this apparent voter mandate, Presi- dent Obama would concentrate on placating his remaining con- stituents by ensuring that no more American troops would be placed on foreign soil in harm's way. Instead, he has decided to send more Americans into bat- tle. However, he does not call it battle, he calls it an "advi- sory and training mission" and is sending 1,500 more troops into Iraq to train their troops on how to hold a rifle and not flee at the first encounter with the enemy. Whatever he calls it, polls suggest he is ignoring the wishes of the majority of Amer- icans. His rational apparently is a re-issue of the "domino ploy" — that we must stop and con- tain the forces of ISIS before they expand their field of fire and include our shores in their sights. A TIME letter to the editor, after reading of Iraq and Af- ghanistan veterans recovering at Walter Reed Hospital, read "Where are the mass demon- strations…where is the outrage regarding the seemingly ca- sual attitude these days in send- ing our kids off to fight ill-con- ceived battles?" Is this the time to recall a President for ignoring the will of the people to get the hell out of foreign entanglements? Tsk,tsk. ••• When a paper, as did the DN awhile back, reports of a re- union of brother and sister af- ter 50 years of searching for each other, I think it would be a great follow up to add a tag reading, "However, after a few hours they found they did not get along and so departed never to see each other again." It would add a kind of closure, would it not? ••• Sources say those who did not attend the Will Durst show at the State Theatre last Sat- urday evening missed out on some great humor. The Man- ton Mad Cap Duo of Liz Merry and Aaron Standish opened for the San Francisco performer with their patented brand of off the wall humor and then Will entertained with wit and panache. If he comes our way again, his is evidently a must- see show. ••• The Pacific Gas & Electric Co. has experienced some bad press over the years and newspapers have had a field day with alle- gations of miss-doings, lack of oversight and inspection and so forth. As a result, they have launched public relations teams to convince consumers that PG&E is to be trusted. Further- more, they provide energy sav- ing advice designed to save cus- tomers money and, in the pro- cess, restores PG&E's somewhat tarnished image. Being in the real estate busi- ness, I would like to see such en- deavors reflected in their bring- ing power to outlying areas at less cost or no cost at all as it was in the old days. That said, I agreed to answer questions over the phone from a PG&E representative. The ques- tioning went on and on to the extent that I called it off mid- way. A day or so later they called back and asked if we might con- tinue. I agreed and spent an- other 20 minutes or so complet- ing the verbal questionnaire. However, in retrospect, I did not understand much of the quiz and just arbitrarily selected, from 1 to 10 my responses. I would say that if I were a typi- cal responder, the PG&E did not achieve much for the effort. ••• According to the Daily News, Quentin Ray Bealer, charged with the 2013 murder of 14 year old Marysa Nichols, directed a "vulgarity-laced tirade" aimed at Judge Garaventa while in the judge's courtroom await- ing yet another attempt to fi- nalize a change of venue. Bealer said, "I've been patient enough." He added, "I've put up enough time in my life for something I haven't done." And "It's not my DNA on that kid's body." Q. Do such outburst further prejudice a defendant's case or, until proven innocent or guilty, have no effect on the outcome of the case? If his remarks indicate normal frustration of the law's delay, he might gain sympathy in some quarters. If, however, he has demonstrated a proclivity towards violence, what then? I would not want to be on his jury when and if it ever convenes. ••• T-shirt sightems courtesy of WB Kelsey: "If you don't talk to your cat about catnip, who will?" "Homeland Security…Fighting Terrorism since 1492 (picture of Apache Brave)." "This is The Dawning of Asparagus." "Rhinos are just chubby unicorns" and "Platypus…Really God?" ••• F. Boest wrote in a letter to the editor, "I went out to the Ide Adobe today to see what was needed to be done to fix it back up." Fred was not too happy with what he saw of the repairs using mill sawn two-bys and metal clips. He now calls it a "prefab shack." Too bad George Sutton is no longer alive to su- pervise the repairs. George lived in it until it was acquired by the state. However it began to dete- riorate over the years, so Rawl- ins Coffman and I flew over to Eureka to show the Parks and Beaches Commission a film of the Adobe's pitiful condition. They voted funds to restore it and that worked fine until the present. ••• The image of the Gipper was somewhat tarnished when the death was revealed of the long time socialite astrologer Joan Quigley. Apparently she spent seven years as the White House Astrologer advising the Rea- gans on everything from when to schedule Air Force One take- offs to the best time for summit meetings and surgeries. Unbe- lievable. ••• Businessman in first class to attractive air hostess: "What is your name?" "Angela Benz, Sir!" "Lovely name, dear, any rela- tion to Mercedes Benz?" "Yes sir, very close." "How close?" "Same price." Robert Minch is a lifelong res- ident of Red Bluff, former col- umnist for the Corning Daily Observer and Meat Industry magazine and author of the "The Knocking Pen." He can be reached at rminchandmur- ray@hotmail.com. I say Despite mandate, troops headed overseas I learned long ago that putting out as much information as we do day after day and now relying on a number of people in different locations to do so means that mistakes will sometimes happen. Sounding off A look at what readers are saying in comments on our website and on social media. Proud of you guys. Keep diggin'. Shane Graham: On local creator of BeastUp energy drink to sponsor son's motocross racing BeastUp. So proud of all of you for sticking with this endeavor. Now, you will finally be able to see the fruits of your labor. Keep up the good work, and I look forward to seeing it in stores out here in TN. Thomas Waelty: On local creator of BeastUp energy drink to sponsor son's motocross racing Robert Minch OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Friday, November 21, 2014 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6