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The hospital specializes in children's orthopaedics, burn care, spinal cord in- jury and cleft lip and pa- tients' stays can vary greatly. But for the kids who do have to wake up in a hos- pital on Christmas, Brooks and some other cowboys are there to ensure they still have a magical Christmas. "It makes all of us feel good to know people care about us," Curran said. Brooks said the group hooks up their mules and horses and rides into the hospital from down Stock- ton Boulevard. The group has been do- ing it since shortly after the hospital opened in 1998. "I tell you it, it makes your heart jump," Brooks said. Sometimes snow is shipped in and the group members beginning to pass along the tradition to their own families. Brooks' son Shane is now one of the second genera- tion of helpers. "Seeing the joy in their eyes is worth every second of it," Brooks said. Santa FROMPAGE1 Ashbrook:WandaAsh- brook, 75, of Red Bluff, died Tuesday, Dec. 23at St. Eliz- abeth Community Hospital in Red Bluff. Arrangements are under the direction of Blair's Cremation & Burial. Published Thursday, Dec. 25, 2104in the Daily News, Red Bluff, Calif. Deathnoticesmustbepro- vided 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 website. Paid obituaries may be of any length, may run mul- tiple days and offer wide latitude of content, includ- ing photos. DEATH NOTICES The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO A fast- moving cold front was ex- pected to bring snow and strong winds to California's mountains and deserts on Christmas Eve and Christ- mas Day, a potential gift for the drought-wracked state that could interfere with holiday travel plans, the National Weather Ser- vice said. The storm bearing down on the state Wednesday was forecast to deliver snow at elevations above 4,000 feet in the Sierra Ne- vada and the mountains in Southern California. Sierra passes could get between three and six inches of snow, with up to 10 inches possible on the highest ridges by morning, said Brooke Bingaman, a mete- orologist with the weather service in Sacramento. Forecasters warned that drivers might experience travel delays Wednesday af- ternoon and evening on In- terstate 80, the main east- west corridor in North- ern California, and on the Grapevine, the high-altitude section of Interstate 5 be- tween Los Angeles and the southernSanJoaquinValley, where a winter weather ad- visory was to go into effect at 3 a.m. Thursday. Chain controls will be in effect as needed through the evening on I-80, said Dave Wood, an area super- intendent for CalTrans who is based in Kingvale. The controls should be lifted by Christmas morning if the storm blows out of the area late Wednesday night as ex- pected. In Southern California, where revelers from Los An- geles to San Diego enjoyed a second day of unseason- ably warm weather in the 70s, forecasters said cold air spilling in behind the storm front was expected to produce an abrupt tem- perature change and high winds that could continue to make travel difficult on Thursday. LosAngelesInternational Airport may get significant, rare cross-winds, and gusts up to 65 mph were possible through mountain passes of Santa Barbara, Ventura and Los Angeles counties, the weather service said. Boat- ers were advised to prepare for gale-force winds off- shore. The weather caused brief flight delays on Wednesday at San Francisco Interna- tional Airport, where air traffic controllers slowed the arrival of incoming flights because of fog and low clouds. Few travelers were inconvenienced be- cause the majority left for their holiday destinations on Tuesday, airport duty manager Larry Mares said. Clear weather was ex- pected to return on Friday and stay for the weekend, providing ideal holiday conditions for Sierra ski re- sorts that have weathered three years of relatively dry winters. "With these early storms, they really get people into the ski mode," said Thea Hardy, a spokeswoman for Sierra-at-Tahoe near Echo Summit, about 15 miles from South Lake Tahoe. "They start seeing early storms, and it gets people in the winter spirit." The resort already has about 3 feet of snow at its 8,800-foot summit and has plans for Santa Claus to ski and snowboard all day on Christmas. Rainfall totals from the storm were expected to be modest. The National Weather Service predicts about a tenth of an inch of rain falling in the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento Valley with up to a quarter inch far- ther north in the Redding and Red Bluff area. State water manag- ers are scheduled to con- duct their first winter sur- vey of the Sierra snowpack on Tuesday. Melting snow from the snowpack usu- ally supplies about a third of the state's water, and of- ficials say it will take a se- ries of storms producing above-average snow and rain to make up for three consecutive years of ex- treme drought. WEATHER Storm expected to bring Christmas snow to Sierra By Paul Elias The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO Presi- dents of the three biggest Northern California police unions have published an open letter warning that recent anti-police rhetoric and sentiments are threat- ening officers' safety. The letter was pub- lished Tuesday on the unions' Web sites and so- cial media pages. It was signed by the heads of unions representing police in San Francisco, Oakland and San Jose. The letter said recent protests across the coun- try started as "legitimate expressions of views" over police shootings and the killing of unarmed black suspects in Ferguson, Mis- souri, and New York. "The reaction is not un- expected but the vilifica- tion of front-line public servants by some politi- cians and media pundits has been demoralizing and unjust," said the let- ter signed by San Jose's Paul Kelly, San Francis- co's Martin Halloran and Oakland's Barry Donelan. The letter doesn't iden- tify any politician or me- dia pundit. It was written three days after two New York City police officers were shot and killed by Is- maaiyl Brinsley, who later killed himself. Before am- bushing the officers, Brin- sley posted messages on social media that said he was angry over the failure to indict white police offi- cers accused of killing un- armed black men. The San Francisco Bay Area union heads said recent demonstrations against police brutality have devolved from legit- imate free speech expres- sions to tasteless vilifica- tion of officers. The letter also took exception to pro- tester chants calling for dead police officers. Protests persist in the region. On Wednesday, about 200 people blocked neighborhood streets in San Francisco's Castro Dis- trict to protest what they call systemic police vio- lence toward minorities. The letter didn't call for a halt to the protests. In- stead, the police unions called on protesters "to engage in constructive di- alogue that calls for a com- mon sense approach to very complex issues." PROTESTS Bay Area officer unions decry sentiments shown against police AP PHOTO— NOAH BERGER Several hundred demonstrators march through Oakland to protest the police shooting of unarmed, black 18-year-old Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. The San Francisco Bay Area's three largest police unions publish an "open letter" saying recent anti-police rhetoric demonstrations have reached dangerous levels. The Associated Press EMERYVILLE Two men are facing federal bribery charges in connection with a San Francisco Bay Area brothel that investigators say was disguised as a mas- sage parlor. Jimmy Gong Yan Lee and Tom Kim Loi Lam were in- dicted on Tuesday by a fed- eral grand jury on charges including giving bribes in- volving a federal program. The two men are also facing state charges in the case. Authorities say Lee co- owned Acucare Oriental Spa in Emeryville, which exploited young Asian women. Lee and Loi, described in court documents as Lee's associate, are accused of bribing a police captain posing as a corrupt officer to try to prevent the busi- ness from being shut down. Loi is also accused of brib- ing a federal agent. Calls to Lee and Loi's at- torneys on Christmas Eve were not immediately re- turned. BAY AREA 2 indicted on federal charges in brothel case The Associated Press SAN FRANCISCO National marine sanctuaries off Northern California are due to double in size early in the new year in order to protect a massive underwater nutri- ent flow that biologists say makes the coast's salmon and seabirds thrive and sea lions fat and yappy. Barring objections from the incoming U.S. Congress, new federal rules will ex- pand existing marine sanc- tuaries along the Northern California coast as far up as Mendocino Country. With the expansion on the north coast, a 350-mile stretch of coast running south to Mon- terey Bay will be under in- creased federal protection. Starting Jan. 20, the in- coming Republican-led Con- gress will have 45 working days to raise any objections to the expansion before it would go into effect. The designation would bar oil and gas production off Northern California's Marin and Sonoma coun- ties. While that stretch of coast is not known to hold significant petroleum re- serves, opposition in pre- vious U.S. Congresses to restrictions on drilling helped kill an earlier effort to expand the sanctuaries through legislation, rather than the current federal rule changes. Northern California law- makers largely have sup- ported expansion of the marine sanctuaries, con- tending that it would ruin the coast's tourism business to have oil and gas rigs ap- pear offshore. Another provision of the designation would bar larger vesselsfromdischarginginto the extended marine sanc- tuaries, said Mary Jane Sch- ramm, a spokeswoman for SanFranciscoBayarea'sGulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary. Public hearings on the sanctuary expansion drew largely positive comment, much of it from people whose livelihoods derive from fishing and tourism, Schramm said Wednesday. Statewide, coastal recre- ation and tourism brings $12 billion annually to the economy. The California fishing industry contrib- utes more than another $1 billion annually. The sanctuary designa- tion does not limit fishing or most recreational uses, including swimming and diving. The protection is aimed at safeguarding a cold un- derwater flow off southern Mendocino County that represents one of the West Coast's most important nu- trient streams. The flow pumps food south to exist- ing San Francisco Bay area marine sanctuaries host- ing the West Coast's largest population of breeding sea- birds, as well as other sea life ranging from salmon to whales to sea lions. ENVIRONMENT Regulations would expand state's coastal sanctuaries The Associated Press LOS ANGELES The 6,000 chickens are gone, so is the alfalfa field and most of the agriculture department's faculty at the college born nearly 70 years ago as an ag- ricultural institution. When it was founded in 1947, Los Angeles Pierce College was a big-city school tucked into a still-rural, far- flung corner of the city's San Fernando Valley. As the years passed, the city grew up around the campus, with buildings sprouting where alfalfa once was grown to feed the campus cattle herd. A park- ing lot replaced the area where the chickens roamed. As times have changed, so has the two-year commu- nity college. The Los Ange- les Times reported Wednes- day that its agriculture de- partment's full-time faculty has shrunk from 18 instruc- tors to just four. Experts say that reflects a trend at colleges across the country, where agricultural programs are putting less emphasis on farming and more on such related fields as food science, farming technology and nutrition. "Every institution has to be relevant, and it's more sexy to talk about nutri- tion than sows, cows and plows," Keith Barber, pres- ident of the National Agri- cultural Alumni Develop- ment Association, told the Times. The University of Cali- fornia, Davis, which boasts that its College of Agricul- tural and Environmen- tal Sciences is a national leader, states that its pro- grams address "critical is- sues related to agriculture, food systems, the environ- ment, and human and so- cial sciences through cut- ting-edge research, top- ranked undergraduate and graduate education, and in- ternationally recognized outreach programs." Pierce, meanwhile, is ending its lease with a pri- vate operator that adminis- ters its popular Farm Cen- ter, which sells fruits and vegetables, has a pumpkin patch, and farm-related games and shows for chil- dren. When the lease expires in April the 18 acres "will revert to direct college con- trol for use in our instruc- tional programs," Pierce's president, Kathleen F. Burke, said in statement. EDUCATION As L A gr ew u p it s li tt le a g sc ho ol g ot t he s qu ee ze according to a release. The CHP said during last year's 30 hours of maxi- mum enforcement, five people were killed in traf- fic collisions, including two pedestrians, a motorcyclist and two vehicle occupants who weren't wearing their seat belts. The CHP also made 221 arrests for driv- ing under the influence during that time frame. "Our intent with the en- hanced enforcement efforts during the holiday season is simply to save lives," CHP Commissioner Joe Farrow said. 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