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Wednesday, October 26, 2011 – Daily News 7A Obituaries TRAVIS SWAYZE Travis Putnam Swayze died Wednesday, October 19, 2011 at his Red Bluff home. He was 94. A native of Yazoo City, Mississippi, he was born on June 12, 1917. He was a farmer until joining the U.S. Army in 1940. He was in the AAA in the Aleutian Islands, The Engineers in Europe and then discharged in 1945. He met and married his wife of 50 years, and was em- ployed at Pacific Bell for 20 years, and a security guard for Pinkerton and Diamond National. He enjoyed hunting, fishing, photography and garden- ing, and was District Commissioner for the Boy Scouts. Mr. Swayze is survived by three children, daughter Patri- cia Spence of Red Bluff, sons Doug McClung of Red Bluff and Tom Swayze of Redwood City. Services will be held on October 28th at 11:00 am in the North Valley Baptist Church. Contributions can be made to your favorite charity. Death Notices Beulah Craven Beulah Craven died Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2011, at her residence in Oroville. She was 98. Hoyt-Cole Chapel of the Flowers is handling the arrangements. Published Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2011, in the Daily News, Red Bluff, Calif. Oh Snap! The Daily News wants your photos: Cute kids, Adorable pets, Inspirational sights, Any shot you think readers would enjoy S Send pictures to editor@redbluffdailynews.com or drop off at 545 Diamond Ave. in Red Bluff. Include a caption. COUNTY Continued from page 1A because students from Berrendos walk past Blandi- no's property every day, he said. "We would ask that you don't accept the appeal, that it stays and the abatement continues," Brose said. On the other end of the issue, Prinz rekindled the argument that patient's need their medication and sup- ported Blandino's efforts to keep her plants. Garrett, a member of the Marijuana Eradication Team, rehashed the incidents surrounding Blandino being served with the notice of abatement. Assistant County Counsel Arthur Wylene spoke on behalf of the sheriff's depart- ment presenting the legality of the action taken against Blandino. "That's simply not an appropriate grow site in Tehama County," Wylene said. After hearing both sides of the issue, the board voted unanimously to uphold the ordinance and passed a reso- lution for Blandino to abate, or uproot, her marijuana plants. Blandino, who had already uprooted the crop in response to the first notice, was frustrated, she said. She kept her plants caged in a fence with a locked gate, protected by barbed wire above. She put in a motion sen- sor light and surveillance camera and tried to keep the plants leaned toward her house, away from the neigh- bor's fence, Blandino said. She didn't have wild parties or people coming in and out all the time. She said she spends most of her time at home. Her dis- abilities keep her from going out very much. She uses marijuana to make butter, oil and bread as well as smokes it, she said. She even uses the oil to soothe arthritis in her joints. Now, she doesn't know how she will get her medica- tion when her current supply runs out, she said. "How do they want me to grow somewhere else when you're not allowed to trans- port it?" she said. Blandino's crop is one of many that were tagged this season, which is the first growing season that law enforcement were able to put the ordinance into effect. The ordinance was passed at the end of the growing season last year, Greer said. Otherwise, they would have stopped her sooner. Before the 2010 ordi- nance, there was nothing anyone could do legally, Greer said. Now, Blandino has to stop. "She's a nice lady," he said in a later interview. "But it is a nuisance. Maybe it does help. I don't know, but it's way too close to the school." ——— Andrea Wagner can be reached at 527-2153, exten- sion 114 or awagner@red- bluffdailynews.com. Man pleads guilty to threatening Sen. Boxer SAN RAFAEL (AP) — Prosecutors say a Northern Cal- ifornia man has pleaded guilty to making death threats against Sen. Barbara Boxer. Marin County Deputy District Attorney Aicha Mievis tells the Marin Independent Journal (http://bit.ly/v5Ky6a ) that 47-year-old Kevin Joseph O'Connell entered the plea on Monday to a charge of threatening a public official. The charge was reduced to a misdemeanor in exchange for the plea. Authorities say O'Connell threatened Boxer in a voice- mail he left at her San Francisco office in July. He allegedly claimed he was being harassed by authorities and was in a dispute with his neighbors. San Rafael police have said the death threat wasn't relat- ed to Boxer's political positions. O'Connell's lawyer, Deputy Public Defender Bonnie Marmor, described the call as a cry for help. Autopsy finds no trauma in Calif in-custody death SACRAMENTO (AP) — Sacramento County authori- ties say a preliminary autopsy reveals no trauma to a suspect who died after he was taken into custody following a shoot- ing that left an officer critically wounded. The Sacramento Bee (http://bit.ly/s9hKlV) reported Tuesday that Tyrone Walter Smith's cause of death also has not been determined as further tests are needed. Police say that the 32-year-old Smith was unresponsive in the back of a patrol car following his arrest several hours after a Twin Rivers police officer was shot late Saturday. Smith was taken to a local hospital where he was later pronounced dead. Police maintain that officers acted appropriately and did not contribute to Smith's death. The wounded officer, whose name has not been released, has been moved from intensive care and is expected to make a full recovery. Panel resumes green energy tax breaks SACRAMENTO (AP) — A California state panel is resuming a tax break program for clean energy manufactur- ers after lawmakers found it is working as intended. The California Alternative Energy and Advanced Trans- portation Financing Authority voted unanimously Tuesday to end its temporary suspension of the program. It had awarded $25 million in sales tax breaks to the failed Fremont solar startup Solyndra. State Treasurer Bill Lockyer, chairman of the authority, had asked for a pause to review regulations. Lockyer told lawmakers that despite the risks, the tax break program is worthwhile and is different from a federal loan guarantee now being investigated by Congress. Los Angeles Sen. Alex Padilla agreed. The Democrat says California shouldn't let the failure of one company stop the state from encouraging alternative energy. Ruptured gas line to be running in 2 weeks SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Pacific Gas & Electric Co. officials say a major natural gas transmission line that rup- tured during a pressure test will be back in service in the next couple of weeks, and customers won't notice any service disruptions in the meantime. A six-foot section along the pipeline's longitudinal seam blew during the test Monday on an exposed portion of the line running through a field in a remote area of Bakersfield. The company says crews are cutting out the damaged section and will replace a 40-foot segment of the line, which was laid in 1950. The testing was part of the utility's effort to assure regu- lators its gas system is safe in the wake of last year's pipeline explosion in the San Francisco suburb of San Bruno, which Independently owned Telephone: (530) 824-3792 Daily News photo by Andrea Wagner A Red Bluff woman uprooted her 12 medical mar- ijuana plants after the county served her with an abatement notice Sept. 28. The pot garden was about 550 feet from Berrendos Middle School, which is a violation of a 2010 county ordinance that prohibits growing within 1,000 feet of a school. STATE BRIEFING killed eight people. Father of artificial intelligence dies in Palo Alto PALO ALTO (AP) — John McCarthy, a pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence and professor emeritus at Stan- ford University, has died at age 84. The university announced that McCarthy died early Monday at his home in Palo Alto. McCarthy was a leader in artificial intelligence technolo- gy and coined the term in a 1955 research paper. He believed computers could be programmed to simulate aspects of human intelligence. He also created the programming language, Lisp, which paved the way for voice recognition technology like Siri, the personal assistant on the newest iPhone. During McCarthy's career, he taught at Princeton, MIT, Dartmouth and Stanford. He was born in Boston. Police: Suspect shot by officers had toy gun SAN JOSE (AP) — Authorities say the man shot by San Jose police over the weekend was not carrying a loaded firearm as officers at the scene thought but a gold-painted toy gun. The San Jose Police Department released details about the shooting — the department's seventh officer-involved shooting this year — on Monday. According to police, officers received a report on Sunday of a man with a gun asleep in a hotel stairwell. Police say when they aroused the suspect, who has been identified as Javier Gonzales-Guerrero, he reached for what they thought was a weapon. They shot him multiple times and only later learned he was holding a toy gun. The officers are now on leave while the department inves- tigates the shooting. $100 bet gets man stuck in child swing set VALLEJO (AP) — A 21-year-old Northern California man was left hanging at a playground swing set overnight after he got stuck in the diaper-like seat for nine hours. Vallejo police say the man made a $100 bet with his friends that he could fit into a child's swing at Blue Rock Springs Park on Friday night. With the help of liquid laun- dry detergent, he managed to slide his legs into the seat. Authorities say that's when he got stuck — and his friends took off. A groundskeeper found the man screaming for help the next morning. Firefighters cut the chains off the swing and took him to the hospital, where a cast cutter was used to remove the seat. The man's name has not been released. Property owners could be fined for bright lights RIVERSIDE (AP) — Some Southern California proper- ty owners may soon face fines up to $500 for outdoor light- ing that shines too bright. Riverside County Supervisor John Tavaglione tells the Palm Springs Desert Sun (http://mydesert.co/tbgGcd ) that ''light trespass'' wastes natural resources and can jeopardize health. He proposed the county ordinance in response to a con- stituent's complaint that he was losing sleep because of glar- ing light from a nearby business. The law, which calls outdoor lighting ''luminaires,'' would require that lights be shielded and directed away from neighboring properties and public areas. Lights also cannot blink, flash or rotate. THE PASSING PARADE EARL HEDLUND PART TWO I was planning to write more about the late great Earl Hedlund until I read the mammoth obituary which appeared in last Saturday's DN. It ran two columns wide and down nearly the entire left side of the obituary page! The font was small to accommodate this obituary furnished by his loving family. In case you missed it, it contained two photos of the swell chap…one in his WWII Officer's Cap, and the other showing him at an advanced age (he lived to 90) with his wry smile suggesting the photographer had either asked a silly question… or a particularly good looking woman was taking his picture Because of the plethora of information in the aforementioned obituary, I have little to add. The family….at least one member a journalist, left no stone unturned…or as Earl might have put it, no tern unstoned. The obit ran over 16 inches in length and, at the going rate, must have cost a mint! I can't imagine my family shucking out that kind of dough when I demise. Which brings me to the question of who gets the ink in the DN when a local kicks the bucket? If you are the average citizen with connections to our Over 50 years of serving Tehama County community, and have gone to your maker, next of kin will be allowed to pay for an obituary citing the pertinent facts of your life on earth. The good news is that it will be laudatory. Your kin will cite your admirable traits and hopefully omit your failings. But this gets us back to someone like Mr. Hedlund. He seemed to have all the qualifications for a front page article, yet notice of his demise was left to a fishing buddy and eventually the family submitted obituary cited above. Why is this? Whose demise is considered worthy of a front page notice by the Editor these days? In earlier times, local papers were awash with front page articles reporting the death of well known local folks. Does one have to be a member of congress to gain this coverage? I suspect Mr. Nielsen may someday qualify, especially if he takes leave of life in the mobile in Gerber. Mr. Hedlund was a County of Tehama District Attorney. Will the current edition, Mr. Cohen get more ink…in the event of? Just curious. Earl Hedlund was a sweet old boy, the initials of which, he would humorously point out, might be used by his detractors as more accurate description. He was very successful in behalf of his clients, much to the chagrin of opposing attorneys. So I ask the Editor whether Earl's demise should have been considered front page news. In his defense, Chip Thompson is relatively a new comer to our area, and his lack of front page consideration might therefore be excused. I would look forward to a Saturday editorial in this regard. In my case, however, when I demise, I expect front page treatment, of which I have mixed emotions, but will let the "Chip" fall where it may. Robert Minch The Passing Parade is brought to you by by Minch Property Management, 760 Main Street specializing in commercial leasing and sales. 530 527 5514