Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/462802
mately contained to the motor home in the back- yard. The woman living in the motor home escaped un- harmed, Barber said, and no injuries were reported. The motor home was a total loss, Barber said, with estimated damages totaling about $15,000. No additional struc- tures were damaged. Barber said the Red Cross was called to assist the woman with shelter and other needs. Fire FROMPAGE1 years" by not dipping into reserves. Reynolds presented an audit of the city's finances for the 2013-2014 fiscal year that ended June 30, 2014. The city brought in higher than expected gen- eral fund revenues and spent less than what was budgeted for the fiscal year, City Manager John Brewer said. Revenues came in about $300,000 higher than bud- geted, and spending was about $145,000 less than budgeted, Brewer said. Compared to the 2012- 2013 fiscal year, revenues were up about $96,800, or 2 percent, according to city staff. Spending was down about $300,000 compared to the 2012-2013 fiscal year because of a "decrease in larger projects." "The city has been exer- cising what I think is good stewardship. You've man- aged to keep your costs un- der control," Reynolds said. Reynolds did note that the city had a windfall in sales tax revenue in the 2013-2014 fiscal year be- cause of the fluctuation of fuel prices. The city increased its op- erating reserve to $910,000 on July 1, 2014, and city staff recommends that go- ing forward the City Coun- cil increase the reserve to $1 million to shield the city from economic downturns. The City Council unani- mously accepted the 2013- 2014 fiscal year audit. Disposalservice The City Council also unanimously approved a garbage collection rate in- crease to match inflation. The Consumer Price In- dex, or "cost of living" in- crease amounted to 1.57 percent in the last year, ac- cording to city staff. Starting April 1, the monthly service charge for a 96-gallon roller cart will be $22.22, a 34 cent in- crease. The monthly rate for a 32-gallon Senior Citi- zen cart will be $11.11, a 24 cent increase. Commercial rates also will increase by 1.57 per- cent. The City Council held a public hearing on the mat- ter, and noted that it had re- ceived no written protests. City FROM PAGE 1 PLEASE RECYCLE THIS NEWSPAPER. Thank you! TheAssociatedPress HESPERIA A 4-year-old Southern California boy who was bitten by his fa- ther's police dog has lost part of his leg. Hunter Mastaler (mas- TAY'-lur) remains hospi- talized Thursday follow- ing surgery and is ex- pected to recover. Mastaler's father is a canine handler with the Rialto Police Department. Police Capt. Randy De Anda says the 7-year-old Belgian Malinois (MAL'- ehn-wah) named Jango was in the backyard of the family's Hesperia home Sunday when the boy went outside. The dog bit and held onto the boy's left leg as it is trained to do in criminal situations. Neighbors heard the boy's screams and helped rescue him. SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA 4-year-old loses part of leg in police dog attack By Amy Taxin The Associated Press FONTANA Investigators wearing bulletproof vests sit in unmarked cars out- side a Southern California recycling center, swap- ping license plate details over two-way radio before dawn. A truck emerges, and they follow, hoping to learn where drivers pick up what to many looks like trash but turns out to be treasure: cardboard. "It's big, big money — for somebody," said Steve Rivera, a senior investi- gator with the San Ber- nardino County District Attorney's office who has been conducting sunrise surveillance to track, edu- cate and cite the culprits. "People don't recognize the fact that it's actually theft." The crackdown in gritty, industrial suburbs east of Los Angeles aims to put a stop to a long-running practice that surges with cardboard prices and wal- lops trash company reve- nue — and could eventu- ally push up trash collec- tion rates for homeowners and shopkeepers. New York City has bat- tled cardboard theft for years. Local authori- ties elsewhere have cited those who swipe recycla- bles from waste hauler- provided bins, but the ef- forts haven't curtailed the theft of cardboard, which can net anywhere from $100 to $200 a ton. When the economy booms, cardboard prices rise as manufacturers make more goods and need more packaging to sell them. Thieves are more brazen, and steal much more, when card- board prices peak. Waste haulers count on selling the recyclables they retrieve at the curb to off- set the cost of collection, industry experts said. "Our industry loses millions of dollars a year due to cardboard," said David Biderman, general counsel for the National Waste & Recycling As- sociation. "One piece of cardboard by itself isn't valuable. But customers often generate substan- tial volumes of it." The price of cardboard currently hovers around $100 a ton — much higher than during the 2008 re- cession but down from last year due to weaker de- mand from China, which is the largest export mar- ket for U.S. cardboard, Bi- derman said. Under most state and lo- cal laws, people can collect cardboard left outside by a business or doled out by a shopkeeper for recycling. But they can't remove ma- terials from recycling bins left out at the curb, which are considered property of the local waste haul- ing company, said Ron- ald Steiner, a professor at Chapman University law school in Orange County, who teaches case law re- lated to privacy rights and garbage. CRIME Authorities crack down on cardboard the CHRISCARLSON—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Steve Rivera, senior investigator with the San Bernardino County District Attorney office, le , watches as a load of cardboard is seized temporarily on Wednesday in Fontana. By Emery P. Dalesio The Associated Press RALEIGH, N.C. More than 5,000 people gathered for solemn funeral and prayer services Thursday for three young adults gunned down in what police call a long- running dispute over park- ing spaces. The crowd was so large it had to be moved from a mosque to a nearby uni- versity athletic field. The deaths of a newlywed Muslim couple and the wife's sister had quickly gained international atten- tion, with some question- ing about whether the vio- lence had some connection to their faith. Before the prayer ser- vice, relatives viewed the victims' bodies in a small building apart from one of Raleigh's largest mosques, where the families have long been members. The service then moved across the street to the fields owned by North Carolina State University, where two victims had graduated and one was a student. The service began after midday Muslim prayers. The crowd was solemn and silent — only a few children crying in the dis- tance could be heard. A large blue plastic prayer mat lay on the field, and some brought their own to use. Three coffins sat be- fore a covered stage — in gray, white and silver. At the service's end, about a dozen people carried each to hearses, which headed to an Islamic cemetery out- side Raleigh. Deah Shaddy Barakat, 23; his wife, Yusor Mo- hammad Abu-Salha, 21; and her sister Razan Mo- hammad Abu-Salha, 19, were found dead Tues- day at the newlywed cou- ple's home near the Uni- versity of North Caro- lina-Chapel Hill campus. Barakat attended gradu- ate school there; his wife had planned to join him. Those gathered Thurs- day — N.C. State police es- timated a crowd of 5,500 — grappled with ques- tions about whether the violence had some connec- tion to their Muslim faith. The father of the two slain women says hatred of Mus- lims might explain why the dispute erupted into death. Officials have said they're still investigating any pos- sibilities the crime was hate-motivated. "We are definitely cer- tain that our daughters were targeted for their re- ligion," the women's father, Mohammad Yousif Abu- Salha, told The Associated Press on Thursday. "... This is a moment of truth. I have just viewed their bodies." Charged with three counts of first-degree mur- der is Craig Stephen Hicks, 46, who has described him- self as a "gun toting" athe- ist. Neighbors describe him as angry and confron- tational. His ex-wife said he was obsessed with the 1993 shooting-rampage movie "Falling Down" and showed "no compassion at all" for other people. His current wife, Karen Hicks, said that her hus- band "champions the rights of others" and that the killings "had nothing do with religion or the vic- tims' faith." She then is- sued another brief state- ment, saying she's divorc- ing him. The newlywed wife's fa- ther said his daughter "felt that he was hateful and he did not like them, who they were and the way they looked." Mohammad Yousif Abu- Salha also said he had urged law enforcement to look beyond their expla- nation of the parking spat in the complex where two of the victims and the sus- pect lived. "This is not a parking dispute," he said. "These children were executed with shots in the back of the head." Police have said they are not commenting on evidence in the case, including manner of death. "We understand the con- cerns about the possibility that this was hate-moti- vated, and we will exhaust every lead to determine if that is the case," Chapel Hill police Chief Chris Blue said in an email Wednes- day. Several people who knew the victims spoke about them at a Wednesday night vigil, describing selfless- ness and kindness. Barakat and wife Abu- Salha were newlyweds who helped the homeless and raised money to help Syrian refugees in Tur- key. They met while help- ing to run the Muslim Stu- dent Association at N.C. State before he began pur- suing an advanced degree in dentistry at UNC. Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, who graduated in Decem- ber, planned to join him at dentistry school in the fall. Abu-Salha was visiting them Tuesday from Ra- leigh, where she studied design at N.C. State. Hicks had less success. His wife said Hicks, un- employed and driving a 15-year-old car, had been studying to become a para- legal. A Second Amendment rights advocate with a con- cealed weapons permit, Hicks often complained about organized religion on Facebook. "Some call me a gun toting Liberal, others call me an open- minded Conservative," Hicks wrote. Imad Ahmad, who lived in the condo with friends before they were married, said Hicks complained about monthly that the two men were parking in a vis- itor space and in their as- signed spot. "He would come over to the door, knock on the door and then have a gun on his hip saying, 'You guys need to not park here,'" said Ah- mad, a graduate student at UNC. "He did it again after they got married." Hicks and his neighbors complained to the property managers, who apparently didn't intervene. "They told us to call the police if the guy came and harassed us again," Ahmad said. Namee Barakat, father of Daeh Barakat, said Thurs- day that he heard after the shootings that Craig Hicks had visited the condo once before. "He raised his jacket and he showed them his gun, and Yusor told her dad that this guy, he does not like us," he said. "He does not like our hijab. She was concerned." RALEIGH Services, prayers for 3 fatally shot in North Carolina The Associated Press KENSINGTON A Northern California town plans to request an independent investigation into how its police chief handled the probe of a sergeant who allegedly had his gun sto- len by a prostitute at a Ne- vada hotel room, a news- paper reported. Kensington police Sgt. Keith Barrow was asleep when his gun was stolen last May, the Oakland Tribune has reported, citing court records and interviews. The weapon was recovered the next day when the prostitute's pimp shot himself in the leg with it during an al- tercation at a pawnshop. Barrow was not placed on administrative leave when the department found out about the in- cident or while it spent eight months investi- gating it as is routine in such cases, the Tribune reported. Barrow's attor- ney, Justin Buffington, has said recently his cli- ent will serve a suspen- sion. In a statement released Wednesday, the Kensing- ton town board said "the due process requirements could have proceeded in a more timely manner." "People have this im- pression that something wasn't done right, and we're admitting in the statement that things could have proceeded at a more rapid pace," Board President Len Welsh told the Tribune in a story posted Wednes- day. "We're going to have to cop to what happened, but I have to ask for some patience. You don't rush to judgment." The board plans to discuss how Police Chief Greg Harman handled the matter in closed ses- sion at a meeting on Thursday night. Mes- sages for Harman and Barrow were not imme- diately returned. Kensington is a small, upscale community bor- dering Berkeley in the San Francisco Bay Area. A police report taken the night the gun was stolen says $70 was ex- changed for sex, Reno police spokesman Tim Broadway told the Tri- bune. Prostitution is le- gal in Nevada, but only in licensed brothels. Barrow was not cited in the case, though Broadway and the Washoe County, Nevada district attorney at the time would not explain the decision, the Tribune reported. Buffington has said his client may have been drugged. NORTHERN CALIFORNIA Town requests probe a er prostitute steals sergeant's gun HARRYH.GRAHAM February 23, 1928 ~ February 9, 2015 Harry H. Graham was born February 23, 1928 to Ho- ward D. Graham and Katherine Henson Graham. He was brother to Howard, William and Herman Graham. Shortly after his birth, the family removed itself to Okla- homa, staying there until the Dust Storm of the 1930's brought them back to California, settling in Red Bluff and Tehama County for life. Harry graduated from RBHS in 1946, and was in the Ar- my from 1946 - 1948, serving his time with the 20th Infan- try Regiment in Yosu, Korea. Leaving the Army in 1948, he married his high school sweetheart, Lucille Partsch Graham, and entered into a 62 years marriage, with the following kids from that mar- riage, David, Richard, Patrick, Daniel, Karen (McMichael) and Kevin Graham. Harry worked as a butcher until he retired at 65 years old. Harry was a convert to Catholicism while in Korea. In later life, he belonged to the Knights of Columbus and the Elks Club. Harry passed away February 9, 2015, Funeral mass will be held February 20 at 10am at the Sacred Heart Church, with a Rosary to be held February 19, 7:00pm at Hoyt- Cole Chapel of Flowers. Obituaries FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 13, 2015 REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM | NEWS | 9 A