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THURSDAY DECEMBER 1, 2011 Breaking news at: Christmas Memories Pastimes www.redbluffdailynews.com See Page 6A RED BLUFF Bulldogs Hoops Preview SPORTS 1B Sunny 62/40 Weather forecast 6B By TANG LOR DN Staff Writer Tehama County Counsel has filed a demurrer in response the latest suit by local activist Don Bird, calling Bird's requested injunction against county elec- tions officials another chapter in DAILYNEWS TEHAMACOUNTY DAILY 50¢ T H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N T Y S I N C E 1 8 8 5 Activist enters new legal challenge over Nielsen his "quixotic quest" against Assemblyman Jim Nielsen. The case should be dis- missed with prejudice because it is procedurally and factually defective, Deputy County Counsel Alan Cox wrote in the demurrer that was filed Nov. 23 in Tehama County Superior Court. 'As with his previous efforts, this one is fatally flawed' — Deputy County Counsel Alan Cox "As with his previous efforts, Country Christmas this one is fatally flawed," Cox wrote. In response, Bird said the demurrer is "a typical boiler- plate attempt" to stop him, but his First Amendment right to petition cannot be quashed. See LEGAL, page 5A Sheriff gets COPS funding By ANDREA WAGNER DN Staff Writer The city of Tehama will be assigned a new sheriff's deputy and update its emergency telephone alert system as part of state funding choices approved last week. County supervisors approved spending allocations Nov. 22 for funding through the Supplemental Law Enforcement Services Fund, a 2011/2012 Citizen's Option for Public Safety, or COPS. COPS funding gives the Sheriff's Department and District Attorney specific amounts through legislation for front line law enforcement needs. Sheriff Dave Hencratt submitted recommendations to spend $17,518 to partially fund one correctional offi- See SHERIFF, page 5A CalFire steps up precautions due to forecasted winds In response to a strong wind event forecasted for California, CalFire has increased its staffing and fire equipment throughout the state. Daily News photo by Julie Zeeb Red Bluff Union High School students practice for tonight's show, Country Christmas Con- cert, which starts at 7 p.m. in the Performing Arts Center.Tickets are $4 and can be purchased at the door. The concert is Christmas country songs in the style of the Grand Ole Opry fea- turing three choirs — Mixed Chorus, Show Choir and Concert Choir — under the direction of Diane Hassey. Chico State buildings reopen after bomb threat CHICO (AP) — Two buildings on the Chico State University campus have reopened after they were evac- uated because of a bomb threat. The Chico Enterprise-Record reports that a Butte County bomb squad swept the Student Services Center and Bell Memorial Union and found no explosives Wednesday morning. The two buildings reopened See BOMB, page 5A Ruling signals setback for Calif. in pension case LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California judge on Wednesday tentatively rejected a request from prosecutors to declare that a former state pension board member orchestrated illegal investment deals and should surrender $40 mil- lion in fees. The preliminary ruling by Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge John Reid represents at least a temporary setback for the government in a case involving allegations of fraud and kickbacks at the California Public Employ- ees Retirement System. The state attorney gener- al sued Alfred Villalobos in May 2010, claiming he and his company operated with- out a license while reaping millions of dollars in fees for steering CalPERS investments to clients. The lawsuit alleged he lavished CalPERS officials with kickbacks to gain influence at the nation's largest public pension fund. In court papers, prosecu- tors said there was enough evidence for the judge to rule before trial, but Reid found key issues remained in dispute, according to a proposed ruling posted on the court's website. Lynda Gledhill, a 7 5 8 5 5 1 6 9 0 0 1 9 spokeswoman for state Attorney General Kamala Harris, said the ruling ''says nothing at our ability to pre- vail at trial.'' High winds along with low humidity are expect- ed over much of the state beginning this evening and continuing for the next few days. Winds in some areas are expected to have gusts in excess of 60 mph. This weather event will significantly increase the wildfire threat in wind prone areas including the Sierras, the East Bay Hills, the Cen- tral Coast, and throughout Southern California. "The recent devastat- ing wildland fire in Reno, See WIND, page 5A Inmate shift quickly filling some jails SACRAMENTO (AP) — Two months into Cali- fornia's most far-reaching public safety realignment in decades, some counties are seeing a higher-than- expected influx of inmates who could crowd jails to the breaking point much earlier than expect- ed. State corrections offi- cials say it is too soon to panic and expect the num- bers to even out after an initial surge. But reality is settling in as local law enforcement agencies struggle to con- tain criminals with a his- tory of violence, sub- stance abuse and mental illness who previously would have been tucked away in state prisons. Los Angeles County had said its more than 22,000 jail beds could be full by Christmas, although officials now have pushed the projec- tion back by several months. Officials in the state's most populous county are eying early release of less serious offenders and considering alternatives to jail, such as tracking criminals with GPS-linked ankle bracelets. In Orange County, more than 60 detainees recently had to sleep on the jail floor until beds could be made available. That evokes recent images from state prisons, which were so over- crowded that inmates were housed in three-tier bunk beds in gymnasiums and day rooms. 'We are going to be doing business differently, but I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing. The reality is that if you look at the way we have incarcerated people and the recidivism rate, we haven't been doing a very good job' — SF District Attorney George Gascon Fresno County no longer will incarcerate parole violators to keep from crowding its 2,427- bed jail. Parolees could still go to jail if they com- mit new crimes, but not for violating parole condi- tions. The changes are the result of a law that took effect Oct. 1 that shifts responsibility for thou- sands of lower-level crim- inals from the state to local jurisdictions. Only defendants convicted after that date are affected. Judges no longer can send offenders to state prison for crimes such as auto theft, burglary, grand theft and drug possession for sale. Conrad Murray, convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the death of singer Michael Jack- son, will serve his four- year sentence in Los Angeles County jail, where his sentence will automatically be cut in half due to state law. Inmates currently in state prison will complete their full sentences there, but parole violators who previously would have been returned to state prison now can only be incarcerated in county jails. The law was driven by the state's budget deficit and a federal court order, recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court, requiring California to reduce its prison popula- tion by 33,000 inmates as a way to improve medical care. ''We anticipated some bumps in the road, and there have been,'' said Merced County Sheriff Mark Pazin, president of the California State Sher- iffs' Association. He said the unexpected increase in the number of convicts coming to county jails has been the biggest problem to date. The surge in some counties appears to be ''a bubble'' created because defense attorneys delayed sentencings until after the new law took effect so their clients would do their time in county jails instead of state prisons, said Dana Toyama, a spokeswoman for the Cal- ifornia Department of Corrections and Rehabili- tation. The department projects the rate will level off in the coming months, she said. If the trend continues, however, local law enforcement officials may have to lobby state legis- lators not only for more money but to shift some crimes back under state jurisdiction so offenders would again go to state prison, Fresno County Chief Probation Officer Linda Penner said. ''It was a massive over- haul of a very large sys- tem,'' said Penner, who is president of the Chief Probation Officers Asso- ciation of California. ''I think we have to watch it for a while before we can go in and ask for legisla- tive change.'' The early trends and responses are as varied as California's 58 counties, each of which is taking a See JAILS, page 5A