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Saturday, December 17, 2011 – Daily News 7A Death Notices Death notices must be provided by mortuaries to the news department, are published at no charge, and feature only specific basic information about the deceased. Paid obituaries are placed through the Classified advertising department. Paid obituaries may be placed by mortuaries or by families of the deceased and include online publication linked to the news- paper's website. Paid obituaries may be of any length, may run multiple days and offer wide latitude of content, including photos. Richard Lee Nelson Richard Lee Nelson of Marianna, Fla. died Wednes- day, Dec. 14, 2011, at Jackson Hospital. He was 62. James and Sikes Funeral Home in Marianna, Fla. is handling the arrangements. Published Saturday, Dec. 17, 2011, in the Daily News, Red Bluff, Calif. JOBLESS Continued from page 1A was in May 2009. In November 2010, Califor- nia's unemployment rate was 12.5 percent. ''We're certainly on the right path,'' said Michael Bernick, a former director of EDD who is now a fel- low at the Milken Insti- tute. California has gained more than 211,000 jobs since the start of 2011, but the number of adults con- sidered to be in the labor force has fallen. Manufac- turing was the one area of the economy that posted job declines over the last year, losing about 100 net jobs. Steve Levy, an econo- mist with the Center for Continuing Study of the California Economy in Palo Alto, said the state's urban coastal regions con- tinue to lead the economic comeback, benefiting from the growth in tech- nology, trade and tourism. The San Jose and San Diego metro areas are the leading large employment centers in percentage job gains, followed closely by San Francisco, Levy said. Still, more than 2 mil- lion people remain out of work in California — much higher in some areas of the state that are still struggling to recover from the housing bust and decline in manufacturing. Imperial County, along the Mexican border, had an unemployment rate of 27.2 percent, the highest in the state, lower than the 30.4 percent the month before. The lowest unem- ployment rate was in affluent Marin County in the San Francisco Bay area, at 6.9 percent. The unemployed face another possible hit come Jan. 1, but U.S. Senate leaders reached a tentative deal on jobless benefits Friday night. President Barack Obama wants to leave in place the current maxi- mum of 99 weeks of bene- fits for the long-term unemployed. A payroll tax cut bill approved by the House reduces that total by 20 weeks, which the administration says would cut off 3.3 million individ- uals nationwide. Democ- rats were hoping to soften if not reverse what's in the House version. Any deal would also require House passage before it could reach Obama's desk. Nationally, the unem- ployment rate dropped to 8.6 percent in November. EDD estimates that about 16.1 million Cali- fornians had jobs in November, an increase of 116,000 from October, and up 246,000 from the employment total in November of last year. But there is still a long way to go before jobs are restored to pre-recession levels, noted Levy. ''November's good news is tempered by the realization that there are still 1 million jobs to recover in California from before the recession and that the process of recov- ery is under way but still much slower than hoped for or needed,'' he said. FEE Continued from page 1A The State Responsibili- ty Fees were first approved Aug. 22, but the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection adopt- ed emergency regulations COURT Continued from page 1A each of the 33 projects that will con- tinue to go forward. Another 2 per- cent will be achieved through changes in an insurance program. The 4 percent cut would create a savings of about $160 million. Six projects will be delayed a few months until the start of the next fis- cal year, when other funding should become available. DEAL Continued from page 1A three-year period, averag- ing it and multiplying that Nov. 10 that were different from the first set. The new regulations change the definition of a "habitable structure" to include county-owned buildings and non-residen- tial structures among those affected by the fees. Tehama County joined the California State Asso- ciation of Counties Agri- cultural and Natural Resources Committee in opposing the quick reforms and tried to appeal to the Office of Adminis- trative Law, the depart- ment that must review and file the emergency regula- Projects in Alpine and Sierra were canceled because of high cost and small case loads in those coun- ties' courts. Tehama County and state offi- cials have already agreed to a $1.23 million purchase price for the Wal- nut Street site at which the court- house is to be built. The purchase is yet to be made. The judicial council and the Court Facilities Working Group will continue to look at cost-saving mea- sures for the courthouse construc- by the number of years of service. That amount equals the gross annual retirement income. With the adoption of the new retirement con- tions. To view the emergency regulations, go to www.bof.fire.ca.gov. ——— Andrea Wagner can be reached at 527-2153, extension 114 or awagner@redbluffdailyne ws.com. tion projects. The 2011-2012 state Budget Act redirected $310 million in funds set aside for courthouse construction to the General Fund. More than $500 million was swept to the General Fund, borrowed or redirected to court operations this fiscal year. Since 2009, more than $1.1 bil- lion in funding originally designated for courthouse construction has been borrowed, swept to the Gener- al Fund or redirected to court opera- tions. tract, the miscellaneous unit will see a change. Pre- viously employees were eligible for retirement at 55, which changes to 60 with the new contract. ——— Julie Zeeb can be reached at 527-2153, extension 115 or jzeeb@redbluffdailynews. com. Judge tosses Calif lethal injection procedure SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A judge tossed out California's newly adopted lethal injection procedure on Friday, throwing the state's already stalled capital punishment system into further doubt. Marin County Superior Court Judge Faye D'Opal, finalizing a tentative ruling she issued a day earlier, said prison officials failed to properly explain why they rejected a one-drug process using only a barbiturate when one of their experts recommended it as being superior to the three-drug mixture that was adopted to execute inmates. The judge wrote that critics of the three-drug lethal injection sub- mitted comments to the department saying one of those three drugs — pancuronium bromide — ''is unnecessary, dangerous, and creates a risk of excruciating pain.'' ''Today the court struck down California's three-drug lethal injec- tion protocol because it was enacted in violation of California law,'' said Sara Eisenberg, an attorney for Mitchell Sims, the condemned inmate who filed the lawsuit chal- lenging the new, three-drug proce- dure. Prison officials will now either have to appeal or again revise their lethal injection procedures and sub- mit them to public comment, a process that took more than a year last time. California Department of Cor- rections and Rehabilitation spokes- woman Terry Thornton said state lawyers would review the ruling before deciding what to do next. D'Opal's ruling is the second court decision barring executions in California. A federal judge imposed a de facto moratorium on execu- tions in 2006 after finding the lethal injection process was flawed in the state. One of the state's responses to that finding was to adopt the new execution procedure, which D'Opal's ruling struck down. In her decision, D'Opal also said the Corrections Department failed to disclose the costs of executions, all of which are conducted at San Quentin Prison in Marin County. The judge noted that former San Quentin Prison Warden Jeanne Woodford said each execution costs the state between $70,000 and $200,000 in overtime for staff, crowd control, training, security and other expenses associated with carrying out lethal injections. Prop 8 repeal cleared for signature-gathering SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A gay rights group that wants to repeal the state constitutional amendment that stripped same-sex cou- ples in California of the right to get married received clearance Friday to start gathering signatures for a measure that would rescind the gay marriage ban known as Proposition 8. Los Angeles-based Love Honor Cherish has until May 14 to collect the 807,615 voter signatures required to qualify its initia- tive for the November 2012 ballot, the secretary of state's office said. California voters passed Proposition 8 with 52 per- cent of the vote in Novem- ber 2008, five months after the state Supreme Court legalized same-sex mar- riage by striking down a pair of laws that had limited marriage to a man and a woman. The measure inserted the one man-one woman provision into the state Constitution, thereby overruling the court's deci- sion and halting same-sex marriages in California. ''This is severely impact- ing people, loving couples who cannot get married. It has severely impacted me not being able to get mar- ried,'' Love Honor Cherish board chair Tom Watson, who signed as the initia- tive's official proponent, said. ''It's been more than three years since Prop 8, and a majority of California residents have realized that it is a mistake to deny loving same-sex couples the right to marry and are ready to reverse the mistake that was made at the ballot box. We should give them that opportunity.'' The repeal initiative sub- mitted by Love Honor Cherish would strike Propo- sition 8 and state instead ''that marriage is between only two persons and shall not be restricted on the basis of race, color, national ori- gin, sex, gender, sexual ori- entation, or religion,'' according to a summary prepared by the California Attorney General's office. It also contains language stating that clergy would not be required to perform mar- riages that violate their reli- gious beliefs, if the initiative passes. Love Honor Cherish submitted the proposed ini- tiative in October after Equality California, the state's largest gay rights group, said it was not pre- pared to lead a campaign to overturn Proposition 8. In 2008, the measure's sup- porters and opponents spent $83 million campaigning for and against the amend- ment, making it the most expensive political race on a social issue in the nation's history. A federal appeals court in San Francisco has been reviewing a lower court's decision from last year that struck down Proposition 8 as a violation of the civil rights of gay and lesbian Californians. Watson said that if the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholds that ruling and lifts its injunction barring same-sex couples from marrying, the repeal initiative would no longer be needed. But if neither the 9th Circuit nor the U.S. Supreme Court reinstate marriage rights for same- sex couples early next year and instead seek to keep the ban in place while the case works its way through the legal system, Love Honor Cherish would move for- ward with trying to qualify the repeal measure and campaign for its passage, Watson said. ''If that's the case, that's a pretty strong indication we should be seeking to repeal Prop 8 at the ballot,'' he said. The Legislative Ana- lyst's Office and Depart- ment of Finance said the potential financial effect on state and local governments would be negligible over the long run. Marijuana dispensary creates buzz with free pot ORANGEVALE (AP) — The customers of Magnolia Wellness pot shop could have called it buzz-kill Black Friday. More than 100 lined up early Friday for an unusual giveaway: free pot and plenty of munchies to help with the aftermath. As pleased as they were with the gift, they were also sad that their pot shop was going out of busi- ness. ''I know you're all sad, but everyone should have a smile because it's free stuff!'' yelled Darrell Coffman, who was determined to fire up the long line of customers just before the doors opened for the last time at 10 a.m. ''It's going to go down like a Bob Marley concert in here! I'm feelin' it!'' The medical marijuana cooperative, which owns the pot, is located 20 miles east of Sacramento and is among dozens of dispensaries that are closing after the state's four U.S. attorneys announced in October that they were cracking down on cultivation and retail sales. The giveaway of one gram of marijuana was part thank you to the cooperative's members, and part politi- cal protest against the federal crackdown on California's 15-year-old medical marijuana law, store spokesman Over 50 years of serving Tehama County Steven Lee said. ''We have to take a bigger, more dramatic political step,'' Lee said. ''We're not here to break the law. We're here to potentially change it.'' The dispensary's landlord was among those targeted by federal prosecutors, who sent letters to dozens of dis- pensary owners and landlords that warned that they faced criminal charges or seizure of their assets if they did not shut down. Independently owned Telephone: (530) 824-3792 The judge, additionally, said prison officials failed to properly notify the 720 inmates on Califor- nia's death row of the new proce- dures. Sims filed the lawsuit challeng- ing the new regulation last year. He was convicted of killing a 21-year- old pizza deliveryman in 1985 and had killed two other Domino's Pizza employees four days earlier in South Carolina. He's also was sentenced to die in that state. Sims filed his lawsuit on behalf of other death row inmates like him who had exhausted all their appeals and were at the head of the execu- tion line. At least 12 inmates are in similar situations. Sims said the new regulations were improperly drafted and violat- ed a California law requiring detailed explanations and public comments on the changes. Prison officials drafted those new regulations in response to a federal lawsuit filed by condemned inmate Michael Morales, who alleged that California's lethal injection process amounted to cruel and unusual punishment. A federal judge in 2006 ordered the Correc- tions Department to revamp Cali- fornia's entire execution process. 3 dead, 2 wounded in California office shooting IRWINDALE (AP) — Three people were killed and two more injured Friday in a California office complex shooting, police said. The suspected gunman was among the dead and is believed to have self-inflicted wounds, Baldwin Park police Capt. Michael Taylor said. ''As far as we know there was one shooting suspect, period,'' Taylor said. The shooting occurred around 1:30 p.m. Friday at Southern California Edison offices inside a larger office complex in Irwindale. Edison International chairman and CEO Ted Craver confirmed that the victims and the suspected gunman were Southern California Edison employees, four full- timers and one contract worker. Craver said ''this is one of the most horrible days in our company's history.'' One of the shooting victims was a woman and the other four were men. Craver did not specify which were living or dead, and was careful not to provide identifying details for the victims, saying the company is still working to con- tact next of kin. There was no immediate word on what prompted the gunfire.