Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/51146
MONDAY DECEMBER 26, 2011 Breaking news at: The Causes of Obesity Vitality www.redbluffdailynews.com See Page 6A RED BLUFF NBA is Back SPORTS 1B Mostly sunny 60/38 Weather forecast 6B 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 Till you drop Pair arrested at inn late Christmas Eve A 23-year-old man and a 17-year-old girl were arrested around 11:15 p.m. Saturday on charges of resisting arrest, possession of drugs for sale and public intoxication, after both tried to flee from police officers. Police responded to a report of a fight between a man and a teenage girl at the Classic Inn on Main Street in Red Bluff, and found Keymia Devour Neal in a room and the girl, intoxicated, just outside the room, accord- ing to a press release issued Sunday by the Red Bluff Police Department. Inside the room officers found condoms, alcohol, marijuana, ecstasy, cocaine, hashish and drug packag- See PAIR, page 5A State to stop towing unlicensed drivers ESCONDIDO (AP) — Daily News photo by Andrea Wagner Shoppers roamed steadily in and out of Walmart Saturday, the last shopping day before Christmas, as many purchased last-minute gifts for the holiday. Shoppers fill store Christmas Eve By ANDREA WAGNER DN Staff Writer Whether it was getting an in- store photo with Santa Claus or that last bit of wrapping paper and bows, Walmart was steadily flooded with shoppers Christmas Eve. A pre-teen girl looked at a mag- azine with pictures of Selena Gomez. Shopping carts clanged and rattled all around. Store employees on every other aisle quickly restocked shelves with open boxes of Christmas candy and toys all around them. Many people wandered the aisles walking slowly through the crowd- ed rows, looking for just one more thing on their Christmas lists. Judy Thompson, 49, and her daughter Jessica Mendez, 29, both of Tehama, were in festive spirits just after noon as they finished shopping. "As far as I'm concerned, you keep a smile on your face and everything will be good," Thomp- son said. The mother and daughter were picking up a few goodies for the family, ingredients for persimmon cookies and something for the fam- ily dog. "The spoiled Chihuahua had to have treats," Thompson said. Shopping on the last day before Christmas didn't get them down, they said. The traffic inside the store was no different than the traf- fic outside. "If a person wants to run into you with a cart, you smile and walk away," Thompson said. Others came at the last minute because they still had not found a way to buy gifts without the recipi- ent knowing it. Wearing a festive red sweatshirt with the word "Noel" on it, Anita Hibbs, 68, of Red Bluff came shop- ping for her husband. She'd already bought, wrapped and mailed every other gift but still hadn't found a way to buy her hus- band something, Hibbs said. "I kept waiting for him not to be with me but that's almost impossi- Stallion castration plan on hold until court rules RENO (AP) — Federal land managers have agreed to postpone a precedent-setting plan to castrate hundreds of wild stallions in eastern Neva- da pending a federal court's review of the issue. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management's deci- sion came a week after a coalition of conservation- ists and wild-horse defenders sued the gov- ernment in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., to block the plan's implementation. Under a compromise reached by both sides and approved by the court Thursday, the agency will be allowed to begin a long-term removal of roughly 1,800 wild horses from the sprawling Pan- cake Complex near Ely beginning Jan. 12 as scheduled. But the BLM agreed to put on hold until next July 1 its plan to castrate 200 wild stallions before releasing them back to the complex. ''That is supposed to give the court time to hear this case,'' BLM spokes- woman Heather Emmons told The Associated Press. BLM officials said they view the pilot pro- gram as another way to reduce growing horse herds that are damaging western rangelands to the detriment of native wildlife. In response to the law- suit, the agency also agreed to drop its plan to remove all 100-plus mus- See PLAN, page 5A 7 5 8 5 5 1 6 9 0 0 1 9 Red Bluff Outdoor Power ble," she said. She decided Saturday to go ahead and get him some Levi's jeans, Hibbs said. Inside the store, she was sur- prised to overhear some people still deciding on gifts for lots of people, she said. "There's a lot of people doing major surgery," Hibbs said. "They were doing major buying in there." People should have had those things done weeks ago, she said. Hibbs and her husband planned a nice, quiet dinner out for Christmas this year. Finding those last-minute gifts wasn't a problem for Matthew Stin- son, 30, of Red Bluff. Stinson was buying just a couple Santa gifts for his 3-year-old son, Sean. Working in retail in Redding, he is used to the crowds, Stinson said. The hardest part with last-minute shopping is not getting exactly what people want. "Some are rushed because they came after gifts that they thought See DROP, page 5A Delfino Aldama was fix- ing a customer's brakes this month when his smartphone chimed with a text message that tipped him to a police checkpoint more than an hour before officers began stopping motorists. The self- employed auto mechanic frantically called friends with the location and drove an alternate route home. The Mexico native had reason to be alarmed: He does not have a driver's license because he is in the United States illegally, and it would cost about $1,400 to get his Nissan Frontier pickup back from the towing company. He has breathed a little easier since he began getting blast text messages two years ago from activists who scour streets to find checkpoints as they are being set up. The cat-and-mouse game ends Jan. 1 when a new law takes effect in California to prohibit police from impounding cars at sobriety check- points if a motorist's only offense is being an unli- censed driver. Thousands of cars are towed each year in the state under those circumstances, hit- ting pocketbooks of ille- gal immigrants especially hard. When Aldama's 1992 Honda Civic was towed from a checkpoint years ago, he quit his job frying chickens at a fast-food restaurant because he had no way to make the 40- mile round trip to work. He abandoned the car rather than pay about $1,200 in fees. ''A car is a necessity, it's not a luxury,'' said the 35-year-old Aldama, who lives in Escondido with his wife, who is a legal resident, and their 5-year- old son, a U.S. citizen. Assemblyman Gil Cedillo, a Los Angeles Democrat who tried unsuccessfully to restore driver licenses to illegal immigrants after Califor- nia revoked the privilege in 1993, said he intro- duced the bill to ban tow- ing after learning the notoriously corrupt city of Bell raked in big fees from unlicensed drivers at checkpoints. A sharp increase in federally funded sobriety checkpoints in California has fueled controversy. The National Highway Traffic Safety Adminis- tration paid for 2,553 checkpoints last year, which authorities say helps explain why deaths caused by drunken drivers dropped to an all-time low See TOWING, page 5A United Way names new CEO REDDING – The Board of Governors of the United Way of Northern California has selected Wendy Zan- otelli as the new presi- dent and CEO and her first day with the orga- nization was Nov. 15. Zanotelli, a Redding native, joins the United Way of Northern Cali- fornia following a 17- year career in banking, which included execu- tive management roles in retail and commercial banking. For the past 11 years she was COO and inter- im CEO of UNCLE Credit Union in Liver- more. She has served as District 2 director for the Board of Directors of the California Credit Union League (CCUL) and has been involved in her local chapter of the CCUL for the past 7 years. In addition, Zanotelli has held volunteer lead- ership roles in various non-profit organizations including the American Cancer Society Relay For Life, where she was the Livermore event chairwoman and volun- teer trainer for the Oak- land region, since 2001. "Wendy is a strategic leader who has an impressive track record in administration and management," said Jef- frey Lelevich, board chairman and Sacra- mento postmaster. "Her leadership skills, exten- sive experience in strategic planning and proven results in devel- oping donor support and community partnerships made her the best choice to lead our agency. We are excited for the future growth of the organization under her leadership." Born and raised in Redding and the sur- rounding areas, Zanotel- li says she is excited to relocate back to her hometown and to have an opportunity to make a positive difference in the lives of others in the nine counties that the United Way of Northern California serves. She and her husband, Tommy, live in Redding by focusing on the basics needed for suc- cess — education, income, and health. "I am looking for- Zanotelli with their two young children. Serving the counties of Siskiyou, Modoc, Trinity, Shasta, Lassen, Tehama, Plumas, Butte and Glenn, the United Way of Northern Cali- fornia has been working to advance the common good in the North State for more than 50 years ward to establishing relationships with all of our counties and meet- ing the community vol- unteers and agencies that make such a differ- ence in each county," Zanotelli said. The United Way is working to expand the Board of Directors in each county. Those interested in becoming board members or in volunteering should call 241-7521 ext 103. For more informa- tion, visit www.norcalu- nitedway.org. Christmas Holiday, Monday, Dec. 26 New Years Holiday, Monday, Jan. 2 Advertising deadline for these editions & the Tuesdays following is 10am the previous Thursday. D NEWSAILY RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY 527-2151 • FAX 527-3719 545 DIAMOND AVE., RED BLUFF The Daily News office will close at noon Friday, Dec. 23 & closed