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ByGillianFlaccus The Associated Press LAGUNA NIGUEL At first glance, nothing seems amiss at this lush, mem- bers-only golf club in one of the priciest communities in Orange County. A bubbling fountain gur- gles out of an artificial lake. Emerald-green fairways stretch into the distance. Golf carts zoom across the grass like white ants. But behind the man- made stream and arcing sprinklers, California's epic drought is reshaping the course at El Niguel Coun- try Club and dozens of oth- ers statewide. Pressed by the four-year dry spell and state-man- dated water cuts, some of the finest courses in Cali- fornia are taking such steps as tearing out the grass in places where it won't affect the game, planting drought- resistant vegetation, letting the turf turn brown in spots and installing smart water- ing systems. "The new buzzword in the industry is 'Brown is the new green.' We can't provide the same kind of product as we'd like to any- more," said Mike Williams of Hidden Valley Golf Club in Norco. "Everybody can't play on a lush green surface like the Masters." It's a move the golf indus- try says is necessary for its long-term survival as the drought drags on. Last week, state regu- lators ordered a 25 per- cent overall cut in the use of drinkable water in Cal- ifornia, leaving it up to lo- cal water agencies to de- cide how to achieve it. Golf courses are starting to find out what that will mean for them — cuts in their water allocations, tough sprinkler restrictions and perhaps higher water rates. In California, an average 18-hole golf course sprawls over 110 to 115 acres and conservatively uses almost 90 million gallons of wa- ter per year, enough to fill 136 Olympic-size swimming pools, said Mike Huck, a water management consul- tant who works with golf courses statewide. Some golf courses al- ready are spending up to $500,000 a year on wa- ter to maintain that oasis look. Country clubs also re- alize that the sight of great expanses of perfect grass won't sit well with the pub- lic when people are being asked to take four-minute showers, flush less and let their own lawns wither. As a result, many of Cali- fornia's more than 860 golf courses have jumped at turf reduction rebate programs run by water agencies. The programs offer $2 to $3 for every square foot of turf re- moved. A golf course can eas- ily tear out up to 25 acres of grass next to the fair- ways and around the club- house without affecting the game, said David Fleming, a golf course architect whose business is booming. El Niguel Country Club applied for rebates last year to rip up 22 acres, and the final phase is now under- way. The project will save 12 million gallons a year, just in time for cuts to the course's water allocation that begin in June, said Brian Archbold, golf course supervisor. On a recent spring day, golfers playing in a char- ity tournament at El Ni- guel putted their way around dozens of orange- shirted landscapers who were gouging out dead grass and planting buckets of drought-tolerant species such as firecracker plants, acacias, primavera and golden grass. Golfer Keith Stribling has seen similar redesigns at several courses around Southern California and doesn't mind it. "The way most courses are doing it, you can see they're not putting it right in the middle of the golf course," he said. "They're just removing turf where you shouldn't be hitting it over there anyway." DROUGHT Golfcoursesteeupwater-savingmeasures GREGORYBULL—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS Golfers watch as a worker installs moisture monitoring and irrigation systems at the El Niguel Country Club in Laguna Niguel. California's epic drought is reshaping the course at El Niguel Country Club and dozens of others statewide. By Sue Manning The Associated Press LOS ANGELES When her muscles locked and left her unable to move or speak, Wallis Brozman was glad she had a genius for a ser- vice dog. Brozman, who has a movement disorder called dystonia, had taken her golden-Labrador retriever mix, Caspin, outside for a potty break without attach- ing the pulling harness he wears to guide her. Sud- denly, she couldn't move. "I couldn't talk or yell. I had no phone to text a mes- sage. I thought I would be stranded until someone found us," said Brozman, who lives on her own in Santa Rosa, with a wheel- chair and Caspin, who un- derstands English and sign language. Caspin put his neck un- der her hand until she got a finger looped on his collar. "Then, very slowly, he started to pull me forward. He pushed the door open. Then he stayed by me un- til I could function enough to get into bed," she said. Caspin ranks as a Pro- todog, a spontaneous pooch that bonds easily and can solve problems on its own or with people, ac- cording to dog intelligence measures created by scien- tists and trainers. The Dog- nition Assessment uses 20 games to determine a dog's level of empathy, commu- nication, cunning, memory and reasoning. People believing they have a smarty pants for a pet can see if their dog fits the bill on Nat Geo Wild's three-part series "Is Your Dog a Genius?" airing May 15-17. "People will learn about and come to a new un- derstanding of their best friends," said host Brian Hare, who helped develop the assessment as an as- sociate professor of evolu- tionary anthropology and member of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at Duke University in North Carolina. It costs $19 to get the list of games to play with your dog at www.dognition.com. After you record the results, Duke puts together your pet's profile. A dog will be dubbed an Ace, Charmer, Socialite, Expert, Renais- sance Dog, Protodog, Ein- stein,Maverickor Stargazer. For example, "Aces" are problem-solvers, socially elite, bond well and are good at almost everything. They also try to get away with bad behavior and then rely on a sweet face or some nuzzling to get them- selves out of a pickle. "Einsteins" are the brai- niacs. They can solve new problems by looking at the facts in front of them, a key attribute of a genius. How- ever, like brilliant people, Einstein dogs can be so- cially awkward. The games show dog brainpower isn't measured like man's — with an IQ test. "We don't deal in num- bers," Hare said. "In the an- imal world, we recognize there are lots of kinds of intelligence, and they vary widely. You can be a genius in one area but not in an- other." In one of the games, you put down two overturned paper cups, allowing the dog to watch as you put a treat under one. You point to the empty cup and see where your pet goes. Both show a kind of genius: If Fido goes to the empty cup, he's good at fol- lowing orders and bonding. If he goes the other, he's able to rely on his own de- vices — and gets the treat. INTELLIGENCE Don't let the slobber fool you, your dog could be a brainiac ERIC RISBERG — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS FILE Wallis Brozman sits with her service dog, Caspin, outside a shopping mall in Santa Rosa. The Associated Press LOS ANGELES Four peo- ple, including three teenag- ers, died when the driver of the car they were in veered off a road in Northern Cali- fornia, hit a drainage ditch and flipped over, authori- ties said. The driver, 23-year-old Anthony Imbronone III, was arrested at the scene of Tuesday night's crash in Gilroy, but then released to the hospital, said Califor- nia Highway Patrol Officer Herb Kellogg. He was ar- rested on suspicion of driv- ing under the influence. He suffered major inju- ries but was expected to survive. The crash occurred around 10:30 p.m. at an area where the road turns to the right. Gilroy is about 30 miles south of San Jose. The car hit a concrete drainage ditch before flip- ping over and going down an embankment. Rescuers had to cut the car's roof off, Kellogg said. The four passengers, three 18-year-old women and a 24-year-old man, were pro- nounced dead at the scene. Kellogg said investi- gators were looking into where they were coming from and how they knew one another. The teens were identi- fied as Sara Jean Williams, Yesenia Mendoza Pina and Yolanda Jimenez, according to Gilroy school district offi- cials. Williams was a senior at Christopher High School. The other two were students at Mount Madonna High School. The 24-year-old man was not immediately identified, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. MURDER CHARGE Man killed daughter by throwing her from cliff AL SEIB — LOS ANGELES TIMES Defendant Cameron Brown, le , and Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies watch as jurors, not shown, view the Abalone Cove and Portuguese Bend areas in Rancho Palos Verdes during his third trial on murder charges in the death of his 4-year-old daughter, Lauren Sarene Key, in November. LOS ANGELES Federal regulators Wednesday directed nuclear power plants in California and Washington state to con- duct additional, in-depth research into earth- quake risks by June 2017, part of a broad review of seismic threats following Japan's Fukushima Dai- ichi disaster. Among commercial U.S. nuclear plants, the Diablo Canyon reactors near San Luis Obispo and the Columbia gener- ating station in Richland, Washington, face "the highest ... hazard" when potential strong shaking is evaluated against the plants' designs, the Nu- clear Regulatory Com- mission found. Bill Dean of the NRC's Office of Nuclear Reac- tor Regulation said in a statement that evidence so far leaves the agency confident that the plants are safe to continue op- erating while operators do more analysis. "Plants must also do shorter-term work to see if they should enhance key safety equipment while the more substan- tial analysis is being done," Dean added. Diablo Canyon, which sits within a web of earth- quake faults on the Cal- ifornia coast, one 650 yards away from the reac- tors, has faced questions for decades about its abil- ity to withstand a strong earthquake. Last year, a former chief NRC inspec- tor at the plant urged reg- ulators to shut down the reactors until they can determine whether they can withstand shaking from nearby faults, a rec- ommendation rejected by the NRC. Last year, two Seat- tle-based groups, Heart of America Northwest and Washington Physi- cians for Social Respon- sibility, called for shut- ting down the Columbia plant, citing a report by a nuclear power critic on risk posed by a stockpile of spent nuclear fuel and a potential earthquake. 'HIGHEST HAZARD' NRCwantsmore research on quake risk at nuke plants TheDailyNewswill feature a special section of photos and write-ups on over 90 "StudentsofDistinction" from middle and high schools across the county. This project has been created in cooperation with the Tehama County Department of Education. Selections of students featured will be made by schools and Teachers. The supplement will be published as a special section of the newspaper and as a digital page-turn online edition on www.redbluffdailynews.com through May of 2016! To sponsor a student's photo and accomplishments is just $59 for 1 sponsorship and $55 each for multiples. Local businesses, professionals, educators, local citizens: All are welcome to support Tehama County's most accomplished students, and demonstrate support of local education in the process. Sponsor Deadline: Friday, May 22 Sponsors will be identified in a 3" tall by 1 column wide space at the bottom of each student salute. This special will appear in the full run of the Daily News on Thursday, May 28, 2015 Daily News advertising representatatives can help you decide what to say. Limited opportunity to support students from individual schools. For further information, contact your Daily News advertising representative or Nadine Souza at Honoring Outstanding Tehama County Students (530) 527-2151 advertise@ redbluffdailynews.com | NEWS | REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM THURSDAY, MAY 14, 2015 4 B ★