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TUESDAY MARCH 6, 2012 Breaking news at: Tough Enough to Ride Pink Round-Up Auction www.redbluffdailynews.com See Page 4B RED BLUFF Spartans All Leaguers SPORTS 1B Partly cloudy 53/37 Weather forecast 8B Staff report A memorial fund has been set up for the family of Cotton- wood Fire Protection District Capt. Mark Ratledge who died Wednesday while responding to early morning crashes on south- bound Interstate 5. 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 Memorial fund set for firefighter killed on I-5 Ratledge died of his injuries after being taken to Mercy Medical Center in Redding, along with two others who received minor injuries, after being struck by a pickup that lost control at 6:14 a.m. on I-5 north of Gas Point Road. The memorial fund has been established at North Valley Bank and donations may be made at any branch to the "Mark Ratledge Memorial Fund," which will help the fam- ily with expenses in the coming months. Lone wolf OR-7 skirts Tehama County By ANDREA WAGNER DN Staff Writer There's no lone wolf in Tehama County, but he's gotten close. The Department of Fish and Game announced Friday that OR-7, the wolf who drew attention when he crossed into California in late December, has returned to Oregon. Supervisors heard from state wildlife organiza- tions last Tuesday to learn more about the wolf and the issue howling through the Northstate. After a single, male gray wolf that is being tracked by satellite crossed into California from Oregon Dec. 28, state organizations have been monitoring the situa- tion closely. Then, last Monday, Feb. 27, the Center for Biological Diversity sup- ported by several other groups delivered a peti- tion to the California Fish and Game Commission to urge them to form a state plan for protecting wolves. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service identi- fied the gray wolf, or tim- ber wolf, as a protected species in the lower 48 states in 1973 under the Endangered Species Act. Conservation efforts have helped restore popu- lations of wolves through the years in the Great Lakes and Rockies regions, but the last known gray wolf in Cali- fornia was killed in 1924. The recent introduction of the wolf, also known as OR-7 or Journey, into northern California, has sparked a movement to prepare for more wolves that could potentially move from packs in Ore- gon as the populations grow there. OR-7, a 3-year-old male that left an Oregon pack in search of a mate, crossed into eastern Siskiyou County in December and has circled through Shasta County in the Burney area, into Lassen County and back north. Most recently, he was tracked back to Siskiyou County, said Richard Callas, a senior environ- mental scientist for the fish and game commis- sion. His movements are posted online and have developed a following of fans as they can monitor him at www.dfg.ca.gov/wolf. So far, the wolf has not been a threat to wildlife and has remained alone, Callas said. Supervisors heard from several representatives, including Northern Region Wildlife Program Manager Karen Kovacs of the California Department of Fish and Game, during the board meeting who Donations may be mailed to North Valley Bank, 20635 Gas Point Road, Cottonwood, 96022. In a release from the Cotton- wood Fire Protection District, Chief Calvin Ciapponi said he would would like to express his deepest appreciation for the support he and his department have received following the untimely passing of Ratledge. "There has been a tremen- dous outpouring of support See FUND, page 7A 14 years' prison in RB stabbing By JULIE ZEEB DN Staff Writer One of two people involved in a Dec. 6, 2010, stab- bing of a 31-year-old man outside of Elmore's Pharma- cy on Washington Street was sentenced Monday. Luis Alberto Garcia, 20, was sentenced by Superior Court Judge Jonathan Skillman to 14 years in state prison on the charges of battery with serious bodily injury and special allega- tion of street terrorism/violent felony. Garcia entered a guilty plea on Jan. 30. Garcia's attorney, Diane Mar- tin Logan, said Garcia's age, the fact that he had no adult criminal record and his juvenile record did not put anyone in harms way should be considered in the sentencing. Garcia See PRISON, page 7A Pair sentenced in gang attack By JULIE ZEEB US Fish and Wildlife photo offered oodles of informa- tion on the issue. "There's heightened interest about wolves in the nation," Kovacs said. Four major concerns people have are public safety, impacts on big game populations, the well-being of OR-7, and degradation, she said. Although the fish and game commission has not See WOLF, page 7A DN Staff Writer Da vid Wayne Harris and Jessica Watkins, both 19 at the time of the crime, were sen- tenced Mon- day by Tehama County Superi- or Court Judge Jonathan Skill- man for their involvement in the July 20, 2011, gang- related stab- bing of a Red Bluff man at McDonalds on Sale Lane in Red Bluff. Harris was Harris Skillman said the stipu- lated sentence was given because Har- ris' actions were very vio- lent and unnecessary and that proba- tion is inap- propriate in Harris' case. Harris will be credited 166 days served and 24 good conduct days for a total of 190 days served to be applied to his sentence. Watkins Watkins sentenced to a total of 22 years and eight months in state prison — nine years for the attempted murder charge to which he pled no contest on Feb. 22. Ten years was for the charge of special allega- tion street terrorism, three years for special allega- tion of great bodily injury and eight months for a charge of street terrorism that Harris pled no contest to on Feb. 22. was sentenced to nine years and four months in state prison with a recom- mendation made for a 90- day California Depart- ment of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) diagnostic study with a return date to the court. The CDCR report will then be forwarded to pro- bation. Watkins, who was arrested the day after the stabbing, was convicted See PAIR, page 7A Stolen check cashing attempt leads to swiped car recovery A 41-year-old Oregon man was arrested Satur- day morning after trying to cash a check stolen from a Bay Area resident and leaving in the same victim's car. Employees of Wells Fargo bank reported a man trying to cash a stolen check, at about 10 a.m. Saturday, that had been taken from a bank customer in the Bay Area, said a Red Bluff Police press release. Before officers arrived, the man, later identified as Kevin Ben- nett, 41, of Portland, Ore., reportedly left in a grayish blue Honda Accord that had been stolen from the same per- son the check was stolen from, the release said. Local law enforce- ment was issued a be-on- the-lookout announce- ment to find the suspect, who had used a credit 7 5 8 5 5 1 6 9 0 0 1 9 card at Rolling Hills Casino and was suspect- ed to be on his way back to Oregon, sheriff's logs said. A sheriff's deputy spotted the vehicle at the M Star Motel and fol- lowed it on Main Street as it passed River Park, logs said. Red Bluff police offi- cers caught up with Ben- nett in the Taco Bell parking lot on Main Street after a Tehama County sheriff's deputy followed him there and detained him at gunpoint at the drive through, logs said. Officers took Bennett and the vehicle into cus- tody without incident, the release said. Bennett was charged Learn Basic COMPLETE AUTO REPAIR Smog Inspection $ 2595 + cert. 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