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WEDNESDAY MARCH 7, 2012 Breaking news at: Back to Basics Breakfast American Profile www.redbluffdailynews.com See Inside RED BLUFF Home Opener SPORTS 1B Sunny 64/39 Weather forecast 6B By ANDREA WAGNER DN Staff Writer Decreases in property taxes and increases in county employee contributions to retirement funds were cited as 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 County budget stable despite revenue drop future concerns as Tehama County unveiled its mid-year budget Tuesday. Overall, the general fund appears more closely balanced now than during any fiscal year since the recession began in late 2007 despite ongoing struggles, said Chief Administrator Bill Goodwin, who presented the report to the Board of Supervi- sors. "Though the recession has been declared over as of June 2009, in Tehama County, Gen- eral Fund revenue has been slow to rebound," Goodwin's report states. Because county officials took a conservative approach and kept spending low through employee furloughs, budget reductions, a mandatory 90-day hiring freeze and negotiating employee concessions on salaries and benefits, the county See BUDGET, page 5A Board to vote on public safety plan By ANDREA WAGNER DN Staff Writer After months of tweaking, the Community Correc- tions Partnership is nearly ready to release its realign- ment plan to the Tehama County Board of Supervisors. The executive board plans to vote on the final draft at a special meeting at 4 p.m. today at the county administration building. Virtually identical to the draft plan released in December, except for the addition of a 10-page intro- duction and summary, the plan outlines the goals of the partnership and what has been discussed so far. The Community Corrections Partnership, a think- tank of county administrators, law enforcement offi- cials and community service providers, which has met 10 times since August, was established through Assem- See BOARD, page 5A Romney edges out Branding Project unveils results Daily News photo by Julie Zeeb Roger Brooks of Destination Development International talks about the brand of Red Bluff, Manton and Corning and the umbrella theme of Tehama Country — Reach Your Peak! during a presentation Tuesday at the Red Bluff Community and Senior Center. By JULIE ZEEB DN Staff Writer A crowd of about 100 filled the Red Bluff Community and Senior Center Tuesday to hear the latest on branding from Roger Brooks of Destination Development Interna- tional. "It's nice to be with a group that cares about community," said Kathy Schmitz, CEO of the Job Training Center. Together the community has raised about $100,000, with $20,000 coming from the city of Red Bluff, for the branding efforts, which began in 2009, she said. "It's local groups behind the branding and marketing of our county," Schmitz said. "It's a grass- roots effort." Brooks spoke of about 700 dif- ferent ideas — 500 coming in an e- mail survey — for branding and the process his company used to narrow it down to one umbrella brand for the county and three individual brands for Red Bluff, Manton and Corning. "This is about what we need to do to import cash into Tehama County," Brooks said. "There's a lot of leakage — money spent in Chico, Redding and place like Williams." Part of what a city needs to do, like a business, is have a balance of trade in which it imports more money than it exports and keep things local by helping existing businesses get better, creating new businesses and increasing tourism, he said. One way to create tourism is to play up things like the well-known Highway 36W that makes a great motorcycle ride to the coast, he said. That could be a great business opportunity as several people he has talked to have said, while they might not ride here to ride the high- way, they would consider flying here if they could rent a motorcycle, Brooks said. Brooks and his company looked at what each community offers that is not available closer to home and whether it was something the com- munity could buy into. Research was done on the cost, when a return on an investment could be expected and how wide an audience various activities would attract. For Red Bluff, the brand chosen was Base Camp to Lassen Volcanic National Park because it was the most feasible item on the list and plays up the strongest asset in the See BRAND, page 5A Super Tuesday victory WASHINGTON (AP) — Mitt Romney squeezed out a win in pivotal Ohio, captured four other states with ease and padded his delegate lead in the race for the Republican presidential nomination but was forced to share the Super Tuesday spotlight with a resurgent Rick Santorum. On the busiest night of the campaign, Romney scored a home-state win in Massachusetts to go with primary victories in Ver- mont and in Virginia — where neither Santorum nor Newt Gingrich was on the ballot. He added the Idaho caucuses to his column. Ohio was the big win, though, and the closest con- test of all. Santorum countered crisply, winning primaries in Oklahoma and Tennessee and the North Dakota cau- cuses — raising fresh doubts about Romney's ability to corral the votes of conserva- tives in some of the most Republican states in the country. Ohio was the marquee matchup, a second industri- al-state showdown in as many weeks between Rom- ney and Santorum. It drew the most campaigning and television advertisements of all 10 Super Tuesday con- tests and for good reason— no Republican has ever won the White House without carrying the state in the fall. After trailing for much of the night, Romney forged ahead in a count that stretched past midnight. Gingrich had a victory in his column — his first win in more than six weeks. The former House speaker tri- umphed at home in Georgia, but a barrage of attack ads by a super PAC supporting Romney helped hold him below 50 percent and forced him to share the delegates. Texas Rep. Ron Paul pinned his hopes on Idaho and Alaska as he scratched for his first victory of the campaign season. Santorum waited until Oklahoma and Tennessee fell into his column before speaking to cheering sup- porters in Ohio. "This was a big night tonight," he said. "We have won in the West, the Midwest and the South, and we're ready to win across this country." In all, there were pri- maries in Virginia, Vermont, Ohio, Massachusetts, Geor- gia, Tennessee and Okla- homa. Caucuses in North Dakota, Idaho and Alaska rounded out the calendar. Wandering wolf Rouse enters race for Assembly crosses into Calif. Staff report GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) — The wandering wolf known as OR-7 has crossed back into Cali- fornia after less than a week in Oregon. The young male left northeastern Oregon last September and trekked more than 1,000 miles before arriving in North- ern California two months ago. He returned to Oregon's southern Cascades last week. The California Department of Fish and Game reports OR-7's GPS tracking collar showed he was back in their jurisdiction Mon- day morning. Department spokesman Mark Sto- pher says there's no telling where the wolf will go next, and he could be 50 miles from his last known position the next time his collar checks in with the satel- lite. He is the first known wolf in California in 87 years. Wolf experts believe OR-7 is looking for a mate. 7 5 8 5 5 1 6 9 0 0 1 9 Red Bluff Outdoor Power Charles Rouse has filed to run as a Democrat in Assembly Dis- trict 3 election. Rouse and his wife Angeli- ca have farmed a small olive orchard in Corn- ing for 36 years. They have three Rouse children and three grand- children. A retired postal worker, employed for many years as the Rural Carrier out of Ger- ber in the El Camino Dis- trict, Rouse graduated from Occidental College in Los Angeles. His wife is retired from 22 years of being a Court Clerk in the Superior Court in Red Bluff. Rouse has been active in the Episcopal Church at Saint Andrew's in Corning for just about the whole time he has lived in Corning and is a member of the Tehama County Democrats. Rouse is vice president and director of the Corning Healthcare District and a member of the Board of Directors for five years. As a result of the 2010 Census, California's legisla- tive Districts have been redrawn, Rouse states in a press release. Assembly District 3 includes the coun- ties of Yuba, Sutter, about half of Colusa, most of Butte, Glenn and Tehama. "I'm familiar with this area and the concerns of agriculture, flood control, water supply, and economic issues," the release says. "I'm a native Californian and I'm willing and eager to serve Assembly District 3 as a Californian, as an American citizen, and as a long time farmer and small business owner." Rouse describes himself as a middle of the road, pragmatic Democrat how is tired of American politics as a jousting match between hard left and hard right. "Especially in the Cali- fornia legislature, what is needed are practical solu- tions to problems that most of us would agree are prob- lems," he said in the release. "For this reason my cam- paign slogan is 'Practical solutions for real world problems.'" Priorities, if elected, will include an examination of issues of public safety, espe- cially funding for police, sheriff's and fire depart- ments. "The education of our children is a big priority with me and always will be," Rouse said. "We See ROUSE, page 5A Intermediate Thursday, March 15TH 8:30 am to 12:30 pm $65.00 per person Job Training Center 718 Main St., Red Bluff Call 529-7000 Branded