Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/6457
RENO, Nev. (AP) — Wild-horse advocates criti- cized federal land man- agers after the number of mustang deaths so far in a government roundup on the range north of Reno nearly tripled from a week ago, going from nine to 26. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Fri- day reported four more deaths stemming from its roundup in the Calico Mountain Complex. Agency spokeswoman JoLynn Worley said three horses have died at the roundup site and 23 have died at a Fallon holding facility where the horses have been taken since the two-month roundup began Dec. 28. Another 25 horses are recovering at the facility 60 miles east of Reno after being treated for various injuries and health issues, she said. Activists said the BLM's roundup methods are ''brutal'' and violate the intent of a 1971 law Con- gress enacted to protect the horses. ''America's wild horses are protected by federal law as important parts of our national heritage, but they are being brutalized and destroyed by the BLM's policy of massive roundups,'' said William Spriggs, an attorney who represents California-based In Defense of Animals in a lawsuit against the Interior Department over the roundup. Worley said the agency has 40 years of experience of conducting roundups and has learned the safest way to conduct them and minimize risk to horses. ''I don't think it (26 fatalities) is high given the number of animals gath- ered and given the condi- tion of some of the animals coming in,'' she said. ''We're seeing quite a few mares in emaciated condition. We're either euthanizing them or they're showing up dead,'' she said. According to a 2008 Government Accountabili- ty Office report, the BLM has not regularly reported to the public how many horses are killed in the course of roundups. BLM officials have said 0.5 percent of horses die in roundups, but Worley on Friday said that figure only counts deaths at actual gather sites and not holding facilities. Of the 1,447 horses gathered so far, about 0.2 percent have died at the roundup site and 1.8 per- cent have died in all. Saturday, January 30, 2010 – Daily News – 9A PAID POLITICAL ADVERTISEMENT A Walmart advertising circular for Sunday, January 31 - Saturday, February 6, 2010 mistakenly identified the price of 90-day generic prescriptions as $9 and omitted reference to Prescription Program restrictions. The correct price is $10 and Prescription Program restrictions can be found at walmart.com/pharmacy and your local Walmart pharmacy. On a scale of 0 to 100, Tehama County roads rate 67, Public Works Director Gary Antone told the board, just below the state aver- age of 68. Altogether, the coun- ty needs about $24 mil- lion more annually than it now allocates toward roads. If funding is main- tained at existing levels, the state average will drop to 58, bringing road maintenance costs up from roughly $15 a square yard to upwards of $40, and this would continue exponentially. Further compounding the problem is the state's tendency to borrow local transportation funds. The state has deferred funding from Prop. 42 for the first two quarters of 2009-10 and seven months of gas tax funds during the same period, both of which pay for city and county road maintenance. California's deficit problems are expected to continue for at least the next 18 months as the state struggles to close a $20 billion gap. On average, Prop. 42 and gas tax funding make up for more road funding than any other category, including stim- ulus dollars, which are expected to drop signifi- cantly in 2010. Deputy Transporta- tion Director Barbara O'Keeffe estimated in 2009 the funds needed to maintain roads statewide, about $70 bil- lion, could be gained with a 38-cent increase to the gas tax, which has been unchanged since 1993. The 18-cent tax has not been adjusted for inflation, but touching it is considered politically inviable, she said. A complete copy of the report, funded by the League of California Cities and the California State Association of Counties, is available at savecaliforniastreets.co m. ——— Geoff Johnson can be reached at 527-2153, extension 114 or gjohnson@redbluffdaily news.com. Continued from page 1A ROAD died from the disease. "I really didn't care about racing after that. I just wanted to put every- thing in life into perspective," Jones said days before the one-year anniver- sary of his life-changing diagnosis. With his career trying to beat others to the finish line put on hold, Jones turned his attention to fighting off the intruder in his body, which doctors learned had spread all the way up into his neck. "I just took it as it could be a lot worse. I could be on my death bed and not be able to do anything about it," he said. Jones spent the first half of 2009 having several surgeries and chemotherapy and learning words such as teratoma, seminomas and nonsem- nomas. He turned 19 in June, inside a hos- pital, with balloons tied to his bed. Jones said he couldn't have gotten through those times without the help of his family, friends, Solace Cancer Care in Redding and the community, many of whom gathered April 19 to show their support. On that Sunday afternoon, more than 60 men from 2 years old to 71, shaved their heads out of a sign of sup- port for Jones, who had lost his own hair during treatment. A silent and live auction, raffle and barbecue was attended by more than 500 people and helped raise more than $22,000 to help with medical bills. Troy and Theresa Jones, Garrett's parents, said the community's support has helped her family get through the ordeal. Although Theresa said she could tell many people thought they might be intruding and seemed uncomfortable when asking how Garrett was doing, every little gesture helped. Theresa remembers the family coming home from chemotherapy and listening to phone messages that helped inspire the Joneses to keep going. "I want (the community) to under- stand how much they helped our fami- ly," she said. The Joneses also drew inspiration from Garrett himself. Garrett's sister, Ashley Jones, describes her brother as kind of quiet and someone who mostly keeps to himself. Over the past year, Ashley said her brother, who was already mature for his age before battling cancer, has grown in even more ways. "He became even more tender through all of it," she said. "He could just appreciate more than he already did." Recently, Ashley recounts a story of the usually shy Garrett approaching a woman in a movie theater, who's head was bald from her own chemotherapy, and striking up a conversation to share his experiences. Family members said Garrett never complained unless he was directly asked how he was feeling and that has helped them to cope. "We watch Garrett and Garrett is so positive — clearly that's working for him," Theresa said. While motocross had taken a back- seat for months, once recovered from the chemotherapy and surgeries, Jones was eager to get his life back on track. For a six-month stretch, Jones did mange to ride his dirt bike about three times, but still a far cry from the three times a week he had usually rode. He had to deal not only with a bit of rust, but as he would soon learn come to grips with what the past few months had done to his body to get back to an intense sport that demands physical fit- ness. "What I saw affect him the most was how far he had to go to get back to where he was a year ago," Ashley said. In November, Garrett, whom Troy describes as a warrior, showed that spirit when he competed in his first motocross race in more than a year. Next week, he'll leave to begin training before spending the next few months traveling across the country competing. "We're in a good place, we're not worrying everyday now whether it's going to come back," Theresa said. But like his future in motocross, the cancer isn't behind Jones. Jones said he goes in every three months for a screening and there is a possibility the cancer could return. For now, with a few added scars, Jones is back on his bike, along with his dirty blonde locks tucked into his helmet and a smile reinforced by the knowledge he's not alone if life throws him off again. To view Ashley Jones' blog about Garrett's bout with cancer and motocross career, visit leaveitinthe- dust.blogspot.com. For more information about testicu- lar cancer, visit cancer.gov/cancer- topics/types/testicular. Continued from page 1A BACK Elsewhere on the agen- da • The council voted 5-0 to approve an application for a USDA loan to be used for a new water well at Clark Park and associated water system improvements. City Engineer Ed Ander- son has estimated the cost at $633,000 and the staff rec- ommended borrowing $587,000. The rest, $46,000, will come from the City's Water System Development Impact Fee account. • The council discussed a concrete barrier brought up initially at the Jan. 12 meet- ing along with the parallel sidewalk at the commercial center at 2005 Solano St. Council members approved the installation of a median to limit left turns within the Toomes Avenue and Solano Street intersec- tion by a 3-1 vote. Councilman Ross Turner excused himself from the matter due to a conflict of interest and Councilwoman Becky Hill was the lone no vote. Hill expressed concerns about putting in a permanent fixture like a concrete barri- er due to future changes in the works on Solano Street. She said putting in rubber posts instead might be a bet- ter option. The City Council meets the second and fourth Tues- days of each month at City Hall, 794 Third St. Meeting minutes and agendas are available at www.corning.org. Continued from page 1A PLANS pated in Mercy's Madri- gals. Having applied to several state colleges, Vietti plans to attend Sonoma State Universi- ty or Simpson College and study mathematics. When Mercy can- celed its football season at the beginning of the school year, homecom- ing events were resched- uled for basketball sea- son. Continued from page 1A MERCY Westlands Water District in the Cen- tral Valley, Farmers in the district fallowed more than a third of their 600,000 acres last year. ''We still have a broken delta, and we can't bring water through the sys- tem to deliver water,'' Woolf said. Sierra snowmelt is channeled through the delta, where the northern state's major rivers drain before flow- ing to the Pacific Ocean. The water is diverted by massive state and federal pumps to large aqueducts that send drinking water to some 25 million peo- ple in cities across Southern California and the San Francisco Bay Area, and irrigation water to farmers in the Cen- tral Valley. Sue Sims, chief deputy director at the state Department of Water Resources, said the latest snow survey offers water users some cautious opti- mism, but a fourth year of drought is possible. California's key reservoirs, which store the spring snowmelt before it's delivered, also are low after three dry years. Lake Oroville is about half as full as it should be for this time of year. Folsom Lake is at 61 percent, and Shasta is at 82 percent. The low storage levels, drought conditions and environmental restric- tions, have prompted the state to promise only 5 percent of the water that contractors requested this year. However, deliveries could increase if the snowpack stays above normal for the next two months. The federal gov- ernment has not yet told farmers how much water to expect from them. Farmers and water agencies say fed- eral environmental regulations imposed last year to protect the tiny delta smelt and juvenile salmon will continue to jeopardize their water sup- plies even if the Sierra is blanketed with snow and the state's major rivers bulge with more rain. For example, pumping restrictions already have been triggered at both the state and federal pumping plants to protect the winter run of Chinook salmon, which are currently migrating down the Sacramento River out to the ocean. The Central Valley Project on Mon- day pumped roughly a third less water, while the State Water Project pumped only a third of the water it could have. Additional pumping restrictions to protect the delta smelt also are expect- ed later this year. ''Now is the time that we should be rebuilding those supplies, to be ready for the next dry year,'' Laura King Moon, assistant general manager of the State Water Contractors, said in a state- ment. ''Instead, we can't pump at max- imum capacity when the water is avail- able.'' Continued from page 1A WATER Lawsuit to halt 15 Northern Calif logging projects REDDING (AP) — An environmental group is suing the state in an effort to stop plans by Sierra Pacific Indus- tries to cut down 5,000 acres of trees in Northern Califor- nia. The Center for Biological Diversity is accusing the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection of approving 15 logging projects without properly analyzing the impact of their carbon emissions. The group filed lawsuits Wednesday in seven counties: Amador, Calaveras, El Dorado, Modoc, Shasta, Tehama and Trinity. Department spokesman Daniel Berlant maintains that officials met all of the state's environmental requirements in approving the projects. A Sierra Pacific spokesman noted that the group filed a similar lawsuit over a 1,600-acre project in August. He said after some additional information to the plan, the project was approved last month. Mustang deaths up to 26 in Nev wild horse roundup