Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/679857
I attended the candidates' night sponsored by the Farm Bureau and the Realtor's As- sociation on Wednesday, the 4th. It was entertaining. Thethreecandidatesfor Congress who showed up are clearly not electable. The local nurse running for Congress, Oxley, told us we needed to be afraid of the Or- ganization of American States and the United Nations. He re- ferred to international treaties over and over again. You could tell he wasn't a polished pub- lic speaker, and he didn't want to tell us any more than that we had to be aware. The other local candidate, Jim Reed, has had more ex- perience speaking in the pub- lic. He decried our infra- structure, particularly the absence of high speed Inter- net in Tehama County, and suggested modifying mili- tary spending to generate the money needed to upgrade our infrastructure. At least he didn't tell us to be afraid of things. The third candidate, Greg- ory Cheadle, a very well ed- ucated person who was well dressed, proclaimed himself an 1856 Republican. Mostly he told us what he was against, including mandatory vaccines, the "overstretch of the CDC and federal govern- ment in general," and the de- ception practiced by the gov- ernment and politicians. He seemed earnestly concerned about people and mentioned his work with the homeless. The "one of us" who wasn't there was rice farmer Doug LaMalfa who had previously told local candidate Oxley the foreign treaty was a mi- nor thing, and that he hadn't bothered to read it. Maybe he missed the meeting because he was home catching up on his reading. Also not there was Joe Montes, the candidate most likely to give LaMalfa a run for his money. The two assembly candi- dates included Ed Ritchie who wanted to tell us about his success as a union offi- cer, organizing skills, and "getting things done" so both parties are happy. The other candidate was incumbent James Gallagher who was very casually dressed and wearing an un-ironed shirt and wrinkled jeans; he had to slouch to speak in the mi- crophone and told us about the injustices caused to the North State by Reynolds v Sims, the Supreme Court case that reduced the representa- tion of small counties in the state senate. He also high- lighted issues we face and his support for the North State. Local candidates were more interesting. There were five candidates for Supervisor: Steve Chamb- lin the incumbent and his op- ponent Richard Lawrence; in- cumbent Candy Carlson and her opponent, Sandy Bruce, whom she had previously de- feated for the District 2 posi- tion, and Burt Bundy who is running unopposed. As might be expected Bundy was fairly relaxed. Lawrence, who is a little dour in appearance, was well prepared and very serious; he clearly understood the issues Tehama County faces, and will be a worthy opponent for Chamblin. As for Cham- blin, it was clear this was a kick off for the campaign sea- son; he ran out of time read- ing his prepared opening re- marks. He did better later on. Bruce read a handout to us verbatim, perhaps not expect- ing us to be able to read it by ourselves. Her presentation was stiff, and she had difficulty looking at the audience and try- ing to look warm and friendly. I was surprised she would want to seek election again. Carlson smiled as she re- counted her experience on the Board of Supervisors, counted her achievements, and actually seemed to look forward to another term of service. She emphasized the preparation required before meetings, her monthly open houses, and her desire to lis- ten to us. If anything, LaMal- fa's "one of us" theme really fits her better. During the questioning pe- riod it became obvious the Supervisors were not proud of the recent RV statute they adopted and said they would review it to correct it. Carl- son pointed out in a po- lite way to the other incum- bents, Chamblin and Bundy, and also to the audience that she was the only Supervisor to oppose the statute as ad- opted for the reasons they are now aware of. I was unimpressed by the three Congressional candi- dates who showed up. The in- cumbent Assemblyman ap- peared more prepared to serve than his challenger. Bundy will be a cinch to be reelected since he is unopposed. Lawrence will certainly be well prepared to compete with Chamblin if he can de- velop some warmth in his presentations. Bruce did not demonstrate why she should replace the person who had replaced her, nor did she display any warmth or vibrancy. Carlson was eager to continue serv- ing, was able to demonstrate ample knowledge of her role and the county, and was able to smile without seem- ing overly confident. I will be voting for her again. JoeHarropisaretired educator with more than 30 years of service to the North State. He can be reached at DrJoeHarrop@sbcglobal.net. JoeHarrop Candidates galore in this election season Cartoonist's take Oh dear. Not pretty. The up- coming presidential campaign is ugly now and destined to ratchet up to epic uglier as soon as Bernie Sanders decides to bow out. Which is im- minent. Not soon enough for Hill- ary Clinton, but not long. The Vermont Senator has turned into that drunken cousin who hasn't no- ticed he's been the last guest for over an hour, cracking open an- other beer while threatening to put his cigarette out in the kids' wading pool. Starting to chan- nel Hotel California. "You can check in any time you like, but you can never leave." How ugly will the race get? Think randomly-shaved, rat-ter- rier with a fourth premolar in- fection, mange and a lazy eye... ugly. Naked Sumo mud-wres- tling ugly. If this campaign were a baby, you'd have to tie pork chops to its ears to get the dog to play with it. Even the rat-ter- rier of which earlier we spoke. The hard part is the timing on both sides. Has the public had its fill of Hillary bashing? She's been taking the hits and shaking them off since first be- coming a mote in the national public eye back in 1991. You remember what Republi- cans said about Hillary? "She's a liar, a thief, a lesbian. She cheated widows and orphans and murdered Vince Foster. With her bare hands. And then ate him." And that's when she was First Lady. Now, as opposition nominee, the kid gloves are coming off. "Alien Space Queen Vampire: here to suck dry our precious bodily fluids. Originally the Clin- tons had 3 children but sold two to a Bangkok brothel. To which Bill makes twice yearly visits." On the other side, if you don't think the Clinton Machine has had at least a dozen investiga- tors devoted to opposition re- search for months, you are probably extremely confused by the dampness on days when it rains. They undoubtedly have dug so deep, they know which way Trump's small intestine turns, 30 feet in. In his patented gracious style, Trump christened his up- coming opponent, "Crooked Hillary," and that's the tame end of the ugly stick. He calls it counter punching, but flick him with a fly swatter and he'll drop your with an elephant gun. Ask any elephant. The Aerodynamic Coif re- sponded to accusations of his own randy behavior by calling Hillary an enabler of Bill's infi- delities. But he needs to tread carefully or risk sharing a cry- ing towel with her 2000 US Senate opponent, Rick Lazio. Who? Exactly. There's two ways of look- ing at it. Either Hillary has more baggage than the first United flight out of O'Hare af- ter a freak spring blizzard, or there's no meat left on her scan- dal bone. Like a single sardine tossed over a stone-wall into a cat sanctuary. And conversely, it should be fairly easy to uncover evidence of the Donald's extra-marital shenanigans and voluminous shady deals and suspicious deaths of folks who opposed him. Oh, come on. We've all seen Law & Order: there's a New York developer knock- ing off enemies and deposit- ing them in the foundations of soon-to-be-erected condomini- ums every other episode. The only difference is, with Trump's supporters, that's not necessarily a negative. Be afraid. Be very afraid. Will Durst is an award- winning, nationally acclaimed columnist and comedian. Go to willdurst.com for info about his new one-man show "BoomeRaging: From LSD to OMG," and the documentary "3 Still Standing." Will Durst The ugly, ugly presidential campaign GregStevens,Publisher Chip Thompson, Editor EDITORIAL BOARD How to have your say: Letters must be signed and provide the writer's home street address and home phone number. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and no more than two double-spaced pages or 500words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section will be published. Email: editor@ redbluffdailynews.com Fax: 530-527-9251 Mail to: P.O. Box 220, 545 Diamond Ave., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS During the questioning period it became obvious the Supervisors were not proud of the recent RV statute they adopted and said they would review it to correct it. Carlson pointed out in a polite way to the other incumbents, Chamblin and Bundy, and also to the audience that she was the only Supervisor to oppose the statute as adopted for the reasons they are now aware of. Within the next few weeks, about four million high school seniors will graduate, and many will immediately hit the pavement searching for sum- mer jobs. Overall, the labor market is deeply depressed, but for teens the outlook is particularly grim. Unemploy- ment in the teen sub-group, defined as ages 16-24, has been averaging about 25 per- cent since the December 2007 recession, and is the high- est since 1948. Hispanics and African Americans have suf- fered even higher unemploy- ment with black teens hover- ing near 40 percent. Remember too that the Bu- reau of Labor Statistics doesn't consider potential workers who have stopped looking as part of the labor force, and therefore they aren't officially counted as unemployed. This means offi- cial unemployment rates under- state labor market weakness. Clearly, with teen unemployment at astronomically high levels, the last thing they need is a huge in- flux of more labor. Yet, each year thousands of workers are added to the labor pool under the State Department's J-1 visa. Foreign students admitted on a J visa as part of its Summer Work Travel (SWT) program work in restaurants, on beaches, in supermarkets, amusement parks and at other positions throughout the country doing jobs that American teens would eagerly do. Note: "summer" re- fers to the overseas students' summer, not necessarily the U.S. June, July and August season. Defining summer so broadly al- lows foreign workers to stay into the winter and work, for ex- ample, at ski resorts. In order to deflect criticism, the State Department refers to SWT as cultural exchange. But that benign descriptor hasn't deceived the General Account- ability Office, the State De- partment Inspector General or the Economic Policy Insti- tute which reported that the J's biggest beneficiaries are cor- porate employers. For employ- ers, the J visa workers has no prevailing wage, and no man- datory requirement to pay em- ployee's Social Security, Medi- care, or federal and state taxes, or obligation to advertise open- ings even in the most depressed urban areas. The GAO weighed in that SWT is less oriented to- ward cultural exchange than it is work-centered and, as cur- rently implemented, a threat to American kids seeking work. Summer jobs given to over- seas youths, a phenomena so- cial media accelerated, has crowded out citizen kids, and is an ongoing American worker displacement scheme that the federal government shows lit- tle interest in correcting. While the short-term consequences of summer unemployment are dire—no income to put toward a college education or to help out at home—the long-term fall out could be worse. After years of research, Andrew Sum, Northeastern University Pro- fessor of Economics and Direc- tor of its Center for Labor Mar- ket Studies found that the more teens work, the more likely they are to work in the years ahead as adults. Cumulative work experience in the teen years positively in- fluences the employability, wages, and training experiences of these youth well into their early to mid-20s and beyond. Teen employment for women leads to lower pregnancy rates; for men, it correlates with a lower tendency to drop out of high school, and lessened like- lihood of delinquent behav- ior. Unlike J visa employment, working teens generate federal and state tax revenue for their communities as well as for state and federal governments. The unanswered question is why Congress ignores the neg- ative effect the J visa has on America's youth, and is so will- ing to undermine millions of their futures. Answering that question is hard, however, when no one poses it. Joe Guzzardi is a Californians for Population Stabilization Senior Writing Fellow whose columns have been syndicated since 1987. Contact him at joeguzzardi@capsweb.org. Joe Guzzardi Job-seeking teens face another tough summer Joe Harrop Will Durst By Joe Guzzardi OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Saturday, May 14, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A4