Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/701613
California loves to tout its economy as the sixth-largest in the world, but anybody who lives in the rural north knows not all parts of California are created equal. Therearepocketsofpoverty here, and it's easy for us to bristle when others talk about California as the land of milk and honey when employment and per capita income lag be- hind more populous and afflu- ent areas of the state. There are many reasons certain areas get left behind. Often, it is transportation. Te- hama County, for example, has Interstate 5 but no pas- senger rail stop or air service. Those are our limitations and it has a negative effect on our economy. For the North Coast region, it's much the same. An area of natural beauty, it's also very hard to get there. That means fewer big businesses locate there, so there are fewer jobs. But Humboldt County has a unique asset — a deep-wa- ter port, the best one be- tween Oakland and Seattle- Tacoma. Few cargo ships go there, however, because the overland routes to and from Humboldt Bay are sketchy and unreliable. Whether it's freight from Asia that must be dispersed across the United States, or American products headed across the Pacific, it's hard to get cargo to or from Hum- boldt Bay. There's no easy road to Interstate 5 or Interstate 80 farther south. Highways 36, 299 and 101 are curvy, slow and prone to slides in winter. There also is no working railroad in Humboldt County after the North Coast Rail- road south to the Bay Area was abandoned in the 1990s. There's little hope of that line ever getting rebuilt. It was dangerous and frequently closed by landslides in the Eel River Canyon. Port activity has suffered as a result. Hum- boldt County officials esti- mated the lack of a rail system to the area results in an an- nual $25 million loss as ship- pers use other ports. Humboldt County's last, best hope for a rail connec- tion to the outside world is a line to the north valley. It has been discussed since the 1800s, but the 1906 San Fran- cisco earthquake derailed that idea. It was deemed more important to build a line to the Bay Area instead so that North Coast timber could be used to rebuild the city. That line was the North Coast Railroad, which eventu- ally crumbled. Now the route to the north valley will be explored in de- tail. A $276,000 grant was awarded by Caltrans that will pay for a feasibility study on a line from Eureka to the tracks in Gerber in Tehama County. The study will look at po- tential routes, additional uses for the rail corridor, economic benefits, costs to develop and environmental impacts. The feasibility study will take years, just as planning for the scope of such a study took years. But at least it's still alive and moving forward, however slowly. Anything that connects the rural north to the outside world would help us all. Editorial Rail link study a step in the right direction Cartoonist's take A $276,000 grant was awarded by Caltrans that will pay for a feasibility study on a line from Eureka to the tracks in Gerber in Tehama County. 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, 728Main St., Red Bluff, CA 96080 Facebook: Leave comments at FACEBOOK.COM/ RBDAILYNEWS Twitter: Follow and send tweets to @REDBLUFFNEWS When holidays approach, it is timely to write of their sig- nificance prior to the event. However, I seem to always be in a catch-up mode. July the 4th has come and gone but the memory lives on in that it is a day to re- member how this country was formed, and perhaps where it is going. Take the up-coming elections for instance. Some think we need immediate and radical change of direction and leadership. Others ask why change a winning game? TIME has devoted a whole issue ti- tled "240 reasons to celebrate America right now," which sug- gests Trump's campaign slogan "Make America Great Again" is merely a scare tactic and that America needs no fixing. If it indeed does need a lit- tle fine tuning, I suggest heed- ing a few of the modest changes Garrison Keillor has in mind. "1) Flight attendants should cease telling passengers how to fas- ten a seat belt. We all know how to do this. 2) The govern- ment should stop making pen- nies, nickels and dimes as peo- ple don't even both to pick them up off the ground anymore. 3) Change the seating in Congress to mix Democrats with Repub- licans together. Teachers know that is the best way to break up gangs. 4) Radio and television are making the country dumber. Require making broadcasters present a wide range of opin- ions on controversial issues, oth- erwise have them wear a big red nose and a fright wig. 5) The California drought is God's way of telling us that we can't have beautiful lawns, golf courses and raise a vast amount of al- monds, prunes, walnuts and or- anges in a desert. 6) Stop the sale of assault weapons. There are thousands of deranged peo- ple dressing up and marching around blasting away with these weapons and rehearsing for a showdown with the FBI. 7) The answers to so many of our prob- lems are to have more fun. Let's make America more graceful again." ••• Something else I didn't con- sider: TIME columnist Joe Klein writes, "What happened in Brit- ain was a vote by elderly, non- college educated Brits against the wild flow of immigrants, most of them benign and excel- lent workers, but many of them reluctant to assimilate and more than a few of them em- bracing a faddish, lethal Islamic extremism. If it was a vote for freedom it was a vote for free- dom from them. We are experi- encing a similar swoon here. As the British were indulged by the Tory leadership, Tea Party advo- cates were indulged by the Re- publican establishment they've now overthrown." The key phrase here being "… they've now overthrown." This, if true, is an eye opener for me. When the Daily News Tuesday columnist often writes approv- ingly and lovingly of the Tea Party, he is apparently speak- ing for the present Republi- can Party as well, and that is why astute columnists such as George Will have withdrawn from the GOP and now state no such affiliation. Tsk, tsk. ••• Are we a peaceful and peace loving country? The 2016 Global Peace Index finds that the most peaceful country is Iceland fol- lowed in order by Portugal, Aus- tralia, Malaysia, and Vietnam. Further down the line are Haiti, Sri Lanka, the U.S., China, the Ukraine, and last, Syria. Russia apparently did not make the cut. ••• Is it possible for a success- ful published author to stumble later in life and produce a work that is nearly unreadable, or at least incomprehensible? In my humble opinion Mark Twain did just that. A book jacket blurb suggests that a series of short stories were written during a downtrodden period in Twain's life when he was penniless and having recently lost his wife and one of his children. The story in question is titled "The Superin- tendent of Dreams." Maybe you had to be there. ••• Los Molinos hosted a July 4th parade, which featured not only veterans of wars, but veteran transportation vehicles as well. There in were transport vehicles and personnel carriers aka jeeps. Speaking of same, in my day, at the corner of Washington and Hickory there was a large building of Quonset Hut design which housed a Purity Super- market. However, sometime af- ter the end of WWII, the store closed and the chain went out of business. At that point, it be- came an Army and Navy Sur- plus store and it became a great place to hang out and rummage though stuff like canteens, com- mando knives, flags and so forth. In addition, a rumor prevalent at the time had it that you could or- der a surplus jeep for $200. We understood they came in a solid wooden crate completely disas- sembled, and packed in "Cosmo- line" as a preservative against rust. We could never afford to or- der one, and I wonder today if it was just a rumor as to the price and the method of shipping. As a sidebar to the Purity Stores, my father knew very well their head meat buyer and once visited at his home in Stock- ton. The buyer showed father his basement which was crammed with surplus merchandise that had not even been unpacked. His company apparently later discov- ered his hoard and he was dis- charged from his position, osten- sibly because he could not have afforded the loot on his salary. Anyhow, today that former Pu- rity Store in Red Bluff is a medi- cal center and we have two suites for lease in same. ••• At a wedding ceremony, the pastor asked if anyone had any- thing to say concerning the union of the bride and groom. It was their time to stand up and talk, or forever hold their peace. A moment of utter silence was broken by a young woman carrying a child who started slowly walking toward the pas- tor. Everything quickly turned to chaos. The bride slapped the groom. The groom's mother fainted. The groomsmen started giving each other looks and won- dering how best to help save the situation when the pastor asked the woman, "Can you tell us why you came forward? What do you have to say?" The woman replied, "We can't hear in the back." RobertMinchisalifelong resident of Red Bluff, former columnist for the Corning Daily Observer and Meat Industry magazine and author of the "The Knocking Pen." He can be reached at rminchandmurray@ hotmail.com. I say Garrison Keillor's prescription for the nation Robert Minch I didn't intend to run the red light. I didn't intend to run you over in a crosswalk. I didn't intend to get you pregnant. I didn't intend to write this column. Therefore I'm not guilty of writing it and I can't be blamed if you're reading it. The lawbreaking that Hill- ary Clinton committed with her serial mishandling of clas- sified material in her e-mails should not be excused with the argument that "I didn't intend to break the law." But it is. Hillary will never be pros- ecuted by the Justice Depart- ment for what the director of the FBI James Comey said was "extremely careless" behav- ior by Hillary and her staff "in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information." Director Comey said the battalions of G-Men and G- Women he threw at the Clin- ton e-mail case for a year could not find clear evidence that she and her gang "in- tended to violate laws govern- ing the handling of classified information." Hillary got off because she didn't "intend" to be what she was — stupid, grossly negligent, arrogant and above the law. Comey graded her on the Clinton Curve. There's noth- ing new there. She's a Clinton. She's special. The standard for criminality is higher for her and her crime family. She's not going to go jail or suffer a pen- alty for anything she does. Ever. The least Hillary could do is take responsibility for her conveniently self-serving bum- blings as Secretary of the State and apologize. Sorry. I forgot. She's a Clinton. Clintons don't get punished and they don't apologize, either. They just lie and lie until what- ever personal scandal or mal- feasance they committed in of- fice goes away. First Bill, now Hillary. It's a Clinton Family Values thing. Don't expect Hillary and Bill and Chelsea to have any serious trouble or scrutiny from the au- thorities or the mainstream me- dia over their family influence- peddling racket, the Clinton Foundation, either. Ever. The Hillary Clinton email scandal isn't about politics. It's not about Democrats or Republi- cans — or at least it shouldn't be. It's about the laws and whether they apply to everyone equally, even the Clintons. If Hillary weren't running for president, this whole e-mail scan- dal would be an episode in a TV cartoon show. But if she and her family re- gain the keys to the White House, it'll be a national tragedy. It doesn't matter how many hearings the House of Repre- sentatives hold or how many great soundbites and damning campaign ads the Trump cam- paign can create from Com- ey's announcement Tuesday or his committee appearance on Thursday. Hillary will skate. The Obama administration will protect her. The media won't work to expose her. Only one thing will save the American people. At some point before November the general public has to wake up and smell the Clintons. The public has to ask why the Clinton Crime Family is held to a different standard than the rest of us or other politicians. Donald Trump is flawed in many ways. He's no Ronald Rea- gan and never will be. But at least he doesn't lie. Not to the American public. Not to Congress. Not to the FBI. Not to the families of the dead at Benghazi. As I said last week, we're in World War III with the terror- ists already. The most important thing we have to do is elect a president who will fight to win it. And it's not Lying Hillary. Michael Reagan is the son of President Ronald Reagan, a political consultant, and the author of "The New Reagan Revolution" (St. Martin's Press). Send comments to Reagan@ caglecartoons.com. Follow @ reaganworld on Twitter. Michael Reagan Grading on the Clinton Curve OPINION » redbluffdailynews.com Friday, July 8, 2016 » MORE AT FACEBOOK.COM/RBDAILYNEWS AND TWITTER.COM/REDBLUFFNEWS A6