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The public is invited once again to pick peaches beginning Tuesday, at Cal- ifornia State University, Chico's University Farm. U-Pick peaches will be open 8 a.m. to noon ev- ery day through Sunday, Aug. 7. The price for peaches is $1.50 per pound, cash or check only. The farm is at 311 Nicholas C. Schouten Lane off Hegan Lane in Chico. Pickers must bring their own containers to take the fruit home. The farm pro- vides buckets for picking only. Certified scales are on site. The farm staff asks cus- tomers to please not pick up or eat fruit that has already fallen to the ground, and be gentlewiththefruitandthe trees. Customers should not squeeze or pick green fruit as it will cause bruising. Due to health concerns, pets are not allowed in the orchards. The farm has three vari- eties of peaches that ripen in the following order: Hale — Old variety, still one of the best; exception- ally large, round, uniform, freestone fruit is golden yellow overlaid with car- mine; firm, fine-grained, deep yellow flesh is free from stringiness and has delicious flavor; good for home canning and fresh use; outstanding handling and shipping peach. Fay Elberta — Large, yellow skin freestone with little red blush; has fairly good shape and good fla- vor; flesh is yellow, fine- grained with good firm- ness; a shipping and can- ning variety. O'Henry — Popular fresh market variety; large size fruit that is a freestone, round to irregular shape; skin color is 75-100 per- cent red blush; flesh is yel- low, streaked with red; su- perb flavor; it is very firm, stores well and is an excel- lent shipping peach. To get an updated status report on the peaches, call the farm's Peach Hotline at 898-4989. CHICOSTATE Pe ac h pi ck in g st art s Tuesday at CSU farm Tax scammers work year-round; they don't take the summer off. The IRS urges you to stay vigilant against calls from scammers imperson- ating the IRS. Here are sev- eral tips from the IRS to help you avoid being a vic- tim. Scams use scare tac- tics. These aggressive and sophisticated scam- mers try to scare people into making an immedi- ate payment. They make threats, often threaten ar- rest or deportation, or they say they'll take away your driver's or professional license if you don't pay. They may also leave "ur- gent" callback requests, sometimes through robo- calls. Emails will often contain a fake IRS docu- ment with a phone num- ber or an email address for you to reply. Scams spoof caller ID. Scammers often alter caller ID to make it look like the IRS or another agency is calling. The call- ers use IRS titles and fake badge numbers to appear legit. They may use on- line resources to get your name, address and other details about your life to make the call sound offi- cial. Scams use phish- ing email and regular mail. Scammers copy offi- cial IRS letterhead to use in email or regular mail they send to victims. In another new variation, schemers provide an ac- tual IRS address where they tell the victim to mail a receipt for the payment they make. This makes the scheme look official. Scams cost victims over $38 million. The Trea- sury Inspector General for Tax Administration, or TIGTA, has received reports of more than one million contacts since Oc- tober 2013. TIGTA is also aware of more than 6,700 victims who have collec- tively reported over $38 million in financial losses as a result of tax scams. The IRS will not call you about your tax bill without first sending you a bill in the mail. Demand that you pay taxes and not allow you to question or appeal the amount that you owe. Require that you pay your taxes a certain way. For instance, require that you pay with a prepaid debit card or any specific type of tender. Ask for credit or debit card numbers over the phone. Threaten to bring in po- SCAM ALERT IRS says be alert for summer time tax scams Law enforcement rang- ers from the National Park Service and the Bureau of Land Management and Wardens from California Department of Fish and Wildlife recently located and destroyed two large marijuana cultivation sites within Whiskeytown Na- tional Recreation Area. The first raid took place in the Crystal Creek drain- age where two men were found sleeping in their barbed wire protected camp. Some 7,680 plants were removed and more than 3,000 pounds of gar- bage was flown out utiliz- ing a National Guard Black Hawk Helicopter. The second raid oc- curred the same week, in the Whiskey Creek drain- age. The Whiskey Creek cultivation site had 4,641 plants and the National Guard helicopter flew out over 4,200 pounds of mar- ijuana. More than 1,200 pounds of garbage was removed from the Whis- key Creek cultivation site. Rangers arrested three men at the cultivation site as they were processing marijuana. The seized marijuana was destroyed by the Na- tional Park Service on the same day it was confis- cated. As in years past, both il- legal cultivation sites were associated with cartel or- ganizations. The mari- juana sites are in remote backcountry locations with the intent of harvesting, distributing and selling the finished product through- out California and the rest of the United States. Each of the cultivation sites is checked by law enforce- ment for illegal pesticides and fertilizers commonly found at cultivation sites. "This is potentially highly contaminated mar- ijuana that is distributed and sold on the black mar- ket across America," said Superintendent Jim Mile- stone. "The public should be aware that pollution from these illegal mari- juana cultivation sites has a huge impact on the park's wildlife and water quality in our park's streams, as re- searchers from U.C. Davis are discovering." Since 2001, the National Park Service at Whiskey- town has been orches- trating raids on drug traf- ficking organizations' ille- gal cultivation sites. Each year the park destroys mar- ijuana worth millions of dollars, but new cultivation sites continue to be found. WHISKEYTOWN Ma jo r po t gr ow s it es destroyed, five arrested COURTESYPHOTO Rocky "Rockstar" Golden fought at the Toughman Contest at Win River Casino on July 16, fighting and winning two matches against talented opponents, sweeping the Flyweight Division. TOUGHMAN Golden sweeps flyweights How to Trap Wasps and Other Great Reader Tips Are you aware that your health insur- ance pro- vider might cover the cost of your gym mem- bership? Or that the things you need to take care of those annoying wasps flying around your home this summer are right in your kitchen pantry? Do you know how to approach buying good-quality, name-brand men's belts? Your fellow readers know these secrets, and today they're willing to share them with you. WASP CONTROL It's that time of year. I'm filling containers with home- made potion to trap the wasps that love to visit my property. I place con- tainers around the yard, pool and patio. Wasps and other flying insects are at- tracted to the potion, so they dive in for a sip and never come out. Here's the recipe: Mix 6 ounces ( cup) vinegar, 2 tablespoons sugar and 1 teaspoon salt. If you need more double the recipe. This potion is nontoxic. —Marilyn INSIDER HOTEL INFO Al- ways check a hotel website before making a reserva- tion. That's where you will find the best rates. I work at a hotel. If you reserve a room here through Trave- locity or Expedia you'll pay the full rate plus the com- mission, which is really pricey. — Carey DEALS ON MEN'S BELTS Popular discount clothing stores like T.J.Maxx, Mar- shalls and Ross often have a pretty good selection of high-quality leather men's belts. The only problem I have is that the name- brand belts they carry are usually too big for me. But I buy them anyway and take them to a shoe re- pairman near my home, who removes the buckles, cuts off the extra inches and reattaches the buck- les. He charges me $3 to $5 per belt. I spend an av- erage of $15 to $20 for a belt that retails in depart- ment stores for $50 to $80 or more. — Bob FEE-FREE GYM MEMBER- SHIP As someone who struggles with being over- weight, I was happy to learn that my health in- surance company would pay for a three-month gym membership. But there's more: The company promised that if I had lost weight at the end of three months they would continue paying for my membership for a year. I just completed the third month, and I have lost 9 pounds. I am so excited! For those who want to join a gym to lose weight or just to get healthier, check with your insurance com- pany. — Lydia EASY-TO-CLEAN FRIDGE Empty everything out of your fridge. Wash the in- side, and let it dry. Af- ter it's dry put sheets of Glad Press 'n Seal Wrap on each shelf and other flat surface. Now put every- thing back in. When some- thing spills or otherwise gets yucky simply remove the items from the shelf, peel off the dirty Glad Wrap, put another sheet down and put the items back. There's no muss and no fuss; it's easy, fast and simple. — Tim FREE COLLEGE TEXTS Both of my kids attended University of California schools. One of them bor- rowed the required text- books from the library, and the other found PDF copies of the textbooks on- line. They both only pur- chased two books during their four years of their schooling. — Corina Would you like to send a tip to Mary? You can email her at mary@ everydaycheapskate. com, or write to Everyday Cheapskate, 12340 Seal Beach Blvd., Ste. B-416, Seal Beach, CA 90740. EVERYDAY CHEAPSKATE How to trap wasps and other great reader tips Mary Hunt lice or other agencies to ar- rest you for not paying. Threaten you with a law- suit. If you don't owe taxes or have no reason to think that you do don't provide any information to the caller. Hang up immediately. Contact the Treasury In- spector General for Tax Ad- ministration. Use TIGTA's "IRS Impersonation Scam Reporting" web page to re- port the incident. You should also report it to the Federal Trade Com- mission. Use the "FTC Com- plaint Assistant" on FTC. gov. Please add "IRS Tele- phone Scam" in the notes. If you know you owe, or think you may owe taxes call the IRS at 800-829- 1040. IRS employees can help you if you do owe taxes. IRS Tax Tips provide valuable information throughout the year. IRS. gov offers tax help and info on various topics including common tax scams, tax- payer rightsand more. Takeuswithyou!FollowusonTwitterandFacebookforupdatesandmore. 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