Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/79941
4A Daily News – Friday, August 24, 2012 Opinion A town 160 miles north of Sacramento DAILYNEWS RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY 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 Greg Stevens, Publisher gstevens@redbluffdailynews.com Chip Thompson, Editor editor@redbluffdailynews.com Editorial policy The Daily News opinion is expressed in the editorial. The opinions expressed in columns, letters and cartoons are those of the authors and artists. Letter policy The Daily News welcomes let- ters from its readers on timely topics of public interest. All let- ters must be signed and pro- vide the writer's home street address and home phone num- ber. Anonymous letters, open letters to others, pen names and petition-style letters will not be allowed. Letters should be typed and cannot exceed two double-spaced pages or 500 words. When several letters address the same issue, a cross section of those submit- ted will be considered for publi- cation. Letters will be edited. Letters are published at the discretion of the editor. Mission Statement We believe that a strong com- munity newspaper is essential to a strong community, creating citizens who are better informed and more involved. The Daily News will be the indispensible guide to life and living in Tehama County. We will be the premier provider of local news, information and advertising through our daily newspaper, online edition and other print and Internet vehi- cles. The Daily News will reflect and support the unique identities of Tehama County and its cities; record the history of its com- munities and their people and make a positive difference in the quality of life for the resi- dents and businesses of Tehama County. How to reach us Main office: 527-2151 Classified: 527-2151 Circulation: 527-2151 News tips: 527-2153 Sports: 527-2153 Obituaries: 527-2151 Photo: 527-2153 On the Web www.redbluffdailynews.com Fax Newsroom: 527-9251 Classified: 527-5774 Retail Adv.: 527-5774 Legal Adv.: 527-5774 Business Office: 527-3719 Address 545 Diamond Ave. Red Bluff, CA 96080, or P.O. Box 220 Red Bluff, CA 96080 but ordinary for Tehama County and the same can be said for the Daily News. This week has been anything The catastrophic Ponderosa Fire that has burned homes in Manton and parts of Shasta Coun- ty is national news. Media from around the state have descended on our home. We're in the business of report- ing news and events of local inter- est. That didn't change. But this week we had plenty of help On the one hand, we have enjoyed and benefited from the national coverage. Reports coming across the wire have been local, with legions of journalists covering a story in our own back yard. At the same time, we were able to pull those reports and localize them for our audience — we removed references to Manton being a town "160 miles north of Sacramento" and added reports of comments made to county supervi- sors and other county agencies and word on the street. We went to the evacuation cen- ters and spoke to our neighbors about what they were going through. We talked to locals about the impact of smoke and evacuated animals. We offered road closure and evacuation details to those most affected by the fire. We covered the event, and con- tinue to do so, as a local event with information that matters to county residents, while the national media covered a fire threatening a small town in a part of California most of their audience has never heard of. I think we both did a good job, we just had different jobs to do. iWitness news team The Ponderosa Fire broke out Saturday morning. Had I been home, I may have tweeted the event and redbluffdailynews.com would almost certainly have had a report posted within a few hours. The problem? I was in Santa Clara Saturday and I wouldn't be heading home until Monday morn- ing. By Sunday I could tell the Pon- derosa Fire would be major news. Fortunately I was able to receive updates via Twitter and CalFire's website. We didn't have a paper hitting the streets until Tuesday, but this was information that couldn't wait. Stories were sent to redbluffdai- lynews.com, Twitter and there was a good Storify project created by Sports Editor Andre Byik to cap- ture a spectrum of reports. If you haven't checked out Storify, you're due. For those who don't use Twitter, the updates from tweets are posted on redbluffdailynews.com in a run- ning ticker, so all visitors were able to read them. was the No. 2 story on the 10 o'clock news in the Bay Area Sunday night. room vs. getting to work The Ponderosa Fire Getting to the news- Monday morning I got in touch with each reporter and assigned sto- ries for the day, despite still being 200 miles away. age of this week erased any skepti- cism that remained. Those who follow fielded a few questions from reporters and looked for fire updates each time I stopped. By the time I walked into the office around 2:30 p.m., we were well into cov- erage — both breaking news updates and stories and photos for Tuesday's edition. In fact, thanks to mobile technology, we had been covering the fire since early Sun- day without having a single person in the newsroom. Shrugging off skepticism Being skeptical of new technol- ogy and platforms will only serve to hold us back as journalists and the same could be said of readers. I was late to embrace Twitter and other platforms for sharing news with readers, but the cover- On the drive north I Chip Thompson 545 Diamond Ave. me on Twitter, a small group at this point, received at least three updates each day with the size, containment and structures destroyed. When roads were closed and evacu- ated, that information went out instantly to followers and posted to the site. time to pull together and broadcast. As someone who is driven to get accurate, useful information out to the public, it's easy to see why I'm so excited about the use- fulness of Twitter and other plat- forms. This week was a terrific example of just how useful they can be. Thanks to retweets from colleagues and readers, the updates were seen by many more than just my fol- lowers. And the brief updates took almost no Chip Thompson can be reached at 527-2151, Ext. 112 or by email at editor@redbluffdailynews.com. Follow him on Twitter @EditorChip. Your officials STATE ASSEMBLYMAN — Jim Nielsen (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 6031 Sacra- mento, CA 95814 (916) 319-2002; Fax (916) 319-2102 STATE SENATOR — Doug LaMalfa (R) State Capitol Bldg., Room 3070 Sacramento, CA 95814 (916) 651-4004; Fax (916) 445- 7750 GOVERNOR — Jerry Brown, State Capitol Bldg., Sacramento, CA 95814; (916) 445-2841; Fax (916) 558-3160; E-mail: governor@gover- nor.ca.gov. U.S. REPRESENTATIVE — Wally Herger (R), 2595 Ceanothus Ave., Ste. 182, Chico, CA 95973; 893-8363. U.S. SENATORS — Dianne Feinstein (D), One Post Street, Suite 2450, San Fran- cisco, CA 94104; (415) 393-0707. Fax (415) 393-0710. Barbara Boxer (D), 1700 Montgomery St., Suite 240, San Francisco, CA 94111; (510) 286-8537. Fax (202) 224-0454. Running mates Commentary agog over the choice of P. Ryan for VP on the Republican ticket. I suppose he will be a good running mate for M. Romney, but would not a Hispanic woman have been a better choice to garner more voters in the coming elections? Maybe nonesuch was available, and a seasoned white male politician would probably be more likely to win approval at the GOP convention, but I don't think it would be very creative. At least the GOP won't be able to use "Time for a change" in this instance, because it is business as usual when thrusting these two on the Amer- ican people. The latest census suggests this is not the proper demographic direction in which we are headed, es verdad? *** Walnut growers take note of new marketing TV commentators and news readers are all strategy: University of California, Los Angeles researchers found that men who ate 75 grams of walnuts daily...about two handfuls' worth, in addition to their regular diet, had an improve- ment in semen quality, compared to men who didn't eat the nuts. I envision a partnership deal with Viagra in which a couple are shown, out on a lawn, in matching bathtubs, eating bags of walnuts and Assuming readers are still interested in the game of baseball, here is a thoughtful take, in part, on the S.F. Giants' Melky Cabrera 50- game suspension for taking banned perfor- mance enhancing drugs. This by a former ball player and currently editor of a newspaper writ- ing under the non de plume "The Iceman." "After listening to hours of talk on the juice- man, most are missing the point. General opin- ion is that this is a blow to Giants in that they are losing their leading hitter with 45 games to go, and Giants players and management are disap- pointed in him. That doesn't pass the giggle test. Players and management know when someone on their team is juicing. C'mon, they practically live with the guy. Fact is, players and manage- ment got everything out of him until he was busted. Without a juiced Melky, they could be five or six games out. With a juiced Melky, they are a game out. The strategy of looking the other way has paid off. Saying they will miss Melky is irrelevant, because a non-juiced Melky would never have been a factor in the first place. They grinning adoringly at one another. *** still have to figure out how to win down the stretch, but they wouldn't even be in the conver- sation if they weren't Melky enablers. Now, if Melky is eli- gible to play in post-season (after five games), of course the Giants should bring him back. The juice shouldn't have worn off that much, and he will be rested. Besides, he, as an All Star game MVP, is responsible for NL win and home advantage for NL in World Series. So Melky joins Giants in mid-postseason, Giants get to game seven and Melky wins Series with ninth- inning homer. The Melkmen and Melkmaids go crazy, Giants management, players and fans go crazy, and at Market Street parade, team is driven down street in milk trucks. It might happen because as they say in baseball, 'Ya Never Know.' The Iceman" *** Robert Minch I Say knew that if two boys born on the same day at the same hour in the same year were not twins…then they must be have been 2 of 3 triplets. This week's quiz: The hot- ness of peppers can be mea- sured by a test known as what? And, using said test, how do Bell, Jalapeno and Habanero peppers rate and our gold reserves in the U.S. are stored in what 6 cities? *** If all goes well, the escrow (a year in the making), pertaining to the sale of 455 S. Main (the former Ford agency building) will close, signaling the demolition of same and the con- struction of a new drive through structure to house the CVS Pharmacy, currently in Belle Mill Landing. Should spruce up the neighbor- hood considerably. *** passed the first set of laws regulating licensing and taxing guns in 1934, but things started to change in the 1970s when various right wing groups began to challenge gun control and over- turning laws in state legislatures. However, Chief Justice Warren Burger described the new interpretation of the 2nd amendment as 'one of the greatest pieces of fraud...I repeat the word fraud…on the American public by special inter- est groups that I have ever seen in my lifetime.' So when people throw up their hands and say we can't do anything about guns, tell them they're being un-American …and unintelli- gent." *** In the 20 August issue of TIME: "Congress Last week's quiz was answered before the ink on the Friday DN was dry by J. Bahlke who of technology. Maintaining the status quo of nuts is important in this day and age. However, if we could reduce the number of nuts with guns, we might see some improvement in the homicide rate. *** Notation on Planters Peanuts' new plastic jar says it has 89% less packaging weight than a glass jar, yet the same amount of nuts" or words to that effect. Thus do we advance via the wonders My father was rather prescient when he wrote in the 1940s, "The sale of registered Her- ford cattle at the fairgrounds Saturday is a very important event to Tehama County. The bulls will be sold, but the question is, will they be bought by our cattlemen here or will they be purchased by cattlemen from other states? No county needs the best bulls more than we do. Tehama County has some very good cattle, but also plenty that need improvement. *** In the middle of a show, a guy stands up and yells at the ventriloquist, "Hey! You been mak- ing enough jokes about us Daily News colum- nists! Cut it out!" The ventriloquist replies, "Take it easy. They're only jokes." And the guy says, "I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to the little guy sitting on your knee." Robert Minch is a lifelong 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.