Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/80127
AUGUST 25, 26 2012 WEEKEND Horses Get a Second Chance Pets Page 6A Weather forecast 10B Sunny 95/59 DAILYNEWS RED BLUFF TEHAMACOUNTY $1.00 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 Manton regroups Man leaps from moving car, flees Rather than accept the punishment for driving with- out a license, an 18-year-old Los Molinos man found himself saddled with two felony charges Wednesday after trying to evade the Red Bluff Police Department. Johnny Carmen Hernandez was being held on a $106,380 bail, $380 of which was for his original offense of driving without a license, according to a Red Bluff Police Department press release. Hernandez got himself in trouble with law enforce- ment around 4:30 p.m. Wednesday when a Red Bluff Police detective observed a small Mitsubishi sedan run a stop sign near Red Bluff Union High School. The detective attempted to stop the vehicle, but Her- nandez — driving at the time — jumped out of the See LEAPS, page 9A County offers disaster relief Daily News photos by Rich Greene in to town is as beautiful as it was before last Satur- day's tragedy. By RICH GREENE DN Staff Writer MANTON —The drive The mountains still act as a majestic backdrop, even if they take a bit longer to come into focus through the smoky haze, for the wide open range- land that has made Manton a centerpiece of the Tehama County Branding Project. The first sign something has happened comes on the right side of the road where volunteers are gathered in the parking lot of Julia's Diner. Western Service Workers Association is there giving away supplies and taking away requests. On Friday someone needed an electric wheelchair and the group was doing its best to find one. The group from the However the main prior- stayed behind and were doubling or even tripling up households. gave supplies to was tem- porarily housing nine adults and 12 children, he said. One residence the group Tehama County Asses- sor Dale Stroud announced Friday that property owners who have sustained damage to their property as a result of the recent fires in Tehama County may be eligible for a reduction in the assessed value of their property. State law requires that to be eligible for relief there must be at least Manton is, after all, a close-knit community. "(That's) huge," said resident Cheryl Cords, who has lived in Manton for 10 years. "Everyone comes out and helps." destroyed parts of the town's water infrastructure, including the Boole Water Ditch, upon which many Manton residents rely. That makes the pallet of bottled water volunteer Gerald Lokstadt has a luxu- ry that Manton residents stop by to give a heart-felt thanks for. Water also was available ity is now Manton's most urgent problem — water. The Ponderosa Fire Residents relax as fire threat abates in Mineral MINERAL (AP) — Residents of a tiny mountain town breathed easier Friday after air tankers and helicopters blunted the run of a mas- sive wildfire in Northern California just outside Lassen Volcanic Nation- al Park. ''After hearing the news, I think I feel a whole lot better today,'' said Bob Einck, a con- tractor. He added that he didn't expect to have to continue to remove belongings from his vacation home in Miner- al to protect them from fire danger. Fire crews working by air Thursday repeat- edly doused the spear- head of the Ponderosa Fire with water and flame retardant as it crept up the deep Battle Creek Canyon threaten- ing the national park and the town of about 190 homes. for residents at Manton School. The Red Cross was planning to provide bottled water at the school from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday through Monday. Lokstadt said he volun- teered his time after doing some math in his head. He heard thousands of residents had been evacuat- ed, but only a few hundred had headed to the evacua- tion center in Redding. That meant thousands $10,000 damage to the market value of the prop- erty caused by the fire. Those individuals who have suffered fire damage are encouraged to contact the Assessor's Office at 527-5931 and obtain a Claim for Disaster Relief application or visit http://www.co.tehama.ca. us/local Issues/ Calamity Relief Form. See RELIEF, page 9A Fire info meetings set for today Members of the com- munity have relied on each other as much as the 2,400- plus firefighters and the electric and phone crews for which their apprecia- tion is shown through makeshift signs throughout town. They've also used new technology, namely Face- book, to help organize communication in the old fashioned way of town hall-style meetings. Cords said the first few See MANTON, page 9A CalFire is facilitating three community meetings related to the Ponderosa Fire today in the areas of Man- ton, Shingletown and Mineral. The objectives of these meetings will be to pass along information and facilitate assistance for the affected community members during the recovery phase. Members of the CalFire Incident Management Team will be available to provide an overview of the fire. Representatives from the county, sheriff's office, Red Cross and PG&E will be in attendance. Meetings are scheduled as follows: • Mineral, 10 a.m., Mineral School on Scenic Road • Shingletown, 5 p.m., Black Butte Junior High School Gymnasium, 7945 Ponderosa Way warning computer users of a scam in which a caller claims to repre- sent Microsoft. The caller offers to solve a computer problem or renew a warranty in an effort to gain remote access to the consumer's computer. CalFire spokesman Don Camp said fire- fighters made significant progress against the blaze, stopping its stub- born run only miles from Mineral. ''We didn't sustain any significant growth for the first time in four days,'' Camp said. See FIRE, page 9A State region report the caller claims to be from Microsoft tech support, Windows helpdesk, Windows ser- vice center, Microsoft support and other names relating to Microsoft. In most cases the caller is attempting to either install mali- cious software, adjust settings to increase vulnerability of the system or request credit card information to bill the consumer for phony ser- vices. "A man called from an unknown number and had me run a program to get an ID number," said a Red Bluff woman who received the scam phone call this week. "After he had the ID number, he gained Consumers across the North Consumers warned of computer hackers The Better Business Bureau is access to my computer and claimed it was 98 percent corrupt. He then told me to go to a website and pay $168 for a service." When the woman asked for more information about what she was buying, the caller hung up. She received several more calls from the company requesting she make the purchase. She continued to request information about the com- pany and received none. "Consumers should never give a stranger access to their computers," said Gary Almond, president of BBB serving northeast California. "If you do online banking, have passwords stored or do anything personal on your computer, all of that personal information could be at risk if a scammer enters your computer." The scammers attempt to gain access to the computer by instruct- ing consumers to find their IP address, provide their user names and passwords, or download pro- Breaking news at: www.redbluffdailynews.com Avenue • Manton, 2 p.m., Manton School, 31345 Forward grams that will allow the scammers access. BBB warns to never give out any information to unsolicited strangers. Microsoft states that they rarely call consumers to fix com- puter problems. If consumers are concerned about the safety of their computers, BBB offers the following tips: • Never trust an unsolicited call about computer security. Do not give out personal information to a stranger and never give a stranger access to your computer. Ask for a call back number and specific com- pany information. Verify the com- pany is legitimate and the caller is truly employed by the business. • Install virus protection and updated it regularly. Run virus scans often. • If you do have an issue with your computer, contact the manu- facturer, service provider or busi- ness of your choice directly. Check out all businesses at necal.bbb.org.