C 2014 01 16

BLOWIN’ UP

THE BIG ROOM See MUSIC FEATURE, page 24

STREET BITES See CHOW, page 27

Butte County develops life-changing programs in the wake of prison realignment

BY TOM GASCOYNE

PAGE 20

FOLLOW

THAT BIRD See NEWSLINES, page 8

PELAGIC Q-and-A

See GREENWAYS, page 12

HOUSE OF

RECOVERY See HEALTHLINES, page 16

Chico’s News & Entertainment Weekly

Volume 37, Issue 21

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Vol. 37, Issue 21 • January 16, 2014

OPINION

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Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Guest Comment . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Second & Flume . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Streetalk. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

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GREENWAYS EarthWatch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Eco Event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 UnCommon Sense . . . . . . . . . . 14 The GreenHouse . . . . . . . . . . . 15

HEALTHLINES The Pulse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Appointment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16 Weekly Dose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

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ARTS & CULTURE Music Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 This Week . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Fine Arts listings . . . . . . . . . . 25 Bulletin Board . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Chow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Reel World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 Scene. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30 In The Mix . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Nightlife . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Arts DEVO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

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Editorial Policies Opinions expressed in the Chico News & Review are those of the author and not Chico Community Publishing, Inc. Contact the editor for permission to reprint portions of the paper. The Chico News & Review is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or review materials. Email letters to chicoletters@newsreview.com. All letters received become the property of the publisher. We reserve the right to edit letters for length (200 words or less), clarity and libel or not to publish them.

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Send guest comments, 400 words maximum, to gc@ newsreview.com, or to 353 E. 2nd St., Chico, CA 95928. Please include photo & short bio.

Don’t delay on flu vaccine Enloe Medical Center announced this week that the hospital is

Give us a (longer) break, Chico State Ifiscal and governmental incompetence, administrative responsibilities are often situated between geologic objects

understand that in our turbulent modern age of

and hard locations. Yet the recent decision by the administration at Chico State to shorten the winter break for “cost-saving purposes” belies its claims of putting faculty and students first.

This year, the administration has shortened the winter break from the traditional five weeks to four weeks. It’s hard to believe that this was the only legitimate option for rearranging the school calendar in a way that saves money when by we consider the human costs it incurs on Michael faculty and students.

Fitzpatrick When the fall semester ends, most of us—faculty and students alike—are The author is a burnt-out. The calendar encroaches upon graduate student the holidays as it is, and by the time in English at grades are in, Christmas has often Chico State. already passed. We’ve just finished a grueling semester, and we need a break and some time off to recharge. This break time is essential rest.

However, it’s not all warm fires and holiday nog. During the winter break, faculty members spend much of their time prepping for classes they haven’t taught before, or rewriting the curricu4 CN&R January 16, 2014

lum for the classes they have. For those who have never taught, preparing a course is a tremendous amount of work, and we at Chico State are blessed to have instructors who labor overtime to provide outstanding learning experiences. By reducing the winter break, their prep time just got reduced by a week.

Moreover, many of the graduate students are finishing theses in the spring semester, and the winter break traditionally has been that time to hole up and finish the major contours of our work in preparation for revisions and defenses. Even many undergraduates use this time to work on research projects, serve their community, or even read ahead for next semester.

If Chico State administrators really put faculty and students first, they would know that what we need is a longer winter break (more weeks than five), not a shorter one. To reduce the winter session and still expect us to finish our theses, prep our oversized classes, attend our faculty meetings, participate in our campus societies, and simply rest reveals misplaced priorities in our administration regarding the reality of our academic lives.

Students with fewer class options and teachers struggling with larger rosters need a longer break. Ω

offering free flu vaccines to the public, by appointment, while supplies last.

And with this week’s increase in reported influenza cases, risk of catching the illness is also on the rise.

We’d like to urge those who have not been vaccinated to take advantage of Enloe’s offer, or to seek out the vaccine at other locations. The Butte County Public Health Department is holding a free flu-vaccine clinic from 1:30-4 p.m. today, Jan. 16, in Oroville (202 Mira Loma Drive). Vaccines in shot and intranasal forms are available. Local pharmacies are offering the vaccine, too, though there is a fee.

This is a particularly deadly flu season in which young and healthy people are at increased risk. The predominant virus is the H1N1 virus, the same one that caused the 2009 pandemic.

Historically, elderly citizens and those with compromised immune systems have been the most vulnerable to severe flu symptoms. However, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, this year, because of H1N1, the majority of those hospitalized for influenza-like symptoms are people ages 18 to 64.

To date, 11 people within that age range in California have died from the flu. This includes Matthew Walker, a formerly healthy 23-year-old Santa Rosa resident who contracted H1N1 and, within days of showing symptoms, succumbed to the virus.

CDC officials note that the flu shot cannot cause the illness. The only side effects are tenderness, redness or swelling at the injection site, and—in rare cases—low-grade fever and aches.

California is one of the latest states to be hit hard by the outbreak, according to the CDC. Last week, regional outbreaks had been reported.

This week, the activity is widespread. Still, health officials say it’s not too late to get protection via vaccination. Time is of the essence, however, since it takes about two weeks to gain full immunity. Do not delay. Ω

A reason to eat locally When is the last time you ate Foster Farms chicken? If you did

so recently, there’s a chance you may have eaten foul fowl. Last week, the Livingston-based poultry processor’s operations were shut down for three days by order of the U.S. Department of Agriculture after inspectors found cockroaches at a hand-washing sink, among other places.

The company has downplayed the incidents, but a letter from the Food Safety and Inspection Service office in Alameda sums up the health risk accordingly: “This action is initiated based on egregious insanitary conditions observed in your establishment whereby products at your facility may have been rendered adulterated by violation of the Poultry Products Inspection Act.” This is the second time in just a few months that Foster Farms has come under scrutiny. In October, inspectors had threatened to temporarily close the Livingston plant, as well as two other facilities in Fresno, due to salmonella contamination.

These incidents are reminders that the best sources for purchasing all of our food is from small-scale ranchers and farmers who are more accountable to customers—in many cases, their neighbors.

The meat purchased from factory farms may be cheap, but there’s a reason for that: inferior quality.

In Chico and the surrounding area, we have plenty of options for truly free-range beef and fowl, as well as some of the best produce in the world.

The products are found at the local farmers’ markets and on the shelves at several local grocers. We are fortunate to live in such a thriving agricultural region. Take advantage of that by steering clear of factory-farmed foods. Ω

Send email to chicoletters @ newsreview.com

SECOND & FLUME

by Melissa Daugherty melissad@newsreview.com

A standout I’ve worked with many interns during my nearly seven years at the CN&R, so many, in fact, that it’s sometimes hard to keep track of names and faces. But certain students have stood out, and for me, those are the ones who were hardworking and hungry to learn and grow as reporters and writers.

I don’t have much use for any other type. The lazy ones know this from experience.

The CN&R is currently accepting applications from potential interns: college students with reporting experience. We look for candidates who are curious, attentive to detail, and unafraid to talk to strangers. Years ago, we’d get loads of résumés. But as newspapers began shrinking—shedding staff and literally shrinking in size— the applications slowed to a trickle. Whereas once we’d have four or five interns per semester, we now take on only a few—just the most promising and experienced.

I started my career in journalism as an intern at a daily paper, so I know the value of an internship. I was hired on as a staff writer at the end of what was supposed to be an eight-week gig. It was a stroke of luck that a position came open, but my getting the job wasn’t a fluke. Others, including a longtime part-timer, wanted the job, but I’d worked harder.

That brings me to some really sad news about a former intern, one of those hardworking standouts I was referring to. In the fall of 2010, I had the pleasure of working with Andrea LaVoy Wagner.

Back then, I was the paper’s news editor, typically the person who works most closely with the interns. Andrea impressed me immensely. For starters, she was a good writer. She had no ego and took direction easily. Andrea wrote a dozen stories for the CN&R during her internship. She did that while also earning a journalism degree at Chico State and, most important, raising two young sons as a single mom.

At that time, I hadn’t had my son. But I could still appreciate how hard Andrea worked to do it all. She did everything with grace, though I’m sure she didn’t see it that way all the time.

Andrea went on to get reporting gigs in the North State and New York, but her career has been on hold in recent months, as she cared for a gravely ill child. And now she’s grieving. I was heartbroken to hear that Andrea’s eldest son, 14-year-old Byron, succumbed to brain cancer last month, on Christmas morning. Now that I’m a mom, I can think of nothing more devastating than losing a child. My heart breaks for her.

If you remember Andrea’s good work for the CN&R, or even if you don’t, and you would like to help her get through what is undoubtedly the hardest time in her life, check out this website set up by her friends: www.give forward.com/fundraiser/mnp3/byron-s-fund. There, you can give a donation or simply send a note of condolence.

Melissa Daugherty is editor of the CN&R

Stinky is subjective Re “Bad start” (Newslines, by Ken Smith, Jan. 9): First, I do not know whether it was Bill Mash or Ken Smith who drew the race card at the beginning of the story, but in our colorblind society, what does race have to do with the story?

Mash and George Gold, who were in close proximity to the individual arrested, claim he did not emit an offensive odor. True, someone’s opinion of what constitutes an offensive odor is left to that individual. I can only speak for myself, however, and as I entered Starbucks that morning, I was immediately assaulted by the aroma of someone lacking in personal hygiene. (The individual arrested was seated in the chair closest to the door.) As I walked to the service counter, the smell continued.

As to the point that the individual was given no chance to respond to the police officers, he did respond, but not in a cooperative manner. Roughly carried out of the store? I saw him escorted, traveling under his own power, past my location and out of the store.

No opportunity to say anything or defend himself? Police officers’ duties do not include determining innocence or guilt. Their function is to enforce laws. You defend yourself in court, not during your arrest.

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Editor’s note: The term African-American was used as a description of the man whom witnesses did not know by name—something that was later determined by reporter Ken Smith through a police report. Nowhere in the story was it implied that the man was treated poorly because of his race.

I have spent hundreds of hours in Northern California Starbucks: Rocklin, Auburn, Sacramento, Marysville and, most recently, Chico—doing my advocacy and blogging work. Starbucks’ attention to customer service is simple: Treat every customer the same, and treat them well.

I was so beholden to the attention and courtesy Starbucks provides to homeless customers that I approached the Starbucks in Marysville to do a piece on that store. The only Starbucks locations where I have been treated poorly and, yes, insulted have been in Chico. My response from Starbucks’ corporate customer service on this incident was welcomed, yet unsurprising: This “shouldn’t have happened” in their store. I’m confident they will assess not only the downtown location but also their entire customer experience in Chico as a whole.

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Pitch needs rethinking Re “A public-safety pitch” (Guest comment,

by Bob Evans, Jan. 9): In regard to Bob Evans’ guest commentary LETTERS continued on page 6

Michael Erpino

Christina M. LaPointe

Ralph Slater

Ben Scarfe

January 16, 2014

CN&R 5

continued from page 5

on firefighters keeping the community safer, I wonder what would happen if, when patrolling a troubled neighborhood, these firefighters received an emergency call?

They would have to stop what they were doing, run to their fire engine awkwardly maneuver their beast of a vehicle and race off to the emergency. Since quick response-time can mean the difference between life and death, precious seconds would be lost. If this measure is enacted, I believe it would greatly weaken Chico’s public safety.

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Hear, hear!

Re “I ❤ nurses” (Second and Flume, by Melissa Daugherty, Jan. 9): I want to thank providence for loading the dice before my roll, as I came out with two nurses for sisters. I just sent Melissa Daugherty’s column on nurses to them. I hope they are stroked and as stoked as I was to read it!

Nurses are not unsung heroes.

But I would wish to call for another verse of praise.

Thanks for your pen.

JAY BERGSTROM Forest Ranch

Two views on booze Re “Across the booze spectrum” (Newslines, by Howard Hardee, Jan. 9): Bidwell Park’s 90-year-old golf course is Chico’s only regulation public course. A nonprofit community organization leases the cityowned property and has hired Empire Golf to manage business operations. In more than 20 years of managing multiple courses, Empire has never had an alcoholrelated public-safety call to its courses.

Bidwell Park Golf Course has suffered in the past from poor management by the city and various public-private partnerships, and from decades of deferred maintenance and neglect. Just modernizing the antiquated irrigation system and creating a driving range (a revenue source that most courses enjoy) will cost more than $2 million.

In 2013, the course fell just short of breaking even, an untenable and unsustainable prospect.

More revenue is needed to preserve and improve this local treasure. A solid majority of our council agreed that this change to city policy is a sensible step forward.

This is not about profiteering or excess. When the course realizes 6 CN&R January 16, 2014

annual operating profits, every penny will go back into the facilities, payroll and trade with local suppliers. There is no private profit involved. As an active golfer and club member who first played there in 1961, I thank and applaud the council for a sound decision.

DAN CASAMAJOR Chico

Annie Bidwell left Bidwell Park to Chico stipulating no alcohol be sold there. While a 1934 court ruling allegedly rendered Annie’s wishes invalid, the city nevertheless honored them—until now.

On Jan. 7, five of seven City Council members decided it would be OK to sell alcohol at the golf course. I disagree.

Annie Bidwell likely reasoned that selling alcohol encourages drinking, drug use and, ultimately, the killing, injury and destruction of property and families. As such, it’s ultimately incongruous with nature and the spirit of friendship, family and fun. In the face of increasing legalization of marijuana, this reality is already far too alien to modern minds.

Essentially the public’s parents, governments should encourage constituents to get high on music, nature, friendship and personal growth—not controlled substances.

Tolerating the use and abuse of alcohol and drugs is negligent.

Profiting from it is shameful.

In seeking council support, golfcourse officials alleged the facility needs alcohol sales to attract and retain players, fund maintenance and encourage socializing. While selling alcohol may be the easiest way to accomplish these goals, it’s neither socially responsible nor respectful of Annie Bidwell’s wishes. The course needs to find another solution.

NATHAN ESPLANADE Corning

Ignoring the occupation Re “Peace requires new leader” (Letters, by Maurice Picard, Jan. 9): Multiple letters and a guest commentary in the CN&R in recent weeks concerning the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians have tended to describe Israel as a homogeneous country, all good or all bad. It might be more realistic to describe two Israels, vastly different from each other, and simultaneously intimately connected.

The Democratic State of Israel, the Israel that I love, located within the pre-1967 borders, is a

vibrant democracy in which all of its citizens, Arab and Jewish, have the basic democratic right to vote.

The Undemocratic State of Israel, located in the occupied West Bank, is totally different. Here reside more than 2 million Palestinians under Israeli government and military control and without basic democratic rights—specifically without the right to vote for or against political leaders who maintain the system that oppresses them. The Palestinians are not allowed to be citizens in the land they and their ancestors have lived in for many generations.

Mr. Picard discusses peace, but never once mentions the occupation, which is by far the greatest obstacle to a meaningful peace.

Serious problems don’t get resolved by ignoring or denying the existence of the predominant issue.

VICTOR MLOTOK Chico

Nothing to do with luck I hear the phrase “down on their luck” mentioned in reference to homeless people on the streets of Chico. This term is used, hypothetically, to separate the temporarily homeless from those who are chronically on the street, and to highlight the belief that, here in America, bad “luck” is always temporary and a break is just around the corner—for anyone willing to try.

In fact, almost none of the homeless are “down on their luck.” The wheel of fortune does not spin over their heads. A braindamaged alcoholic does not wake up one morning and find a suit and tie hanging from a nearby bush— and then walk into a bank and get a job. The angry young girl, abused from birth—and mostly unloved, in one foster home after another—does not suddenly stumble on a “positive attitude,” which cleanses her of emotionally disabling wounds that cut to the core of her being.

Nevertheless, when we see the homeless, think of them as heroes more than victims. It’s amazing what they endure just to go on living in a world that has not always been kind to them.

And see that they are not made to endure mindless clichés, along with physical pain and emotional suffering.

PATRICK NEWMAN Chico More letters online:

We’ve got too many letters for this space.

Please go to www.newsreview.com/chico for additional readers’ comments on past CN&R articles.

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LOW SIERRA SNOWPACK

The results of a snow survey by the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) do not bode well for the summer months in areas that depend on the snowpack for water.

“Manual and electronic readings record the snowpack’s water content at about 20 percent of average for this time of year,” according to a DWR statement.

Department officials said the survey “found more bare ground than snow” in the Sierra Nevada.

California Gov. Jerry Brown has formed a Drought Task Force to plan for the expected water shortages.

“DWR and other agencies will streamline transfers of water from areas of relative abundance to areas of critical need, monitor water-supply impacts in small rural communities whose groundwater sources are stressed by prolonged dry conditions, and take other steps to mitigate the effects of dry weather,” the DWR statement reads.

Don Bird, dressed as Founding Father Samuel Adams, is trying to stir the political pot because of what he sees as a violation of his constitutional rights.

PHOTO BY TOM GASCOYNE

SACRAMENTO RATIONS WATER

Speaking of drought conditions, the Sacramento City Council voted on Tuesday (Jan. 14) to enact severe water rationing on homes and businesses.

Those who live and work in Sacramento will be required to reduce water use by 20 percent to 30 percent, according to The Sacramento Bee. City officials said they would launch a $200,000 public-outreach campaign encouraging city residents and businesses to use less water. The city will increase regulation of winter watering restrictions on outside irrigation; prohibit the use of water on sidewalks and driveways; require parks and cemeteries to reduce watering; and require people washing their cars at home to use buckets rather than hoses.

A DWR representative said a statewide emergency drought declaration could be issued “within a couple weeks.”

LOGUE BACKS OBAMA

Assemblyman Dan Logue (R-Marysville) has introduced legislation that, if passed, would allow Californians to reclaim and keep their health-insurance policies through December of this year. Assembly Bill 1507 comes in the wake of a unanimous decision last November by the five-member board of Covered California to continue to enroll Californians in new healthcare plans and not extend the deadline allowing them to keep their existing plans.

“The implementation of Obamacare has resulted in multiple problems for the people it was supposedly meant to help and I hope that this bill will be able to correct just one of those problems,” Logue (pictured) said in press release.

Actually, according to the San Jose Mercury News, the Covered California board went against President Obama’s directive to allow the extension of existing healthinsurance policies through 2014. The board said extending the deadline would create confusion. In other words, Logue’s bill backs up Obama’s wishes.

8 CN&R January 16, 2014

The big fish Longtime activist Don Bird sues Tehama County for $700,000

L provocateur Don Bird defiantly cast his line into the waters of the Sacramento River below ast August, Rancho Tehama political

the Red Bluff Diversion Dam, hoping to hook a ticket for fishing without a license. by Now Bird is looking to fry Ken Smith bigger fish—namely Tehama kens@ County, the state of California newsreview.com and Tehama County Counsel Arthur Wylene, against whom he recently filed a federal lawsuit demanding $700,000 in damages for infringing upon his constitutional rights.

The complaint, filed Dec. 10 in the U.S. District Court in Sacramento, addresses “The Denial of the 5th, 6th and 7th Amendments of the Plaintiff’s Constitutional Rights to a Jury for an ‘Infraction.’” The 19-page document, which is light on legalese and written largely in Bird’s straightforward and markedly ornery vernacular, outlines what Bird sees as a series of actions perpetrated by the named entities that he believes are attacks on his and others’ civil liberties.

Bird’s initial fishing excursion was to protest the need for fishing licenses, which Bird said infringes on Article I, Sec. 25, of the U.S. Constitution. He fought the fine in court, pleading “innocent” at a Sept. 23 arraignment and demanding a jury trial (“I like those odds better,” he quipped prior to appearing before the judge), only to be informed that jury trials are not granted for infractions.

This caused Bird to rail against the existence of “infractions,” which he said were a creation of California’s legal system, established in 1969 to deny citizens their right to a jury trial. The federal complaint expands on this idea and includes an essay from Ron Branson, founder of a website called Jail 4 Judges that criticizes the legal system.

On Oct. 16, Bird appeared before Tehama County Superior Court Judge Jonathan Skillman, again asserting his right to a jury trial and telling the judge that he wouldn’t pay the $460 fishing fine. Skillman informed him the ticket would go to collections, incurring an additional $300 fee.

Bird claims a “ghost attorney” worked pro bono to help prepare the latest complaint and will continue to advise

him through further actions. But Bird plans to represent himself if the case continues into a courtroom.

However, Wylene, the Tehama

County counselor named in Bird’s complaint, said it’s unlikely the case will be heard in court.

“Obviously, I can’t comment too much about pending litigation, but I can say the federal magistrate judge issued a formal recommendation that his case be dismissed as frivolous on Jan. 9,” said Wylene, explaining that all cases in which the filing fees are requested waived—as Bird’s was—must first face scrutiny to see if they have legal merit.

“That will now go to the district judge, and I strongly suspect it will be approved and signed. I do not believe there’s any merit to Mr. Bird’s case,” he said.

Wylene said that since the claim is still being scrutinized, his office has not been served with the complaint yet, and he doesn’t believe it will.

Bird anticipated this would happen, even addressing it in his complaint: “This plaintiff concludes with a simple request,” it reads. “When the defendants reply, be creative with reasons to dis-

miss. Not the standard response.”

In multiple phone and in-person interviews, Bird said he will appeal any dismissal and continue to fight for as long as he can.

In a sense, even filing the case was a victory for Bird. He previously has sued judges, local politicians, and county and state officials, filing 15 cases against five litigants in a seven-year period. These legal actions caused Tehama County Superior Court Judge C. Todd Bottke to have him declared a “vexatious litigant” in 2012.

This label disallows Bird from suing in state courts, but the series of events that began with casting his line into the river opened a loophole allowing him to sue at the federal level.

His former legal and political campaigns include another quest for a jury trial after a 2005 speeding ticket that brought him into direct conflict with then-Assemblyman (and now Congressman) Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale). He also accused state Sen. Jim Nielsen (R-Gerber) of carpetbagging, calling Nielsen out on the fact he claims residence in Gerber in order to serve in one district while actually living outside the area, in Woodland. Nielsen eventually had a restraining order placed on him after Bird—who is in his 70s—threatened to place Nielsen under citizen’s arrest.

“I don’t give a damn about the

money—it’s the principle I care about,” Bird said of the $700,000 the suit demands—the total of $500,000 in punitive, $100,000 in nominal, and $50,000 each for discretionary and general damages. He also said he doesn’t believe the claim is excessive.

“You can’t put a price on my rights,” he said.

While some have praised Bird’s efforts, others have accused him of placing unnecessary burdens on the legal system and costing the taxpayers money.

“This isn’t my fault—it’s theirs,” said Bird, addressing his detractors. “If that judge would have done the right thing and upheld his oath to the Constitution and found me innocent or given me a jury trial, then it would never have come to this.”

Bird’s ongoing campaigns over perceived infringements on his rights have gained him a great deal of notoriety over the years, with one letter writer to the Red Bluff Daily News last September labeling him “Don Quixote” Bird, after the literary character famous for “tilting at windmills,” or embarking on flights of fancy in an effort to keep chivalry alive.

Bird likens himself more to Samuel Adams than Quixote, and has been dressing as the Founding Father while speaking to media about his latest campaign, which he swears will be his last.

“Win or lose, this is it for me.” Ω

Aiming high

Andrew Merkel, chairman of the board of the Western Plant Science Association, believes further restrictions on the county’s medical-marijuana ordinance will hinder patients’ access to medicine.

Medi-pot advocate hopes to maintain county ordinance

PHOTO BY HOWARD HARDEE

Merkel began using pot to treat his A14 ndrew attention deficit disorder when he was years old, and has been an advocate for

medical marijuana ever since.

Now 38, the decidedly casual real-estate agent chairs the board of the Western Plant Science Association—a local medical-marijuana advocacy group—grows marijuana on his 5-acre property in Chico and, of late, has been making a push to stop the Butte County Board of Supervisors from making further changes to the county’s marijuana-cultivation ordinance.

In an interview with the CN&R during the supervisors’ meeting on Tuesday (Jan. 14), Merkel—who was on the ad-hoc committee responsible for crafting the ordinance, adopted early last year—explained that, given how quickly public attitude is changing about marijuana legalization, he would like the ordinance to remain “static until the state steps in and does something.”

The political action group Butte County Citizens Against Irresponsible Government, led by Merkel and local attorney Rob MacKenzie, filed an initiative on Jan. 9 intended to “preserve the status quo,” according to a press release from MacKenzie Land Law. The amendments made to the ordinance in December—requiring that a marijuana garden be on a property with an “occupied legal residence” and permitted plumbing and sewage systems, along with increasing fines for violations—are “important safeguards for the cultivation ordinance,” the release said, emphasizing that the group “does not object to a reasonable regulation of medical-marijuana cultivation through a county ordinance.”

However, the group maintains that additional restrictions on growers will limit

patients’ access to medicine—particularly for disabled individuals who have difficulty tending a garden of their own—thus driving them to illegal dealers.

But with constituents clamoring for

tighter restrictions on marijuana cultivation, the supervisors have no intention of leaving the ordinance alone. On Tuesday, they voted unanimously to limit the size of marijuana gardens by square footage rather than number of plants.

Under the changes, the maximum garden size for a property between a half-acre and 5 acres would be 50 square feet, about enough for two large plants; for properties between 5 and 10 acres, the garden could not exceed 100 square feet, enough for four large plants; and on land exceeding 10 acres, the maximum garden size would be 150 square feet, enough for six large plants.

Those restrictions—far tighter than the county’s current 99-plant limit—come along with an amendment that would allow anyone to file a formal complaint about a marijuana garden. (The ordinance currently requires a complaining party live within 1,500 feet of the property in question, in most cases.)

Before the ordinance is modified, the board

SIFT|ER Saying “no” to parties A record-high 42 percent of Americans reported being politically independent in a Gallup poll—published online on Jan. 8—that included interviews of more than 18,000 Americans last year. The results are reflective of an increasing shift away from party affiliation, though the trend has come more at the expense of the GOP than of Democrats; Republican identification fell to 25 percent—the lowest level recorded since Gallup began conducting phone interviews 25 years ago—while Democratic identification has flatlined at 31 percent over the past four years.

will reconsider the amendments on Jan. 28 and then make a final vote on Feb. 11.

Prior to a vote, the supervisors reviewed Butte County Compliance Officer Marion Reeves’ comprehensive report on county, state and federal trends in marijuana legislation and public attitude. Reeves noted that for the first time, a majority of Californians are in favor of legalizing weed, though all of Butte’s neighboring counties are also grappling with how to regulate marijuana cultivation.

“The only thing that’s clear, when you listen to Marion’s presentation, is that nothing is clear,” said County Counsel Bruce Alpert.

“If we’re waiting for help from the federal government, the state courts, or even some theme to come from our neighbors, it’s not forthcoming anytime soon.”

Meanwhile, the Butte County Sheriff’s Office presentation offered a perspective on the scale and pervasiveness of pot-growing operations in the county’s foothills. Between July 1 and Dec. 31 of last year, deputies said, aerial surveillance identified more than 3,000 grow sites, while 1,500 to 2,000 other possible sites require “further investigation.”

For Merkel, examples of such large-

scale and illegal growing operations that exceed the county’s 99-plant limit are irrelevant to the issue of medical-marijuana cultivation.

“None of those [examples] were of properties with under 99 plants,” he said. “Everything they came out with was cartel or illegal.

None of it was related to the ordinance. I’m trying to focus on the ordinance currently in place.”

He scoffed at the notion expressed by some speakers during the public-comment section of the meeting that marijuana users are universally unmotivated or socially disengaged.

“It hasn’t affected my life negatively, where I haven’t been able to get things done, I’m sitting on the couch, I’m a stoner,” he said, pointing to his personal successes both professionally and in raising a family. “I’m a highly motivated individual.”

Indeed, Merkel has his eyes on a high goal—Supervisor Larry Wahl’s seat, which is up for grabs this year. As the June primary election draws near, Merkel has been a vocal critic of Wahl’s stance on marijuana cultivation. (On Jan. 12, the Chico EnterpriseRecord published a letter from Wahl in which he said, “I would prefer a total ban on marijuana.”)

As for the newly proposed restrictions, Merkel said he will work toward putting them up for a public vote via the filed initiative.

—HOWARD HARDEE howardh@newsreview.com

NEWSLINES continued on page 10 January 16, 2014

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Rash of robberies Cousins held as suspects in seven-robbery spree ivek Pathak knew something was wrong the Vapproaching moment he saw a masked and hooded man the front door of Reliance Gas’ mini mart

after 11 p.m. on Jan. 3, as he was readying the store for its midnight closure.

Pathak, who generally greets customers with a cheerful hello and knows many of the store’s regulars by first name, retreated behind the counter to be near the silent alarm, and began asking the man to “open his scarf” as soon as he came through the door.

Rather than comply, Pathak said, the man drew a handgun and leveled it at him.

“I said, ‘Please, don’t shoot me,’” recalled Pathak, who said he is still upset and has had trouble sleeping a week after the incident. “‘Take whatever you want, but please don’t shoot me.’

“You never know, some people are crazy and shoot you even after you give them the money, so I was afraid for my life,” Pathak said. “I was thinking, who would take care of my family and everything?”

The man left the store at East First and Mangrove avenues after pocketing an estimated $295 from the store’s register. Pathak, who managed to press the silent alarm during the robbery, called the Chico Police Department as soon as the robber left. He said he wasn’t able to give police a very thorough description, other than that the assailant was Hispanic and wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt.

By then, Pathak’s account was one that authorities had become accustomed to hearing. The robbery was the fifth such crime reported since Dec. 14, when Butte County Sheriff’s Office deputies and CPD officers responded to a robbery at Tower Mart on West East Avenue carried out by a man brandishing a gun and demanding money while wearing a gray hooded sweatshirt, blue jeans and a hockey mask.

On Dec. 18, the Valero gas station at West First and Walnut streets was robbed at around 4:20 p.m. Subsequent robberies of Anthony’s Liquor on The Esplanade at 9:30 p.m. on Dec. 31 and the Subway restaurant on West Sacramento Avenue the morning of Jan. 2 resulted in similar descriptions of a hooded, sometimes masked Hispanic or white male standing about 5 feet 8 inches tall. In each robbery, the assailant brandished or alluded to carrying a handgun.

The crime spree peaked—and authorities finally got a break—on Jan. 7, when two stores were robbed in less than three hours. First, Jackpot Food Mart on West Sixth Street was hit at 7:20 p.m., followed by the Tower Mart on East Lassen Avenue at 9:46 p.m. An officer saw a vehicle leaving the area of the latter robbery, made an enforcement stop and officers arrested two suspects, Joshua Gomez, 24, and his cousin Lissette Gomez, 20, both of Orland. Though initially arrested for just the Jan. 7 thefts, they have since been charged in all of the robberies, with Lissette Gomez allegedly serving as the getaway driver.

“We had reason to believe the previous crimes were related, and after the arrests were made, we went back and viewed all of the surveillance videos,” said CPD Sgt. Matt Madden, who noted his department worked in conjunction with the BCSO to investigate

Vivek Pathak, a clerk at Reliance Gas on Mangrove Avenue, was robbed at gunpoint late on Jan. 3. Authorities have two suspects in custody for this and similar robberies.

PHOTO BY KEN SMITH

the crimes. “There’s some evidence there that made us believe [Joshua Gomez] was responsible for all of those listed cases, and we’ve since contacted the District Attorney’s Office to charge the pair with all of the robberies.”

Madden said a “simulated firearm” was found in Lissette Gomez’s vehicle; more evidence was gathered Jan. 8, when the BCSO and Orland Police Department conducted a search of the Gomez home in Orland.

Lissette Gomez’s name is listed on the 2013-2014 Butte College women’s basketball roster. Madden said items found in her vehicle indicate that she is or was associated with the team.

Yet another armed robbery has occurred since the cousins, who remain in custody, were arrested. On Sunday morning (Jan. 12), a male suspect dressed in a black hooded sweatshirt, sunglasses and wearing a scarf over his face walked up to the drive-thru window at the Dutch Bros. Coffee on The Esplanade and demanded money, wielding what he claimed was a weapon wrapped in a towel in his left hand. The suspect was last seen walking south in a nearby alleyway.

Madden advised that victims in a robbery situation do as Pathak did and cooperate with the assailant.

“Nothing of monetary value is worth getting hurt over,” he said. “You never know what the suspects’ true intentions, their mindset or their level of criminal background could be.”

—KEN SMITH kens@newsreview.com

BIRDS, WILDLIFE, ART, BOOKS, FOOD… EXPERIENCE IT ALL AT THE 15TH ANNUAL

Snow Goose Festival

Television feud ends Local stations and DISH Network sign contract he month-long contract dispute between TBonten DISH Network and New York City-based Media Group, which owns Chico’s

FOX20 and Redding’s ABC affiliate, KRCR Channel 7, has been settled after a month of bickering and lack of airing of San Francisco 49ers football games.

An agreement was reached between the two companies Sunday night and the signals were once again picked up for broadcast by DISH, Bonten Media CEO Randall Bongarten said on Monday (Jan. 13).

“We are really pleased we are able to resolve this disagreement and we certainly know how disruptive this has been to subscribers of DISH,” Bongarten said in a phone interview. “We apologize, but we are glad it has been resolved.

“We made an agreement fairly early this morning, just after midnight,” he said. “I was really hoping we’d get it done before this weekend’s [football] games.”

The dispute was over Bonten’s asking DISH to pay it three cents per customer per day to air the stations. In a full-page ad that ran for weeks in North State newspapers, including the Chico Enterprise-Record, DISH said: “ABC 7 AND FOX20 WANT YOU TO PAY 3X MORE FOR THE SAME SHOWS.” The ad urged customers to call Andrew Stewart, the station manager, to voice their concerns.

At the same time, KRCR posted this message on its website: “Dish Network has chosen not to provide the KRCR and FOX20 signals and there has been misleading information sent to you about why they have made this choice. It is important to provide you with the facts about Bonten Media’s negotiations with DISH.” Stewart said at the time that the fees

being requested were on par with what other signal carriers were paying.

“We are asking for three cents per day per subscriber, which is a fair price, and it’s commensurate with what we’re charging other satellite and cable companies we do business with,” he said. “It’s not anything that is outlandish.”

Stewart said he, too, is glad the impasse is over, but could not provide details on the contract.

“I will say we are happy to come to an agreement,” Stewart said when contacted by phone. “We apologize for the loss of service over the past few weeks.”

CEO Bongarten said only that the contract is a “multiyear agreement” and could not go into detail.

Back on Dec. 8, the day the stations went dead on DISH, FOX20 was slated to carry a football game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Seattle Seahawks, arguably the biggest contest of the season for each team up to that point.

That blackout, and those that followed, caught the attention of many local football fans who subscribe to DISH. For more than a month, the Colorado-based DISH and Bonten bickered and blamed each other for the impasse.

The lack of NFL broadcasts on FOX20 had local football fans scrambling on Sundays to bars and restaurants such as The Graduate, where they could catch the game.

Ironically, perhaps, the contract agreement came one week before the 49ers and the Seahawks meet again, this time for the NFC championship.

—TOM GASCOYNE tomg@newsreview.com

WEDNESDAY – SUNDAY JANUARY 22 – 26 CHICO, CALIFORNIA

BIRDS & BOOKS OPENING MIXER AT PATRICK RANCH WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22, 2014 | 5:00–8:00PM PATRICK RANCH 10381 MIDWAY, LOCATED BETWEEN CHICO & DURHAM Free Admission for all festival participants and general public. Glenwood House Tour $5. Start your winter birding adventure by attending the Snow Goose Festival Birds & Books Opening Mixer! Meet local and regional authors who have touched upon a wide range of subjects in our natural world. They will share their passion and sell their books. Enjoy light refreshments featuring local products, live music, and no-host bar.

Pull up a chair in Pat’s Barn and enjoy the outstanding avian wonders of our area during the Bird Photo Slideshow. Even if you can’t make it on a field trip or attend a workshop presentation, the Birds & Books Mixer is a great place to introduce yourself and your family to the joys of birding and our natural world.

Book Door prizes will be awarded. Ample parking is available.

PACIFIC FLYWAY WILDLIFE ART EXHIBIT JANUARY 17, 2014 TO FEBRUARY 1, 2014 AVENUE 9 GALLERY & ART GUILD 180 E. 9TH AVENUE (AT THE ESPLANADE), CHICO OPEN: WEDNESDAY - SATURDAY: 12:00-5:00PM FRIDAY, JAN. 24, 2014, 12:00-8:00PM SUNDAY, JAN. 26, 2014, 12:00-5:00PM Feast your eyes on wonderful art by artists whose subjects include wildlife and habitat along the Pacific Flyway. This impressive two-week exhibit located at the Avenue 9 Gallery in Chico, will feature the work of over 55 artists in a variety of media, including sculpture, clay, oils, fiber arts, watercolor, acrylics, mixed media, glass, and photography.

ART OPENING & WELCOME RECEPTION FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 2014 5:00 - 8:00 PM, FREE TO THE PUBLIC AVENUE 9 GALLERY & ART GUILD 180 E. 9TH AVENUE (AT THE ESPLANADE), CHICO You are invited to attend the Pacific Flyway Art & Welcome Reception, Friday, January 24, 5:00 – 8 pm.

View the inspiring collection of artwork, enjoy refreshments, live music, splendid conversations, and a no-host bar. Bring a friend and meet the artists, along with fellow festival participants, presenters, and field trip leaders. This is a truly special evening you won’t want to miss! There is ample free parking at the corner of 10th Avenue and the Esplanade, courtesy of Chico Nut Company.

“GATHERING OF WINGS” BANQUET & SILENT AUCTION SATURDAY, JANUARY 25 | 5:30–10:00PM BELL MEMORIAL UNION AUDITORIUM, CSU, CHICO CORNER OF 2ND STREET AND CHESTNUT STREET, CHICO, CA COST PER PERSON: $37 ADULT, $20 YOUTH (17 YEARS AND YOUNGER) AND STUDENTS WITH ID BEER & WINE (NO HOST) Don’t miss the biggest event of the Snow Goose Festival, our Gathering of Wings Banquet featuring keynote speaker, Debi Shearwater, pelagic birding pioneer and long-time advocate. This treasured evening is a mix of great food, great company and great entertainment and is anticipated by many as the one chance per year they have to visit and catch up with fellow birders and friends in the community. Join field trip leaders, workshop presenters and all our hard-working committee members and volunteers in celebrating this special evening.

“WILDLIFE WONDERS III”

The local offices of FOX20 and KRCR Channel 7 in downtown Chico.

PHOTO BY TOM GASCOYNE

JANUARY 3 – JANUARY 25, 2014 ORLAND ART CENTER 732 4TH ST. ORLAND, CA 95963 WINTER HOURS: TUESDAYS – SATURDAYS 1:00 – 6:00 PM WWW.ORLANDARTCENTER.COM/EVENTS This show partners with Chico’s Snow Goose Festival and features well-known Sacramento wildlife artist Jeffrey Roderick.

January 16, 2014

CN&R 11

EARTH WATCH

GREENWAYS

PLUMPED WITH POND-WATER INJECTIONS

In yet another round of bringing to light questionable food-processing practices, Chinese authorities raided an illegal sheep slaughterhouse that was increasing the weight of its butchered meat by injecting it with bacteriaridden pond water.

The tainted-sheep-meat scandal comes on the heels of recent news that Walmart apologized after a Chinese donkey-meat supplier was found adding fox meat to its donkey-meat snacks sold by the mega-retailer in China, according to the UK’s Guardian newspaper.

During the raid of the Guangdong abattoir that resulted in the arrest of seven people, authorities found 30 sheep carcasses injected with dirty water, the equipment to give the injections and forged meat-inspection stamps.

Debi Shearwater photographing King penguins at Salisbury Plain on the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia in 2007.

PHOTO COURTESY OF SHEARWATER JOURNEYS

CONTINUOUS GROWTH QUESTIONED

A growing number of voices from across the political spectrum are suggesting that constant economic growth is ultimately harmful to the natural systems needed to maintain life on Earth.

“The physical pressure that human activities put on the environment can’t possibly be sustained,” said Gretchen Daily, a Stanford University ecologist quoted in an article at SFGate.com. She is one of an increasing number of prominent people—including Pope Francis, Berkeley activists and some corporate CEOs— “questioning the premise that growth, with no consideration for its environmental consequences, automatically equals prosperity,” the article noted.

Along those lines, ecologists are warning that the ability of the natural world “to absorb wastes and regenerate natural resources is being exhausted.”

To cite just one example, if commercial fishing continues at its current rate, it is estimated that fisheries will be exhausted within the lifetime of today’s children.

SHRINKING OF THE MIGHTY COLORADO

The Colorado River—the only major river in the southwestern U.S.—is falling victim to 14 years of continuous drought.

Named early last year by Washington, D.C.based conservation organization American Rivers as the nation’s most endangered waterway, the once mightily flowing Colorado River (pictured) has shrunk in some places “to a murky brown trickle,” according to The New York Times. With current drought conditions projected to be “the harbinger of a new, drier era in which the Colorado’s flow will be substantially and permanently diminished,” as the article put it, federal authorities are going to decrease this year, for the first time ever, the amount of water flowing into Lake Mead—which supplies nearly all of Las Vegas’ water—from the Lake Powell reservoir further upstream.

By next year, Lake Mead’s water could be rationed to the states of Nevada and Arizona, which would be another first.

Send your eco-friendly news tips to Christine G.K. LaPado-Breglia at christinel@newsreview.com.

12 CN&R January 16, 2014

For the love of seabirds Keynote speaker at upcoming Snow Goose Festival is pelagic birding guide by

Evan Tuchinsky

Dfor seabirds, so much so that she changed her last name to match one of the ebi Shearwater has a passion

species she seeks off the California coast.

“I thought that it was going to be easy to pronounce, spelled the way it’s pronounced, but I was wrong,” Shearwater said with a laugh. “People mess it up— they call me Sharewater, Lovewater, Stillwater, Deepwater, all sorts of things.”

Turns out the surname she chose and the one she was born with—Millichap— have a connection: “It is very possible that the Millichaps came from the Isle of Man [in the United Kingdom] where the Manx shearwater famously bred.” She kept her middle name, Love, which was her grandmother’s maiden name—and also describes the feeling she has for shearwaters and other birds that soar above the world’s oceans.

Shearwater will share that zeal next Saturday (Jan. 25) as the keynote speaker for the Snow Goose Festival banquet at the Bell Memorial Union on the Chico State University campus. Though migratory geese differ from seabirds, she hopes to inspire other bird-watchers with her presentation.

Shearwater, whose home base is Hollister, worked as a dental hygienist for 10 years before turning her hobby into a full-time profession. Through Shearwater Journeys, the expedition service she founded, she’s

guided trips to such places as Antarctica, the Galapagos Islands and New Zealand’s sub-Antarctic islands. This spring, she’ll lead an expedition to Greenland.

CN&R:What first got you interested in seabirds?

Shearwater: Short story is I went on a pelagic trip, a boat trip out of Monterey Bay, in 1976, and I just thought it was completely magical. …

I was a bird-watcher and already looking at other birds. There was a section in my field guide that was all about shearwaters, storm petrels, skuas, and I thought, “I’d like to see those birds, too”—the quest for filling in the blanks.

After I did the first trip, I asked local bird-watchers, “How do you get on more of these trips?” They said it was very difficult; not many of those trips existed. I said, “Well, let’s do our own!” So I started doing my own trips, also in 1976, and then in 1978 the first rare bird that I saw showed up: a streaked shearwater, which Event info:

The 15th annual Snow Goose Festival of the Pacific Flyway runs Jan. 22-26, in and around Chico. Events include 62 field trips spanning six counties, plus workshops, presentations, exhibits and the Jan. 25 dinner at Chico State where Debi Shearwater will make the keynote address. In addition, Chico’s Avenue 9 Gallery hosts the Pacific Flyway Wildlife Art Exhibit tomorrow (Jan. 17) through Feb. 1, with a reception Jan. 24. For festival details and registration information, visit www.snowgoosefestival.org or call 345-1865.

normally occurs in Japan.

What drew you to the Snow Goose Festival? There’s not a seashore in the North State.

No, it doesn’t have anything to do with geese really, what I do. They invited me to be speaker—I’m the keynote speaker at many bird festivals—and I’ll be speaking about how we started looking at seabirds years ago and how are seabirds doing today.

The most threatened birds in the world are seabirds—albatrosses and shearwaters especially. Most people have not seen and probably will never see an albatross, and yet most of this planet is covered with water, not dirt. So I’m trying to bring more awareness to the general population, and bird-watchers in particular, about these birds that are facing monumental environmental issues.

What are some of the issues they’re facing?

Where do we start? [chuckles].

Seabirds are generally long-lived birds, but intentionally or accidentally, humans have introduced mammalian predators on breeding islands where these birds nest—like, say, long ago through shipwrecks: rats, cats, pigs, goats, mongoose—and the birds have developed no defenses against them because they never had to, they didn’t evolve together. So this is one of their major problems; they’re being decimated on their breeding grounds.

GREENWAYS continued on page 14

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14 CN&R January 16, 2014

REP

JLD

CNR ISSUE

10.23.08

continued from page 12

[And] there’s plastic. Everyone knows about the big garbage patch in the Pacific, but there’s plastic everywhere. So the albatrosses that nest on Midway [Atoll] go out to sea to feed, and a big cigarette lighter flashes like bioluminescence in the ocean water and looks like a squid to the albatross; it eats it, goes back to the nest and regurgitates that to its chick. Chicks are found to be full of all sorts of plastic, and of course, they die.

There are a lot of problems; we haven’t even gotten to the warming of the oceans. It’s pretty much an endless list, but there are many, many, many successes.

Such as?

New Zealanders in particular have developed a way to eradicate rats from islands, and this is going on in many places in the world.

Believe it or not, this needs to happen right off the coast of California—there’s an introduced house mouse on the Farallon Islands that needs to be eradicated to protect our endemic population of ashy storm petrels.

Are there other things that can be done?

People on their own can begin to think of plastic in their lives, and how much they use plastic. That’s big on my list. You’re still going to have your toothbrush, but all these small disposable items that people use … the “K-Cups” from coffeemakers are the next big cigarette lighter, in my opinion. Those things are deadly bad.

People can donate money to seabird-conservation organizations

ECO EVENT ABOUT WOODPECKERS Head over to the Chico Creek Nature Center (1968 E. Eighth St.) on Saturday, Jan. 18, at 10 a.m., to take part in its hourand-a-half-long Woodpecker’s Guide to the Universe Hike in Bidwell Park.

Learn about woodpecker identification and why the cute, noisy birds are critical to the habitats in which they live. Also, meet Woody, the CCNC’s acorn woodpecker.

Suggested donation: $10. Call 891-4671 or email info@bidwell park.org for more info.

that have to raise a lot of money to do this eradication. It’s possible for someone to purchase a hectare of rat-free land on South Georgia [a sub-Antarctic island]. That’s another way people can help.

For people who are inland, what’s the concern for seabirds?

Why should people who don’t see them all the time care about them the way you do?

You don’t have to have seen something to love it. I love dinosaurs—I had a little dinosaur set when I was a kid and have loved them to this day. I’ve never seen a dinosaur, but if there was a dinosaur alive today, I sure as heck wouldn’t want to see him disappear! You don’t have to see it to want to keep it and preserve it. Ω

UNCOMMON SENSE Certify your habitat!

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needs four basic things to survive and thrive: food, water, cover and places to raise babies. Fittingly, the National Wildlife Federation will recognize any site—a backyard, a school garden, a local park, a rooftop garden and so on—meeting these four requirements as a Certified Wildlife Habitat.

Perks—besides the satisfaction of doing the right thing and getting to observe wildlife up close— include a free oneyear NWF membership and inclusion in NWF’s National Registry of Habitats. Go to www.nwf.org/garden forwildlife to learn more about creating and certifying your habitat.

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tin Luther King Jr., there will be a Beloved Community Celebration and March, sponsored by the local MLK Unity Group, Trinity United Methodist Church and the Chico Peace and Justice Center. An opening ceremony will take place at 3 p.m. at Chico City Plaza, after which attendees will march to Trinity United Methodist Church (285 E. Fifth St.) for an “inspirational program” beginning at 4 p.m. Children are welcome to this free event that includes live music and a free dinner. Call 893-3530 for more info.

Listen—are you breathing just a little, and calling it a life? —Mary Oliver

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FEROCIOUS HEAT KILLS BATS In yet another example of animals being affected worldwide by climate change, tens of thousands of large bats known as flying foxes recently perished in the Australian province of Queensland during a recent brutal heat wave.

“As most of the U.S. freezes and the UK drowns in floods, a blistering heat wave in Australia is so bad 100,000 cooked bats have fallen out of the sky, dead,” reported the UK’s Daily Mail on Jan. 8.

“The heat wave was basically a catastrophe for all the bat colonies in southeast Queensland,” Flying foxes like this one were dropping by said Michael Beatty, spokesman for the tens of thousands during a recent heat the Royal Society for the Prevenwave in Australia. tion of Cruelty to Animals. “That’s obviously going to have a pretty disturbing impact on those colonies and those colonies are vital to our ecosystem.”

“The flying foxes are very vulnerable to heat waves,” wrote my Aunt Dee, who lives just off the coast of Queensland on Lamb Island, in an email, after I sent her a link to a Sydney Morning Herald story about the flyingfox tragedy. “Poor little things—nowhere to go when it is as rough as at present.”

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As one of the signers of the online CREDO Mobilize Ban Fracking in Butte County petition, I received a follow-up email from local anti-fracking activist Joni Stellar advising me of upcoming activities related to getting a fracking-moratorium initiative put on November’s ballot.

“Now it is time to begin circulating official petitions, paper ones, all over Butte County,” Stellar wrote. “We need 15,000 signatures by the end of May in order to get our fracking moratorium on the ballot.”

“Big Oil has plans to massively expand fracking in a huge section of the state—roughly 1,750 square miles from Southern to Central California, from Modesto to San Diego County— putting our precious water, farms and health at risk,” the online petition says. “Already, Butte County has at least one deep-disposal well site, pumping toxins below the vital Tuscan Aquifer. … Let’s not allow Butte County to become another sad victim of this fossil-fuel rush.”

Stellar is seeking volunteers to help gather signatures, plan educational events, make phone calls and so on. A signature-gathering training session will be held Thursday, Jan. 16 (tonight), from 6:30-8:30 p.m., at the Independent Living Services of Northern California’s Jennifer Roberts Building (1161 East Ave.).

Send Stellar an email at organize@credoaction.com or log onto www.facebook.com/frackfreebuttecounty for more info and to participate. Go to www.credomobilize.com/petitions/ban-fracking-in-buttecounty to see/sign petition.

jewelry • radios • blankets • antiques January 16, 2014

CN&R 15

THE PULSE

HEALTHLINES Left: Skyway House’s new six-bed substance-abuse treatment facility, Serenity House, is on 40 acres of beautiful property north of Chico.

AVIAN FLU FLIES TO CANADA

The death of a person in western Canada following a trip to China was the first deadly case of H5N1 avian flu in North America, Canadian health officials confirmed.

Canada Minister of Health Rona Ambrose said the individual had traveled to Beijing in December and returned home to Alberta, according to RT News. H5NI typically targets domestic poultry in parts of Asia and the Middle East and rarely infects humans. There were 38 human cases reported last year, 24 of which were deadly.

Though officials will be contacting everyone who was aboard the same flights as the deceased individual, they believe no one is at risk.

“Avian influenza is not easily transmitted from person to person,” said Dr. James Talbot, Alberta’s chief medical officer of health.

COCKROACHES FOR DINNER?

A Foster Farms chicken-processing plant in Livingston was closed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Jan. 8 for “egregious insanitary conditions.”

In a letter, USDA inspectors noted they found live cockroaches “in and around the processing areas, [which demonstrates] the firm failed to maintain an effective pest-control program,” according to FoodPoisoningBulletin.com. At the time of the inspection, slaughtering operations were underway.

The plant in question was associated with at least one salmonella outbreak last year, and the recent inspection was not the first time cockroaches were discovered at the facility—separate inspections on Sept. 14, Nov. 4, Dec. 28 and Jan. 7 found cockroaches “on multiple days (including two consecutive days) at multiple locations within the establishment.”

Foster Farms said it is conducting “enhanced sanitizing” and hopes to reopen the facility soon.

WHOOPING COUGH HITS HOME

A recent spike in cases of pertussis, or whooping cough, in Butte County has prompted health officials to release a reminder that the illness is particularly dangerous to young children and pregnant women.

As of Dec. 31, a total of 29 cases of pertussis had been reported, the highest number since the statewide pertussis outbreak in 2010, according to a Butte County Public Health Department press release. Initial symptoms of pertussis—runny nose, sneezing, low fever and mild cough—are similar to those of the common cold, but can continue for weeks or months. Severe symptoms include difficulty breathing, turning red or blue in the face, a “whoop” sound when coughing, extreme fatigue and sweating spells.

Pertussis is easily spread by coughing or sneezing; children under 12 months old and those with weak immune systems are at risk of severe life-threatening complications. Go to the county’s website at www.tinyurl.com/ bcwhooping for more information.

Send your health-related news tips to Howard Hardee at howardh@newsreview.com.

16 CN&R January 16, 2014

Below: Skyway House Executive Director Jennifer Carvalho and Edward Sprague, director of treatment services.

Recovering in style Skyway House opens luxurious new substance-abuse treatment facility story and photos by

Howard Hardee howardh@ newsreview.com

AMunicipal Airport, there is a house on a property just off Cohasset Road that few miles north of Chico

could pass for a vacation resort. Comprising 40 acres of land overlooking the Northern Sacramento Valley, the grounds are crisscrossed by hiking trails, and include a small lake, a fire pit, a volleyball court and a horseshoe pit.

The house itself is large and modern, with four bedrooms—the largest of which is outfitted with a Jacuzzi-style bathtub—a bright and open recreation room, a sizeable kitchen and southern-facing windows throughout.

Though the grounds are beautiful and the house itself decidedly luxurious, the property is no vacation destination. In fact, when residents check into the Skyway House’s new six-bed drug-and-alcohol-addiction recovery facility, Serenity House, they may well do so during their darkest hour.

It is the hope of Serenity House’s counselors and staff that, by admitting themselves for a lengthy treatment period ranging from 30 days to half a year, clients are turning the page on a destructive and unhealthy chapter in their lives. During a CN&R tour of Serenity House on Jan. 9, the day of the facility’s ribbon-cutting celebration, Skyway House Executive Director Jennifer Carvalho explained the nonprofit’s approach of “treating the whole person.”

“Part of helping clients with the recovery process is teaching them a new way of life,” she said, noting that a recovering

addict faces a broad array of psychological, biological and social challenges.

Often, such individuals have long neglected wellness basics like exercise, a regular sleep schedule and eating well.

And so the staff works to create a family atmosphere based on simple activities some may take for granted, such as going for a walk, reading, and sitting down to share a meal with friends and family.

“One of the areas people who are in active addiction neglect is food—how they eat and when they eat,” Carvalho said.

“We really try to get them on a scheduled meal time, sit down three times a day for a healthy meal. … It’s also important our clients are getting fresh air and exercise; they’re really trying to get back some vital health.”

Edward Sprague, director of treatment services, said two counselors are on hand 24 hours a day, leading group therapy and education sessions and providing one-onone attention. “Treatment plans are individualized; it’s not a cookie-cutter kind of treatment,” he said. “With the small

client-to-staff ratio, we can really tailor to specific needs.”

As a nonprofit organization, the

Skyway House has offered outpatient services, recovery or “transitional living” residences and residential services for addiction treatment to the greater Chico community for 20 years.

Since the transitional-living options involve staying in a large group room with multiple bunk beds, Skyway House has long referred clients looking for more private treatment out of the area. But clients often express a desire to “stay local, stay engaged with their business or visit their family and friends,” Carvalho said. So, over the past few years, the organization explored ways to serve “the population that wanted a more discreet treatment episode.”

After an exhaustive search for the right facility, Skyway House struck a leasing agreement with a woman who, with her HEALTHLINES continued on page 18

APPOINTMENT DAY FOR PLAY Chico Area Recreation and Park District (CARD), Let’s Move! Chico and Just Jump It—a local toy company with products that promote agility, balance and coordination—will collaborate by hosting Play Day, an outdoor class encouraging outdoor activity for kids ages 5 to 12, on Sunday, Jan. 19, at the CARD Community Center (545 Vallombrosa Ave.) from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Admission is free.

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continued from page 16

husband, built the home that is now Serenity House for rearing their children—now grown and moved on. Recognizing the property’s appeal, the owner considered possibly renting the house as a yoga retreat; as such, she is “amenable to what we’re doing here,” Carvalho said.

The location is ideal in that it’s close to town—making group trips to Narcotics Anonymous and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings or visits to Bidwell Park easily manageable—but isolated enough that “clients are shielded from the world here while they’re getting well,” she said.

Serenity House’s first three clients moved in on Jan. 6, Sprague said, and they have settled in nicely. “They see what we all see—it’s a very nice house and view—and already, the three clients have really started to bond.”

The companionships formed between residents are an important benefit of the small number of clients and extended stays, Carvalho said.

“They go through this really stressful, life-changing experience together, and they really do bond and support and uphold each other.”

Treatment plans at Serenity

House are available in 30-day increments and run between

Learn more:

Go to www.skywayhouse.org or call 898-8326 for more information about Serenity House or Skyway House’s other programs and treatment options.

$6,000 and $12,000, depending on length of stay, whether the client wants a shared or private room, and how much of the cost is covered by insurance. (Carvalho emphasized that separate treatment options are available at much lower price points, as well.)

“Twenty years ago, Skyway House was only a six-month program because all the data shows the longer the treatment episode, the more successful the client will be in long-term recovery,” Carvalho said. “We really want to encourage [clients] to stay here as long as they can.”

There is a screening process, Sprague said, to determine whether the client does indeed have a substance-abuse problem and wants treatment for it. In other words, Serenity House is reserved for those genuinely in need of help, though Carvalho acknowledged the facility likely would also appeal to those under less tumultuous circumstances.

“In fact, I’m thinking about checking myself in,” she joked. Ω

WEEKLY DOSE H20-drinking tips

Are you drinking enough water? Chances are, because the weather has cooled, you’re not. Water has a number of benefits, including keeping you hydrated, suppressing appetite, and reducing the risk of certain diseases, such as cancer. Here are some tips to encourage drinking water: Swap it: Drink water instead of soda, juice, milk or other liquids you’d ordinarily consume during the day.

Flavor it: Add a sprig of mint or slices of cucumbers or citrus, such as lemons, limes or oranges, to give water a splash of flavor.

Carry it: Keep a refillable water bottle with you at all times, and drink from it regularly.

Set a goal: Want to drink eight glasses a day? Keep a tally to keep you on task.

Sources: WebMD.com and www.health.com

18 CN&R January 16, 2014

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CN&R 19

Second chances How prison realignment has led tolife-changing programs in Butte County story and photos by TOM GASCOYNE tomg@newsreview.com

W

hen the state Legislature passed the prisonrealignment law, Assembly Bill 109, in 2011, ordering those convicted of low-level crimes to be sentenced to county jails rather than state prisons, the Butte County Sheriff’s Office took heed. The 614-bed jail was going to be greatly impacted.

Sheriff Jerry Smith, Undersheriff Kory Honea and Capt. Andy Duch had to get creative to handle the increase.

“We knew this was coming,” said Smith in a recent interview with Honea and Duch at the newly built Day Reporting Center in the old Juvenile Hall building in Oroville.

“Kory and I had the jail staff with us and I said, ‘We need to be prepared for this.’ I asked Kory to assemble a crew and come up with some alternative solutions to custody.”

In early 2012, BCSO formed the Alternative Custody Supervision (ACS) program, which allows as many as 200 convicts to serve their sentences at home, wearing an ankle monitor and checking in daily at the reporting center. The now 2-year-old program has been a great success in the eyes of the three lawmen, who say the relationship between jailer and the jailed has changed tremendously since the old days of “book ’em, lock ’em up and throw away the key.”

“Frankly, that was a big move for me personally, because I never thought outside the traditional boundaries of where we are at in the 20 CN&R January 16, 2014

incarceration business,” Smith said.

“And that’s because I never had to.”

At the Day Reporting Center, participants are offered classes ranging from College Readiness to Moral Reconation Therapy (MRT).

The goal is to give them the tools they need to stay out of jail and to change their lives for the better.

There is a social ambiance in the center’s cafeteria, where bologna or peanut-butter sandwiches are served between classes and inmates and deputies joke and laugh, make small talk and recognize their common humanity.

Smith said it was Honea’s idea to renovate the section of Juvenile Hall that was scheduled for demolition.

The remodel was done with inmate labor and state funding from AB 109.

“They changed my mind about

Left to right: Butte County Sheriff Jerry Smith, Undersheriff Kory Honea, and Capt. Andy Duch discuss the county’s efforts to make room in the jail.

where we ought to be as far as incarcerating people or not incarcerating people,” he said.

Honea called the project “a collaborative effort.”

“We sat down and started finding ways to solve the problem, which is

ultimately how we got to this point,” Honea said. “As the sheriff noted, relatively little taxpayer money went into this. I think, all told, we’ve spent about $250,000 renovating the Day Reporting Center to get it to where it’s at now, and if you know anything about government projects, $250,000 is not a lot of money.”

Duch said the project came in under budget and ahead of schedule.

“The demolition, repainting and rehab was all done by inmates,” he said. “We paid a contractor to do the floors, but the inmates jackhammered out the old cement beds in juvenile hall.”

One of those inmates, said Honea, had spent time in the facility as a youth.

“And now he’s back turning it into a Day Reporting Center, and

our thought on that was, well, this guy began his criminal career or life of crime by going into that facility, maybe we can help him end his life of crime with this kind of complete turnaround.”

On a recent Monday, inmate

Brian Storey, 46, was in the Day Reporting Center cafeteria, which he had just cleaned up as part of his debt to society. The cafeteria offers a couple of vending machines, a refrigerator and a bookshelf holding paperbacks. Storey was wearing a Green Bay Packers stocking cap, the day after the Packers had lost to the 49ers in an NFL playoff game.

Storey said his troubles began in August, when he was arrested on a domestic-violence-related charge of corporal injury. He spent two

months in jail and then was offered to join the Sheriff’s Work Alternative Program (SWAP), through which he would serve 80 days of service. But because he has a drywall business that calls for him to go to work across the county, Storey believed SWAP was taking too long to complete his term. Working in the field with SWAP prevented him from doing drywall, should a call come in for his service. Instead, he now checks in daily at the center, where he can take calls for his business.

“I’ve got 19 days left total of the program,” he said. “They keep me here every day. I come here and then go home. I’ve got a teenage kid at home, so if I’m not there, things go to hell quickly.”

Storey said he realizes his violation on New Year’s Day could have led to his dismissal from the program.

“They are being firm but fair,” he said. “I’m not saying I like it, because I’d rather be working. I’d rather be free. I’ve been in this program for a couple months, but it’s working very well for a selfemployed guy. Well, it was until I broke the rules. Before, I could get a phone call for work saying I need to run to Gridley or to Biggs or to Chico, and I could pick up the phone and call sheriff monitors and tell them I had to go here, here and here.”

Now, Storey goes to the center at 8 a.m. and stays until 4 p.m.

On this day, he also cleaned a

classroom and the ACS office, all the while answering his work phone.

“I can still run my business from here because I have my employees,” he said. “I dealt with the teenage problems, read some books, cleaned up this room and looked at the clock.”

He said his son can cause trouble, then stopped, shrugged his shoulders and said, “I was 16 once.”

“Nobody wants to be in jail,” he said. “It’s a good program. The rules are not that hard to follow. Don’t drink, don’t go home and use drugs.

Up until I screwed up, it’s been a great program for me. It beats being in jail, and they really work with me. Hey, but I screwed up. And they let me know it. Nobody jumps your ass for being a bonehead, but I was a bonehead.”

At that point, Duch walked up to Storey and introduced himself.

“This is one of the things I like about ACS,” Duch said in reference to Storey. “A guy can literally be an inmate. He’s actually in jail right now, but he’s making a living, paying taxes and supporting employees.

You can’t do that if you’re locked up in jail. Plus, he would cost taxpayers $92 a day to be locked up over there in the jail. He costs taxpayers $22 a day to stay outside.”

Tilly Hutchinson is a 33-year-

old single mother of two from Chico who’s been in the ACS program for the past six months. She is sentenced to remain in the program

Right: Tilly Hutchinson will serve in the ACS program until October of 2015.

Below: Darryl Johnson holds a book used in one of his ACS classes.

until Oct. 29, 2015.

“What brought me here was my drug use,” she said while sitting in the Day Reporting Center just after attending a Moral Reconation Therapy class. “I’d been using off and on for the past 16 years. I’ve been in and out of prison a couple of times.”

Hutchinson has a 15-year-old daughter and a 19-year-old son.

“I had my son when I was 14 and my daughter when I was 17.

My drug use, unfortunately, has been a part of their lives. I got clean enough to get them back. For a long time, I considered myself a functioning addict. I had the car, the house, the kids, but then my drug use would take over.”

Hutchinson said her son’s father was murdered when her son was 2 years old, and her daughter’s father left town when she was 3 years old. She is from Chico and graduated from Fair View High School. She attended Butte College for a year, then started smoking marijuana, which, she said, led to the use of methamphetamine and liquor.

Hutchinson said she got into trouble for identity theft using checks “REALIGNMENT” continued on page 22 January 16, 2014

CN&R 21

Second chances How prison realignment has led tolife-changing programs in Butte County story and photos by TOM GASCOYNE tomg@newsreview.com

W

hen the state Legislature passed the prisonrealignment law, Assembly Bill 109, in 2011, ordering those convicted of low-level crimes to be sentenced to county jails rather than state prisons, the Butte County Sheriff’s Office took heed. The 614-bed jail was going to be greatly impacted.

Sheriff Jerry Smith, Undersheriff Kory Honea and Capt. Andy Duch had to get creative to handle the increase.

“We knew this was coming,” said Smith in a recent interview with Honea and Duch at the newly built Day Reporting Center in the old Juvenile Hall building in Oroville.

“Kory and I had the jail staff with us and I said, ‘We need to be prepared for this.’ I asked Kory to assemble a crew and come up with some alternative solutions to custody.”

In early 2012, BCSO formed the Alternative Custody Supervision (ACS) program, which allows as many as 200 convicts to serve their sentences at home, wearing an ankle monitor and checking in daily at the reporting center. The now 2-year-old program has been a great success in the eyes of the three lawmen, who say the relationship between jailer and the jailed has changed tremendously since the old days of “book ’em, lock ’em up and throw away the key.”

“Frankly, that was a big move for me personally, because I never thought outside the traditional boundaries of where we are at in the 20 CN&R January 16, 2014

incarceration business,” Smith said.

“And that’s because I never had to.”

At the Day Reporting Center, participants are offered classes ranging from College Readiness to Moral Reconation Therapy (MRT).

The goal is to give them the tools they need to stay out of jail and to change their lives for the better.

There is a social ambiance in the center’s cafeteria, where bologna or peanut-butter sandwiches are served between classes and inmates and deputies joke and laugh, make small talk and recognize their common humanity.

Smith said it was Honea’s idea to renovate the section of Juvenile Hall that was scheduled for demolition.

The remodel was done with inmate labor and state funding from AB 109.

“They changed my mind about

Left to right: Butte County Sheriff Jerry Smith, Undersheriff Kory Honea, and Capt. Andy Duch discuss the county’s efforts to make room in the jail.

where we ought to be as far as incarcerating people or not incarcerating people,” he said.

Honea called the project “a collaborative effort.”

“We sat down and started finding ways to solve the problem, which is

ultimately how we got to this point,” Honea said. “As the sheriff noted, relatively little taxpayer money went into this. I think, all told, we’ve spent about $250,000 renovating the Day Reporting Center to get it to where it’s at now, and if you know anything about government projects, $250,000 is not a lot of money.”

Duch said the project came in under budget and ahead of schedule.

“The demolition, repainting and rehab was all done by inmates,” he said. “We paid a contractor to do the floors, but the inmates jackhammered out the old cement beds in juvenile hall.”

One of those inmates, said Honea, had spent time in the facility as a youth.

“And now he’s back turning it into a Day Reporting Center, and

our thought on that was, well, this guy began his criminal career or life of crime by going into that facility, maybe we can help him end his life of crime with this kind of complete turnaround.”

On a recent Monday, inmate

Brian Storey, 46, was in the Day Reporting Center cafeteria, which he had just cleaned up as part of his debt to society. The cafeteria offers a couple of vending machines, a refrigerator and a bookshelf holding paperbacks. Storey was wearing a Green Bay Packers stocking cap, the day after the Packers had lost to the 49ers in an NFL playoff game.

Storey said his troubles began in August, when he was arrested on a domestic-violence-related charge of corporal injury. He spent two

months in jail and then was offered to join the Sheriff’s Work Alternative Program (SWAP), through which he would serve 80 days of service. But because he has a drywall business that calls for him to go to work across the county, Storey believed SWAP was taking too long to complete his term. Working in the field with SWAP prevented him from doing drywall, should a call come in for his service. Instead, he now checks in daily at the center, where he can take calls for his business.

“I’ve got 19 days left total of the program,” he said. “They keep me here every day. I come here and then go home. I’ve got a teenage kid at home, so if I’m not there, things go to hell quickly.”

Storey said he realizes his violation on New Year’s Day could have led to his dismissal from the program.

“They are being firm but fair,” he said. “I’m not saying I like it, because I’d rather be working. I’d rather be free. I’ve been in this program for a couple months, but it’s working very well for a selfemployed guy. Well, it was until I broke the rules. Before, I could get a phone call for work saying I need to run to Gridley or to Biggs or to Chico, and I could pick up the phone and call sheriff monitors and tell them I had to go here, here and here.”

Now, Storey goes to the center at 8 a.m. and stays until 4 p.m.

On this day, he also cleaned a

classroom and the ACS office, all the while answering his work phone.

“I can still run my business from here because I have my employees,” he said. “I dealt with the teenage problems, read some books, cleaned up this room and looked at the clock.”

He said his son can cause trouble, then stopped, shrugged his shoulders and said, “I was 16 once.”

“Nobody wants to be in jail,” he said. “It’s a good program. The rules are not that hard to follow. Don’t drink, don’t go home and use drugs.

Up until I screwed up, it’s been a great program for me. It beats being in jail, and they really work with me. Hey, but I screwed up. And they let me know it. Nobody jumps your ass for being a bonehead, but I was a bonehead.”

At that point, Duch walked up to Storey and introduced himself.

“This is one of the things I like about ACS,” Duch said in reference to Storey. “A guy can literally be an inmate. He’s actually in jail right now, but he’s making a living, paying taxes and supporting employees.

You can’t do that if you’re locked up in jail. Plus, he would cost taxpayers $92 a day to be locked up over there in the jail. He costs taxpayers $22 a day to stay outside.”

Tilly Hutchinson is a 33-year-

old single mother of two from Chico who’s been in the ACS program for the past six months. She is sentenced to remain in the program

Right: Tilly Hutchinson will serve in the ACS program until October of 2015.

Below: Darryl Johnson holds a book used in one of his ACS classes.

until Oct. 29, 2015.

“What brought me here was my drug use,” she said while sitting in the Day Reporting Center just after attending a Moral Reconation Therapy class. “I’d been using off and on for the past 16 years. I’ve been in and out of prison a couple of times.”

Hutchinson has a 15-year-old daughter and a 19-year-old son.

“I had my son when I was 14 and my daughter when I was 17.

My drug use, unfortunately, has been a part of their lives. I got clean enough to get them back. For a long time, I considered myself a functioning addict. I had the car, the house, the kids, but then my drug use would take over.”

Hutchinson said her son’s father was murdered when her son was 2 years old, and her daughter’s father left town when she was 3 years old. She is from Chico and graduated from Fair View High School. She attended Butte College for a year, then started smoking marijuana, which, she said, led to the use of methamphetamine and liquor.

Hutchinson said she got into trouble for identity theft using checks “REALIGNMENT” continued on page 22 January 16, 2014

CN&R 21

“REALIGNMENT” continued from page 21 Left to right: Michael Manzella, Kori Kostiz and Tilly Hutchinson take part in a Moral Reconation Therapy class at the Day Reporting Center.

and credit cards.

“After I’d lose my job, that is how I would support myself,” she said. “[Through] that and selling drugs I was always running with the people who were making the drugs, so there was no cost for me. My life just went downhill.”

She is now in a residential Christian drug-treatment program in Oroville called The Father’s House.

“Between ACS and The Father’s House, I can see a complete transformation,” Hutchinson said.

She said the Moral Reconation Therapy class has helped her as well.

“It goes all the way back to when we were babies—how we learned to manipulate our parents by crying,” she said. “That is something I never thought of: going back to childhood memories to understand why we’ve done what we’ve done. If not for the leaders of the [treatment] program and the leaders here, I don’t think I would have made it. Half the time, I don’t even think about this thing on my ankle.

I’m doing it for the right reasons and really wanting change.”

Hutchinson said she is confident that she will make it through the next nearly two years of the ACS program.

“I’ve not had any trouble and have no desire to get into trouble,” she said. “We have up to three weeks to do each step for each class. I’m on step 12 in the MRT book.”

Hutchinson said she had just graduated from a class called Something for Nothing, which looks at why people steal.

“I’m still in that class to give support to others,” she said. “What they offer with ACS you’re not going to find anywhere else. To me, it’s very beneficial and offers a lot of good lessons that I would never be able to learn on my own.”

Her relationship with her children is recovering as well, Hutchinson said.

“They see the change. For a long time they didn’t trust me, they didn’t want to be around me. They thought that I would just mess up

and get in trouble again and end up back in jail or prison. They didn’t think that I was ever going to change. By doing this, and not getting into trouble, and having them come to church with me every Sunday, they are actually trusting me.

When they have issues, they call me and say, ‘Hey, Mom, what should I do?’

“The first time that happened, I just thought, ‘Oh, my God, my kid’s asking me what to do.’ I’ve got to be that positive role model for my kids now, because they are actually looking to me instead of looking away from me.”

Hutchinson spoke well of the

“Frankly, that was a big move for me personally, because I never thought outside the traditional boundaries of where we are at in the incarceration business. And that’s because I never had to.”

—Sheriff Jerry Smith officers involved in the program, particularly Deputy Vong Vang, who is assigned to check on her.

“He is amazing,” she said. “He is always there for me. I work at The Restored Boutique in Oroville and he comes down there to check on me to see how things are going.

He’ll stop by to chat or just to say ‘hi.’ If I need something, I can text him and he’ll respond.

“He told me, ‘I don’t just look at you as a criminal or inmate out here, because I see what you are capable of. I see what you are doing.’ Inside [the jail], they just see us behind walls and they don’t know us. They see our rap sheet and know why we are there, but they don’t know us personally.

Being out here, they get to know us.”

Darryl Johnson, 57, of Chico,

has a long history of criminal activity, mostly related to burglary. He started the ACS program last June and now has completed two classLeft to right: Butte County Sheriff’s Deputies Brian Parsons, Dave Mell and Bradley Rupp monitor at-home convicts both by GPS and unannounced visits to their residences.

22 CN&R January 16, 2014

es—Something for Nothing and Moral Reconation Therapy.

“It’s really helped me a lot because I learned about myself through the MRT book,” he said. “It teaches me how to go back to the people I stole from and how to make amends. I feel 100 percent better about myself.”

Johnson said he became quite proficient at shoplifting merchandise from stores and then returning for a cash refund.

“If you were the store manager, I’d say, “Hey, your kids are going to my kids’ school. I’d just work them and they’d trust me. I’d use a phony name. I’d approach the clerk with the merchandise I’d lifted and the clerk would call the manager and he’s, ‘Oh, that’s so-and-so; go ahead and take care of him.’”

“I’d get $400 back on merchandise I’d stolen, then buy $60 worth of stuff and then go fill my car up [with gas]. I had a brand-new Cadillac, because I was making a lot of money. I’d go fill my car up, eat a nice steak dinner, then go back with $60 worth of stuff, get that money back and go to the next store. It was a routine thing, and I was very good at it. But I am ashamed of what I’ve done.”

www.newsreview.com

Johnson’s world crashed in 2007, when his girlfriend was murdered.

“I lost my girl. That was the hardest part. It changed my whole outlook when she got murdered.

She was Miss Oroville and had a good family; we lived together for about six years, a lot of the time in my Cadillac. We’d sleep in it.

“You pull up in front of a store with a brand-new Cadillac, you don’t have any problems. I would dress nice and I could play that act, but I’ll never do that again. Sometimes I had to sock some people up in the store to get away; I hit one guy with a flashlight and I could have killed him. I’m ashamed of that. I’m going back to apologize to that guy.”

Johnson said he first went to prison in 1979 and that he was in and out of five prisons up until 2007.

His latest trouble happened in Nevada County.

“I went into a Shell station in Penn Valley and bought $20 worth of gas and $10 worth of Taco Bell food,” he said. “I got deathly sick off that food, so I went into the store at the Shell station and stole a bottle of Pepto-Bismol. They found it on the camera and I got 120 days. I did 90 of them and was released because a man committed suicide in front of me. He jumped off the third tier, so they released me early.”

But Johnson was on probation in Butte County, and as such, had to answer to the courts here.

“The probation put me back in court, and I got sentenced to five years for violation of probation,” he said. “Five years for a bottle of Pepto-Bismol. The judge was James

Sarah Messer and Dave Malinoski teach classes and do assessments of those participating in the ACS program at the Day Reporting Center. They work for Irvinebased Sentinel, which contracts with the county.

Reilly. He told me, ‘Johnson, you are at the last end of your terms.

You’ve done a lot of burglaries in the past and you went to prison.

This time, you’ve got a lot stronger term for a small amount.’

“It was the Pepto-Bismol, and that sentence really woke me up.”

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The optimism about the pro-

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“His idea of crime prevention was ‘lock ’em up,’ just like mine,” Duch said. “But he’s changed his mind because this works. In fact, it works so well that to deny it as an alternative is foolish.”

Still, he said, the program requires the inmates’ active participation. “[The inmates] have to want to turn their lives around and we try to give them the tools necessary to do that,” Duch said. “For those who embrace it, we see a lot of really good success. It’s their program to fail.

“There is not a single [sheriff’s] officer there looking to trip people up. That is the old parole mentality of ‘I’m going to catch you. I’m going to catch you doing it wrong.

I’m going to check on you.’ That is the opposite of how we do it. We say, ‘Look, we want you to succeed.

We want you to make it. We want you to become a taxpayer, get a job, get your GED, because people like you don’t come to jail.” Ω

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CN&R 23

Arts & Culture The suave Rick Estrin at the Harmonica Blowout.

PHOTO BY MELANIE MACTAVISH

THIS WEEK

Blowing revue

16

THURS

Mark Hummel and his band of harp pros pay tribute to Sonny Boy II

Music AMERICAN GUITAR MASTERS: Acoustic finger-style guitar arrangements of new and traditional tunes from England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales performed by Peter Janson.

Larry Pattis opens. Th, 1/16, 8pm. $10. 1078 Gallery, 820 Broadway, (530) 343-1973, www.1078gallery.org.

Theater GREASE: Danny and Sandy reunite after a summer of love as

T harmonicist Mark Hummel put together yet another touring package of he indefatigable Bay Area

fellow harp players to pay tribute to another outstanding harmonicist. This year, the by spotlight in the Sierra Miles Jordan Nevada Brewing Co.’s Big Room on Tuesday, Jan. 7, was on one of the REVIEW: most unusual blues Mark Hummel’s harpists of all—Aleck Blues Harmonica “Rice” Miller, aka Blowout: Tribute Sonny Boy Williamson. to Sonny Boy However, because Williamson II. another harmonicaTuesday, Jan. 7, Sierra Nevada playing Williamson (the Big Room. much younger John Lee) preceded him on the public stage, Miller would forever be known as Sonny Boy Williamson II. Just how old he was when he died in 1965 is anybody’s guess, as the Mississippi-born bluesman gave various birth dates in the 1890s, and as Hummel announced at the show, 1912 is also a possibility. What is not in dispute was his genius at playing and the almost surrealistic imagery of his songs.

For this tribute, Hummel featured fellow harp players Rick Estrin, Curtis Salgado and famed bluesman John Mayall, the 80-year-old founder of the Bluesbreakers. As the focus was on Sonny Boy, I asked Hummel how each man got to pick which songs he wanted to play. He

24 CN&R January 16, 2014

answered (via email the day after the show), “Mayall got first dibs on what he wanted and we drew straws from there.”

After four videos featuring Williamson were shown to a marvelously inattentive full house, Hummel and his band, The Blues Survivors (guitarists Bob Welch and guest Little Charlie Baty, bassist RW Grigsby, and drummer June Core) began with “Bring It On Home”—a Williamson song that became a huge hit for Led Zeppelin—and followed it with “Trying to Get Back on My Feet,” a 1963 number with a typically stunning solo (one of many) by Little Charlie, who teamed up with Welch for some nifty unison riffing.

Hummel introduced it by saying to the audience, “I like it when you dance,” and dance they did—the floor was pretty much full all night.

After Estrin gave some props to Hummel for putting this tour together, he explored the lower depths of his instrument on “One Way Out” (“Lord, I just can’t go out the door”), a Williamson classic about an adulterer about to get caught. Estrin’s the only musician I’ve seen who can play the harp by putting it into his mouth and playing it hands-free (a sensational Williamson trick as well), which caused a huge roar from the audience when he did it on his own Sonny Boy-influenced song, “You Can’t Come Back.”

I also emailed Estrin before the show and asked what appealed to him about Williamson’s music and he said “his

delivery of the song made me feel like he was just talking to me—telling me a story—and his playing was on the surface deceptively simple, but his tone, his groove and his breath technique were as virtuosic as they were wholly unique to him.”

Salgado, another terrific harpist, who also has a magnificent singing voice, was joined by Mayall on his keyboard for a song about a man who can’t eat his breakfast because his “teeth and tongue begin to fight.” Salgado was the role model for John Belushi’s Blues Brothers persona and he told a funny story about The Blues Brothers wanting to acquire the lyrics to a rare Williamson song he performed, “From the Bottom,” and how he told them to buzz off. He was joined by Estrin, his “partner in crime,” for “Too Young to Die,” and they did some nifty chorus-swapping at the end.

It was Mayall who wrapped things up with a rousing “All My Love in Vain” followed by a tour de force solo-harmonica rendition of “Hot Rice,” his tribute to Williamson (aka “Rice” Miller). Mayall did a lot of keyboard playing with his right hand while playing harmonica with his left hand on the next two songs. It all came to a glorious close with everyone on stage for a stunning performance of “Help Me,” with Mayall’s Roland VK keyboard in the Hammond B3 mode and Hummel, Estrin, Salgado and even Little Charlie all on harmonicas driving the song to its conclusion. Ω

the Pink Ladies and T-Birds dance and sing their way through the school year. Th-Sa, 7:30pm, Su, 2pm through 2/9. $12-$20. Chico Theater Company, 166-F Eaton Rd., (530) 8943282, www.chicotheatercompany.com.

VENUS IN FUR: The Rogue Theatre players return to the Blue Room to collaborate on David Ives’ “sexy dark comedy.”

Directed by Joe Hilsee. Th-Sa, 7:30pm through 2/1. $10-$15.

Blue Room Theatre, 139 W. First St., (530) 895-3749, www.blue roomtheatre.com.

ROD WARREN BOOK SIGNING AND PRESENTATION Today, Jan. 16 Lyon Books

SEE THURSDAY, POETRY/LITERATURE

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. BELOVED COMMUNITY CELEBRATION AND MARCH Sunday, Jan. 19 Chico City Plaza & Trinity United Methodist Church SEE SUNDAY, SPECIAL EVENTS

Poetry/Literature POETRY READING: Poetry from a variety of local wordsmiths. Th, 1/16, 6:30pm. The Bookstore, 118 Main St.

ROD WARREN: The Praetorian and the Emperor’s List, a book signing and presentation with the local author. Th, 1/16, 7pm. Lyon Books, 135 Main St., (530) 891-3338, www.lyonbooks.com.

17

FRI

Art Receptions MEMBERS’ SHOWCASE A reception for the Chico Art Center’s annual exhibition of member artwork. F, 1/17, 5-7pm. Chico Art Center, 450 Orange St., (530) 895-8726, www.chicoart center.com.

Music CHICO LOVES ROBERTA, ROBERTA LOVES BOWIE: A fundraiser benefit for the samba musician who is battling cancer. With silent auction and live music (and some tributes to David Bowie) from MaMuse, Wolfthump, Glam Rock Dance Party and more. F, 1/17, 8pm. $10. Chico Women’s Club, 592 E. Third St., (530) 894-1978.

Theater GREASE: See Thursday. Chico Theater Company, 166-F Eaton Rd., (530) 894-3282, www.chicotheatercompany.com.

SENATOR WORE PANTYHOSE: This comedy revolves around the failing presidential campaign of “Honest” Gabby Sandalson, a regular guy whose integrity has all but crippled his bid for the White House. Directed by Jackie Glover. F, Sa, 7:30pm & Su, 2pm through 1/27. $10-$15. Birdcage Theatre, 1740 Bird St. in Oroville, (530) 533-2473, www.birdcage theatre.net.

VENUS IN FUR: See Thursday. Blue Room Theatre, 139 W. First St., (530) 895-3749, www.blueroomtheatre.com.

Music PARADISE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA CONCERT: The Paradise Symphony Orchestra has provided live symphonic music to the community since 1958. Su, 1/19, 7pm. $15-$17. Paradise Performing Arts Center, 777 Nunneley Rd. in Paradise, (530) 872-8454, www.paradise performingarts.com.

18

SAT

Theater GREASE: See Thursday. Chico Theater Company, 166-F Eaton Rd., (530) 894-3282, www.chicotheatercompany.com.

SENATOR WORE PANTYHOSE: See Friday. Birdcage Theatre, 1740 Bird St. in Oroville, (530) 5332473, www.birdcagetheatre.net.

VENUS IN FUR: See Thursday. Blue Room Theatre, 139 W. First St., (530) 895-3749, www.blue roomtheatre.com.

19

SUN

Special Events MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. BELOVED COMMUNITY CELEBRATION AND MARCH: The annual commemorative march begins in the City Plaza (3pm), with performances by Cara and Ajamu Lamumba, Doin’ It Justice Choir, MaMuse and more, followed by a march (4pm) to Trinity United Methodist Church for an inspirational program, including a free dinner. Su, 1/19, 3pm.

Chico City Plaza, downtown Chico.

Theater GREASE: See Thursday. Chico Theater Company, 166-F Eaton Rd., (530) 894-3282, www.chicotheatercompany.com.

SENATOR WORE PANTYHOSE: See Friday. Birdcage Theatre, 1740 Bird St. in Oroville, (530) 5332473, www.birdcagetheatre.net.

SHREK: THE MUSICAL AUDITIONS: Come prepared with sheet music to sing at least one verse and one chorus of a song of your choice. See website for details. Su, 1/19, 4 & 6:30pm, M, 1/20, 6:30pm. Chico Theater Company, 166-F Eaton Rd., (530) 894-3282, www.chicotheater company.com.

20

MON

Theater

21

22

TUES

WED

Music

Special Events

JOHN MCCUTCHEON: The Australian-born

SNOW GOOSE FESTIVAL: Experience the won-

American-folk traditionalist and storyteller (and hammered dulcimer master) takes the stage for his annual January performance at the Big Room. Tu, 1/21, 7:30pm. $20. Sierra Nevada Big Room, 1075 East 20th St., (530) 345-2739, www.sierranevada.com/bigroom.

ders of the Pacific Flyway with the annual waterfowl-migration celebration, featuring four days of presentations, activities, field trips and exhibits. Home base is the Masonic Center, with the big banquet/auction happening at the BMU Auditorium (Sa, 1/25, 5:30pm) and Avenue 9 Gallery art exhibit opening 1/17. 1/22-1/26. Free. Chico Masonic Family Center, 1110 East Ave. Between Guynn Ave. & Nord Ave., (530) 342-7143.

FINE ARTS Art

Call for Artists

1078 GALLERY: Places I’ve Never Been, artist

EVERYTHING BLUE: How will you portray this

Philip Hartigan’s printmaking showcases half-remembered narrative moments and the collection of photographs from Patricia McNair serves as community memoirs. Through 2/1. 820 Broadway, (530) 343-1973, www.1078gallery.org.

AVENUE 9 GALLERY: Snow Goose Wildlife Art

Exhibit, features paintings, photographs and sculptures by 35 wildlife artists from around the world. 1/17-2/1. 180 E. Ninth Ave., (530) 879-1821, www.avenue9 gallery.com.

CHICO ART CENTER: Members’ Showcase, The Chico Art Center’s annual exhibition of member artwork. 1/17-2/14. 450 Orange St., (530) 895-8726, www.chicoart center.com.

JAMES SNIDLE FINE ARTS & APPRAISALS:

Lois Cohen Art Sale, works in multiple mediums by the late Lois Cohen, produced over her 90-year career. Through 1/31. 254 E. Fourth St., (530) 343-2930, www.jamessnidlefinearts.com.

pervasive hue? All mediums accepted, must be wall-hanging. Call for more info.

Through 1/18, 12-5pm. $5. Manas Artspace & Gallery, 1441-C Park Ave., (530) 588-5183.

Museums CHICO CREEK NATURE CENTER: Banding by

Day and Night, a close look at birds in hand with incredible detail. Ongoing. 1968 E. Eighth St., (530) 891-4671, www.bidwell park.org.

CHICO MUSEUM: Chico in Black and White, an exhibit featuring historical photos from the John Nopel collection. Ongoing. 141 Salem St., (530) 891-4336.

GATEWAY SCIENCE MUSEUM: Explore

Evolution, investigate evolutionary principles in organisms ranging from smallest to the largest, with interactive exhibits giving the viewer an opportunity to experience how scientists conduct research on evolution. Sa, 1/18. 625 Esplanade, www.csuchico.edu/gateway.

SHREK: THE MUSICAL AUDITIONS: See Sunday.

Chico Theater Company, 166-F Eaton Rd., (530) 894-3282, www.chicotheatercompany.com.

SNOW GOOSE WILDLIFE ART EXHIBIT Through Feb. 1 Avenue 9 Gallery SEE FINE ARTS

First-night thrills and spills FREE LISTINGS! Post your event for free online at www.newsreview.com/calendar.

Once posted, your CN&R calendar listing will also be considered for print. Print listings are also free, but subject to space limitations.

Deadline for print listings is one week prior to the issue in which you wish the listing to appear.

Opening night is one of the things that makes going to live theater productions uniquely thrilling, on both sides of the curtain. The actors’ energy levels are at their peak, passions and expectations are high, and EDITOR’S PICK there’s always the chance that something awful might happen, which appeals to the same kind of prurient and strange curiosity that draws some people to NASCAR events and bullfights. The fact there’s often finger foods and wine involved also doesn’t hurt. This weekend offers two chances to see troupes open new productions: tonight (Thursday, Jan. 16), the Blue Room hosts the opening of Rogue Theatre’s Venus in Fur. On Friday, Jan. 17, Oroville’s Birdcage Theatre premieres comedy The Senator Wore Pantyhose.

January 16, 2014

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AFRICAN DANCE CLASS A workout set to the sounds and rhythms of West Africa. Call for info. M, 6pm. $10. Chico Grange Hall, 2775 Old Nord Ave., (530) 321-5607.

AFRO-CARIBBEAN DANCE: Dances of Cuba, Haiti,

Brazil and West Africa with live drumming. Tu, 5:30pm. Chico Women’s Club, 592 E. Third St., (530) 345-6324.

CHICO FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY BOOK SALE: Chico Friends of the Library weekly book sale.

Sa, 9:15-11:30am. Butte County Library, Chico Branch, 1108 Sherman Ave., (530) 891-2762, www.buttecounty.net/bclibrary.

drummers and dancers welcome. W, 5:307pm. $10. Chico Women’s Club, 592 E. Third St.,

(808) 757-0076.

WOODPECKER’S GUIDE TO THE UNIVERSE HIKE: Join the woodpecker-ID hike and learn more about these birds and their interactions with their habitat. Sa, 1/18, 10am. $10. Chico Creek Nature Center, 1968 E. Eighth St., (530) 8914671, www.bidwellpark.org.

DANCES OF UNIVERSAL PEACE: Simple, meditative and uplifting group dances honoring many of the world’s spiritual traditions.

Third Sa of every month, 79:30pm. $5-$10 donation. Subud Hall, 574 E. 12th St., (530) 8918789.

DANCING FREEDOM: A weekly open

dance with the elements. F, 68pm. $6-$12 sliding scale. Subud

Hall, 574 E. 12th St., (530) 5321989.

FANCY FEET DANCE: Beginning to experienced dancers welcome to work on the foxtrot, waltz, swing and more to a live band. Every first, third & fourth Tu, 7:30pm. $5-$7. Chico Area Recreation District (CARD), 545 Vallombrosa Ave., (530) 895-4015, www.chicorec.com.

FARMERS’ MARKET: CHAPMAN: A year-round Certified Farmers’ Market serving as a community forum for healthy-lifestyle promotion and education. F, 2-5:30pm. Chapman Mulberry Community Center, 1010 Cleveland Ave., (530) 624-8844, www.cchaos.org.

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get $10 off any ounce*

for beginners and advanced-level dancers.

Call for more info. Th, 7-10pm. Veterans Memorial Hall, 6550 Skyway in Paradise, (530) 872-1962.

DANCE SANCTUARY WAVE: Bring a

EVENING DANCE JAM: A weekly meditative dance

$5 off any concentrate*

SQUARE-DANCE CLUB: Square-dancing classes

FARMERS’ MARKET: SATURDAY: Chico’s weekly community gathering, with fresh produce, crafts, baked goods and more. Sa, 7:30am1pm. Municipal Parking Lot No. 1, Second & Wall streets.

FREE HEALTH CLINIC: Free services for minor medical ailments. Call for more info. Su, 14pm. Free. Shalom Free Clinic, 1190 E. First Ave., (530) 518-8300, www.shalomfree clinic.org.

HAPPY HEALING: Experience a variety of healing modalities. F, 7pm. 100th Monkey Café & Books, 642 W. Fifth St.

ROCKIN’ RAPTORS Thursday, Jan. 16 Chico Creek Nature Center SEE FOR KIDS

For Kids CAMP CHICO CREEK: An environmental education-based day camp providing outdoor recreation activities and themes covering different Bidwell Park habitats and cultural histories each session. 1/20-12/27, 7:45am5:30pm. $35. Chico Creek Nature Center, 1968 E. Eighth St., (530) 891-4671, www.bidwell park.org.

CHILDREN’S CHOIR OF CHICO SINGERS: Begin rehearsals and register for the 13th choir season. Learn to read and write music and sing in various languages. Through 1/31.

Children’s Choir of Chico, 295 E. Washington Ave., (530) 342-2774.

ROCKIN’ RAPTORS PRESCHOOL PROGRAM: Learn more about the beautiful birds of prey and their powers of hearing and vision, and meet a red-tailed hawk hunter. Th, 1/16, 3-4pm. $12.

Chico Creek Nature Center, 1968 E. Eighth St., (530) 891-4671, www.bidwellpark.org.

INFINITE RHYTHMS ECSTATIC DANCE: A shoefree, food-free, drug-free, smoke-free dance for you and yours with DJ Clay. Th, 7:309:30pm through 5/8. $8-$10. Manas Artspace & Gallery, 1441-C Park Ave., (530) 588-5183.

SAMARITAN FREE CLINIC: This clinic offers free basic medical care and mental-health counseling. Call for more information. Su, 2-4pm.

Free. Paradise Lutheran Church, 780 Luther Dr. in Paradise, 872-7085.

1704 Main avenue sacraMento, ca 95838 916.564.2112 for complete menu & more specials visit

DoctorsorDersrX.coM Mon-sat 10aM to 9PM sun 10aM to 6PM 26 CN&R January 16, 2014

SOUL SHAKE DANCE CHURCH: Drop your mind,

Donate 3 canned food items, get a free gift

find your feet and free your spirit at this DJ dance wave to a range of musical styles. No previous dance experience necessary. Su, 10am-noon. $8-$15 sliding scale. Dorothy Johnson Center, 775 E. 16th St., (530) 891-6524, www.chicorec.com.

SOUNDS OF THE VALLEY CHORUS: Women singers welcome to sing in four-part harmony barbershop style. Call for more info. W, 7pm.

Marigold Elementary School, 2446 Marigold Ave., (530) 343-5183.

Volunteer BIDWELL PARK VOLUNTEERS: Help the park by volunteering for trash pick-up, invasive-plant removal, trail maintenance, site restoration, water-quality testing and more. Check Friends of Bidwell Park website for dates and locations. Ongoing. Bidwell Park, www.friends ofbidwellpark.org.

PATRICK RANCH VOLUNTEERS: There are multiple volunteer opportunities available at the museum. Call or email for more info. Ongoing.

Patrick Ranch Museum, 10381 Midway, (530) 514-3903.

MORE ONLINE Additional listings for local meetings, support groups, classes, yoga, meditation and more can be found online at www.newsreview.com/chico/local/calendar.

CHOW m review.co s w e n . w ww

Picture perfect: melty, crispy, tangy patty melt.

PHOTO BY JASON CASSIDY

Comfort wagon Wholesome ‘simply good food’ rollin’ up your street

B opened up my to-go box from The Black Kettle food truck, I was ravenous. The aroma of the patty melt y the time I got back to my office and

inside had taunted me during my short drive back to work.

I looked down at the colossal sandwich in my hands. The meat alone— by local beef, from the Chico State Meredith J. farm—was nearly half a pound. Piled Graham on top was a generous portion of caramelized onions and swiss and pepper-jack cheeses. I’m not usually a mustard fan, but I wanted the full experience, so I agreed to the addition of the mustard aioli to the grilled sourdough bread and I’m glad I did.

My first bite was a little bit of heaven. The meat was flavorful and juicy, and the fixins added the perfect ★★★ 1⁄2 amount of melty texture and acidic The Black zing to push the burger over the edge Kettle into crave-worthiness. My only regret Mobile food truck was not requesting my burger cooked www.facebook.com medium; as a default, I suppose, they /BlackKettleChico cook them well-done (although it was still plenty moist). A side of potato chips came with the sandwich, though if the option would’ve been available, I would love to have had a hot side dish on the cool day.

This was my third visit to the trendy-looking green, black and white food truck that parks near my work, on the same block as Northern ★★★★★ Star Mills, on Thursdays. There’s EPIC something intriguing about a restau★★★★ rant that comes around once a week.

AUTHORITATIVE (Those eager diners who don’t yet ★★★ know the truck’s usual patterns can APPEALING check The Black Kettle Facebook ★★ page for location updates.) A discusHAS MOMENTS sion with the delightful ladies inside ★ the truck revealed intentions to find a FLAWED

more permanent place to park.

Creating gourmet meals in a kitchen the size of a large van is no easy task, and The Black Kettle’s menu—created fresh daily—is limited, sometimes to just two items or even one item each day, with rotating regular items plus daily specials written on the chalkboard menu. I find the unpredictability—both in location and menu—to be fun and a bit mysterious.

It’s almost like a treasure hunt!

On my first visit, The Black Kettle offered grilled flatbread, topped with kalamata olives, artichoke hearts, sun-dried tomatoes, arugula and feta. Sausage was an optional add-on, but since I’m not much of a sausage fan, I left it off. I chatted with the gals preparing my meal while I waited. They seemed to take genuine pride in providing local, seasonal ingredients in their “simply good food,” and their interaction with customers created a fun ambiance around the small truck.

The flatbread was super yummy, especially after I pushed aside some of the arugula piled atop, giving some of the other toppings a chance to come through.

The flatbread was fresh (while waiting, I watched as they took the time to roll out the dough for each portion) and it was cooked perfectly crisp. My favorite part was the artichoke hearts, and I was pleased to find a generous portion of them. I very much enjoyed my hearty, healthy lunch.

I returned once more to try the potato-kale soup, and though this was my least favorite of the three dishes, it was well made. My personal preference would be for the kale to have been chopped or even pureed. As served, the large pieces of leafy greens were a bit difficult to eat. I also needed to add a dash of salt to bring the flavor to life.

In all, I’m impressed by the offerings at The Black Kettle. To create truly delicious, locally sourced, gourmet lunches for less than $10 out of a truck is quite a feat. I look forward to seeing what other items show up on the little chalkboard menu and tasting more of what The Black Kettle has to offer—maybe next Thursday? Ω January 16, 2014

CN&R 27

ENDS SUNDAY HISTORIC FINAL 35MM SHOW

NEBRASKA

RECYCLE

THIS PAPER.

TONIGHT (1/16) 7PM; FRIDAY 4PM MATINEE ONLY; SATURDAY 7:30PM; SUNDAY 3:30PM (FINAL SHOWING) STARTS FRIDAY ONE WEEK ONLY

THE MONKS OF VINA

FRIDAY 6PM AND 8PM (DIRECTOR JOHN BECK WILL BE IN ATTENDANCE FOR Q&A) SATURDAY 6PM; SUNDAY 2PM; MON-WED 7PM

Programmed for love Spike Jonze’s sweet, peculiar futuristic love story

YOU’RE WELCOME, NATURE.

Call 343-0663 or visit www.PageantChico.com

NEED ATTENTION?

She’s close to his heart.

T movie Her—“lonely guy falls in love with the voice of his computer”—is a sure-fire attention-getter, but it also does the he capsule plot summary for Spike Jonze’s new

LET’S NOT GO TO EXTREMES. ADVERTISE WITH (530) 894-2300

5

friday 1/17 – wednesday 1/22 AmericAn Hustle (Digital) (R) 12:45PM 4:05PM 7:10PM 10:15PM AncHormAn 2 (Digital) (PG-13) 10:45AM 5:15PM August: osAge county (Digital) (R) 1:15PM 4:10PM 7:00PM 9:45PM Devil’s Due (Digital) (R) 1:00PM 3:15PM 5:30PM 7:45PM 10:10PM Frozen (2013) (Digital) (PG) 11:05AM 1:40PM 4:20PM 7:00PM 9:40PM Her (Digital) (R) 1:20PM 4:15PM 7:15PM 10:10PM Hobbit: tHe DesolAtion oF smAug, tHe (3D) (PG-13) 3:55PM Hobbit: tHe DesolAtion oF smAug, tHe (Digital) (PG-13) 12:25PM 7:25PM Hunger gAmes: cAtcHing Fire, tHe (Digital) (PG-13) 12:20PM 7:05PM JAck ryAn: sHADow recruit (Digital) (PG-13) 11:50AM 2:30PM 5:10PM 7:50PM 10:25PM

legenD oF Hercules, tHe (3D) (PG-13) 2:40PM 5:05PM 7:35PM legenD oF Hercules, tHe (Digital) (PG-13) 12:15PM 10:00PM lone survivor (Digital) (R) 11:00AM 1:50PM 4:40PM 7:30PM 10:30PM nut Job, tHe (3D) (PG) 2:20PM 7:05PM nut Job, tHe (Digital) (PG) 12:00PM 4:35PM 9:25PM riDe Along (Digital) (PG-13) 12:30PM 2:55PM 5:25PM 8:00PM 10:30PM sAving mr bAnks (Digital) (PG-13) 10:45AM 1:35PM 4:30PM 7:20PM 10:20PM secret liFe oF wAlter mitty, tHe (Digital) (PG) 3:45PM 10:20PM wolF oF wAll street, tHe (Digital) (R) 1:30PM 8:00PM

28 CN&R January 16, 2014

movie and its remarkable accomplishments a bit of a disservice.

A unique and surprisingly complex set of reflections on romantic relationships arise from that blaby Juan-Carlos tantly peculiar premise, and the offbeat dramas that ensue from it are far richer than that Selznick capsule/caricature might lead you to expect.

Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) is a techie whose literary skills are highly prized at the computerized letter-writing service where he works. He’s also a rather lonely romantic who can’t quite bring himself to sign the final papers on his divorce from Catherine (Rooney Mara), who seems just as lonely and even more literary than he is.

Theodore and his small circle of friends live in Her a world of gesture- and voice-activated digital Starring Joaquin technology, and special things begin to happen Phoenix, Scarlett when he gets connected to an operating system Johansson and that provides him with a virtual companion/assisAmy Adams. tant/confidante who can think and talk and, up to a Directed by Spike Jonze. Cinemark point, share emotions. This virtual aide has a 14. Rated R. female voice (provided, with much sly skill, by Scarlett Johansson) and Theodore names her Samantha.

The title of the film refers above all to Samantha, but there are at least three other female characters of real significance and consequence in this story. Ex-wife Catherine is viewed with much the same complex mixture of sympathy and irony that the film applies to Theodore. The same is true with Theodore’s gently supportive neighbor and friend, Amy (Amy Adams), and, in more ironic Poor ways, with the young woman (Olivia Wilde) whom Theodore encounters on an intricately problematic blind date.

Fair Jonze has just been awarded a Golden Globe for Her’s screenplay—an honor much deserved not only for its brilliant, highly original central concept, but also for the remarkably nuanced diaGood logue of Theodore’s encounters with the women in his life, virtual and otherwise. Music by Arcade Fire and Owen Pallett and superb production Very Good design by K. K. Barrett make substantial contributions to the mildly futuristic aura of this provocative, surprisingly delicate love story/sci-fi reverie Excellent for the 21st century. Ω

PINK MARTINI Global Cabaret (1/26)

STUNT DOG EXPERIENCE

Crazy Doggy Antics (1/28)

TOMMY EMMANUEL

with special guest Martin Taylor (1/30)

BÉLA FLECK & BROOKLYN RIDER Banjo Quintet (2/6)

TAO: PHOENIX RISING Japanese Taiko Drumming (2/7)

LONESTAR Country Rock (2/9)

All shows at Laxson Auditorium California State University, Chico (530) 898-6333

WWW.CHICOPERFORMANCES.COM

1

2

3

4

5

Played out August: Osage County

3

Cinemark 14 and Paradise Cinema 7.

Rated R.

by Juan-Carlos Selznick As a play, August: Osage County won

a Pulitzer Prize in 2008. Now it’s out in a film version featuring Meryl Streep and a big-name supporting cast, and it seems to have lost what I’m assuming was the combination of luster and grit that made it so impressive onstage.

The author of the play, Tracy Letts, has done the screenplay adaptation as well, but the onscreen results, which don’t work very well in movie terms, seem half-baked at best and clumsy at worst.

Streep dominates the story in the role of Violet Weston, a foul-mouthed, drug-addicted, cancer-plagued Oklahoma matriarch whose weary, alcoholic, literary husband (Sam Shepard) has suddenly disappeared.

Violet dominates her daughters and the other relatives who gather in the aftermath of that disappearance, and all sorts of family secrets, semisubmerged resentments and half-hidden scandals are dragged out to center stage.

Director John Wells (a veteran producer who rarely directs) hasn’t really found a coherent form of overall presentation here, and the performances as well as the script suffer as a result. The low-key performances—Chris Cooper as Violet’s brother-in-law, Julianne Nicholson as the youngest of her daughters, Misty Upham as an in-house caregiver, Shepard—come as welcome relief in a production too much given to offthe-wall outbursts and unfocused hysteria.

As the other daughters, Julia Roberts and Juliette Lewis are little more than haggard caricatures, and Margo Martindale, as Violet’s younger sister, seems as though she’s still trying to get who it is she’s playing.

Ewan McGregor, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Dermot Mulroney are present, but … Ω

Reviewers: Craig Blamer and Juan-Carlos Selznick.

Opening this week Devil’s Due

From the minds of the Radio Silence filmmaking collective that contributed to the cult fave V/H/S, this found-footage-style horror flick follows a newlywed couple documenting the progress of an unplanned and increasingly unsettling pregnancy. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated R.

Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit

Chris Pine plays Tom Clancy’s signature character in the latest Hollywood adaptation of the Jack Ryan persona (and the first not based on a Clancy novel). This time, Ryan is a young CIA analyst helping to stave off a Russian terror plot against the U.S. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated PG-13.

John Beck documents the Trappist monks of the Abbey of New Clairvaux in nearby Vina as they pray, make wine and wrestle with their inner lives in a quest to become closer to God. The filmmaker will be on hand for the Friday, Jan. 17, screening to talk about his film. Pageant Theatre. Not rated.

The Nut Job

An animated feature about a park squirrel who teams up with a city rat and plans to rob the goods from a nut store in order to help his park mates with their winter stash.

Starring the voices of Will Arnett, Brendan Fraser and Katherine Heigl. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated PG.

Ride Along

An action-comedy directed by Tim Story (Barbershop) about a small-time security guard (Kevin Hart) who goes on a ride-along with his fiancée’s brother, an Atlanta cop (Ice Cube), in an effort to prove himself worthy to marry his sister (Tika Sumpter). Cinemark 14 and Feather River Cinemas. Rated PG-13.

Now playing

5

American Hustle

American Hustle is a sardonically comical caper movie, a semipicaresque period piece set among con artists, influence peddlers, political fixers, etc., in the late 1970s.

Banking scams, FBI stings, Mafia politics, governmental corruption, fashion excesses, and elaborate double-crosses all have roles to play. It’s a beguiling tale, with a nicely timed set of surprise twists laid out along the way. But what makes this one of the best films of the year is mostly a matter of superb, beautifully directed performances from a fine cast, including especially its four leading players. The key figures here are a sleazy entrepreneur/con man (Christian Bale), a frenetically ambitious young FBI agent (Bradley Cooper), a gifted quickchange artist (Amy Adams), and the Bale character’s hilariously erratic wife (Jennifer Lawrence). Bale is especially brilliant—giving unexpected shades of emotion and intelligence to a character who at first seems merely a mild comic grotesque. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated R —J.C.S.

Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues

Still classy a decade later, Ron Burgundy (Will Farrell) and the rest of the news team (Steve Carell, Paul Rudd and David Koechner) rise from the ashes of their failed careers and join the ranks of a new 24-hour news network. Cinemark 14. Rated PG-13.

3

August: Osage County

See review this issue. Cinemark 14 and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated R —J.C.S.

Frozen

The new Disney computer-animated feature is an adaptation of Hans Christian Ander-

NorTh vaLLey ProDuCTioNs presents:

5

Her

thursday fEb 6

See review this issue. Cinemark 14.

Rated R —J.C.S.

The Legend of Hercules

“The leading singer/songwriTer of The new folk movemenT” – rolling sTone

There are not one, but two Hercules-based fantasy flicks coming out of Hollywood this year (Hercules: The Thracian Wars, starring The Rock, arrives this summer). First up is this origin story, with Twilight alum Kellan Lutz playing the half-mortal/half-God son of Zeus as he battles his way up from slavery to his rightful kingdom. Cinemark 14 and Feather River Cinemas. Rated PG-13.

john gorka

w/ spECial GuEst – antjE

Lone Survivor

Peter Berg (Friday Night Lights) directs this true story about a failed Navy SEALS mission to capture a Taliban leader in Afghanistan in 2005. Starring Mark Wahlberg. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated R.

4

Nebraska

The new picture from Alexander Payne (The Descendants, Sideways, Citizen Ruth) is filmed in widescreen black-and-white, and most of it has the bleakness of the central plains in late winter. Story-wise, much of it is a sort of start-and-stop (and start again) road movie in which an unhappy young man (Will Forte) indulges the wishes of his aged father to travel from Billings, Mont., to Lincoln, Neb., for an in-person submission of what he assumes to be the prize-winning number in the lottery run by a mail-order subscription service. The quixotic nature of this endeavor is essential to the pathos and contrasting charms of father and son alike, but that fool’s errand also puts both men on paths toward tentative regeneration—modest but real—for their respective stalled lives. Pageant Theatre. Rated R —J.C.S.

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty

Ben Stiller directs an stars in this adaptation of James Thurber’s famous short story about the heroic daydreamer Walter Mitty.

Cinemark 14. Rated PG.

4

The Wolf of Wall Street

This film has a lot going for it—a lot to like, and a lot to see. But most of its lively virtues and strengths are in the details and on the margins. At its heart, this three-hour extravaganza rings rather hollow. The sources of its greatest appeal include a supercharged lead performance from Leonardo DiCaprio; stylishly frenzied direction by Martin Scorsese; a penchant for bravura scenes and eccentric set pieces; a distinctly contemporary topicality (Wall Street scammers); and a large and quirky supporting cast, with particularly pungent contributions from Matthew McConaughey, Jonah Hill and Joanna Lumley. But some of the film’s most striking aspects are allied, in the long run, with its abiding weaknesses.

McConaughey’s early “tutorial” scene with DiCaprio is a darkly comical tour de force that just might be the single best moment in the entire film, but the intense articulation of character and theme of this scene goes unmatched through the film’s final twothirds. Cinemark 14. Rated R —J.C.S.

Still here

3

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Cinemark 14 and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated PG-13 —C.B.

3

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Cinemark 14. Rated PG-13 —C.B.

Saving Mr. Banks

Cinemark 14. Rated PG-13.

Treat yourself to gift certificates up to 75% OFF! Visit www.newsreview.com

The Monks of Vina

sen’s fairytale, The Snow Queen. In the film, a young princess embarks on an epic journey to find her sister—the Snow Queen— whose magical powers have buried the kingdom in a never-ending winter. Cinemark 14 and Feather River Cinemas. Rated PG.

3269 EsplanadE suitE #142 – ChiCo’s north-sidE show 7:30pm (doors 6:30pm) | $20 adv. ($4 extra at door) Tickets: Diamond W. Western Wear, Lyon Books, The Music Connection

saturday fEb 15

alo

w/spECial GuEst lukas nElson

3269 EsplanadE suitE #142 – ChiCo’s north-sidE show 7:30pm (doors 6:30pm) | $25 adv. ($4 extra at door) Tickets: Diamond W. Western Wear, Lyon Books, The Music Connection

sunday fEb 23

judy collins paradisE pErforminG arts CEntEr show 7:30pm (doors 6:30pm)

$40 Vip $32 general reserved ($4 extra at door)

Tickets: ChiCo – Diamond W Western Wear, Lyon Books, The Music Connection ParaDise – Postnet, Trailhead adventures

sunday mar 9

elephant revival 3269 EsplanadE suitE #142 – ChiCo’s north-sidE show 7:30pm (doors 6:30pm) | $20 adv. ($4 extra at door) Tickets: Diamond W. Western Wear, Lyon Books, The Music Connection

thursday mar 20

The David Bromberg Quintet paradisE pErforminG arts CEntEr show 7:30pm (doors 6:30pm)

$35 Vip $25 general reserved ($4 extra at door)

Tickets: ChiCo – Diamond W Western Wear, Lyon Books, The Music Connection ParaDise – Postnet, Trailhead adventures

For more info: 530.345.8136 or www.chicotickets.com January 16, 2014

CN&R 29

SCENE

make your day

epic our coffee is a good first step

13

118 W 2nd st facebook.com/nLchico

The American classic We go together: the T-Birds and the Pink Ladies.

PHOTO BY MELANIE MACTAVISH

Local production of beloved musical softens hard-hearted critic

A and non—love Grease. This was apparent upon arriving at Chico Theater Company on Saturday mericans—both regular theatergoers

(Jan. 11) and seeing a 20-something couple literally skipping, arm in arm, to the front door for the theater’s opening-night by performance of the play.

Ken Smith Indeed, Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey’s 1971 musical may be the best-loved work of American theater ever, largely due to the blockbuster 1978 film adaptation and accompaREVIEW: nying soundtrack starring John TraGrease shows Thursday- volta and Olivia Newton John as lead Saturday, lovers Danny Zuko and Sandy Dum7:30 p.m., & browski (whose last name was Sunday, 2 p.m., changed to Olsson in the film verthrough Feb. 9 sion). I can’t imagine anyone skip(no Sunday show on Feb. 2). ping to a showing of Romeo and JuliTickets: $12-$20 et, but Grease—with its 1950s nostalgia filtered through 1970s camp Chico Theater and set to incredibly catchy (and Company kitschy) tunes—regularly inspires 166 Eaton Road 894-3282 such excitement, even from people www.chicotheater born well past either decade the play company.com serves to represent. Indeed, this is the CTC’s second time producing the play in its 10-year history, and its 2007 production was the theater’s highest-grossing outing ever.

I used to love Grease, too, so much so that some friends and I auditioned for our high school’s production of the play during my senior year. We weren’t part of the regular drama crowd, but fancied ourselves reallife juvenile delinquents, knew most of the songs by heart, and already owned the leather motorcycle jackets that would complete our transition into T-Birds— the play’s band of ne’er-do-well greasers.

But by the time the final curtain fell, I’d grown to despise every line from every song—from the first “Tell me more” to the final “wop ba-ba lu-bop and wop bam boom.” Painful daily run-throughs reminded me that even the show’s driving plot of regaining love lost is beholden to the fact that Zuko, the main male protagonist, is a total jerk obsessed with peer pressure.

Grease lost its nostalgic luster for me, and I began to

30 CN&R January 16, 2014

see it solely as a paean to the inherent obnoxiousness of teenagers. And as a teenager myself, I, of course, hated other teenagers.

Two decades is long enough to hold a grudge

against a theatrical work, so I committed to watching the CTC’s production with fresh, unbiased eyes. And, in spite of myself, I actually enjoyed it.

To assemble the play’s cast—the T-Birds, their female counterparts the Pink Ladies, and the rest of the students and faculty of Rydell High—the CTC drew from a wide range of the community’s theatrical talent, from high-schoolers to seasoned veterans. Short bios in the program revealed that Mia Coleman, who plays Pink Lady Jan, is a student at Bidwell Junior High School; Tia Watkins, who plays goody-goody Patty Simcox, is only 14; and Dylan Henson, as the dorky Eugene Florczyk, will turn 15 during the play’s month-long run.

These younger players hold their own with the more august actors, and Coleman was particularly endearing as Jan—a Pink Lady who struggles with awkwardness, body issues and a blossoming love affair with T-Bird Roger (entertainingly brought to life by Zach Valdez).

Rounding out the T-Birds with solid performances were J.D. Amaral, Tino Topete and Thomas Billheimer III (Kenicke, Sonny and Doody, respectively). Amaral’s dancing during “Greased Lightnin’” was a definite highlight.

Also excellent were the rest of the Pink Ladies— Frenchy, Marty and tough-as-nails Rizzo (played by Ashley Garlick, Karissa Matlock and Kaila Davidson).

Most of the smaller roles get spotlight songs, which the players all handled well. Sierra Hall and Joel Ibanez shined as leads Sandy and Danny.

The CTC’s stage set for the play was rather sparse: a black box with the play’s ubiquitous logo featured prominently on the back wall, and simple props like park benches used to effectively form a broad range of settings.

My one major gripe with the play is the use of canned background music over that of a live band, which could have taken the already high-energy production to the next level. Other than that, the CTC helped me exorcise my inner angry teenager and enjoy something I’d loved long ago. For rabid Grease fans or those who’ve never seen the story play out live, it’s well Ω worth the price of admission.

IN THE MIX The Son Philipp Meyer Ecco/HarperCollins This novel, the author’s second after 2009’s highly praised American Rust, is on just about every reviewer’s year-end top-10 list for 2013, and for good reason. As many have noted, this account of the blood-soaked settling of Texas has the sweep and vibrancy of an American classic. Told in rotating chapters by three members of the McCullough family whose lives span the history of the state, it is an unsparing but endlessly fascinating tale of conquest and greed, and the damage they do. At its heart is Eli McCullough, who as a 10-year-old is kidnapped by Comanches, becomes a respected—and brutal—warrior, and only reluctantly rejoins white society. There he becomes a Texas Ranger and a Confederate colonel before amassing a cattle empire—in part by killing his Tejano neighbors. His son, Peter, abhors his father’s cruelty and rapaciousness, but is too soft to protect his family’s interests. That job falls to Peter’s granddaughter, Jeanne Ann, a woman strong enough to become one of the world’s wealthiest oil barons despite the rampant sexism of the men in that business. Written with supple, sharp prose and notable for its attention to detail, The Son is one of the best American novels of the 21st century.

BOOK

o t e d i u g ’s o c i Ch food and nightlife

—Robert Speer

Coming February 13

Soul for Your Blues Frank Bey & Anthony Paule Band Blue Dot Records Backed by an eight-piece band led by guitarist Anthony Paule, vocalist Frank Bey gets right down to the business of providing some soul for our blues with a collection of songs that focus on, among other things, the themes of loving and losing. While the titles tell some of the story—e.g., “I’m Leavin’ You,” “I Just Can’t Go On” and “You’re Somebody Else’s Baby Too”—it’s Bey’s anguished voice that fleshes them out. His distress at discovering that his lady is playing him for a fool and is somebody else’s baby, too, and the passion he brings to “I Don’t Know Why” (“I love you like I do,” he continues) are both good examples of the powerful emotions he can so easily communicate. Percy Mayfield’s “Nothing Stays the Same Forever” (“I don’t care how much you try”) gets a really unique treatment thanks to the tuba and bass-drum opening. The band members are the same ones who graced Bey’s earlier CD with Paule, You Don’t Know Nothing (which was recorded at the Biscuits & Blues club in San Francisco). Besides doing a terrific job of backing Bey again, they get their licks in on Paule’s instrumental “Smokehouse.” John Prine’s evocative “Hello in There,” about the loneliness of old age, gets a well-deserved seven-minute reading.

—Miles Jordan

MUSIC

Jim Henson: The Biography Brian Jay Jones Ballantine Books Even without The Muppets, Sesame Street, Fraggle Rock, or the myriad other Jim Henson creations, the artist’s biography would still stand as a fascinating look into the life of an unwavering optimist driven by his own high standards and sense of morality and decency. Biographer Brian Jay Jones doesn’t force connections between the man, the artist and the art. Instead, through Henson’s personal notes and interviews with friends, family and colleagues, readers come to see the world as Henson saw it. There are plenty of did-you-know? moments—a rocky involvement in the opening season of Saturday Night Live, Tim Burton’s role in The Muppet Movie and the unexpected births of many now-iconic characters—but Jones’ examination of detailed shooting schedules, business deals, and the rise of television, film, and puppetry technology and popularity prove as inspiring and refreshing as the slow strum of Kermit’s banjo. For generations raised on and heavily influenced by the late Henson’s creations, it’s impossible to imagine loving the man and his Muppets even more. Yet, by the time tears arrived at the book’s inevitable ending, the story of Henson’s life served as a reminder of one of many lessons that he taught his fans: For the lovers, the dreamers, and me, nothing is impossible.

—Matthew Craggs

BOOK

advertisers: To be included in this dining guide, contact your CN&R ad rep today.

530-894-2300 January 16, 2014

CN&R 31

NIGHTLIFE

THURSDAY 1/16—WEDNESDAY 1|22

M-SECTION, RUM REBELLION Saturday, Jan. 18 Monstros Pizza & Subs SEE SATURDAY

CHICO JAZZ COLLECTIVE: Thursday jazz.

Th, 8-11pm. Free. The DownLo, 319 Main St., (530) 892-2473.

JOHN SEID DUO: John Seid and Larry Peterson play an eclectic mix of The Beatles, blues and standards. Th, 69pm. Opens 1/16. Grana, 198 E. Second St., (530) 809-2304.

OPEN MIC: Singers, poets and musicians welcome. Th, 7-10pm. Has Beans Internet Café & Galleria, 501 Main St., (530) 894-3033, www.hasbeans.com.

OPEN MIKEFULL: Open-mic night to share

16THURSDAY AARON RICH & FRIENDS: Country music round-robin. Third and First Th of every month, 9pm. Free. Crazy Horse Saloon, 303 Main St., (530) 894-5408.

AMERICAN GUITAR MASTERS: Acoustic finger-style guitar arrangements of new and traditional tunes from

England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales performed by Peter Janson. Larry Pattis opens. Th, 1/16, 8pm. $10. 1078 Gallery, 820 Broadway, (530) 343-1973, www.1078gallery.org.

BLUES UNPLUGGED: Featuring musical

stylings of Mark Holder. Th, 1/16, 710pm. Café Flo, 365 E. Sixth St., (530) 514-8888, www.liveatflo.weebly.com.

your music, poetry, comedy or other talents in a 10-minute slot. First and Third Th of every month, 7pm. $1.

Paradise Grange Hall, 5704 Chapel Dr. in Paradise, (530) 873-1370.

17FRIDAY BASSMINT: A (mostly) weekly electronic dance party with a rotating cast of local and regional DJs. Check with venue for details. F, 9:30pm. Peeking

COLLEGE STUDENTS:

Chinese Restaurant, 243 W. Second St. 4, (530) 895-3888.

CHICO LOVES ROBERTA, ROBERTA LOVES BOWIE: A fundraiser benefit for the samba musician who is battling cancer. With silent auction and live music (and some tributes to David Bowie) from MaMuse and Wolfthump, a glam rock dance party and more. F, 1/17, 8pm. $10. Chico Women’s Club, 592 E. Third St., (530) 894-1978.

IRISH-MUSIC HAPPY HOUR: A Chico tradition: Friday-night happy hour with a traditional Irish music session by the Pub Scouts. F, 4pm. $1. Duffy’s Tavern, 337 Main St., (530) 343-7718.

MONKEY MUSIC SHOWCASE: Spotlighting local acoustic singer/songwriters and musicians. F, 7:30pm. 100th Monkey Café & Books, 642 W. Fifth St.

RANDY ROGERS BAND: Country musicians from Texas, with Wade Bowen opening.

F, 1/17, 7:30pm. $12. El Rey Theatre, 230 W. Second St., (530) 342-2727.

Gallery, 820 Broadway, (530) 343-1973, www.1078gallery.org.

THE JEFF PERSHING BAND: Local

funk/jam band. Sa, 1/18, 8:30pm.

Miners Ranch Saloon, 5250 Olive Hwy in Oroville, (530) 589-1941.

M-SECTION: The Santa Rosa punks are joined by Rum Rebellion (PDX Irish folk punk), plus local punks Guerilla Gorilla and Born Into This. Sa, 1/18, 8pm. $5.

Monstros Pizza & Subs, 628 W. Sacramento Ave., (530) 345-7672.

EVERYONE LOVES BOWIE

Though samba musician Roberta Blake has been living in San Francisco the last few years, her Chico friends are throwing a benefit to raise funds to help with her fight against Stage 4 ovarian cancer on Friday, Jan. 17, at the Chico Women’s Club. And though the reason for the gathering is solemn, Chico Loves Roberta, and Roberta Loves Bowie promises to be a fun affair, with musical performances

by Wolfthump and MaMuse, a glam-rock dance party, David Bowie videos and much more.

XTOM HANX: Sacramento power violence/doom purveyors XTOM HANX come to town with Fresno’s Reunion.

Locals Epitaph of Atlas (doom) and Outside Looking In (hardcore) open. F, 1/17, 7:30pm. $5. 1078 Gallery, 820 Broadway, (530) 343-1973, www.1078gallery.org.

18SATURDAY

GUITAR PROJECT: With Warren Haskell

and friends. Sa, 1/18, 7:30pm. $10. 1078

BUT ENOUGH ABOUT US.

Got the write stuff? WHO ARE YOU? Attention, students: The Chico News & Review is looking for interns with reporting and writing experience. The CN&R is interested in telling stories that get to the heart of a matter, and making a difference in our community. Here, you’ll find an opportunity to take college skills to a professional level. We are seeking writers who are currently enrolled in college. Applicants don’t need to be journalism majors, but must have some experience in the form of published work. Interns are paid per assignment.

For application information, contact CN&R Editor Melissa Daugherty at melissad@newsreview.com with “internship” in the subject line.

32 CN&R January 16, 2014

TAKE OUR ONLINE SURVEY AND YOU COULD WIN! 6 lucky respondents will win either: * A $50 gift certificate to The Bookstore * A free pass to the movies Take the survey online at www.research.net/s/013547 or scan the QR code with your smart phone.

NIGHTLIFE

THIS WEEK: FIND MORE ENTERTAINMENT AND SPECIAL EVENTS ON PAGE 24

SPINDRIFT

Wednesday, Jan. 22 Maltese Bar & Tap Room SEE WEDNESDAY

storyteller (and hammered dulcimer master) takes the stage for his annual January performance at the Big Room. Tu, 1/21, 7:30pm. $20. Sierra Nevada Big Room, 1075 East 20th St., (530) 345-2739, www.sierranevada.com/bigroom.

OPEN MIC: Open-mic night with Aaron

and Friends. Tu, 7-10pm. Café Flo, 365 E. Sixth St., (530) 514-8888, www.liveat flo.weebly.com.

SHIGEMI & FRIENDS: Live jazz with key-

MUSIC SHOWCASE: An open mic hosted by local country musicians Rich and Kendall. Sa, 5-9pm. Free. Scotty’s Landing, 12609 River Rd., (530) 7102020.

NOBUNNY: Rusty sunshine/slop pop from the East Bay, plus teenage luv pop by Pookie & The Poodlez. Sa, 1/18, 10pm. $5. Duffy’s Tavern, 337 Main St., (530) 343-7718.

OFF THE RECORD: Local rockers. Sa, 1/18, 9pm. Kings Tavern, 5771 Clark Rd. in Paradise, (530) 877-7100.

THREE FINGERS WHISKEY: Local coun-

try/honky tonk/Americana. Sa, 1/18, 9pm. Tackle Box Bar & Grill, 375 E. Park Ave., (530) 345-7499.

19SUNDAY PARADISE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA CONCERT: The Paradise Symphony Orchestra has provided live symphonic music to the community since 1958. Su, 1/19, 7pm. $15-$17. Paradise Performing Arts Center, 777 Nunnelly Rd. in Paradise, (530) 872-8454, www.paradiseperformingarts.com.

20MONDAY JAZZ HAPPY HOUR: Live jazz happy hour with the Carey Robinson Trio. M, 57pm. Free. Café Flo, 365 E. Sixth St., (530) 514-8888, www.liveatflo.wee bly.com.

boardist Shigemi Minetaka and rotating accompaniment. Tu, 6:308:30pm. Free. Farm Star Pizza, 2359 Esplanade, (530) 343-2056, www.farm starpizza.com.

METAL MONDAYS: Featuring Exhumed,

death metal from San Jose. M, 1/20, 7pm. LaSalles, 229 Broadway, (530) 893-1891.

21TUESDAY JOHN MCCUTCHEON: The Australian-born American-folk traditionalist and

NTS POST EVE Y ONLINE B AT G IN R E T IS REG hico

newsreview.c

om/c

22WEDNESDAY LAURIE DANA: Soul, light rock, blues, country, Tin Pan Alley, jazz and more.

W, 7-9pm. Free. VIP Ultra Lounge, 191 E. Second St.

OPEN MIC: An all-ages open mic for musicians, poets, comedians, storytellers and dancers. W, 7pm. Free. 100th Monkey Café & Books, 642 W. Fifth St.

SPINDRIFT: Psychedelic rock from Los Angeles, plus local rock/blues/coun-

try/punk from the Persian Skirts. W, 1/22, 9pm. Maltese Bar & Tap Room, 1600 Park Ave., (530) 343-4915.

NOBUNNY LOVES YOU

Nobunny is the alter ego of musician Justin Champlin, who since 2001 has donned a filthy bunny mask, leather jacket and little else to thrill audiences with frenetic live performances. The music is dirty, sloppy, raucous rock ’n’ roll at its most fun, and is best appreciated live. Locals will have that chance on Saturday, Jan. 18, when Nobunny hits the stage at Duffy’s Tavern. Opening the show are Oakland-based Pookie & The Poodlez.

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January 16, 2014

CN&R 33

Present

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Celebrity judges!

Brandon Squyres and Adam Switzer, The Beards from The Amazing Race | Wake Up! Action News Now host Megan McMann | Dragonboy, artist and director of Manas Artspace

Sponsored by:

A celebration of weirdness of all stripes, with two dozen of the most fun, creative and funky local musicians, performance artists, fire dancers, burlesque dancers, regular dancers, drag queens & kings, comedians, thespians, harmonic ritualists, hulahoopers and at least one guy playing a saw all competing for prizes. Winning acts will receive a sweet trophy, a bag of swag and an invitation to perform at Feather Feather Falls Casino or during the CAMMIES Awards Show!

Hosted by Arts DEVO!

& featuring the debut of the impossibly handsome DJCrew, the iPhone DJ. Trophy presentation by the King and Queen of the New Wave Prom

ARTS DEVO

by Jason Cassidy • jasonc@newsreview.com

WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE ALBUM? I made a list of my 100 favorite albums this past weekend. This was not an exercise in objective music criticism with the aim of compiling the very “best” albums—this was the entirely subjective selection of a list of albums that did something for me at some point in my life and still resonate today (I may have worn out that Pac-Man Fever cassette in 1982, but if I heard “Do the Donkey Kong” today, someone might get hurt).

Like many people, over the past decade I’ve shifted to purchasing (or otherwise acquiring) most of my music via digital downloads and listening to mixes of multiple artists instead of taking in one album by one artist at a time. And this exercise of turning away from iTunes and dirtying my fingers as I thumbed through the dusty CDs and vinyl records that make up my life’s soundtrack was very satisfying (and it made me realize I need to return more often with new artifacts for the archives). I highly recommend everyone makes a list—however big—of their own (and shares it with me).

I’m not going to waste too much ink rehashing mine. I will say that my No. 1 is the quintessential indie-rock album, Pavement’s debut fulllength Slanted and Enchanted, and No. 100 is Andrew W.K.’s caveman party-rock classic I Get Wet, and those bookends should tell you much of what you need to know about me and my tastes.

There were a lot of interesting (and some surprising) themes that surfaced along the way: I picked nearly as much classic rock (Aerosmith, Creedence, Queen, etc.) as I did indie rock (Archers of Loaf, Modest Mouse, Butterglory, etc.); six Redding and/or Chico bands are represented (Deathstar, 28th Day, Vomit Launch, Case for Radio, Downsiders and Mid-Fi); there are At No. 8, The Modern Lovers.

100 albums I’d rather listen to than any Rolling Stones or Beatles album (I didn’t say my choices were better, just that I’d put them on first—calm down); more than a few artists made their biggest marks via greatest hits or other collections (Nick Cave, Leonard Cohen, The Cure, etc.); and, somehow, there is a handful of very important albums from my life that I don’t currently own, including Pixies’ Doolittle! I’ve posted the whole lot on Arts DEVO’s Facebook page for the curious.

SAVING CHICO’S SOUL All right, friends and neighbors. You put your money where your heart was and helped to save the Pageant Theatre and The Bookstore via their funding campaigns last year. But the with the new year comes new needs to be met in the quest to preserve the character of our little city. First, Chico Museum’s Indiegogo crowdfunding campaign to raise $10,000 to be used toward its permanent exhibit on the local Mechoopda tribe has stalled at less than $2,000 with only a couple of weeks left before the Jan. 31 deadline. Visit www.indiegogo.com and search “Mechoopda” to donate and help the museum meet its goal.

Second, KZFR Community Radio 90.1 FM, Chico’s eclectic “people-powered” station, is losing broadcasting power thanks to a transmitter that has nearly reached the end of its lifespan. The cost to buy and install a new one is $40,000, and the station is holding a series of benefit concerts and starting a crowdfunding campaign in an attempt to meet the $40K goal. The Power to the Tower Concert Series will feature three shows at the Chico Women’s Club over the next couple of months: S.F.’s Midnight North with Sacramento’s Walking Spanish (Feb. 1); a Mardi Gras Party with Bahapki (Feb. 28); and Commander Cody (March 8). Visit www.kzfr.org for info on shows and to link to the Indiegogo campaign that will run Jan. 16-March 1.

If we don’t preserve these critical institutions, no one will. And Chico will become more bland, character-free and indistinguishable from all the other soulless dumps if we don’t act now.

Power to the people’s tower!

34 CN&R January 16, 2014

Find Us Online At:

www.chico.newsreview.com

BUTTE COUNTY LIVING Open House Guide | Home Sales Listings | Featured Home of the Week

Free Real Estate Listings Find Us Online At:

www.chico.newsreview.com

RECYCLE

THIS PAPER.

LOVE’S REAL ESTATE The Forecast

T

here’s some good news for Californians looking to buy or sell a home in 2014: the housing market is expected to keep getting better this year. What’s even better, for sellers at least, is that the median price will rise for the second straight year.

This forecast is straight from the people who know, as published in the California Association of Realtors’ 2014 California Housing Market Forecast.

“The market has improved moderately over the past year, and we expect that to continue into 2014,” says CAR President Don Faught. “Sales would be even higher if inventory were less constrained in foreclosure-dominated markets, like the Central Valley and Inland Empire, where there is an extreme shortage of available homes. Sales will be stronger in higherpriced areas, where there are more equity properties and more homes for sale.”

The report shows optimism for home buyers, particularly when it comes to record-low interest rates and affordable prices. The average for 30-year fixed-mortgage interest rates will edge up to 5 percent after six consecutive years of declines, but will

YOU’RE WELCOME, NATURE.

still remain historically low. And median home prices, which edged up last year, are expected to climb another 6 percent in 2014 to $347,000.

“The housing market momentum, which began last year, will continue into 2014,” says CAR Vice President and Chief Economist Leslie Appleton-Young. “Pent-up demand from first-time buyers will compete with investors and all-cash offers on lowerpriced properties, while multiple offers and aggressive bidding will continue to be the norm in mid- to upper-priced properties.”

She also says she expects underwater homeowners to play an important role in the real estate game this year, with some staying put because of rising home prices and others deciding to list their homes and move on.

“Wildcards for 2014 include federal, monetary and housing policies, state and local government finances, housing supply, and the actions of underwater homeowners,“ says Appleton-Young, “not to mention the strength of the overall economic recovery.”

All in all, 2014 is shaping up to be a good year for buyers and sellers alike.

DOUG LOVE is Sales Manager at Century 21 Jeffries Lydon Email escrowgo@aol.com or call 530.680.0817

Open Houses & Listings are online at: www.century21JeffriesLydon.com incrediBle viewS

Large yard, hardwood floor, dual pane windows & many other upgrades

$245,000

Brandon Siewert

brandonsiewert.com • 828–4597

1083 San Ramon Drive, 4 bed 2 bath, 1829 sqft, newly remodeled, large yard. call for more info

$179,000

on acreage in Paradise. Remodeled and secluded! 687 Van Fossen

$239,400 Call & see today!

Alice Zeissler | 530.518.1872

ADDRESS

1296 Glenshire, built in 2008, great floor plan.

Garrett French

$219,500!

GarrettFrenchHomes.com

the market is still moving

530-228-1305

Specializing in residential & agriculture properties in chico, Orland, Willows.

Homes Sold Last Week 505 Rhapis Dr 1917 Roseleaf Ct 1992 Vallombrosa Ave 10175 Alberton Ave 3695 Hegan Ln 590 Desiree Ln 3 Heartwood Ct 11 Tierra Rosa Ln 3 Sunflower Ct

NEW LISTING!

coming soon!

Charming Home

new roof, carpet, paint

EmmEtt Jacobi

Cell 530.519.6333 • emmettjacobi.com

Sponsored by Century 21 Jeffries Lydon

TOWN

PRICE

BR/BA

SQ. FT.

ADDRESS

Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico

$575,000 $458,000 $450,000 $355,000 $267,000 $266,000 $245,000 $238,000 $230,000

3/ 3 4/ 3 3/ 2.5 2/ 1 3/ 1.5 3/ 2 3/ 2 3/ 2 3/ 2

3154 2706 2505 1120 1547 1471 1284 1394 1435

1 San Pablo Ct 1051 Poplar St 489 E 1st Ave 984 Madrone Ave 4 Bartram Ter 285 Lassen Ave 1125 Sheridan Ave 54 3887 Ord Ferry Rd 2299 Blossom Ln

TOWN

PRICE

BR/BA

SQ. FT.

Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Dayton Durham

$227,500 $217,000 $210,000 $210,000 $204,000 $198,000 $127,000 $190,000 $334,000

2/ 2 2/ 1 2/ 1 3/ 2 3/ 2 3/ 2 3/ 2 3/ 1.5 3/ 2

1126 1097 1068 1457 1370 1241 1026 1390 1660

January 16, 2014

CN&R 35

Bringing You To 2.9 Acres Easy Commute to Town

$51,000 Ad #556

Deer Hunter’s Delight 10 Acres X Zone

$55,000 Ad #322

Excellent Opportunity!!

2BR/2BA

1038 SF +/$147,950 Ad #547

One Owner Home 2BR/2BA + 2 RV Ports

$254,900 Ad #565

www.newsreview.com

Paradise 5623 Wilson lane - Paradise In this 7+ acre wooded glen of stunning natural beauty with ponds and waterfalls, deer and swans, one residence and a cabana form a charmed setting on a slope of the Sierra foothills. The boundaries are fully fenced. The residence and cabana, linked by a patio of old bricks, are on the high side of the property, overlooking a series of ponds formed along a mountain steam. The 7-room residence has a 31 foot living room with wall-wide windows, glass sliders, and patio. The country kitchen is in three parts, for cooking, for dining and for family living. A library, two bedroom suites and a self-contained recreation area of playroom, kitchenette and bath are all virtually indoor/outdoor spaces with huge sliders and adjoining patios. Call today to arrange your private tour of this magnificent estate property.

5350 Skyway, Paradise

(530) 872-7653

listed Price: $449,900

Paradise@C21SelectGroup.com www.C21Skyway.com 1-800-785-7654

Chari Bullock Real Estate | 530-872-6818

Just ListeD!

3 bed / 2.5 bath, 2340 sq ft

$435,000

Dana W. Miller

Century 21 Jeffries Lydon (530)571-7738 (530)570-1184 dmiller@century21chico.com

•Short sale, 3 bd/2 ba, 1,372 sqft $229,000 • Canyon Oaks, w/ stunning view! 3 bd/3 ba, 3,381 sq ft, private. $699,000 • Spanish Garden, Canyon view w/ access to Butte Creek, 2,642 sq ft upgrades! $549,950 • 18 ACS, Forest Ranch, 3 bd/1 ba, 1,550 sq ft, cash only $225,000 • 1.66 ACS Chico, stunning 3 bd/4 ba, 2 offices, 3,930 sq ft $668,000 • Short sale, 3bd/2ba 2,499 sq ft 7.7 acres, Butte Creek $500,100 Teresa Larson (530) 899-5925 www.ChicoListings.com • chiconativ@aol.com

move in ready Two master suites on opposite sides of home! In addition this home features a large open living room, 2 more bedrooms and a good sized back yard. Newer windows, roof, HVAC system and city sewer hookup make this a complete package.

mark reaman 530-228-2229

Mark.Reaman@c21jeffrieslydon.com

Jeffries Lydon

The following houses were sold in Butte County by real estate agents or private parties during the week of December 30, 2013 – January 3, 2014.

The housing prices are based on the stated documentary transfer tax of the parcel and may not necessarily reflect the actual sale price of the home.

ADDRESS

9919 Jones Ave 1950 Northern Pintail Ct 13918 Cluster Ct 6351 Colby Ct 13817 S Park Dr 709 Mt Ida Rd 3142 Claremont Dr 121 Sunset View Ln 4 Quick Silver Ct 36 CN&R January 16, 2014

TOWN

PRICE

BR/BA

SQ. FT.

ADDRESS

PRICE

BR/BA

SQ. FT.

Durham Gridley Magalia Magalia Magalia Oroville Oroville Oroville Oroville

$334,000 $210,000 $197,000 $150,000 $147,000 $290,000 $235,000 $220,000 $176,000

2/ 1 4/ 2.5 3/ 2 3/ 2 2/ 2 5/ 2.5 3/ 2.5 3/ 2 4/ 2

940 2130 1999 2240 1339 3044 1916 1680 1795

2597 Oro Garden Ranch RdOroville

TOWN

$159,000

2/ 1.5

1540

974 Waggoner Rd

Paradise

$246,000

4/ 2

1874

1552 Nunneley Rd

Paradise

$235,000

3/ 1.5

1722

1863 Salida Way

Paradise

$144,500

2/ 2

1171

6120 Bowles Blvd

Paradise

$140,000

2/ 2

1540

5568 Keith Rd

Paradise

$114,000

3/ 2

1370

Print ads start at $6/wk. www.newsreview.com or (530) 894-2300 ext. 5 Phone hours: M-F 8am-5pm.

All ads post online same day.

Deadlines for print: Line ad deadline: Monday 4pm Adult line ad deadline: Monday 4pm Display ad deadline: Friday 2pm

Online ads are

STILL

FREE!

*

*Nominal fee for adult entertainment.

All advertising is subject to the newspaper’s Standards of Acceptance. Further, the News & Review specifically reserves the right to edit, decline or properly classify any ad. Errors will be rectified by re-publication upon notification. The N&R is not responsible for error after the first publication. The N&R assumes no financial liability for errors or omission of copy. In any event, liability shall not exceed the cost of the space occupied by such an error or omission. The advertiser and not the newspaper assumes full responsibility for the truthful content of their advertising message.

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Notice of caution to our Readers!

Whenever doing business by telephone or email proceed with caution when cash or credit is required in advance of services.

FICTITIous BusIness FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following person is doing business as THE GHOST LIFE, THE VISIONARY ARTS at 122 Peak View Drive Oroville, CA 95966.

BRIAN SANCHEZ 122 Peak View Drive Oroville, CA 95966.

This business is conducted by an Individual.

Signed: BRIAN SANCHEZ Dated: December 9, 2013 FBN Number: 2013-0001559 Published: December 26, 2013, January 2,9,16, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following person is doing business as GREEN ENERGY CONSTRUCTION at 2654 HWY 32 STE 1300 Chico, CA 95973.

MICHAEL THOMAS GROSBERG 3168 Aloha Ln Chico, CA 95973 This business is conducted by an Individual.

Signed: MIKE GROSBERG Dated: December 17, 2013 FBN Number: 2013-0001600 Published: December 26, 2013, January 2,9,16, 2014

open

house Century 21 Jeffries Lydon

Brandi Laffins 321-9562 Katherine Ossokine 591-3837

Sat. 11-1, 2-4 & Sun. 11-1, 2-4

2714 North Avenue (X St: La Mesa) 5 Bd / 4 Ba, 2,396 Sq.Ft. $347,000 Jim Aguilar 519-4714

3171 Sandstone Lane (X St: Shallow Springs Ter.) 5 Bd / 4 Ba, 4,430 Sq.Ft. $1,100,000 Heather DeLuca 228-1480 Anita Miller, 321-1174 Frank ‘Speedy’ Condon 864-7726

Sat. 2-4

177 Lazy S Ln (X St: Stilson Canyon) 4 Bd / 3 Ba, 3,260 Sq.Ft. $675,000 John Wallace 514-2405

Sat. 11-1

56 Horse Run Ln (X St: Honey Run Rd 4 Bd / 4 Ba, 2900 Sq.Ft. $675,000 Johnny Klinger 864-3398

Sat. 11-1, 2-4 & Sun. 2-4 155 Spanish Garden (X St: Skyway) 4 Bd / 2.5 Ba, 2,642 Sq.Ft. $549,950 Patty Davis Rough 864-4329 Chris Martinez 680-4404

Sat. 2-4 & Sun. 2-4

1325 Kentfield Rd. (X St: East 1st) 3 Bd / 3 Ba, 2,522Sq.Ft. $465,000

Sat. 11-1

Sat. 11-1, 2-4 & Sun. 11-1, 2-4 7 Firefly Ct (X St: Manzanita Ave) 3 Bd / 2 Ba, 1833 Sq.Ft. $325,000 Kimberley Tonge 518-5508 Patty Davis Rough 864-4329

Sat. 11-1, 2-4 & Sun. 11-1, 2-4 35 River Wood Loop (X St: Glenwood) 3 Bd / 2 Ba, 1915 Sq.Ft. $318,000 Ed Galvez 990-2054

Sat. 2-4

25 La Casa Court (X St: Paseo haciendas Ct) 3 Bd / 2.5 Ba, 2,023 Sq. Ft. $299,900 Chris Martinez 680-4404

Sat. 11-1, 2-4 & Sun. 2-4 2323 Ritchie Cir (X St: 12th Ave) 3 Bd / 2 Ba, 1634 Sq.Ft. $292,000 Ron Kelly 521-3629 Sandy Stoner 514-5555

Sat. 2-4

10 Smith Bros (X St: W 6th Ave) 3 Bd / 2 Ba, 1762 Sq.Ft. $289,900 Steve Kasprzyk 518-4850

Sat. 2-4

1279 Glenshire Ln (X St: Mariposa Ave) 3 Bd / 2 Ba, 1451 Sq.Ft. $274,900 Paul Champlin 828-2902

Sat. 11-1

17 Dean Way (X St: Neal Dow) 4 Bd / 2 Ba, 1,569 Sq.Ft. $245,000 Brenda Stryker 519-8338

Sat. 11-1, 2-4 & Sun. 2-4 871 El Dorado St (X St. 8th St) 3 Bd / 2 Ba, 1636 Sq.Ft. $245,000 Michael Prezioso 514-1638 Ronnie Owen 518-0911 Carolyn Fejes 966-4457

Sat. 2-4 & Sun. 11-1

3027 Rocky Mountain Wy (X St: Grand Teton) 3 Bd / 2 Ba, 1372 Sq.Ft. $229,000 Johnny Klinger 864-3398 Chris Martinez 680-4404

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME - STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name: GREEN ENERGY CONSTRUCTION at 2954 Hwy 32, Suite 1300 Chico, CA 95973.

STEPHEN M MCNULTY 3075 Coronado Road Chico, CA 95973.

MICHAEL T GROSBERG 3168 Aloha Lane Chico, CA 95973.

This business was conducted by a General Partnership.

Signed: MIKE GROSBERG Dated: December 17, 2013 FBN Number: 2013-0000748 Published: December 26, 2013, January 2,9,16, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following person is doing business as STREAMLINE DESIGN at 890 East 9th Street #14 Chico, CA 95928.

JENEANNE CHATOFF 890 East 9th Street #14 Chico, CA 95928.

This business is conducted by an Individual.

Signed: JENEANNE CHATOFF Dated: November 22, 2013 FBN Number: 2013-0001505 Published: December 26, 2013, January 2,9,16, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following person is doing business as DJ PHG at 433 Cherry Street #2 Chico, CA 95926.

GRANT C. PARKS 433 Cherry Street #2 Chico, CA 95926.

This business is conducted by an Individual.

Signed: GRANT C. PARKS Dated: November 21, 2013 FBN Number: 2013-0001501 Published: December 26, 2013, January 2,9,16, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following persons are doing business as LAKE OROVILLE GOLD COUNTRY RV COMMUNITY at 3864 Olive Hwy Oroville, CA 95966.

WAY OUT WEST COMMUNITIES CORPORATION P.O. Box 689 Fallon, NV 89407.

This business is conducted by a Corporation.

Signed: NICOLE ADAMS, SECRETARY/CFO Dated: December 12, 2013 FBN Number: 2013-0001588 Published: December 26, 2013, January 2,9,16, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following person is doing business as ECLECTIC MARKETING at 1074 San Ramon Dr Chico, CA 95973.

SHELBY SANDERS 1074 San Ramon Dr Chico, CA 95973.

This business is conducted by an Individual.

Signed: SHELBY SANDERS Dated: December 6, 2013 FBN Number: 2013-0001556 Published: January 2,9,16,23, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following person is doing business as SKZ PHOTOGRAPHY at 851 Victorian Park Dr Chico, CA 95926.

SHIANNE ZERLANG 851 Victorian Park Dr Chico, CA 95926.

This business is conducted by an Individual.

Signed: SHIANNE ZERLANG Dated: December 10, 2013 FBN Number: 2013-0001574 Published: January 2,9,16,23, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following persons are doing business as CITIZENS ACTION NETWORK, FRACK-FREE BUTTE COUNTY at 2965 Madre De Oro Pl Oroville, CA 95965.

KAREN DUNCANWOOD 6656 Pentz Rd #56 Paradise, CA 95969.

DAVE GARCIA 128 Via Las Lupes Yankee Hill, CA 95965.

CHARLES GREENWOOD 128 Grimy Gulch Bangor, CA 95914.

JONI STELLAR 2965 Madre De Oro Pl Oroville, CA 95965.

This business is conducted by an Unincorporated Association.

Signed: JONI STELLAR Dated: December 13, 2013 FBN Number: 2013-0001594 Published: January 2,9,16,23, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME - STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT The following person has abandoned the use of the fictitious business name: PCMD PC TREATMENT CENTER at 2117 Esplanade Chico, CA 95926.

NICOLETTE BATTENFIELD 355 E Lassen Ave #5 Chico, CA 95973.

This business was conducted by an Individual.

Signed: NICOLETTE BATTENFIELD Dated: December 23, 2013 FBN Number: 2013-0000782 Published: January 2,9,16,23, 2013

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following person is doing business as POETRY DIVINE, RAINCLOUD PRESS at 807 Moss Ave Chico, CA 95926.

ERIKA LUNDER 807 Moss Ave Chico, CA 95926.

This business is conducted by an Individual.

Signed: ERIKA LUNDER Dated: December 30, 2013 FBN Number: 2013-0001629 Published: January 9,16,23,30, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following person is doing business as INDIAN HEAD VENDING at 1584 Montgomery St. Apt. B Oroville, CA 95965 BRANDON MICHAEL HILL 1584 Montgomery St. Apt. B Oroville, CA 95965.

This business is conducted by an Individual.

Signed: BRANDON HILL Dated: December 13, 2013 FBN Number: 2013-0001590 Published: January 9,16,23,30, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following person is doing business as PC-MD at 2117 Esplanade Chico, CA 95926.

KYLE SILLIMAN 3465 Hackamore Chico, CA 95973.

This business is conducted by an Individual.

Signed: KYLE SILLIMAN Dated: December 23, 2013 FBN Number: 2013-0001615 Published: January 9,16,23,30, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following persons are doing business as SALON VOGUE at 101 Salem Street Suite 140 Chico, CA 95928

ClassIFIeds

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January 16, 2014

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HALEIGH BETTENCOURT 1583 East Ave Chico, CA 95926.

MEGAN KATHLEEN WARREN 400 Hideaway Park Chico, CA 95926.

This business is conducted by a General Partnership.

Signed: MEGAN WARREN Dated: December 19, 2013 FBN Number: 2013-0001610 Published: January 9,16,23,30, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME - STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name: BUTTE COUNTY TOW AND RECOVERY at 1161 1/2 Muir Ave Chico, CA 95973.

MELISSA EATTOCK 1161 1/2 Muir Ave Chico, CA 95973.

FELICIA EATTOCK 1161 1/2 Muir Ave Chico, CA 95973.

This business was conducted by a General Partnership.

Signed: MELISSA EATTOCK Dated: December 19, 2013 FBN Number: 2011-0001470 Published: January 16,23,30, February 6, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following person is doing business as PROFESSIONAL GROWER SERVICES at 1642 Almendia Dr Chico, CA 95926.

JACK COOTS 1642 Almendia Dr Chico, CA 95926.

This business is conducted by an Individual.

Signed: JACK COOTS Dated: January 3, 2014 FBN Number: 2014-0000010 Published: January 16,23,30, February 6, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following persons are doing business as RYON FAMILY PARTNERSHIP at 7225 Durnel Road Nelson, CA 95958.

JANET L HEWITT 187 Prospector Road Dayton, NV 89403.

PATRICIA J JONES 15953 Katydid Lane Magalia, CA 95954.

ELIZABETH A ROLLAND 5179 Woodside Ct Carmel, IN 46033.

CHARLES H RYON 6847 Sacramento St Nelson, CA 95958.

EDWIN E RYON 7229 Durnel Rd Nelson, CA 95958.

This business is conducted by a General Partnership.

Signed: PATRICIA J. JONES Dated: January 7, 2014 FBN Number: 2014-0000034 Published: January 16,23,30, February 6, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following persons are doing business as BLOWN N BITCHEN, BLOWN N BITCHEN DESIGNS, BNB CUSTOM DESIGNS, BNB CUSTOM MODS, BNB CUSTOMS, BNB DISTRIBUTION, BNB DISTRIBUTORS, BNB HEADQUATERS, LADIES OF BNB, MAD VAPE ARTIST, ME AND MY BIG IDEAS, ME AND MY CRAZY IDEAS, ME AND MY CRAZY IDEAS INC, MOD WARS, MOD WARZ, RUTHLESS EXISTENCE, VAPE UNION, VAPERS UNION, VAPING UNION, VILLIN INDUSTRIES at 3 Roberto Court Chico, CA 92708.

ME AND MY CRAZY IDEAS, INC 17465 Appalachian Street Fountain Valley, CA 92708.

This business is conducted by

this Legal Notice continues

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a Corporation.

Signed: PATRICK J. SCANLAN/ PRESIDENT Dated: January 10, 2014 FBN Number: 2014-0000066 Published: January 16,23,30, February 6, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following persons are doing business as NAIL CANDY at 1311 Mangrove Ave Suite B Chico, CA 95926.

JILL S OGBORN 949 Downing Ave Chico, CA 95926.

SCOTT C OGBORN 949 Downing Ave Chico, CA 95926.

This business is conducted by a Married Couple.

Signed: JILL S. OGBORN Dated: December 16, 2013 FBN Number: 2013-0001595 Published: January 16,23,30, February 6, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following person is doing business as SISTERS SALON at 1561 Myers St Oroville, CA 95965.

HEATHER ERICA HOFFMANN 40 Melrose Dr Oroville, CA 95966.

This business is conducted by an Individual.

Signed: HEATHER HOFFMANN Dated: January 6, 2014 FBN Number: 2014-0000026 Published: January 16,23,30, February 6, 2014

NOTICES NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE DUANE WALTER HELGESON AKA DUANE W. HELGESON AKA DUANE HELGESON To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors, contingent creditors, and persons who may

this Legal Notice continues

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otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of: DUANE WALTER HELGESON, AKA DUANE W. HELGESON, AKA DUANE HELGESON. A Petition for Probate has been filed by: DONALD R. CANADA in the Superior Court of California, County of Butte.

THE Petition for Probate requests that: DONALD R. CANADA be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent.

THE PETITION requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval.

Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A Hearing on the petition will be held in this court as follows: Date: February 13, 2014 Time: 9:00a.m.

Dept: TBA Address of the court: Superior Court of California County of Butte 655 Oleander Ave Chico, CA 95926.

IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney.

IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a

this Legal Notice continues

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ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS: Petitioner KATHLEEN V STARR filed a petition with this court for a decree changing names as follows: Present name: AAREN INLOW STARR Proposed name: AAREN INLOW THOMAS STARR THE COURT ORDERS that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted.

Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing.

NOTICE OF HEARING Date: February 26, 2014 Time: 8:30am Dept: TBA The address of the court is: Butte County Superior Court 655 Oleander Ave. Chico, CA 95926 Signed: SANDRA L. MCLEAN Dated: December 17, 2013 Case Number: 161100 Published: January 2,9,16,23, 2014

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS: Petitioner JENNIFER LYNN ANTONE filed a petition with this court for a decree changing names as follows: Present name: JENNIFER LYNN ANTONE Proposed name: JENNIFER LYNN HUTCHINSON THE COURT ORDERS that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted.

Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing.

NOTICE OF HEARING Date: February 26, 2014 Time: 8:30am Dept: TBA The address of the court is: Butte County Superior Court 655 Oleander Ave. Chico, CA 95926 Signed: SANDRA L. MCLEAN Dated: December 17, 2013 Case Number: 161052 Published: January 9,16,23,30 2014

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS: Petitioner MARGARET DOLORES (DELORES) O’DONNELL filed a petition with this court for a decree changing names as follows: Present name: MARGARET DOLORES (DELORES) O’DONNELL Proposed name: LADY MARGARET WATTS SCHNEIDER VALLIER MARKS O’DONNELL THE COURT ORDERS that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted.

Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing.

NOTICE OF HEARING Date: February 19, 2014 Time: 8:30am Dept: TBA The address of the court is: Butte County Superior Court 655 Oleander Ave. Chico, CA 95926 Signed: SANDRA L. MCLEAN Dated: December 24, 2013 Case Number: 161154 Published: January 2,9,16,23, 2014

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS: Petitioner LEANDRA RASH filed a petition with this court for a decree changing names as follows: Present name: BLAKELY KALYNN RASH Proposed name: BLAKELY KALYNN FARRELL THE COURT ORDERS that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted.

Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing.

NOTICE OF HEARING Date: January 29, 2014 Time: 8:30am Dept: TBA The address of the court is: Butte County Superior Court 655 Oleander Ave. Chico, CA 95926 Signed: ROBERT A. GLUSMAN Dated: December 9, 2013 Case Number: 160875 Published: January 9,16,23,30 2014

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copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code.

Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult an attorney knowledgeable in California law.

YOU MAY EXAMINE the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250.

A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk.

Case Number: PR40904 Attorney for Petitioner: MICHAEL MORAN 686 Rio Lindo Avenue Chico, CA 95926 Published: January 16,23,30, 2014

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ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS: Petitioner KURTIS LEE BROWN filed a petition with this court for a decree changing names as follows: Present name: KURTIS LEE BROWN Proposed name: KURTIS LEE MENDONCA THE COURT ORDERS that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted.

Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing.

NOTICE OF HEARING Date: February 19, 2014 Time: 8:30am Dept: TBA The address of the court is: Butte County Superior Court 655 Oleander Ave. Chico, CA 95926 Signed: SANDRA L. MCLEAN Dated: December 24, 2013 Case Number: 161141 Published: January 9,16,23,30 2014

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS: Petitioner HARPREET K. TIWANA AND HARMANDEEP S. TIWANA filed a petition with this court for a decree changing names as follows: Present name: NIHAAL SINGH Proposed name: NIHAAL SINGH TIWANA THE COURT ORDERS that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted.

Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing.

NOTICE OF HEARING Date: March 5, 2014 Time: 8:30am Dept: TBA The address of the court is: Butte County Superior Court 655 Oleander Ave. Chico, CA 95926 Signed: ROBERT A. GLUSMAN Dated: January 6, 2013 Case Number: 161163 Published: January 16,23,30, February 6, 2014 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS: Petitioner CRISTY LEE OLSON & STEPHEN ROSS PADDOCK filed a petition with this court for a decree changing names as follows: Present name: CRISTY LEE OLSON, STEPHEN ROSS PADDOCK Proposed name: CRISTY LEE ROSS, STEPHEN PADDOCK ROSS THE COURT ORDERS that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted.

Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing.

NOTICE OF HEARING Date: March 5, 2014 Time: 8:30am Dept: TBA The address of the court is: Butte County Superior Court 655 Oleander Ave. Chico, CA 95926 Signed: SANDRA L. MCLEAN Dated: January 8, 2013 Case Number: 161193 Published: January 16,23,30, February 6, 2014

ARIES (March 21-April 19):

Whose enemy are you? Are you anyone’s adversary or obstructionist or least favorite person?

Answer honestly, please. Don’t be in denial. Next question: Do you derive anything useful from playing this oppositional role? If your answer is yes, that’s fine. I won’t try to talk you out of it. Continue to reap the benefits of being someone’s obstacle. But if, on the other hand, you get little value out of this negative relationship, now would be a good time to change it. You have more power than usual to free yourself from being an antagonist.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): You Tauruses are customarily more grounded than the rest of us. But this week, I’m wondering if you will be tempted to escape the laws of gravity and rebel against the call of duty. I suspect that your dreams, at least, will feature uninhibited forays into the wild blue yonder. While you’re sleeping, you may float weightlessly in an interplanetary spaceship, become an eagle and soar over forests, wear a futuristic jet pack on your back and zip through the sky, sail across the Serengeti Plain in a hot-air balloon, or have a picnic on a cloud with a feast of cotton candy and sponge cake and mint tea. Would you consider bringing this kind of fun into your waking life?

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): What part of

your life is too small, and you want to make it bigger? Is there a situation that’s overly intense and dramatic, and you wish you could feel more lighthearted about it, less oppressed? Are you on a quest that has become claustrophobic, and you’d love to find a way to make it more spacious and relaxed? If you answered yes to any of those questions, Gemini, there’s good news. Very soon now, you will have a close encounter with the magic you need to open what has been closed and expand what has been narrow. Be alert for it. Be crafty as you gather it in and harness it for your use.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): In her poem

“Catch a Body,” Ilse Bendorf says she dislikes the advice “Don’t ever tell anybody anything.” On the other hand, “Tell everyone everything” isn’t the right approach, either, she says. Judging from your astrological omens, Cancerian, I surmise that you’re wavering between those two extremes.

You’re tempted to think you’ve got to do one or the other. Should you cultivate the power that comes from being silent, and keep people guessing about your true feelings? Or should you seek greater intimacy but risk giving away your power by confessing all your inner thoughts? I suggest you take a middle path. Tell the vivid truth, but carefully and incrementally.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): If a substance has

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): “You know

what the greatest tragedy is in the whole world?” asks novelist Terry Pratchett. “It’s all the people who never find out what it is they really want to do or what it is they’re really good at. ¡K It’s all the people who never get to know what it is that they can really be.” If that description applies to you even a little, Libra¡ªif you’re still not completely sure what you’re good at it and what you want to do¡ªthe coming months will be prime time to fix that problem. Start now! How? Open your mind to the possibility that you don’t know yourself as well as you someday will. Take vocational tests. Ask smart people you trust to tell you what they think about your special aptitudes and unique qualities.

And one more thing: Be wildly honest with yourself about what excites you.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): In his book Schottenfreude: German Words for the Human Condition, Ben Schott dreams up new compound German words for use in English.

Here’s one that would serve you well in the coming week: “Fingerspitzentanz,” meaning “fingertips-dance.” Schott says it refers to “tiny triumphs of nimble-fingered dexterity.”

His examples: fastening a bracelet, tightening a minuscule screw, unknotting, removing a recalcitrant sticker in one unbroken peel, rolling a joint, identifying an object by touch alone, slipping something off a high shelf.

Both literally and metaphorically speaking, Scorpio, you now have an abundance of this capacity. Everything about you is more agile and deft and limber than usual. You’ll be a master of Fingerspitzentanz.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):

The four elements that compose cocaine are the same as those that make up TNT, caffeine and nylon: hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen and oxygen. The combinations and proportions of elements are different in each substance, of course. But the point, for our purposes, is that the same raw materials lead to different results. I foresee a similar drama unfolding in your own life, Sagittarius. How you assemble the ingredients you currently have at your disposal could produce either a rough and ragged high, a volatile risk, a pleasant stimulation, or a useful resource.

Which will it be?

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Metaphorically speaking, you have recently come into possession of some new seeds.

They are robust. They are hardy. They have the potential to grow into big, strong blooms.

So when should you plant them, metaphorically speaking? I’m going to suggest that you wait a while longer. It wouldn’t be bad for them if you sowed them right now, but I think their long-term vitality will be even greater if you postpone the planting for at least a week. Two weeks might be better. Trust your intuition.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): The

been burned, it can’t be burned again.

There’s no flammable stuff left to feed a fire.

That’s simple physics. Now, as for the question of whether a person can be burned more than once—we’re speaking metaphorically here—the answer is, unfortunately, yes. Some folks don’t learn from their mistakes and don’t have enough emotional intelligence to avoid the bullies and manipulators who burn them again in the future. But I’m confident that you aren’t one of these types, Leo, or that at least you won’t be in the coming days. You may have been burned before, but you won’t be burned this time.

Flemish artist Jan van Eyck (1390-1441) was renowned for his innovative mastery of oil painting. He signed many of his works not just with his name but also with his motto: “Als ich kan.” Its idiomatic translation is “The best I can do.” What he meant was that he had pushed his talent and craft to the limit, and then stopped and relaxed, content that he had given all he could. I invite you to have a similar attitude as you wrap up the projects you’re currently involved in, Aquarius.

Summon all your passion and intelligence as you create the most excellent outcome possible, but also know when to quit. Don’t try too hard; just try hard.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): “People who

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): It’s an

don’t take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year,” said author Peter Drucker. “People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year.” In general, I agree with that assessment. But I think it needs to be altered for your situation in the coming months. Here’s the adjusted version of the formula: Virgos who don’t take risks in 2014 will make an average of 3.1 big mistakes. Virgos who do take risks in 2014 will make, at most, a half a big mistake.

The gatekeeper

by Rob Brezsny

excellent time to rise up and revolt against conventional wisdom. I urge you to immunize yourself against trendy groupthink as you outwit and outmaneuver the status quo.

Have fun and activate your playful spirit to the max as you create workarounds to the way things have always been done. At the same time, Pisces, stay acutely attuned to your compassion and common sense. Don’t be a quarrelsome intransigent. Don’t be rebellious just to please your ego. If you follow these guidelines, you will be able to pull off a graceful insurrection that both soothes and stimulates your soul.

Go to RealAstrology.com to check out Rob Brezsny’s EXPANDED WEEKLY AUDIO HOROSCOPES and DAILY TEXT MESSAGE HOROSCOPES. The audio horoscopes are also available by phone at 1-877-873-4888 or 1-900-950-7700.

story and photo by

Vic Cantu

For the past 15 years, local artist Karen Laslo has been the gatekeeper. Except for the occasional vacation, she dutifully shows up early morning and at night, seven days a week, to open and close the public gates of the Chico Cemetery. Laslo is also an avid photographer of nature and local people. Visit her website at www.karenlaslo.com to see her portfolio and read her blog, A Picture’s Worth, on local issues.

What are your main duties?

15 MINUTES

BREZSNY’S

For the week of January 16, 2014

I usually ride my bike here to open the gates and close them at sunset. I’m an early riser, so after opening them at 7 a.m., I like walking through Bidwell Park. At night, I ride my bike or drive inside to make sure no one gets locked in.

If I find people lingering over a gravesite, I gently tell them the cemetery is now closed. Opening and closing times are posted on a sign at the front, and change depending on the season.

Is it scary being around the dead?

No, it’s good to familiarize yourself with death and the idea that you’re not going to be around forever. It helps you figure out what’s important in your life and teaches you to make yourself happy while you’re alive. If you don’t think about death until you’re old, then you’ll be scared.

How did you get this job?

I live near the cemetery, and 15 years ago I noticed the workers here had to make a special trip back every evening, and even on holidays, just to close the gates. I knew they had families and wanted to help them out, so I

asked the owner, Mr. Brusie, if I could take their duties and he agreed. But they’re very accommodating if I ever need to take time off.

Any poignant memories?

The Memorial Day celebrations are beautiful.

There are hundreds of American flags along Mangrove and on the veterans’ graves. They have a band and speakers. Mother’s and Father’s Days are also very big. One Father’s Day at closing, a woman asked if I could stay open so she could put flowers on her father’s grave. I did, which made her really glad.

On the downside, I witnessed the results of two incidents of vandalism here. It was very sad, as some of the broken gravestones were really old.

Is this your only job?

Yes, I’m retired so this is a good supplement.

But I also love photographing nature and locals who are important to me, like activists David Guzzetti and Kelly Meagher. My website has many of my photos, but I’ve also done work for the CN&R, KZFR radio, the Chico Peace and Justice Center, as well as the Chico Sol online publication.

FROM THE EDGE

by Anthony Peyton Porter anthonypeytonporter@comcast.net

Self-image Not long ago, I was about to get in the passenger seat of a friend’s car when he said something like, “You can’t get in that way. You have to move the seat back.”

Two things immediately came into play, the first being my self-image. If I forget about my body, which I find happens less and less, my default assumption is that I’m a fit 36-year-old, fairly lithe and slightly supple, so I’m always bigger than I think I am. That’s what happened this time, as soon as I got down low enough to bend the right way to try to squeeze through the opening between the seat and the door frame. It would have been a lot easier to move the seat first, except he had said that I couldn’t get in without moving the seat, a snap judgment he would soon revise.

I had thought I could get in the car without moving the seat rearward and slanting it back; I was determined to do it without the owner’s help, and I did it. I had to suck in my gut, and I knocked my head on the door frame more than once. I didn’t care, although it

was immediately obvious that he had warned me about getting in his car from years of watching other would-be passengers try.

The other thing that came into play was my selfimage. As I was struggling to force my flab through that small opening, I said, “Do you know how many cars I’ve managed to sit in?” That was pure ego, since I didn’t think he knew the answer, and neither did I, not to mention the question being beside the point. I was just annoyed that he seemed to think I was so dim as not to be able to get in his car without his advice.

I used to think I was intelligent. I know, I know— but I did. It was how I thought of myself and so it should be how other people thought of me, too. I didn’t want him thinking I was less than brilliant. I usually know better now, and still I reacted out of that old place of wanting other people to think what I preferred. I think I was offended, or maybe insulted. It didn’t last long, and then—since I no longer think of an apology as an admission of error and don’t mind error much anymore anyway—I apologized for being snippy. I’m so mature.

January 16, 2014

CN&R 39

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