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North State mountain tribe to reclaim ancestral homeland of Humbug Valley

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PAGE

See HEALTHLINES, page 14

WATCH REPEAT

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See ARTS FEATURE, page 26

DIRTY DISRUPTORS See GREENWAYS, page 12

See page 20

Chico’s News & Entertainment Weekly

Volume 37, Issue 29

Thursday, March 13, 2014

2 CN&R March 13, 2014

CN&R

INSIDE

Be at

Vol. 37, Issue 29 • March 13, 2014

OPINION Editorial. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Guest Comment. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Second & Flume . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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ON THE COVER: PHOTO Of BEVERly BENNER OglE By JaNE BRaxTON liTTlE PHOTO Of HuMBug VallEy COuRTEsy Of fEaTHER RiVER laNd TRusT

Associate Editor Christine g.K. laPado-Breglia Arts Editor Jason Cassidy News Editor Tom gascoyne Asst. News Editor/Healthlines Editor Howard Hardee Staff Writer Ken smith Calendar Assistant Mallory Russell Contributors Craig Blamer, alastair Bland, Henri Bourride, Rachel Bush, Vic Cantu, Matthew Craggs, Kyle delmar, Emiliano garcia-sarnoff, Meredith J. graham, Miles Jordan, Karen laslo, leslie layton, Mark lore, Melanie MacTavish, Jesse Mills, Mazi Noble, Jerry Olenyn, anthony Peyton Porter, shannon Rooney, Claire Hutkins seda, Juan-Carlos selznick, Matt siracusa, Robert speer, allan stellar, daniel Taylor, Evan Tuchinsky

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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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Big Oil Brown Gov. Jerry Brown got a much-deserved earful from activists

Become a highway (or roadway) helper M the Adopt-a-Highway program. However, the program is not just for highways. Many organizations and individuals ost Butte County residents are familiar with

volunteer to “adopt” roads throughout Oroville and other areas of Butte County.

Several years ago, businesses and nonprofit organizations began participating in the program. Families and residents in various neighborhoods soon started following suit, sponsoring various portions of local roads. Some volunteers honor loved ones through the program, such as in the case of one sign that reads “For Gina” on Grand Avenue. by Neighbors near Las Plumas High Cookie School decided to adopt a portion of Las Arnett Plumas Avenue. They call themselves Debby’s Doers. I have spent some time The author is editor cleaning up the stretch of Oro Bangor at the Gold City Highway between Las Plumas Avenue Gazette online and Burlington Road. newspaper.

People Invoking Empowerment Change Employment and Success (P.I.E.C.E.S.) also participates in the program. In fact, the organization recently adopted a third section of roadway.

Members of the group care for the area of Oro Bangor Highway between Burlington Road and Myers Street, Spencer Avenue from Oro Bangor Highway to Wyandotte Avenue, and Wyandotte 4 CN&R March 13, 2014

Avenue from Lower Wyandotte to Myers Street.

Some of the volunteers have been banding together to make their efforts count. For example, I recently assisted Debby’s Doers with a portion of their area. P.I.E.C.E.S. is helping out the Gold City Gazette with its area. Thomas Craig of P.I.E.C.E.S. has begun efforts to expand awareness and support of the program. He stated, “We saw a need and developed a plan. People just need to make the time to really make a difference.”

Anyone can participate in the Adopt-aHighway program. Residents can volunteer to help a group for a day or officially adopt a portion of a road. Even those who are not able to set aside blocks of time to volunteer can help. Here are some of the ways: • Avoid throwing garbage on the ground when walking or driving down the road.

• When putting garbage bins out for collection, pick up and throw away a few pieces of trash that may be lying nearby on the ground.

• Report anyone “dumping” trash in a public area. Note descriptions of people, vehicles, license plates, etc.

For more information on how to help, contact me at 403-7384. You can also contact Thomas Craig at pieces.oroville@gmail.com or Scott Johnson at 538-2401. Ω

during a recent speech before his own party members. At issue is the governor’s support of hydraulic fracturing—or fracking—within the state.

During the California Democratic Party’s annual convention on Saturday (March 8) in Los Angeles, an anti-fracking contingent chided Brown, who’s up for re-election this fall, by heckling him and holding up signs denouncing his stance on the controversial oil and gas extraction method (see “A fracking affair,” Newslines, page 8). The practice involves injecting numerous chemicals and large volumes of water into the earth.

The week before the convention, the state Democratic Party officially amended its platform so that it seeks, among other things, a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing until such time that the state enacts stricter regulations or it is proven safe. Fracking activists—or “fracktivists”—view the practice as an environmental disaster waiting to happen. Fracking is also counter to Brown’s commitment to curbing climate change and mitigating drought, they say.

Saturday’s demonstration was just the latest backlash from environmentalists who’ve taken the governor to task at every opportunity. In-party critics have been calling him Big Oil Brown and following his every move in public. They’ve been waging a campaign online, too, with such gimmicks as an online parody commercial that depicts the governor hawking a cologne called “Frack Water: a fragrance by Jerry Brown” at www.bigoil brown.org. The spoof depicts the governor as a cowboy and includes this voiceover: “Jerry Brown’s Frack Water—A fragrance that smells like a man, a man who doesn’t give a (bleep) about drought or climate change.”

Many anti-fracking activists, including a local contingent, are preparing to travel to the state Capitol this coming Saturday (March 15) for a largescale protest. Additionally, in Butte County, local fractivists of the Citizens Action Network are gathering signatures to place a county fracking moratorium on the November general-election ballot.

Californians are serious about protecting the state’s natural resources, especially precious groundwater supplies. Brown must recognize fracking as a potential threat to the environment and decide what kind of legacy he wants to leave: one in which he stands up to the oil and gas companies or one in which he’s remembered as Big Oil Brown. Ω

Repeal ‘new Jim Crow’ It’s been called “the new Jim Crow.” People of color are more

likely to be stopped by police, more likely to be detained and searched, and more likely to be charged and convicted than whites in similar circumstances. After prison, they face many barriers that prevent a return to full citizenship, including disenfranchisement laws that deny them the right to vote—a problem that affects nearly one in 13 black adults.

That’s why we support U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s call for states to repeal laws that prohibit the formerly incarcerated from voting.

Such laws, which affect 5.85 million Americans, serve no purpose other than to lower voting rates among communities of color and make it harder for ex-convicts to reintegrate into society.

Only 11 states bar felons from voting for life, but most impose some period of disenfranchisement. In California, ex-convicts may not vote while on parole or under any form of mandatory criminal-justice-system supervision. In 2012, these policies denied the vote to more than 400,000 otherwise eligible Californians, most of them African-Americans and Latinos, who make up 76 percent of the state’s prison population.

Disenfranchisement laws only serve to compound disparities in the criminal justice system and suppress voting in minority communities.

California should heed the Obama administration’s call and wipe them off the books. Ω

Send email to chicoletters @ newsreview.com

SECOND & FLUME

by Melissa Daugherty melissad@newsreview.com

Elections and farewell I love this time of year. It’s almost the start of spring—my second-favorite season, behind fall.

This is also the time of year that the political scene is ramping up. The June primary is getting closer. Speaking of which, I got one wrong a few months ago when I made predictions for who was going to run for certain offices. I thought Jane Dolan might take another crack at regaining her seat on the Butte County Board of Supervisors—the post Larry Wahl won back in 2010. As we know this week (see Tom Gascoyne’s report, page 10), Dolan is out. But I was right about medi-pot advocate Andrew Merkel going up against Wahl.

I could be wrong about this, too, but I don’t think Merkel’s a serious contender. He called me a few months back when I’d wondered in this column if Dolan would be back on the ballot. He asked why I’d want her back on the Board of Supervisors and told me that she’d be appointed to the panel regardless. That’s because Supervisor Bill Connelly would appoint Dolan to his seat representing the Oroville district, since he’d be vacating it after the primary election, Merkel said.

At the time, Connelly hadn’t announced his candidacy for the county assessor’s post. I thought Merkel was confused. Turns out he was half right. As we recently found out, Connelly is vying for that job.

But back to my discussion with Merkel. When I asked him why Connelly would appoint Dolan to his supervisor’s seat, Merkel said the two were fast friends. I don’t know whether that’s true, but there’s no guaranteeing the Oroville supervisor will be elected as assessor. And even if Connelly won that office, he wouldn’t appoint his successor. According to Clerk-Recorder Candace Grubbs, Gov. Jerry Brown would make that appointment. Furthermore, the appointee must live in Connelly’s Oroville district, making it very unlikely that Dolan, unless she’s moved from Chico, would fit the bill.

Suffice it to say, my conversation with Merkel was a strange one. At the end of it, he asked me my name. Did I mention that he called me?

As for some other predictions, I was right about Supervisor Maureen Kirk’s seat. She’s got a challenger in Bob Evans, the former Chico City Councilman who was oddly not re-elected to that panel in 2012.

It’s too soon to know who’s vying for the City Council race in November. We know Andrew Coolidge is in. I’d mentioned the other likely candidates: Councilman Mark Sorensen, Michael Dailey, Dave Donnan, Dave Kelley. Another name popping up these days is Aveed Khaki. Time will tell.

In other news, the CN&R is saying goodbye this week to Christine G.K. LaPado-Breglia. In addition her recent duties as associate editor, Christine has long been in charge of the paper’s environmental section, Greenways.

She has done a stellar job digging up stories about Chico’s green happenings as well as overarching environmental efforts over the years. Everyone at the CN&R as well as many in the community will miss her good work on the environmental front.

Melissa Daugherty is editor of the CN&R

Hooray for child writers Re “Making the cuts” (Fiction 59 Cover feature, March 6): The youngsters’ stories leapt off the page like crickets on hot pavement. A shout-out to fellow Poe fan Aeia Peterson for her two pieces. Although Poe wrote many fine strings of 59 words, I’m certain he never wrote them with thumbs.

Sadly ignorant of this contest prior to its conclusion, I’ll now stain the page with a thumbed piece I would have submitted as “Fecklessness Run Amok”: Shop owners sit littered on the sidewalk plying for respect and dignity. They barter this honor by letting homeless people run their businesses all morning. Many bring dogs to increase their odds of eye contact and the occasional bone. The begging starts at noon, “Oh please, may I sit a bit longer?

The humility is invigorating—ya know?”

Editor’s note: Mr. Mash’s 58-word writeup shows it’s not easy putting stories into exactly 59 words.

BILL MASH Chico

Beware of script thieves Re “One script, two movies” (Reel World, by Robert Speer, March 6): The case of the Barefoot movie script is typical. I’ve had at least half a dozen scripts stolen from me and made into movies, stage plays, books, etc.

Copyright theft is pandemic in the United States right now because there is no copyright protection. I talked to the FBI and they told me they were supposed to go after script thieves but that they hadn’t been given a budget to do so. Then on top of that, copyright law is filled with loopholes. Courts in the 9th Circuit consider plot, theme, characters, dialogue and settings in determining copyright theft—all a script thief has to do is make cosmetic changes to wiggle past copyright law.

FYI: For all you aspiring writers, you have to register your script with the Copyright Office in Washington, D.C., otherwise lawyers can’t collect their fees even if they win for you, so they won’t even take your case.

The downside of all this is that we have witnessed The Rape of American Literature.

When up-and-coming writers have their original work stolen from them, they are unable to earn a living as writers and fade from view. It’s been a long time since we had an Ernest Hemingway or John Steinbeck.

MIKE PETERS Chico

LETTERS continued on page 6

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CN&R 5

continued from page 5

Why no investigation?

Re “Chronic trouble” (Newslines,

by Howard Hardee, March 6): I thought the CN&R prided itself on investigative journalism, but seeing as how no one bothered to investigate any of the false allegations and outright lies disseminated by the District Attorney’s Office, nor those put forth by the San Francisco Chronicle, it seems I was severely mistaken.

I’m not sure who Howard Hardee is, but his name appears to be a pseudonym for Jeff Greeson from the DA’s office.

For clarity, I have been labeled many things in my life, but “informant” is a new one. If I was an informant back in 2008, when I had no kids and nothing to lose, you can believe I would’ve done the same when my house was raided and my kids were taken, twice.

Hardee’s story ends with, “The CN&R was unable to contact Bram for this story as of press time.”

Really? Did you try Facebook?

JAYME J. WALSH Chico

City compensation cont’d

Public Notice

Glass–Free Zone Declared Mar. 15 - Mar. 18, 2014

PUBLIC NOTICE – NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, that pursuant to Chapter 9.32., Glass-Free Zone of the Chico Municipal Code, the City Manager has declared the Glass-Free Zone ordinance operative from 6:00 a.m. on Saturday, March 15, 2014, through 6:00 a.m. on Tuesday, March 18, 2014.

Generally, the possession of glass containers on city owned property is prohibited within the Glass Free Zone during this time period.

A map of the Glass-Free Zone is set forth below.

IG B

6 CN&R March 13, 2014

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Re “Response to the cover” (Letters, by Robert Main, March 6): Dr. Main may pay a plumber $90 an hour, if he has the money.

Chico shouldn’t pay 60 plumbers $55 an hour to listen to Rush Limbaugh, work out at the gym, or observe cadets at the Fire Academy, all while standing by in case Chico develops a leaky faucet.

Rick Clements never lets facts cloud his preconceived notions.

Conservative council members’ votes are bought and paid for by the police and firefighter unions.

When an independent council member tries to negotiate a reasonable contract, he is ridiculed by police. Firefighters claimed more than 31,000 hours of overtime in 2012. That’s equivalent to 10 full-time jobs; if paid at regular wages, that would be a more than $450,000 savings to Chico in one year.

If David Main has an altruistic work ethic, let him volunteer at other needful jobs in Chico where we’re not paying him $55 an hour.

It’s time to get rid of these unions. They’ll strike, set fires, vandalize, and obstruct other firefighting efforts, but Chico can’t afford these arrogant, elitist thieves.

KEN GOODWIN Chico

Robert Main’s letter in support of his son’s exorbitant compensation compares his son’s normal

hourly wage of $37.33 to a plumber charging $90 per hour to unstop a toilet.

His comparison is disingenuous for at least the following reasons: 1) It completely ignores his fringe benefits of $85,912 per year, making his normal hourly wage $68.21 an hour, not $37.33; 2) plumbers typically charge by the job via flat rate or bid, not by the hour; 3) assuming the job took one hour and the charge was $90, that money is not the plumber’s takehome pay—it is revenue to the plumbing company before direct and overhead expenses.

The average salary for a plumber in Chico is $45,000 with more experienced plumbers making $72,000, which equates to $21.63 an hour and $34.62 an hour, respectively. Robert Main’s inaccurate comparisons don’t help justify David Main’s total compensation of $286,000 per year.

Stop this madness. Our city cannot afford to pay these people up to five times what we make.

PATRICK O’CONNELL Chico

Speaking of city money Re “Strong-arming the budget” (Cover feature, by Dave Waddell, Feb. 27): The police-firefighter article was a fine piece of investigative reporting. But of necessity, it is only one-third of the story. The other pieces are elected officials and us as citizens.

Employee proposals for paypension increases are recommended by city administrators and approved by City Council members. One problem is that council members can approve increases during their terms that are not sustainable in the longer run. So, future members and citizens, as taxpayers, have to deal with shortfalls.

One solution might be to require an analysis that shows real costs in the next few years compared with likely revenues (taxes) to meet those costs. This before approving pay-pension contracts.

Since it appears we now have in place legally binding contracts, then as citizens we need to vote to pay taxes to meet those expenses while maintaining other services.

Or we need to vote those tax increases down and live with fewer nonemergency city services.

DOUGLAS FERGUSON Chico

When the City Council decides not to hire new people and instead work the current employees on overtime to make up staffing lev-

els, you don’t get to criticize them when they step up. Grow some cojones. If you don’t want to pay for services, don’t staff them.

Let’s compare apples to apples: Mr. Nakamura would make $296,864 if he worked just the 2,912 hours per year that Dave Main works, at his stated base pay of $102 per hour (40-hour week opposed to 56-hour week). Toss in the overtime and he would be grossing about $657,862 for driving a desk, which I think may not be as “demanding” as picking up pieces of children or saving your house from a fire.

RICH MEYERS Oroville

Given current unemployment figures, wouldn’t it be better to have four firefighters earning about $70,000 a year than one earning $285,000?

When someone gets paid for a 48-hour shift, do they get paid for sleeping? When an employer colludes with soon-to-retire employees by jacking up their work hours the last year to inflate their pensions for life, isn’t that actually a scheme to screw the taxpayers (us)?

Retirement was originally a sound concept—take care of older people so they could have a decent life after their working years. It was not intended to pay for McMansions. It sounds really nice to retire at age 50 on $170,000 paid for by current workers. Who signed on to these deals? Do people earning hundreds of thousands of dollars a year for not working (retired) really expect the young workers and households of the future to pay for their luxurious lifestyles?

Just to compare, teachers who retire in their late 50s after 21 years of teaching gross $24,000 a year from STRS. What a bunch of suckers! Actually, that is a pretty fair wage for not working. Given the current circumstances, it might even be sustainable.

DAVID HOLLINGSWORTH Chico

Corrections Last week’s Healthlines story (“Doc settles down,” by Evan Tuchinsky) misidentified the state where Dr. Michael Fealk received specialty training in colon and rectal surgery; it was Pennsylvania.

Also, Fealk’s grandfather survived colorectal cancer. The errors have been corrected online. –ed.

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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I don’t think that dividing it up into six, like it’s been proposed, is a good idea. It kind of keeps the wealth for the wealthier, and then rural areas tend to be poorer. … If you divide it northsouth, a lot of the wealth will be in the south. So, probably not, for the prosperity of all.

I think that’s a tough question, because our state is so diverse; there are definitely different needs within different regions of the state. Personally, I like California as it is—I can’t see it breaking up.

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CN&R 7

CITRUS DODGES SQUASHING

Plans to repurpose Citrus Elementary School were waylaid Wednesday, March 5, when the Chico Unified School District Board of Trustees voted 3-2 to keep the elementary school at Citrus and West Fourth avenues open.

Discussion about Citrus School’s future came up as the district was developing a 20-year master plan outlining the use of the $78 million Measure E funding earmarked for improved facilities. The draft plan called for closure of Loma Vista School—the CUSD’s special-education school—which would have necessitated special-education preschool services move to the Citrus campus.

Trustee Liz Griffin moved to expand Loma Vista’s facilities rather than close it, and the move was approved after about three hours of discussion.

A fracking affair

As Dave Garcia’s T-shirt implies, he believes hydraulic fracturing represents a major threat to state and county agriculture.

SCAMMERS SENTENCED

A former Chico couple was sentenced on Tuesday, March 11, for a securities fraud scheme that cost more than 250 investors a total of $18.4 million.

Robert Eberle, 75, and his wife, Barbara, 66—who now live in Oxford, Ga.—pleaded guilty in 2011 to running their scam from 2001 to 2006 as owners of Lexus Financial in north Chico and as sales representatives for the now-defunct Secure Investment Services in Redding.

The couple peddled “viaticals,” or fractional shares of a person’s life insurance policy, promising investors that doctors had made estimates of when the policyholders would die, according to The Sacramento Bee. If the policyholders lived longer than projected, a bond firm in Michigan would pay the investors their guaranteed returns.

The doctors, however, were fakes, as was the bond firm.

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Garland Burrell Jr. in Sacramento sentenced both Eberles to five years in prison and ordered them to pay $13.2 million in restitution.

REIGN OF CONFUSION

The recent flap within the halls of the Butte County government concerning ClerkRecorder Candace Grubbs and Assistant Clerk Laurie Cassady (see “When clerks collide,” Newslines, March 6) proved both intriguing and confusing for the local media. A press conference

by District Attorney Mike Ramsey (pictured) noted workroom tensions between the two women, but an investigation cleared Grubbs of ordering an office employee to do personal work for her, with the exception of about a half-hour’s worth.

However, KRCR TV news posted a story that said Grubbs had ordered the employee to look into property for sale because Grubbs wanted to “grow pot.” The story has since been removed from the station’s website. Grubbs has repeatedly voiced antipot sentiments publicly. And the Chico Enterprise-Record mistakenly reported in both a news story and an editorial that the employee Grubbs was ordering around was Cassady. DA Ramsey said he was at a loss as to how the story got so out of whack.

8 CN&R March 13, 2014

Local anti-fracking campaign launched, pushes for countywide moratorium

Aprotesters heckling Gov. Jerry Brown during his speech at the California Democratic

video is circulating online of fracking

Convention on March 8.

In the video, amid calls for “No fracking!” from the audistory and photo by ence, Brown apparently Howard becomes fed up. “California is Hardee the one state—the one state— howardh@ that actually has a goal of reducnewsreview.com ing the consumption of oil, gas and coal and other fossil fuels,” he said. “I challenge anybody to find another state that is on that path—a serious path.”

Fracking—or, more properly, hydraulic fracturing—is the oil industry practice of injecting a cocktail of chemicals, water and sand into rock formations at high pressure to extract deeprock oil deposits that are otherwise inaccessible. California didn’t regulate the oil-extraction method whatsoever prior to Jan. 1, when Senate Bill 4, authored by state Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills) and backed by Brown, went into effect and a permitting process for fracking activity was instituted.

While some level of overAnti-fracking connection: sight is a welcome change for Go to www.face environmental advocacy groups, book.com/frack many maintain that the bill fails freebuttecounty to address a number of environto access the Frack-Free Butte mental concerns, including the County Facebook potential for fracking fluids to page. contaminate groundwater. That’s

because the bill requires after-the-fact reporting rather than prior environmental review, said Joni Stellar, the treasurer for the Frack-Free Butte County campaign, which launches today (March 13) with a press conference at the top of Oroville Dam at 10 a.m.

Organized by the Citizens Action Network (CAN), the campaign is pushing for a countywide moratorium on fracking. Volunteers began collecting signatures on Wednesday, March 12, to qualify a county ordinance for the generalelection ballot in November. The signature gatherers need to obtain about 7,500 valid signatures by June 1, but the campaign plans on doubling that amount “just to be safe,” Stellar said.

The proposed ordinance would ban fracking “until the state regulates and ensures safety,” she said, “or if the fracking technology gets to the point where it can be proven safe—two big ‘ifs.’”

SB 4 requires oil and gas compa-

nies to apply for a permit for fracking, publicly disclose the chemicals they use in the process, notify neighbors before drilling, and monitor groundwater and air quality, among other requirements.

But environmental groups have taken issue with a few last-minute oil-industryfriendly amendments. “One new amendment could be used by regulators to bypass the California Environmental Quality Act’s bedrock environmental review and mitigation requirements,” the Sierra Club of California posted on its website. “Another new amendment

could be interpreted to require that every fracked well be approved between now and 2015, with environmental review conducted only after the fact.”

The Sierra Club also noted that the bill contains “a Halliburton Hush Clause that gives fracking fluid-makers rights to use trade-secret protections to prevent the public from easily accessing information about the quantities of fracking chemicals injected into the ground in their region near their water sources.”

The issue of potential groundwater contamination is clearly a sticking point for Dave Garcia, former political chairman of the Sierra Club’s Yahi Group and current CAN spokesman. When the CN&R met with Garcia for a recent interview, he was wearing a T-shirt that read, “What the FRACK? Save California Agriculture.”

“The unfortunate thing with SB 4 is that it doesn’t do anything in terms of regulating the toxic chemicals they’re using,” he said, “and that’s the most frightening thing.”

Garcia explained that, when following the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s health guidelines, a relatively small amount of benzene—one of the chemicals used in the fracking process and a known carcinogen—can contaminate a tremendous amount of groundwater. According to a report released by the Environmental Working Group, the “petroleum distillates used in a single well could contain enough benzene to contaminate more than 100 billion gallons of drinking water to unsafe levels.”

As fracking operations use 500,000 to 2 million gallons of fracking fluid in each well, Garcia said he believes it’s safe to assume that “eventually, it’s going to get into our groundwater.” He pointed to a report from the Cornell Fracture Group in New York, which found that of new wells drilled in Pennsylvania between 2010 and 2012, about 6 percent or 7 percent failed in the first year of operation.

As such, Garcia maintains that fracking represents a major threat to agriculture, the state’s No. 1 industry. As farmers in Butte County and beyond are heavily reliant on clean groundwater— and drought conditions are already placing a strain on water supplies—any potential contamination would be “a huge detriment to the farming community,” he said.

Stellar added that, beyond farming, all of Butte County relies on the Tuscan Aquifer for domestic use as well. “Potentially polluting huge aquifers is nonsensical to me,” she said. “We can’t live without water. We can live without crude oil—we’ll just have to live differently.”

Garcia takes heart in existing moratoriums on fracking around the nation, including the Los Angeles City Council’s 10-to-0 vote to ban fracking on Feb. 28, and New York’s statewide ban, which has been in place for six years.

Currently, there are between 10 and 20 active oil wells in Butte County, none of which are fracked. But that could change as natural gas prices rebound, Garcia said. “When those prices go back up, they’re going to be hitting some of these wells in Butte County,” he said.

In the meantime, Garcia said he believes it would be folly for Butte County to rely on SB 4 as an environmental safeguard. “Unfortunately, it’s still a very, very weak bill,” he said.

“Vermont banned fracking in 2012. Now, that’s regulation.”

Including the press conference at

the top of Oroville Dam, there are several ways to get involved with Frack-Free Butte County this week.

On Saturday, March 15, a bus will leave from the Butte College Chico Center at 10 a.m., taking protesters to a rally in Sacramento that will “let legislators know there are many thousands of people motivated to come from all corners of the state to say, ‘Stop fracking now!’”

Stellar said. (Contact Garcia at 218-5133 or rangerdave@mynvw.com for more information.)

On Sunday, March 16, CAN will host a campaign fundraiser at the Chico Women’s Club (592 E. Third St.) that will include live music, food, refreshments and a showing of the Josh Fox (of Gasland fame) documentary The Sky is Pink. Tickets are $10; go to Frack-Free Butte County’s Facebook page for more information (see column note). Ω

Survey sparks suspicion Faulty student questionnaire adds fuel to farmers’-market fire fter completing a six-question online surAbusiness vey designed to gauge downtown Chico owners’ opinions about the hotly

contested location of the Saturday morning Chico Certified Farmers’ Market, Pullins Cyclery owner Steve O’Bryan wanted to make sure his response counted. So he filled out the survey again, and again, and again, until he’d logged his views “at least 15 or 20 times.”

“Vote early and vote often—that’s my slogan,” O’Bryan quipped, repeating a directive often credited to Chicago gangster Al Capone.

The survey was linked to March’s edition of a monthly e-mailed newsletter distributed by the Downtown Chico Business Association, and caused a stir among those embroiled in debate over the market’s location. Market advocates, fearful that the City Council won’t renew a franchise agreement at the end of this year for the parking lot at Second and Wall streets, where the CCFM has been located for 21 years of Saturdays, are currently collecting signatures for a ballot initiative to put the issue before voters and obtain a six-year agreement at the location.

O’Bryan’s immediate concern about— and criticism of—the survey is the fact that anyone can follow the nonsecured link and enter as many anonymous votes as they want: “Since I have my ideas about the farmers’ market and other folks have their ideas, the survey would be totally inaccurate, because anyone with the time and inclination could vote as many times as they wanted to

try to sway the results,” he explained.

Other respondents found the same fault with the survey, and also expressed concerns over the source of the questionnaire—which was signed by “Anna Guiles, Intern, City Manager’s Office, City of Chico”—as well as how the results will eventually be used.

Karl Ory, former Chico mayor and an organizer with Friends of the Farmers’ Market, the organization spearheading the initiative campaign, was also critical of the survey’s wording.

“It starts by saying ‘there is a discussion among the Chico community about the relocation of the market,’” Ory said. “Well, there’s also a lot of discussion in the community about giving the market a long-term lease and leaving it alone, so it seems like kind of a weighted way to phrase it, because here again the focus is on us moving the market.”

As it turns out, the purpose of the

email is not part of an anti-market plot, nor did it originate in the City Manager’s Office; rather, it’s a component of one college student’s senior project.

Guiles is a Chico native working toward a degree in public policy analysis at Oakland’s

SIFT|ER Kids are pricey We’ve all heard that children are expensive, but a new Gallup survey backs up that long-held belief. According to the pollster, on average, American parents spend $29 more daily than those without younger kids. Those in all income brackets reported greater spending. Here’s the average reported by parents when asked, “How much money did you spend or charge yesterday on all types of purchases you may have made, such as at a store, restaurant, gas station, online, or elsewhere?”

Do not have children under age 18 Have children under age 18 Difference

Average daily spending $79 $108 $29

A survey circulated online by the Downtown Chico Business Association asked respondents, “Do you support the current location of the Saturday Farmers’ Market?”

FILE PHOTO BY CHRISTINE G.K. LAPADO-BREGLIA

Mills College. She worked as an intern in the City Manager’s Office last summer, and said she still maintains her intern status while away at school. The survey, which Guiles now realizes is flawed and is currently being revamped, is part of her senior thesis project, and one of three surveys she eventually intends to distribute to people on both sides of the market debate.

“I’m also in contact with farmers’ market Manager [Amber Suppus] and am hoping the board of directors will allow the farmers to participate in a survey I’ve designed for them to voice their opinions concerning this issue as well,” Guiles said.

She explained the project is entirely her own design and has nothing to do with any entity at the city of Chico, though she said she plans to provide the results to the City Manager’s Office, as well as any other interested parties.

“There was definitely an oversight and I’m taking it very seriously,” Guiles said of the fact that respondents can submit multiple answers. While the old survey was still online as of Tuesday, Guiles said any information collected from it will be scrapped. She said she’s already finished the new survey, which is awaiting approval from her school’s human research protocol committee.

Though somewhat removed from the stir the survey caused, Guiles said she’d received several emails about its re-voting flaw, as well as inquiries regarding its source and purpose.

“I think I’m being transparent in saying that I’m an intern, but recognize the concern,” she said. “In my revised copy, it will be made clear this is part of my senior thesis and not ordered from the city manager.”

Melanie Bassett, executive director of the DCBA, said she’d met Guiles while she was an intern last summer, and agreed to distribute the survey as a favor to her and not at the request of the City Manager’s Office.

Bassett also said the DCBA will circulate a revised survey once it’s completed.

—KEN SMITH kens@newsreview.com

NEWSLINES continued on page 10 March 13, 2014

CN&R 9

continued from page 9

Paper threat Chico State’s Butte Hall gets fire report state fire marshal’s report Aingrecent on Chico State’s Butte Hall callfor, among other things, the

removal of wooden benches, bulletin boards, plastic recycling bins, coffeemakers and tea kettles has some university employees shaking their heads at what they see as the irony of the situation.

The deaths a few years ago of two longtime Butte Hall employees brought to light the fact that the building, built in 1972, has asbestos sprayed on its interior metal frame.

Test results released in January of last year indicated the air in the building did not present a danger, even though the test was not conducted in its usual manner because of the existence of asbestos. (See “Butte Hall gets good grade,” Jan. 24, 2013).

Chico State professor Mark Stemen, a critic of how the asbestos concerns were handled, is now up in arms over the fire marshal’s report. He’s posted signs on a couple of the bulletin boards slated for removal that read: “If asbestos doesn’t require removal, why does paper?”

Stemen, a professor in the Geography and Planning Department whose office is in Butte Hall, noted that a number of directives on the fire marshal report, ordered in the last inspection in 2011, have not been addressed by the university’s Facilities Management & Services Department. Those include updating fire extinguishers and providing door locks that will not encumber fire-escape routes.

“We were laughing among ourselves about the paper on the bulletin boards,” he said. “I mean, we have fire extinguishers that are out

of date and doors whose locks don’t meet code compliance from the 2011 report, and we’re supposed to worry about pulling bulletin boards off the walls? I know: Bulletin boards are full of paper, and asbestos doesn’t burn.”

The report also calls for “repair to the fire alarm system,” to be followed by testing during spring break.

Additionally, the report asks the university to “[p]rovide housekeeping in the telecommunications room located in the mechanical room on the exterior of the building—north. This room was a total disaster,” and to “[r]educe and limit the amount of combustible loading on the corridor walls and doors throughout the building, most notably on the sixth floor.” The latter was in reference to the posting of signs on the bulletin boards and office doors.

Extension cords will be replaced with permanent wiring, and tea kettles, coffeemakers, space heaters, espresso machines and refrigerators were ordered removed from rooms on the fourth through seventh floors of the building.

Political science professor Charles Turner also works in Butte Hall; like Stemen, he questions the report.

“I’m not sure what all of it means,” Turner said, “but it does seem like a long list of things. As someone who’s been in the building for 14 years, it does surprise me that putting things on a bulletin board is now some big problem. I imagine most departments will

This notice was tacked to a bulletin board in Butte Hall slated for removal as per a state fire marshal’s report.

PHOTO BY TOM GASCOYNE

10 CN&R March 13, 2014

have to simply remove information, which is a shame. But we probably don’t have the budget for other options.”

He, too, mentioned the asbestos that is hidden above the building’s ceiling tiles.

“It seems kind of silly that we can’t put things on the bulletin boards when the building is full of asbestos,” Turner said. “And there is no sprinkler system; [there are] no smoke detectors. It’s just a lot cheaper to tell people to take signs off their office doors and bulletin boards.”

Marvin Pratt, the director of the university’s Department of Environmental Health and Safety, said his department coordinates the inspections.

“Once we receive a report, we separate the report into categories based on who is responsible for the corrections,” he said. “Normally, fixes are either facility-, occupantor department-related. Our office forwards the issues to the appropriate areas and works with those functional areas to ensure corrections are progressing.”

Pratt said the department will be working to make sure the safety concerns are corrected.

“The inspection frequency for the buildings on campus is not set in stone,” he said. “The residence halls and Butte Hall have a more frequent inspection requirement set forth in the fire code because they are residences or high rises; however, the fire marshal is responsible for ensuring those buildings are inspected.”

—TOM GASCOYNE tomg@newsreview.com

Primary candidates June election ballot shaping up nly six of the 13 seats up for Oelection grabs in the upcoming primary are contested, as of the

CN&R’s deadline. Included in the six is the race for the assessor, which, as we reported last week (“Assessing the big race,” by Ken Smith, Feb. 6), has six candidates including current District 1 Supervisor Bill Connelly, whose term expires at the end 2016. If he wins, his seat will be filled via appointment by the governor.

The other contested races include that for superior court judge in Department 7, which is currently held by Sandra McLean.

She is being challenged by attorney Eric Ortner. The two other judges up for election, Denny Forland and Michael Deems, each of whom were appointed to their seats, are not facing challengers.

The county supervisor seats currently occupied by Larry Wahl (District 2) and Maureen Kirk (District 3) are being challenged.

Wahl, a former Chico City Council member, who defeated 30-year incumbent Jane Dolan in 2010, is facing real estate investor and medical-marijuana advocate Andrew Merkel. There had been rumors that Dolan would attempt to regain her old seat, but they were quelled with a letter dated March 7 in which she said she would not be running.

“Over the last several months many friends and community leaders have urged me to run for the Butte County Board of Supervisors,” she wrote, “as many Butte County residents are concerned about issues and concerns of deep commitment to me—the Greenline, neighborhood quality, safety and improvement, infrastructure needs, public safety, library improvements, respect for the people who provide our government services.

“I will continue to be involved and advocate for these issues that are important to me and our county. Yet I have decided not to run for public office at this time.”

Dolan was recently reappointed to the Central Valley Flood Protection Board by Gov. Jerry Brown, who first named her to the position in 2011.

Supervisor Kirk is facing former

Longtime Butte County Supervisor Maureen Kirk is being challenged by Bob Evans. Both are former Chico City Council members.

PHOTO COURTESY OF BUTTE COUNTY LIBRARY LITERACY SERVICES

Chico City Councilman Bob Evans for the seat she has held since 2006.

Evans was appointed to the council to fill the vacancy created when Wahl won his supervisor seat in 2010. Evans was defeated in his run for council in 2012.

County Clerk-Recorder Candace Grubbs, who’s held her seat for the past 27 years, is facing a challenger in Pamela Teeter, who works for the nonprofit agency Youth for Change. She is the wife of Butte County Supervisor Doug Teeter. This marks one of the few times Grubbs has faced a challenger for her job. She was recently in the news in connection to allegations of her and her assistant, Laurie Cassady, creating an uncomfortable workplace and Grubbs’ use of an employee for personal work.

Teeter filed for the office the day after the story hit the press.

The other contested county race pits Treasurer-Tax Collector Peggy Moat, who was appointed to the job, against Kathleen Dwyer, who is the executive director of Terraces Senior Living in Chico.

Sheriff Jerry Smith announced last December that he would not run for re-election to the office he’s held since 2010, throwing his support to Undersheriff Kory Honea, who is not facing competition for the job.

District Attorney Mike Ramsey and Auditor-Controller David Houser are also running unopposed for their seats when the primary election is held June 3. (The filing deadline for seats in which the incumbent is not seeking reelection was hours beyond this paper’s deadline, so there’s a slim possibility more challengers may surface.)

—TOM GASCOYNE tomg@newsreview.com

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CN&R 11

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EARTH WATCH

GREENWAYS Julia Murphy, dioxin expert at the Butte Environmental Council, recommends that residents remove their shoes before entering their homes to avoid possible dioxin and pesticide contamination from soil adhering to shoe soles.

FEDS PROPOSE SEISMIC AIR GUNS

The U.S. Department of the Interior has cleared the way for controversial underwater seismic surveys off the Atlantic coast.

The department recently proposed rules that would allow seismic air guns—towed behind boats and emitting frequent blasts of compressed air as loud as a howitzer—to explore the sea floor in an attempt to discover new sources of gas and oil, according to The New York Times. The proposed area—from Delaware to Cape Canaveral, Fla.—has been off-limits to petroleum exploration since the early 1980s.

Allowing such exploration “could be a death sentence for many marine mammals, and is needlessly turning the Atlantic Ocean into a blast zone,” said Jacqueline Savitz, vice president of ocean-conservation group Oceana.

Seismic exploration “could alter feeding and mating habits” of marine mammals, as well as “simply drown out whales’ and dolphins’ efforts to communicate or find one another,” the article noted.

EPA MOVES TO PROTECT BRISTOL BAY

In late February, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency began a process to identify options to protect the world’s largest sockeye salmon fishery.

The EPA initiated the process under the federal Clean Water Act to protect Alaska’s huge Bristol Bay fishery from the potentially devastating impacts of the proposed Pebble Mine.

“Extensive scientific study has given us ample reason to believe that the Pebble Mine would likely have significant and irreversible negative impacts on the Bristol Bay watershed and its abundant salmon fisheries,” said EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. “It’s why the EPA is taking this step forward in our effort to ensure protection for the world’s most productive salmon fishery from the risks it faces from what could be one of the largest open pit [copper] mines on earth.”

LET ’EM SINK?

It may make more sense to let some islands and their native fauna and flora disappear under water rather than try to save them, a new study suggests.

Many of the Earth’s 180,000 or so islands— which are home to one-fifth of its animal and plant species—have been plagued by destructive rats and other invasive species, according to Grist.org. And a study published in Trends in Ecology & Evolution suggests it may be more prudent for conservationists to abandon their native-species-saving efforts on the many islands that will “be completely inundated with one meter of sea-level rise, which is expected within this century,” due to climate change.

“It may be that eventually we will be faced with some tough decisions about whether we move species in order to save them or whether we do nothing and let them go extinct,” said researcher James Russell of the University of Auckland.

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

12 CN&R March 13, 2014

PHOTO BY CHRISTINE G.K. LAPADO-BREGLIA

Hormonal disruption Chemicals on Environmental Working Group’s ‘Dirty Dozen’ list of concern to North State residents by

Evan Tuchinsky

Opeople daily, endocrine disruptors rank among the most insidious. These f all the toxins confronting

chemicals can have stealth effects—not only impacting the hormones of those exposed, but also creating a genetic legacy that can continue for generations.

“There is no end to the tricks that endocrine disruptors can play on our bodies,” states a recent report by the Environmental Working Group, a research and advocacy organization. Among those tricks: “increasing production of certain hormones; decreasing production of others; imitating hormones; turning one hormone into another; interfering with hormone signaling; telling cells to die prematurely; competing with essential nutrients; binding to essential hormones; [and] accumulating in organs that produce hormones.”

Recently the EWG cataloged 12 such disruptive compounds (see accompanying chart). They range from the familiar (lead, mercury, fire retardants) to the esoteric (atrazine, glycol ethers and phthalates).

And some, dioxins especially, are prevalent in the North State.

“It’s one of those Pandora’s Box situations,” said Chico geologist John Lane, of Chico Environmental Science and Plan-

ning. “Once you open it up and start looking, it’s much bigger than you expect—and it’s much more ubiquitous than you would expect, especially as nasty as these substances are. Most of them are measured in parts per trillion, which is a very minute amount, and that this could be an unhealthy or dangerous amount is even more alarming. …

“It’s almost like you don’t even want to look for them!”

Yet we should, he added: “As we learn more about them, they become more known to the public, but the regulatory climate moves so slowly … that [regulators] are 10 to 15 years behind in trying to keep us safe.”

Lane refers to endocrine disruptors as

‘Dirty Dozen’:

The Environmental Working Group’s list of 12 hormone-altering chemicals: • Arsenic • Atrazine • BPA (Bisphenol A) • Dioxin • Fire retardants • Glycol ethers • Lead • Mercury • Organophosphate pesticides • Perchlorate • PFCs (perfluorinated chemicals) • Phthalates For more information, visit www.ewg.org and click on the “Research” bar.

“legacy constituents,” and Julia Murphy, a dioxin expert at the Butte Environmental Council, adds that they are “persistent through generations.” Murphy says these chemicals act as “a system disruptor rather than a body disruptor,” meaning they trigger wide-ranging changes that can be heritable—passed on genetically to children, grandchildren, and on down. In addition, the compounds are relatively stable, so they can remain potent for decades.

“It’s important to keep information of containment sites alive,” Murphy said.

“Knowledge is key to making good decisions.”

In that vein, Lane and Murphy reviewed the EWG list and highlighted some endocrine disruptors of particular concern in the North State.

Dioxin: A byproduct of industrial processes, dioxin hit local headlines due to a concentration in Oroville. It’s a chemical of particular concern because, Murphy explained, “if you are exposed, you can apparently suffer no ill effects yourself but you can pass on genetic anomalies and disorders to your children.”

Soil can convey dioxin as well as pesticides, so “it’s a good idea to leave your shoes at the door,” Murphy said. “If we bring soil that’s carrying residues into our house, that exposure can build up over time.”

FRACK-FREE PARTY Head over to the Chico Women’s Club (592 E. Third St.) on Sunday, March 16, for the Frack-Free Butte County Fundraiser, which runs from 1:30 p.m. until 5:30 p.m. Featuring a musical lineup that includes local faves MaMuse and Gordy Ohliger’s Hot Potato trio, this fundraiser to support a fracking-moratorium ballot initiative also offers food, drink and the showing of the anti-fracking film The Sky is Pink. Cost: $10; go to frackfree buttecounty.nationbuilder.com for more info.

UNCOMMON SENSE Dandelions are dandy!

With spring right around the corner, gardening is on the minds of many folks. And with gardening come weeds, especially pesky dandelions. Why not make friends with them this year? (They are edible, after all.) Here is a recipe from theKitchn.com for dandelion-pumpkin seed pesto that may help: 3/4 cup unsalted hulled (green) pumpkin seeds 3 garlic cloves, minced 1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese 2 cups dandelion greens, loosely packed 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt black pepper, to taste Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Pour pumpkin seeds onto baking sheet and roast until fragrant— about five minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Pulse garlic and pumpkin seeds together in food processor until very finely chopped. Add parmesan, dandelion greens and lemon juice and process until ingredients are combined. Add olive oil and process until pesto is smooth. Mix in salt and pepper. Yum!

G

THE

reen HOUSE

by Christine G.K. LaPado-Breglia christinel@newsreview.com

Family Law | Criminal | Juvenile

URBAN FOREST UPDATE I ran into Mark Stemen, Butte Environmental Council’s

board director, over the weekend as he was gathering signatures in front of the Chico Natural Foods Cooperative in support of a ballot initiative to give the Saturday morning farmers’ market a sixyear lease at its current site. He told me he had some good news to share with me regarding the fate of heritage trees in the city of Chico, which he sent me via email: “As a follow-up to your story on BEC’s appeal of the Salvation Army project at Eighth and Salem, we have good news,” Stemen wrote. “As you recall, we did not want to punish a fellow nonprofit for cutting down a heritage tree. Instead, BEC has been working behind the scenes to make sure something similar would not happen again.

“To that end, after persistent dialogue with the city, we are pleased to let you know that the Bidwell Park and Playground The still-in-the-works Urban Forest Commission’s Tree Committee will be meeting Management Plan may help keep on Wednesday, March 12, at 6 p.m., and Chico’s remaining heritage trees one of the items will be an update on the from meeting the sad fate of this towering valley oak at the corner of draft Urban Forest Management Plan.”

Obviously, that meeting is history, but West Eighth and Salem streets, which was removed to make way for Stemen offered this suggestion for the duplexes. future: “We encourage everyone interFILE PHOTO BY CHRISTINE G.K. LAPADO-BREGLIA ested in local trees to get involved in the coming months. BEC also wants to thank our fellow organizations in the local environmental coalition (particularly Chico Tree Advocates) for their efforts in helping to move the Urban Forest Management Plan forward.”

Go to www.tinyurl.com/treecomm to learn more about the Tree Committee.

RAISE THE FENCE! This Saturday, March 15, those of you not riding on the bus down to the big Don’t Frack California event at the State Capitol in Sacramento should consider attending the Oak Way Community Garden Work Day, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sponsored by Cultivating Community North Valley and BEC, the work day is a “fence-raising party,” as the press release describes it, for the new community garden.

“This work day is a free event. Bring gloves and water,” the release advises.

The garden is located at 1400 W. Eighth Ave. LEARN TO COMPOST CCNV is also hosting a composting workshop on Wednesday, March 26, from 3:30 to 5 p.m., at the compost display area on the Chico State campus, in conjunction with the university’s Organic Vegetable Project and AS Sustainability.

Workshop is $10, or free to those who are income-eligible. Preregister (required) and learn more at cultivatingcommunitynv.org.

And on Wednesday, April 2, from noon to 3 p.m., CCNV is presenting a composting work day at the OVP at Chico State’s University Farm (311 Nicholas C. Schouten Lane).

“This free work day will be an application of all the principles and techniques learned at our last compost workshop March 26 at the AS Sustainability compost site,” the press release for the event said. Preregister (required) at the CCNV website (see above).

GET YER JEFFERSON GEAR Go to www.jefferson

statestore.com to access the Jefferson State Store, which offers an assortment of State of Jefferson merchandise for sale, such as bumper stickers, flags, ball caps, T-shirts and “Don’t Tread on Me” Jefferson hoodies. Thanks to Meredith J. Graham, the CN&R’s staff writer for client publications, for this useful bit of information!

EMAIL YOUR GREEN HOME, GARDEN AND COMMUNITY TIPS TO CHRISTINE AT CHRISTINEL@NEWSREVIEW.COM

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BPA: Bisphenol A is so common, there’s a 9 in 10 chance you have traces of it in your body.

“It’s ubiquitous,” Lane said.

“We’re finding it on the polar ice caps—everywhere—and we’re not sure how it’s getting there.”

BPA appears in products as varied as plastics, food-can linings and cash-register receipts. “Drinking bottled water is problematic

for many reasons,” Murphy said, including the leeching potential of BPA. She recommends drinking tap water, and “if you don’t have a filter, let the water sit in an empty jar in your fridge with the top off.”

Glycol ethers: These chemicals, found in car parts and antifreeze, are prevalent in areas with auto-recycling facilities that can’t contain the run-off from rainfall.

“More often they’re affecting the environment than human health,” Lane said, “but it also depends on your proximity to these locations and if people are eating waterfowl and fish from that source of the environment.”

Mercury: This one might be normally associated with ocean tuna but it can also appear in fatty fish caught locally. Species to note include striped bass, Sacramento pikeminnow, largemouth bass, catfish and salmon.

Flame retardants: While the disruptive chemicals are “being phased out,” Murphy said, it’s important to read the labels on items that have flame retardants, such as tents. Keep an eye out for the acronym PBDE, which stands for polybrominated diphenyl ethers. PBDE-free materials may cost you more, but they’re worth it.

“It’s funny, “Murphy said, “how you have to pay extra for things not in products and food.” Ω

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ECO EVENT

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THE PULSE

HEALTHLINES

E-CIGARETTES AS A GATEWAY

A day for play

Though they are marketed as a means to quit smoking, electronic cigarettes are offering a new route for adolescents to pick up the habit, a study finds.

Researchers from UC San Francisco examined national survey data of 40,000 middle and high school students, finding that e-cigarettes are associated with higher odds of going from experimenting with cigarettes to becoming a regular smoker, according to a UCSF press release. Additionally, about 20 percent of middle school students and about 7 percent of high school students who reported smoking e-cigarettes had never smoked regular cigarettes, suggesting some are introduced to nicotine through e-cigarettes.

E-cigarette use among middle and high school students doubled between 2011 and 2012, increasing from 3.1 percent to 6.5 percent.

BAD AIR LINKED TO DROUGHT

California air quality officials have linked the state’s ongoing drought to polluted winter air.

The number of days this winter that exceeded federal health guidelines for fine particulate matter increased by a third over last winter, according to the Los Angeles Times. While soot levels are typically higher in the winter, this year was worse due to the lack of rainfall, low winds and stagnant conditions that trapped pollution near ground level, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) said. For instance, the Bay Area logged 15 days of bad air from November through February, the highest number in seven years.

However, Karen Magliano, an assistant division chief at the CARB, said this year’s poor air quality is an exception amid a decade of steady improvement.

NOT UNTIL NEXT WEEKEND

Even suffering acutely from a hangover doesn’t deter future heavy drinking, research suggests.

The study, published in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, involved 386 young adults—including many U.S. college students— who each kept a journal about their drinking habits over a three-week period, according to BBC News. Participants made a journal entry each morning and rated the likelihood of drinking later that same day, providing 2,276 drinking episodes and 463 hangovers for the researchers to analyze.

Suffering from a hangover did not influence the participants’ ratings. “If hangovers don’t strongly discourage or punish drinking, links between current problem drinking and frequent hangover seems less incongruent,” said researcher Thomas Piasecki.

Though most doctors would discourage heavy drinking in the first place, physicians recommend that after a heavy drinking session, one should wait at least 48 hours before having more alcohol in order to let body tissues recover.

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

14 CN&R March 13, 2014

Right: Lisa Almaguer, marketing director at Chico Area Recreation and Park District, is organizing Chico Kite Day for the first time.

PHOTO BY HOWARD HARDEE

Healthy living campaign rolled into Chico Kite Day, new map of local parks released by

Howard Hardee howardh@ newsreview.com

E Day has drawn local families together for a simple day of flying colorful kites and very year since 1985, Chico Kite

running around on the grass.

Lisa Almaguer, marketing director at Chico Area Recreation and Park District (CARD), is striving to make sure that spirit remains intact at this year’s event, the first ever not organized by Bob Malowney, owner of the downtown gift shop Bird in Hand. After nearly 30 years of spearheading Chico Kite Day, Malowney simply felt it was time to pass the torch along, Almaguer said.

This year’s event—to be held at Community Park off Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway on March 23—will serve as a platform for Let’s Play Outside!, a healthy eating and active living campaign involving a number of local businesses and organizations, including Let’s Move!

Chico, the local arm of first lady Michelle Obama’s national program to address childhood obesity.

As promoting fun physical activity is one of the campaign’s top priorities, Let’s

Play Outside! began hosting Play Days last fall, intending to engage families with young children at different parks around town.

“We find an active sponsor each time,” Almaguer said during a recent interview.

“For example, in September, we had NorCal Strength & Conditioning come out and set up an obstacle course for kids. Then we had Just Jump It come and provide their agility and balance jump-roping equipment.”

At each Play Day thus far, representatives from local companies Mary’s Gone Crackers and Klean Kanteen have been on

hand to promote healthy living along with their products. To encourage participation, the first 30 attendees who sign in and participate in the day’s activities get free canteens, while free crackers and cookies are available to all.

“We wanted to have local businesses [that] people recognized that also contributed to healthy lifestyles: Klean Kanteen with the hydration aspect—you’re running around outside and you need water—and Mary’s Gone Crackers because kids need healthy snacks. They HEALTHLINES continued on page 16

APPOINTMENT TAKE THE PLUNGE If the prospect of crawling through a giant colon happens to tickle your, uh, fancy, you’re in luck. The Colossal Colon Exhibit—an interactive, 40-foot-long replica of the human colon—is coming to Feather River Hospital Outpatient Surgery Center (1933 Peach Lane in Paradise) on Sunday, March 16, from 5 to 7 p.m., and Monday, March 17, from 2 to 6 p.m. The event is free; call 876-7154 for more information.

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HEALTHLINES

even have healthy cookies,” Almaguer said.

Let’s Play Outside! hosts a Play Day every other month, and since the last Play Day was held in January, it seemed natural to roll the next event in with Chico Kite Day. But Almaguer emphasized that, while Let’s Play Outside! sponsors will readily discuss healthy living with those interested, the intent is not to change the longtime Chico tradition.

“The point of Kite Day is flying kites,” she said. “Whether people

Make time for kites: • Chico Kite Day will be held at Community Park (1900 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Parkway) on March 23, from noon to 4 p.m.

• Let’s Play Outside! is a collaboration including Let’s Move Chico!, CNAP, CARD, Mary’s Gone Crackers, Klean Kanteen and Enloe Medical Center. Go to www.chicorec.com/Lets-PLAYOutside/index.html for updates on Play Days or the Logo Hunt.

• Go to www.tinyurl.com/ chicomap to view the Chico Parks and Playgrounds Map.

16 CN&R March 13, 2014

WEEKLY DOSE

continued from page 14

come to Community Park or go to Upper [Bidwell] Park, that’s OK. If it’s raining that day, go out and do it the next day. The concept is just to have some free, windpowered family fun.”

The Play Days are just one

aspect of the campaign. Every other month, Let’s Play Outside! organizers hide a vinyl decal of the campaign’s logo in one of Chico’s parks and drops hints as to its location via CARD’s Facebook page.

For example, when the decal was hidden at Hooker Oak Park, the clue was “a park in the northern part of Chico, home to the oldest oak tree in the known universe,” Almaguer said. “For DeGarmo Park, it was ‘home to the largest spider web in Chico,’ because it has that big spider-web climbing structure.”

When a kid finds the decal, he or she takes a photograph with it and posts the photo on CARD’s Facebook page; at the end of two weeks, Almaguer sorts through the photos and the most creative one wins. (Hint: Posing just like the girl in the logo—with arms overhead and one leg extended back-

ward—is the most common type of photo Almaguer encounters.)

Prizes include gift certificates, jump ropes, T-shirts, stickers and “just fun stuff for kids,” she said.

Patti Horsley, a health-education specialist at Chico State’s Center for Nutrition and Activity Promotion (CNAP), explained that the Let’s Play Outside! campaign emphasizes outdoor play over exclusively indoor play because “there are so many mental, physical and emotional benefits when kids are outside playing,” she said.

“It lets kids be active and burn energy; they’re more able to focus, and they get those cardiovascular benefits of being physically active,” Horsley continued. “Playing on playgrounds also gives them the opportunity to socially interact with peers, and interacting with nature has a lot of developmental benefits.”

As such, a component of the campaign is the recently released Chico Parks and Playgrounds Map, complete with a legend compiled by student volunteers who surveyed each of Chico’s 16 parks.

The legend distinguishes which parks have amenities such as bike

Drink for your health If your St. Patrick’s Day celebration involves sipping a few pints of Guinness, you may actually be doing your body good. Here’s how the dark stuff can be healthy when enjoyed responsibly:

• It contains antioxidants, like those found in dark chocolate and red wine, which have a host of health benefits.

• Guinness Extra Stout lacks isinglass, a fish product used in most other North American beers, so it’s vegan-friendly.

• A pint of Guinness contains only 170 calories, less than the same amount of juice, soda, milk and lighter beers, but is far more filling, making it an excellent side at meals.

racks, water fountains, walking paths, restrooms, volleyball courts, playground equipment, picnic tables and shady areas.

“A lot of us don’t know about the different parks available to us in this city,” Horsley said. “A lot of families I know won’t go to parks

because there aren’t bathrooms or [there is] no shade.

“So, we want the parks map to be a resource that would help families learn about new options so they can get outside, pick a new park each weekend and go play.” Ω

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Proud Sponsor of the 2014 Chico Area Music Awards

CAMMIES Music Festival S T H G I N 3

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April 3-5, 2014 S W O H

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THURSDAY, APRIL 3:

FRIDAY, APRIL 4

SATURDAY, APRIL 5

Blues Showcase, 5:30 p.m., free LaSalles, 229 Broadway (on the patio)

World Showcase, 6 p.m., $5 DownLo, 319 Main St. (downstairs)

3 p.m. and …

Hard Rock/Metal Showcase,

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Co-presented by BassMint Chico

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Singer-Songwriter Showcase,

Jazz Showcase, 5:30 p.m. $5 (two shows, one price) The Maltese Bar & Tap Room, 1600 Park Ave. Punk Showcase, 4 p.m., $5 donation

Finale & Awards Show Sunday, April 13, 2-7 p.m.

Chico Women’s Club, 592 E. Third St. A FREE day-long concert featuring two stages filled with a couple dozen local acts, plus the announcement of the 2014 CAMMIES winners.

Food and drinks (including beer) available for purchase.

Co-presented by Chico Area Pyrate Punx Monstros Pizza, 628 W. Sac. Ave.

Rock Showcase, 8 p.m., $5 Café Coda, 265 Humboldt Ave.

VOTE NOW!

Visit www.newsreview.com/cammies for links to all CAMMIES nominees and to vote for your faves.

And like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/chicocammies

20 CN&R March 13, 2014 20 CN&R M a r c h 1 3 , 2 0 1 4

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Proud Sponsor of the 2014 Chico Area Music Awards

CAMMIES Music Festival S T H G I N 3

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THURSDAY, APRIL 3:

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SATURDAY, APRIL 5

Blues Showcase, 5:30 p.m., free LaSalles, 229 Broadway (on the patio)

World Showcase, 6 p.m., $5 DownLo, 319 Main St. (downstairs)

3 p.m. and …

Hard Rock/Metal Showcase,

Folk/Americana/Country Showcase, 9 p.m., $5 Café Coda, 265 Humboldt Ave.

Indie/Experimental Showcase, 9 p.m., $5 The Maltese Bar & Tap Room, 1600 Park Ave.

Electronic Showcase, 9:30 p.m., $2 before 10 p.m.; $3 after 10 p.m.

Funk/Jam Showcase, 9 p.m., $5 Lost on Main, 319 Main St.

Rap Showcase, 10 p.m., $5 LaSalles, 229 Broadway

7 p.m., $5 Café Coda, 265 Humboldt Ave.

Co-presented by BassMint Chico

Peeking Restaurant, 243 W. Second St.

Singer-Songwriter Showcase,

Jazz Showcase, 5:30 p.m. $5 (two shows, one price) The Maltese Bar & Tap Room, 1600 Park Ave. Punk Showcase, 4 p.m., $5 donation

Finale & Awards Show Sunday, April 13, 2-7 p.m.

Chico Women’s Club, 592 E. Third St. A FREE day-long concert featuring two stages filled with a couple dozen local acts, plus the announcement of the 2014 CAMMIES winners.

Food and drinks (including beer) available for purchase.

Co-presented by Chico Area Pyrate Punx Monstros Pizza, 628 W. Sac. Ave.

Rock Showcase, 8 p.m., $5 Café Coda, 265 Humboldt Ave.

VOTE NOW!

Visit www.newsreview.com/cammies for links to all CAMMIES nominees and to vote for your faves.

And like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/chicocammies

20 CN&R March 13, 2014 20 CN&R M a r c h 1 3 , 2 0 1 4

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An unlikely partnership leads to the Mountain Maidu reclaiming a piece of their ancestral homeland STORY AND PHOTOS BY JANE BRAXTON LITTLE

M

aidu Indians believe Humbug Valley is the place chosen for them by the great spirits of the elders who came before them.

For Beverly Benner Ogle, it’s gospel. A genial woman who often wears a red-shafted flicker feather in her gray-streaked hair, Ogle’s dark eyes turn wistful when she speaks of Humbug Valley.

“Our people were put here to take care of this land. It’s home,” she said.

Above: The rich natural resources of Humbug Valley include a carbonated spring, wet meadow, timbered hillsides and Yellow Creek, a state-designated wild trout stream. In early summer the valley abounds with wild flowers.

Left: Beverly Ogle and her family erected this rock at the entrance to Humbug Valley welcoming all to the Maidu historic homeland.

22 CN&R March 13, 2014

Beverly Benner Ogle, vice chair of the Maidu Summit, holds a Maidu bow of yew presented for great achievements in land stewardship.

Today, more than 150 years after they lost this homeland, Mountain Maidu Indians, through the efforts of nine grassroots organizations forming the Maidu Summit Consortium, are poised to return as caretakers of the spacious grassy meadow rimmed by the granite peaks of the northern Sierra Nevada. Here—on the banks of Yellow Creek, on the hillsides scattered with ancient village sites—they are launching a land management plan that combines burning, pruning and other time-honored Maidu practices with the latest scientific technology.

Their return is more than a repatriation to redress past wrongs. As the Maidu initiate long-term restoration of the recently clearcut hillsides, the wild trout fishery too diseased to support native species, the thistle-filled meadow— as they return traditional land management to the land of their ancestors, they will work side-by-side with conservation biologists and GIS specialists.

The very agencies and organizations the Maidu once considered their adversaries have become their partners.

What is evolving on this site 50 miles northeast of Chico is by all accounts an experiment. It aims to combine millennia of traditional ecological knowledge with Western science to conserve both natural and cultural resources at a landscape scale. The Humbug Valley partnership could provide a national model for other Native American tribes, and it has ramifications for non-native land managers as well.

“This is a historic opportunity for all of us to learn from each other,” said Charlton H. Bonham, director of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Ogle, 73, has been working most of her life to return Humbug to Maidu people. As a child, she made many visits to the Plumas County valley seven miles southeast of Lake Almanor, tagging along as her grandmother gathered plants and worshipped in the valley where she was born. Later, during four summers as host at a campground on Yellow Creek, Ogle used her free time to write two books and a manuscript about Maidu history.

Crouched beside a cluster of grinding stones one day last summer, she recounted her grandmother’s memory of her grandmothers working seeds with stone pestles, gossiping as children frolicked in the tall timothy at the edge of the

About the author:

Jane Braxton Little, an independent journalist based in Plumas County, writes about science and natural resources for publications that include Scientific American, The Daily Climate, Environmental Health Perspectives, and Audubon, where she is a contributing editor.

valley. Across the valley, Ogle picked her way over a carpet of pine and fir needles to a forest opening where water bubbles out of the ground. Settling onto a granite boulder, eyes closed, she listened to the wind soughing through the tops of old-growth trees. A mallard glided into the pool beyond the spring, leading seven fluffy chicks.

“For 30 or 40 years, I felt like the lone steward of Humbug Valley,” Ogle said.

The opportunity to realize her dream arrived suddenly on the improbable wings of corporate bankruptcy. Pacific Gas & Electric Co., the utility giant that owns Humbug Valley, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2001 following an energy crisis that caused rolling blackouts and contributed to the company’s $9 billion debt. Three years later, a deal forged by the state Public Utilities Commission and a host of conservation groups permanently protected 140,000 acres of PG&E land for habitat, open space and public recreation. The lands came under the control of the Pacific Forest and Watershed Lands Stewardship Council, formed to decide the future of the more than 1,000 parcels.

Humbug Valley is one of them (see sidebar).

Ogle showed up at the Stewardship Council’s first site meeting, held in Chester. So did Lorena Gorbet, then coordinator of the Maidu Cultural and Development Group.

When she spoke, it was for Ogle and all the other Maidu

...the acquisition will be the first time in California history that a federally unrecognized tribe has had ancestral lands returned.

PG&E’s watershed largesse Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s bankruptcy in 2001 left millions of Californians with higher energy bills but it has been a boon to the state’s environment.

Under the terms of its bankruptcy settlement, the utility agreed to permanently protect more than 140,000 acres of some of the state’s best wildlife habitat and fishing streams, much of it in prized watersheds threatened by development.

The agreement prohibits development on these lands and conserves them as habitat and open space available to the public. The parcels, mostly in the Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountains, range from the Mt. Shasta area in the north to the Carrizo Plain near Bakersfield, and are valued at around $300 million. Roughly 85,000 acres are in Shasta and Plumas counties.

In 2004, the Pacific Forest and Watershed Lands Stewardship Council was created to oversee the conservation of these watershed lands. Since then, it has recommended the transfer of 36,000 acres from PG&E to new owners, who are required to comply with protections.

All told, the company agreed to donate or grant conservation easements on 70,000 acres. PG&E will retain the remaining 70,000 acres, said Allene Zanger, executive director.

Along with recommending owners, the Stewardship Council recommends third parties to hold the easement and monitor compliance with the terms of the agreement. The council expects to complete the process of recommending parcel transfers this year.

—JBL

who longed for their homeland. “I’m here to request land,” Gorbet told the council. “This is an opportunity for you to right a past wrong.”

In November, nearly a decade later, the Stewardship Council unanimously recommended that the Maidu Summit Consortium hold title to Humbug Valley “in perpetuity.”

The real estate transaction must still be negotiated with PG&E. If it is finalized, as is widely expected, the acquisition will be the first time in California history that a federally unrecognized tribe has had ancestral lands returned.

Mountain Maidu have lived in the Feather River region

for millennia, tending the forests and meadows of what is now northeastern California. They cultivated oaks, encouraging low branches and big bushy heads to produce acorns, the mainstay of their diet. They farmed camas bulbs for food, harvested wormwood for medicines, and pruned willows and maples for basket materials. It was the forest understory, not the towering pines and firs, that provided the Maidu people with the necessities of life.

When Europeans arrived with the Gold Rush, the Maidu were forced off their primary gathering sites. Early in the 20th century, power companies recognized the economic potential of the Feather River and its tributaries. The dams they built to direct water into their hydroelectric turbines flooded the lush meadows of the Maidu homelands, creat-

ing Lake Almanor and Walker Lake. Most Maidu retreated into a century of hostility, bitter over the loss of land and, gradually, their language and culture. Today, the tribe is a scattered collection of Rancherias and family clans largely landless and unrecognized by the federal government.

The early dam builders acquired Humbug Valley, too, and held it in reserve for a reservoir. Over the decades, PG&E leased the meadow to cattle ranchers for summer grazing, opened a public campground along Yellow Creek and stocked the stream with non-native German brown trout. But Humbug Valley was never flooded. When the 2,300-acre valley appeared on the Stewardship Council’s list of PG&E parcels to be donated to new owners, the Mountain Maidu jumped at the opportunity to acquire the largest portion of their still relatively pristine homeland.

The late Farrell Cunningham, then Maidu Summit Consortium chairman, joined Ogle and Gorbet at that first council meeting in 2004. He minced no words in demanding the return of land to the Maidu: “We were here. We are here.

And we will always be here. This is our home.”

Ogle and her family had already formed the Tasmam Koyom Cultural Foundation to protect Humbug Valley.

“HUMBUG VALLEY” continued on page 24 March 13, 2014

CN&R 23

“HUMBUG VALLEY” continued from page 23

They began working with other grassroots and tribal organizations through the nonprofit Maidu Summit. Although they had often been at odds with one another, these leaders set aside ancient feuds and past disputes over territory and diminishing pots of government funding. Something was pulling them together, said Ken Holbrook, recently appointed Maidu Summit executive director. The Maidu began drafting a plan to manage Humbug Valley as part of their application for ownership. To pull it off, they knew they would need money. And partners.

Despite their historic misgivings, Maidus have worked at several partnerships with what many still call “the dominant culture.”

In 1998, Congress chose their proposal to demonstrate traditional stewardship techniques as one of 28 stewardship pilot projects testing experimental management techniques on federal land. The Plumas and Lassen national forests became the first place in the nation where Native Americans began applying these methods to national forest land.

While Maidu crews were able to thin trees along a state highway and transplant some grey willows for basket making, the project bogged down in a combination of poor communication and bureaucratic turnover and only recently resumed.

In 2011, the Maidu Summit formed a partnership with Plumas Audubon Society and the Feather River Land Trust to plan restoration of parts of the Heart K Ranch, historically Maidu territory now owned by the land trust based in Quincy. The goal is to apply the best scientific and cultural knowledge to conserving willow flycatcher and other important habitats, said trust Executive Director Paul Hardy.

Like the Forest Service partnership, the Heart K project bared deep cultural and language differences almost immediately, said Trina Cunningham, Farrell’s sister, who is pursuing a degree in physical geography and planning at Chico State to contribute to her work as a Maidu. Western science approaches restoration projects with template in hand and

a “let’s go” attitude, she said. For Maidus, the process involves knowing patterns of migration, nesting cycles, seasonal wildlife impacts—the whole ebb and flow of a particular piece of land. The language and policy barriers between science and Maidu ecological tradition were stark, said Cunningham, “way deeper than vocabulary.”

Knowing that, however, has been valuable. “What we discovered was far more important than what we said we would discover,” she said. And that knowledge paid dividends as the Maidu Summit worked to prove its worth to the Stewardship Council.

The group completed a 74-page management plan, and constructed an ethnographic background and record of lands allotted to Maidu.

Its members did a botanical study and identified archaeological sites in Humbug Valley.

And they attended meeting after Stewardship Council meeting, always repeating their simple request for land.

Above: Maidu women used rocks in the valley floor to grind acorns into a powder for stew. They are among the archaeological and sacred sites to be protected under Maidu Summit ownership.

Above left: Lorena Gorbet has been asking the Stewardship Council for land since 2004. The Maidu Summit is now poised to receive title to Humbug Valley.

But the Maidu Summit was not the only

organization interested in owning Humbug Valley. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife filed a competing application to make it the 111th wildlife area under its management. That plan emphasized Yellow Creek’s trophy brown trout, a species planted years earlier that had become popular among anglers. It included thinning the forest to promote deer foraging, which would involve logging some larger trees. The department was also considering reintroducing cattle grazing, discontinued in 2001 by PG&E. Farrell Cunningham was appalled by the prospect of cattle in Humbug Valley. He and other Maidu wanted to rid the valley of all non-native species, including brown trout.

But vying against a state agency with a $550 million annual budget seemed like David versus Goliath, said Ogle.

The competing ownership applications brought the Maidu in close contact with state wildlife officials, often in the valley to inspect Yellow Creek and tromp about the hillsides.

Although they had very different views of how to conserve the natural resources, the competitors began to realize they had interests in common beyond holding title to the valley. The tone of the meetings began to shift, said Ogle. Department scientists asked more questions and listened more closely. So did Cunningham and Ogle.

The focus for both groups became restoring Yellow Creek, a state-designated wild trout stream. To rid it of whirling disease and the non-native species that had taken over the Brothers Calvin and Vance Hedrick perform Maidu songs of celebration following recommended acquisition of Humbug Valley.

24 CN&R March 13, 2014

fishery, department officials believed the only feasible path to success would be to use chemicals, said Tina Bartlett, a Fish and Wildlife regional manager. Using poison was anathema to the Maidu. They wanted to let the stream heal itself and were willing to wait the decades it might take. That was less than ideal for the agency. As the competing parties talked and weighed one another’s objectives, they collectively came up with a third way: finding another strain of native trout immune to the whirling disease parasite. Bartlett immediately realized this was something the department should try.

Gradually, over time, a notion began to take shape among state wildlife officials.

“Maybe we didn’t need title to the land.

Maybe we could accomplish our goals as a partner,” Bartlett said. As each group slowly gained confidence in the other, the agency made a decision: It withdrew its application for ownership of Humbug Valley and instead endorsed the Maidu application. “It was just the right thing to do,” said Bartlett.

The Maidu were taking a risk with an agency they had not had success with in the past, but a newfound trust had grown. The Maidu Summit and the wildlife department made a compelling argument to the Stewardship Council for a proposal that epitomizes collaboration, one of the council’s primary goals, said Ric Notini, the Stewardship Council’s director of land conservation: “It’s a new model for how a Native American tribe can acquire land and manage it.”

Other partnerships evolved as well. Relations between the Maidu Summit and PG&E were even more strained than with the wildlife department. Simmering resentment over the utility company’s management of Humbug Valley boiled over late in 2012, when PG&E all but clearcut the slopes above a soda spring considered sacred by the Maidu. The company claimed the trees were fire damaged and would die, but the Maidu claimed foul. They cited village sites and grinding stones damaged or destroyed by the logging.

Despite the hostility, PG&E officials recently invited Maidu Summit leaders to confer

A leader remembered

—JBL

Although the Maidu Summit has earned

widespread support during its drawn-out quest to acquire Humbug Valley, the process is far from complete. Still ahead is negotiating the real estate transaction with PG&E, which involves approval by the Public Utilities Commission.

That could take more than two years, said Notini. The partners must also complete a final management plan, which will determine the long-term future of the valley’s natural resources. Once the plan has been approved, the Maidu Summit will have to comply with the terms of a conservation easement. Like other PG&E parcels deeded to new owners, the easement will forbid subdivisions, road building, mining and other development that would conflict with natural resource conservation. It will require public access. The Stewardship Council has recommended that the state wildlife department and Feather River Land Trust hold the easement and monitor the Maidu Summit’s compliance.

Even once all these bureaucratic steps

have been completed, no one expects the Maidu Summit to ride off into Humbug Valley and live happily ever after. Land management takes money and the ability to raise money, noted Notini.

The Stewardship Council has proposed several grants to the consortium to bolster its organizational experience and development.

The agencies have a stake in the long-term success of the partnership, said Holbrook.

They now have a vested interest in this model of managing land from a different point of view—one that considers time in terms of centuries and values the infinite cycles of nature. “That’s the magic of Humbug Valley,” he said.

A few days after the Stewardship Council’s unanimous vote on Humbug Valley, the Maidu gathered in Chester for a celebration of drumming, singing and prayer. Ogle, surrounded by friends, children and grandchildren, wore an elaborate beaded barrette in her hair. The crowd quieted while she was presented with a traditional Maidu bow, an honor bestowed on a person who has achieved great accomplishments in caring for the land. Ogle, the first woman to receive the bow, was clearly stunned.

“I have always walked in the footsteps of my people,” she said. “We are warriors. We did not give up. Now I can proudly tell them that Humbug Valley is once again Maidu land.” Ω Maidu connection:

Visit www.maidusummit.org to learn more about the Maidu Summit Consortium.

THINK FREE.

When the Mountain Maidu formed the Maidu Summit Consortium in 2002, Farrell Cunningham was an obvious choice for chairman. He had focused his adult life on learning his native culture, especially the relationships among plants and animals and the sacred connections throughout the natural world. At 26, he was the tribe’s most fluent speaker of Mountain Maidu.

Cunningham threw himself into writing a land management plan to present to the Stewardship Council as part of the consortium’s application for title to Humbug Valley. The document follows the Maidu people from the time of Worldmaker’s creations through the first “white people” in Humbug Valley to an overview of Maidu traditional ecology. It includes plans for a Maidu culture interpretive center.

To bolster the Maidu case, Cunningham met with Stewardship Council and agency officials—in SacraFarrell Cunningham mento or Oakland when he had to, but as often as possible on the ground in Humbug Valley. His commitment to the effort to return Humbug Valley to Maidu people was absolute, said Ric Notini, the Stewardship Council’s director of land conservation.

Cunningham died of natural causes in August at his home in Susanville. He was 37.

His responsibility as Maidu Summit chairman included a series of deliberate steps that placed other people, both within and outside the organization, to carry out his vision, said Ken Holbrook, the consortium’s executive director: “Farrell did everything he could to put us in a position to succeed. We know that nothing the Maidu Summit Consortium is today could have been without him. What we are doing is a result of his lifelong passion and pursuit of authentic ideas.”

with them over replanting the 218-acre hillside.

They asked for input on what conifer species they would prefer and in what ratio. Knowing that Maidu have traditionally depended on elderberry, chokecherry and other understory species, PG&E officials also asked where to plant these species. It was a symbolic olive branch, said Holbrook: “They had no obligation to do that. Typically, PG&E goes a different route. This was a very exciting gesture recognizing that we will own the land.”

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CN&R 25

Arts & Culture Messages in the medium Chico State student rebroadcasts TV through music and photos

L dovitz spent much of his childhood in front of the television. Also like most Americans, he never

ike most Americans, Mitchel Davi-

questioned nor thought much at all about his viewing habits, until he started noticing a change in his family dynamic during by Ken Smith his high school years.

“We used to eat dinner as a famikens@ ly every night, with my parents and newsreview.com my two brothers sitting at the table and talking while we ate,” Davidovitz recalled. “Slowly, over time, the family meals turned into all of us taking our plates and quietly eating in front of the TV, either alone or together. It got me thinking, even back then, about why that weird transition was happening.”

Now a Chico State recording arts student minoring in photography, Davidovitz decided to utilize both mediums for an undergraduate thesis focusing on television’s relationship to society, and particularly the role it plays in shaping people’s beliefs and behavior.

The assignment became a project of passion, resulting in a sprawling multimedia piece called “Window of Normalization – A Musical and Photographic Exposition Created Solely with Sounds and Images Captured from Live Television.”

The three-part project consists of photographed screen captures organized into grids representing recurring images, a 15-minute musical composition in six movements, and a 25-plus-page research paper.

All of the images and audio used were captured in 34 hours of broadcast television, which Davidovitz watched over a week-and-a-half period.

The number 34 was significant, he said, because it’s the average amount of hours most Americans watch television weekly, according to the Nielsen Company. He recorded the audio and used a digital camera to take shots of the screen in viewing sessions that lasted an average of five to six hours.

“Watching TV naturally puts you in a passive mindset [in which] you just absorb the information that’s coming at you rather than think about it critically, which is what I was doing,” he explained. He said he found it necessary to take a break every hour or so for physical activity—running up and down stairs or using a chin-up bar—so as to not get zombified.

“It sounds intense, but really I was just sitting there watching TV, which makes it kind of comical,” he said, noting that the material of his project is serious, but intentionally contains some comedic and satirical elements. “Being able to laugh at how messed up

26 CN&R March 13, 2014

things are is empowering.”

For the visual element, Davidovitz captured more than 6,500 images, then whittled them down to 397 pictures organized into 12 grids—or collections of screenshots—of recurring themes. These include American flags (65 separate images), explosions (32 images), images glorifying police and military while demonizing prisoners, white people smiling, and more.

The audio element was even more labor-intensive for Davidovitz, a multi-instrumentalist who said he loves experimenting with sounds. In another of his projects, he plays a “healing” musical saw as his alterego stage persona, pseudo-guru Mint Shekels.

Every sound in the musical portion comes from his TV binge, some appearing as they were broadcast and others digitally altered.

“Some are manipulated to convey ideas, and some to make them into musical elements,” he explained.

“If I thought I’d like a heavy guitar part somewhere, I couldn’t just plug in my guitar and do it because the concept is it all comes from TV. So I had to find a guitar part or digitally transform something else to make it sound like a guitar.”

The resulting pieces, or movements, are a hypnotic collection of strange soundscapes with strong subversive overtones to televised messages. “Act Normal” focuses on the pressure people feel to fit society’s definition of normality, while “Woman Power/Bad Bra Day” highlights a twisted view of female empowerment espoused by two women hawking jewelry on a shopping network.

Davidovitz premiered the musical portion of his project on Feb. 27 during the student-composers program at Chico State’s annual New Music Symposium, along with a booklet containing the captured images.

And he found out last week that his project was recognized by the 2014 CSU Student Research Competition and will be in competition with nine other finalists at CSU East Bay in May. He hopes to get a gallery show to display his images, but says he would need a lot of space to meet his vision of creating 12 nine-foot-wide grids, composed of 24-inch-tall individual photos.

Davidovitz said the goal of his project is to get people to evaluate their own relationship to television, and he hopes to disseminate the information as widely as possible. Visit www.mitcheldavidovitz. bandcamp.com to download the piece for free, and www.mitcheldavidovitz.tumblr.com to view the image grids. Ω

Chico State recording arts student Mitchel Davidovitz, plus small-screen explosions (inset) from one of his grids.

PHOTO OF MITCHEL DAVIDOVITZ BY MELANIE MACTAVISH

THIS WEEK 13

THURS

Special Events EMPTY BOWLS TO BENEFIT TORRES SHELTER: Receive a bowl made by local high school students, as well as a bread-and-soup dinner. All proceeds benefit the Torres Community Shelter. Th, 3/13, 5 & 6:15pm. $10. Chico Junior High, 280 Memorial Way, www.chico shelter.org.

Theater CREATION STORIES: The creation of Earth and humanity based on myths of different world cultures and traditions. Told in abstract, serious and comic physical theater. Directed by Sue Hargrave Pate. Th, 3/13, 7:30pm. $6-$15.

Wismer Theatre, Chico State, (530) 898-6333, www.csuchico.edu/upe/boxoffice.html.

HEAVEN CAN WAIT: Pro boxer Joe Pendleton arrives in Heaven 60 years too early when his spiritual ‘escort’ pulls him from his body prematurely. Th-Sa, 7:30pm; Su, 2pm through 3/16. $12-$20. Chico Theater Company, 166-F Eaton Rd., (530) 894-3282, www.chicotheatercom pany.com.

14

FRI

Special Events ART ABOUT: A monthly art walk coordinated by the Chico Visual Arts Alliance (ChiVAA).

Each second Friday a different area of Chico is featured. This week: Uptown. F, 3/14, 5-8pm.

Free. Call or visit website for details, Chico, www.chi vaa.org/artabout.

DRAGOPOLIS

Saturday, March 15 Maltese Bar & Tap Room SEE SATURDAY, SPECIAL EVENTS

THE HOEDOWN VARIETY TALENT SHOW, HOOTENANNY SOUTHERN REVIEW: Betty Burns presents a night filled with music, comedy, poetry, and libations with performances from Rickie “Gravy Boat” Barnett, Mad Bob Howard, Lil’ Sugar Poo Poo, Tony “El Tigre” Mendez, Dicky LaRoca, and more. 3/14-3/15, 7:30pm. $10. Blue Room Theatre, 139 W. First St., (530) 895-3749, www.blueroom theatre.com.

Art Receptions MELDING CULTURE AND NATURE: Paintings of Richvale rice fields and of San Francisco by Dolores Mitchell, plus thrown and carved porcelain vessels from Chris Yates. Live music

by David Pierce. F, 3/14, 5-8pm. Avenue 9 Gallery, 180 E. Ninth Ave., (530) 879-1821, www.avenue9gallery.com.

Music THE EXPENDABLES: Reggae/punk-rock from Santa Cruz, plus Stick Figure (reggae/dub from San Diego) and Seedless (alt-rock/ reggae from Orange County)—visiting Chico for their Winter Blackout tour. F, 3/14, 8pm. $15. Senator Theatre, 517 Main St., (530) 8981497, www.jmaxproductions.net.

FINE ARTS HOME, GARDEN AND LEISURE SHOW

Saturday and Sunday, March 15-16 Silver Dollar Fairgrounds SEE SATURDAY AND SUNDAY, SPECIAL EVENTS

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

TWILIGHT ZONE: See Friday. Blue Room Theatre, 139 W. First St., (530) 895-3749, www.blue roomtheatre.com.

16

SUN

Special Events FRACK-FREE BUTTE COUNTY FUNDRAISER: Protect our water and help support a ballot initiative for a moratorium on fracking. Watch the fracking documentary The Sky is Pink, and enjoy live music from Gordy Ohliger’s Hot Potato gypsy trio, MaMuse and more. Su, 3/16, 1:30-5:30pm. $10. Chico Women’s Club, 592 E. Third St., (530) 894-1978.

HOME, GARDEN AND LEISURE SHOW: See Saturday. Silver Dollar Fairgrounds, 2357 Fair St., (530) 895-4666.

SPRING SEED SWAP: A potluck style seed swap

Theater

Music

GIGI: Follow Gigi, a free-spirited young lady living

ELVIN BISHOP, JAMES COTTON, RUTHIE FOSTER:

in Paris at the turn of the 20th century.

Directed by Raquelana Mani Pina. Th-Sa,

7:30pm; Su, 2pm through 3/23. Opens 3/14.

Birdcage Theatre, 1740 Bird St. in Oroville, (530) 533-2473, www.birdcagetheatre.net.

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

TWILIGHT ZONE: Two live episodes of the TV classic. F, Sa, 10:30pm through 3/22. Opens 3/14. $10. Blue Room Theatre, 139 W. First St., (530) 895-3749, www.blueroomtheatre.com.

15

SAT

Blues/rock icon Elvin Bishop, Grammy awardwinner James Cotton, and up-and-comer Ruthie Foster unite forces for an evening of rock, blues, bar-room boogie, and banter. Sa, 3/15, 7:30pm. $25-$38. Laxson Auditorium, Chico State, (530) 898-6333, www.chicoperfor mances.com.

ST PATTY’S AND THE VETS’ GARDEN PARTY: Come celebrate St.Patrick’s day weekend and the Veterans’ Garden Project with Los Caballitos de la Cancion. Sa, 3/15, 5pm. $5. Duffy’s Tavern, 337 Main St., (530) 343-7718.

Theater GIGI: See Friday. Birdcage Theatre, 1740 Bird St. in Oroville, (530) 533-2473, www.birdcagethe atre.net.

by Claudette de Versailles. All entertainers welcome to perform. Every third Sa, 10pm.

Opens 3/15. $3. Maltese Bar & Tap Room, 1600 Park Ave., (530) 343-4915.

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

HOME, GARDEN AND LEISURE SHOW: Find ideas for outdoor living spaces, home improvements, decor, leisure activities, entertainment and food. 3/15-3/16, 10am-5pm. Silver Dollar Fairgrounds, 2357 Fair St., (530) 895-4666.

NORTH STATE SYMPHONY SPRING CHAMBER MUSIC CONCERT: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. A concert highlighting string instruments creating a sound picture of the season. Featuring Terrie Baune on violin. Su, 3/16, 2pm. $12-$22.

Rowland-Taylor Recital Hall, Chico State.

Theater GIGI: See Friday. Birdcage Theatre, 1740 Bird St. in Oroville, (530) 533-2473, www.birdcagethe atre.net.

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

MON

DRAGOPOLIS: “The future of drag” show hosted

TWILIGHT ZONE LIVE Opens Friday, March 14 Blue Room Theatre SEE FRIDAY, THEATER

Special Events

3RD FLOOR ART GALLERY: The Cans, new pho-

tographic works by Ryan Voigtman. Ongoing.

BMU, Third Floor, Chico State, (530) 8985489.

ANGELO’S CUCINA TRINACRIA: New Works, mixed-media abstract paintings by Valerie Payne. Through 3/31. 407 Walnut St., (530) 899-9996.

AVENUE 9 GALLERY: Melding Culture and

Nature, new paintings of Richvale rice fields and of San Francisco by Dolores Mitchell, plus thrown carved porcelain vessels created by Chris Yates. 3/14-4/19. 180 E. Ninth Ave., (530) 879-1821, www.avenue9 gallery.com.

CHICO ART CENTER: Art Building Community:

From the Depot to the Veterans Building., the Chico Art Center hosts an exhibition for the Museum of Northern California Art (monCA) that focuses on Chico people, places and buildings in anticipation of the museums permanent move to the Veterans Memorial Hall. Through 3/14. 450 Orange St., (530) 895-8726, www.chicoartcenter.com.

paintings by the recent Chico State graduate, Mariam Pakbaz. Through 3/31.California Rivers, Jake Early’s latest series. Through 3/31. 345 Broadway, (530) 891-0900, www.chicopapercompany.com.

HEALING ART GALLERY: New Works, mixedmedia work by Northern California artist Machelle Conn. Gallery highlights works of those touched by cancer. Through 4/17. 265 Cohasset Rd., inside Enloe Cancer Center, (530) 332-3856.

JAMES SNIDLE FINE ARTS & APPRAISALS:

Latest Works, Mabrie Ormes’ figurative

paintings of colorful leaf patterns. Through 4/30. 254 E. Fourth St., (530) 343-2930, www.jamessnidlefinearts.com.

JANET TURNER PRINT MUSEUM: Angles and

Planes: Janet Turner & the Built Environment, commemorating the centennial of Janet Turner’s birth, this selection of seldom-seen paintings and prints rounds out the curatorial survey of her work as an artist. Through 4/12, 11am-4pm. Chico State, (530) 898-4476, www.theturner.org.

Beauties, an eclectic group show by local artists Carol Preble Miles,Jerril Dean Kopp, Ann Pierce, Amber Palmer and more.

Through 4/5. 493 East Ave., (530) 345-3063.

UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY: Garbology, Luke Matjas’ large-scale digital/analog prints create a world of man-made objects and consumer excesses with diorama-like views of the natural world. Through 3/28. Trinity Hall, Chico State, (530) 898-5864.

Call for Artists ART AT THE MATADOR: ChiVAA invites artists to apply for booths at the 4th annual Art at the Matador: A Living Gallery event taking place May 9-10. For more information visit website. Ongoing. www.ChiVAA.org.

CALLING ALL MUTANT VEHICLES: Participate in

Art at the Matador and make a mutant vehicle for the Rally on Saturday, May 10.

For more Information visit website. Ongoing.

Art trophies will be awarded. Matador Motel, 1934 Esplanade, (530) 893-2510, www.chivaa.org/art-at-the-matador.

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.bidwellpark.org.

CHICO MUSEUM: Reverie: Interpretations of

Nature, new abstract paintings by Dennis Leon. Through 3/31. 141 Salem St., (530) 8914336, www.chicomuseum.org.

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.

Ongoing. 625 Esplanade, www.csuchico.edu/ gateway.

VALENE L. SMITH MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY: Into The Blue: Maritime Navigation and the Archeology of Shipwrecks, featuring artifacts recovered from the Frolic shipwreck and the story behind the ship’s history. TuSa through 7/24. Meriam Library Complex, Chico State.

all you can eat St. Patrick’s Day feast. M, 3/17, 4:30-7:30pm. Kids $10, Adults $20. Durham Memorial Hall, 9319 Midway in Durham.

19

WED

PAUL THORN: Southern soul and hard-driving rock from a Big Room favorite. W, 3/19, 7:30pm. Sold Out. Sierra Nevada Big Room, 1075 E. 20th St., (530) 345-2739, www.sierra nevada.com/bigroom.

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.

mixed-media works from British artist Matthew Tyson. Through 4/15. 820 Broadway, (530) 343-1973, www.1078gallery.org.

SALLY DIMAS ART GALLERY: Northern

ST. PATRICK’S DINNER: American Legion hosts an

Special Events

FREE LISTINGS!

1078 GALLERY: Of Angels and Giants, new

CHICO PAPER CO.: New Works, drawings and

Music

17

Special Events

THE HOEDOWN VARIETY TALENT SHOW, HOOTENANNY SOUTHERN REVIEW: See Friday. Blue

with speaker presentations, seed-saving education, refreshments and more. Su, 3/16, 2-6pm. Free. Chico Grange Hall, 2775 Old Nord Ave., (530) 895-1976.

Art

for more Music, see NIGHTLIFE on page 30

Hootenanny season opens Nothing cures a fierce case of spring fever like a well-lubricated party with a rowdy crowd of Chico’s wild fun-makers. Local theater fave Betty Burns knows this, so she’s getting a jump on the season by bringing an impressive group of freaks together in the EDITOR’S PICK Blue Room Theatre for The Hoedown Variety Talent Show, Hootenanny Southern Review! For two nights, Friday and Saturday, March 14 and 15, Lerlene Garbazio, and her husband Ned’s Cousin Pearl will host an evening of music, comedy, poetry and more provided by Ricky “Gravy Boat” Barnett, Mad Bob Howard, Lil’ Sugar Poo Poo, Tony “El Tigre” Mendez, Dicky LaRoca and more.

March 13, 2014

CN&R 27

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Say, ‘Mac ’n’ cheese!’

Grading local versions of the comfort-food classic

Tcomforting than a nice hot dish of macaroni and cheese. And the beauty of it is, the recipe has such a here are few dishes in this world more

basic foundation—pasta and cheese—that there is no end to the possible variations.

Macaroni noodles are the standard, by but many varieties—shells, bowMeredith J. ties—can work just as well. And Graham though cheddar is nearly ubiquimeredithg@ tous, adding to that classic cheese newsreview.com with other varieties can bring nuances of flavor, and mixing it up with add-ins such as bacon can intensify the taste and provide texture.

I started thinking about mac ’n’ cheese a few months ago when, while playing pool at the DownLo one night, I ordered their version and fell madly in love. Theirs is no run-of-the-mill mac ’n’ cheese, either—pasta shells are mixed with a delightfully thick cheesy sauce and topped first with a layer of golden-brown cheddar and then with crispy bacon (you can also add jalapeño). Putting it over the top, though, is the cheddar oozing over and forming a cheese skirt reminiscent of the famous crispy ring around the burgers at Nobby’s on Park Avenue.

I’ve since given in to temptation more than once at the DownLo. But I began to wonder what else might be out there, and how they might measure up to my current fave. Suddenly, I had a mission.

I didn’t try every local version, but I did sample the ones I’d heard about the most (though I’ve since learned the Winchester Goose regularly serves a mac ’n’ cheese special that I’ll need to keep an eye out for). These three hot spots offer distinctly different takes on the comfort-food classic: The Banshee Far and away the best of the three, the Banshee’s mac ’n’ cheese ($11) is most definitely crave-worthy 28 CN&R March 13, 2014

(especially after a pint or two). With penne pasta drenched in a thick, flavorful cheese sauce and topped with a golden-browned layer of cheddar, the Banshee also offers add-ons of bacon or ham. I chose bacon, which was mixed throughout. It was nice to have bacon in every bite, but it did lose its crunch in the sauce. Truth be told, though, this wasn’t much of a downside. The Banshee, 134 W. Second St., 8959670, www.bansheechico.com Wander food truck Wander is one of the newer food trucks to hit the streets of Chico. With a dedication to “real food, made by humans,” the truck offers comfort food with a carnival twist. The Bow Tie Cheesy Mac is a good value at $6 with maple bacon ($5 without), and the addition of toasted cheddar on top adds a satisfying crunch to each bite. The carnival element to this dish is cheesy animal-shaped crackers sprinkled on top—a whimsical and tasty addition! The downside to Wander’s mac ’n’ cheese is that the sauce, while silky smooth (and made to order from scratch), was a bit runny and didn’t pack enough of a cheese punch.

Wander food truck, 680-3871, www.wander foods.com Johnnie’s Restaurant As one might expect, Johnnie’s Restaurant offers a more sophisticated take on mac ’n’ cheese than food trucks and bars. The house favorite ($12) includes curly, ridged cavatappi pasta in a five-cheese bechamel sauce with roasted chilies and a baked crust. Unfortunately, it did not quite live up to the five-star description. The sauce had a nice, cheesy flavor, but it was thin and had a grainy texture. Also, the “baked crust” was pretty plain, with what seemed to be only bread crumbs placed on top before baking.

Johnnie’s Restaurant, 220 W. Fourth St., 895-1515, www.hoteldiamondchico.com Ω

SCENE

art party!

Recently Dolores Mitchell, shown here in her Chico studio, has been applying her colorful expressionism to paintings of San Francisco.

PHOTO BY ROBERT SPEER

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naked lounge March 14-31

reception: friday, march 14 7-9pm live music by fera at 8pm 118 W 2nd St

13 | facebook.com/nLchico

13

Color and form Dolores Mitchell’s life of learning, teaching and making art

Win Chicago, her fifth-grade teacher, noticing her natural talent, obtained for her a scholarship to

hen Dolores Mitchell was growing up

attend the Art Institute of Chicago on Saturdays. It was the beginning of a lifelong love affair by with art, first as a student, then as a Robert Speer teacher, painter and writer.

Mitchell has been a fixture in the local art community since 1970, when she arrived here with her freshly minted doctorate in art history from UCLA to teach at Chico State.

Melding “I came here sight unseen, and they Culture and hired me sight unseen,” she said durNature ing a recent interview in her cozy, artPaintings by filled Avenues home. “That doesn’t Dolores Mitchell, ceramics by happen anymore,” she added, shaking Chris Yates, her head in bemusement. showing She wasn’t a painter then. TeachMarch 14- ing art history, which she did for April 19.

30 years, took up her time, as did Reception Friday, March 14, being a wife and mother. (She and her 5-8 p.m. husband, Al, who died four years ago, founded Chico’s Pageant Theatre, Avenue 9 which he managed for several years; Gallery their daughter, Ann, runs the photog180 E. 9th Ave. www.avenue9 raphy program at Long Beach City gallery.com College.)

Mitchell did draw—“all the time,” she said. She liked to sketch paintings in museums because it helped her analyze them in the classroom.

When she ended her teaching career, she suddenly had time to paint, though it didn’t come easily at first.

“I was very rusty,” she explained, and it took her two or three years “to get back a feeling for painting.”

She’s been retired for 12 years now, and that feeling for painting has been in full flower for some time. She’s more enthused about her work than ever, inspired in part by her attendance at last year’s David Hockney: A Bigger Exhibition at the de Young Museum in San Francisco. Hockney, she said, is an artist who continues to be highly productive and open to working in new mediums even at the age of 76.

She feels growing confidence in her work and wants to see what she’s capable of doing, which means, she said, “I’m just going to have to work longer and harder.”

She’s also eager to try new mediums. She’s been working in oil for many years and has become masterful in her ability to take advantage of its rich color palette, but she plans to begin experimenting with water mediums such as gouache and watercolor.

For the past seven years she’s been painting landscapes set among the rice fields south of Chico. Her method is to find a scene she likes, sketch it and take some photos, and then do the painting in her studio.

She doesn’t aim for realism, but rather for an imaginative expressionism that combines a profusion of brilliant colors with a sense of the geometry of field and furrow, silo and sky.

Lately, she’s been applying that same colorful expressionism to paintings of San Francisco, though often in an even less realistic manner. It’s as if she’s chopped up the city into parts—bridges, the bay, lit-up signs, stairways, hills—and reassembled them in a way that expresses the not altogether unpleasant dizziness that comes from driving in the city.

“I’ve painted San Francisco’s tilted perspectives,” she has written, “a dream city that’s more than a little tipsy, with architecture that celebrates excess.”

Avenue 9 Gallery will be showing a selection of Mitchell’s recent paintings beginning Friday, March 14, with a reception from 5 to 8 p.m. She also has an exhibit of earlier works at the Upper Crust Bakery & Eatery through March 31.

The Avenue 9 show, titled Melding Culture and Nature, will also feature ceramic works by Chris Yates. A Paradise native, Yates for many years operated a wilderness camp in the southern Sierra. He’s been working in porcelain for more than 40 years, creating mostly vessels, but also nonfunctional pieces, such as a “horsehair basket” he demonstrates in a video on the Avenue 9 website.

Yates’ pieces contain images taken from nature applied to variations on classical forms. In that sense they, like Mitchell’s paintings, illustrate the theme of the show, which is how nature and culture can blend Ω rather than be in opposition.

March 13, 2014

CN&R 29

NIGHTLIFE

THURSDAY 3/13—WEDNESDAY 3|19 Seedless (alt-rock/reggae from Orange County)—visiting Chico for their Winter Blackout tour. F, 3/14, 8pm. $15. Senator Theatre, 517 Main St., (530) 898-1497, www.jmaxproduc tions.net.

HA’PENNY BRIDGE, CELTIC KNIGHTS OF THE SEA Saturday, March 15 Café Coda

FRIDAY MORNING JAZZ: A weekly morning jazz appointment with experimental local troupe Bogg. This week: A tribute to “The Crooners,” featuring Kelly Houston. F, 11am. Opens 3/14. Free. Café Coda, 265 Humboldt Ave., (530) 5669476, www.cafecoda.com.

SEE SATURDAY

JACKSON MICHELSON: Country

13THURSDAY BLUES NIGHT: With The Next Door Blues

band. Th, 3/13, 7-10pm. Café Flo, 365 E. Sixth St., (530) 514-8888, www.liveat flo.com.

BURNING MONK: Metal/hardcore/punk from Oakland’s Burning Monk, plus locals Icko Sicko, Gorilla x Monsoon, and Mr Bang. Th, 3/13, 7:30pm. 100th Monkey Café & Books, 642 W. Fifth St.

CHICO JAZZ COLLECTIVE: Thursday jazz.

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

JOHN SEID TRIO: John Seid, Steve Cook and Larry Peterson play and eclectic mix of The Beatles, blues and standards. Th, 3/13, 6-9pm. Grana, 198 E. Second St., (530) 809-2304.

singer/songwriter from Oregon. F, 3/14, 9:30pm. $5. Feather Falls Casino Brewing Co., 3 Alverda Dr. in Oroville, (530) 533-3885, www.featherfalls casino.com/brewing-co.

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

LOCAL MUSIC NIGHT: Singer/songwriter

14FRIDAY

Lisa Valentine, Western skiffle from Michelin Embers and blues/rock by Ugly as Hell . F, 3/14, 5-7pm. $5. Café Flo, 365 E. Sixth St., (530) 514-8888, www.liveatflo.com.

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

THE BUMPTET AND GROOVINCIBLE: Bump all night to the funky groove of locals The Bumptet and Sacramento’s Groovincible. F, 3/14, 9pm. $5. Lost on Main, 319 Main St., (530) 891-1853.

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

MT. WHATEVEREST: F, 3/14, 9pm. $5.

Maltese Bar & Tap Room, 1600 Park Ave., (530) 343-4915.

OPEN MIC: All singer/songwriters

THE EXPENDABLES: Reggae/punk rock from Santa Cruz, plus Stick Figure (reggae/dub from San Diego) and

welcome. F, 6-9pm. LaSalles, 229 Broadway, (530) 893-1891, www.lasalles bar.com.

POLISKITZO: Punk/hardcore from Santa

MUSIC SHOWCASE: An open mic hosted

5:30pm. $5. Café Coda, 265 Humboldt Ave., (530) 566-9476, www.cafe coda.com.

Rosa, plus Slandyr (punk from Lennox). F, 3/14, 8pm. $5. Monstros Pizza & Subs, 628 W. Sacramento Ave., (530) 345-7672.

MASTERS OF CHAOS TOUR: Sa, 3/15, 9pm.

PUB SCOUTS, PLUS GUESTS: Duffy’s Irish-

$5. Lost on Main, 319 Main St., (530) 891-1853.

music house band The Pub Scouts expand into their annual Celtic-rock group for the St. Patrick’s Day holiday.

Three nights. F, 3/14, 4-7pm; Su, 3/16, 811pm; M, 3/17, 7:30-10:30pm. Duffy’s Tavern, 337 Main St., (530) 343-7718.

by local country musicians Rich and Kendall. Sa, 5-9pm. Free. Scotty’s Landing, 12609 River Rd., (530) 7102020.

HIGH LIKE A SHERPA

Whatever they might sound like, Mount Whateverest wins points right of the bat for their awesome name and matching title, touting themselves as “The Highest Band on Earth.” The Nevada City quintet brings its sound—a self-described “noisy collision of sugar-coated pop, space-jazz interludes and giant, classic rock riffs” to the Maltese Bar & Tap Room Friday, March 14.

Also playing are locals Gentlemen’s Coup and Suns of the Pacific.

15SATURDAY BELLA DONNA: A tribute to Stevie Nicks.

Sa, 3/15, 9:30pm. $5. Feather Falls Casino Brewing Co., 3 Alverda Dr. in Oroville, (530) 533-3885, www.feather fallscasino.com/brewing-co.

ELVIN BISHOP, JAMES COTTON, RUTHIE FOSTER: Blues/rock icon Elvin Bishop, Grammy award-winner James Cotton, and up-and-comer Ruthie Foster unite forces for an evening of rock, blues, bar-room boogie, and banter. Sa, 3/15, 7:30pm. $25-$38. Laxson Auditorium, Chico State, (530) 898-6333, www.chicoperformances.com.

THE GUITAR PROJECT: With Warren

Haskell and Friends. Sa, 3/15, 7:30pm. $5-$10. 1078 Gallery, 820 Broadway, (530) 343-1973, www.1078gallery.org.

HA’PENNY BRIDGE: California Celtic Music from Locals Ha’penny Bridge, plus Celtic Knights of the Sea. Sa, 3/15,

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THIS WEEK: FIND MORE ENTERTAINMENT AND SPECIAL EVENTS ON PAGE 26 Su, 3/16, 8pm. $3. Maltese Bar & Tap Room, 1600 Park Ave., (530) 343-4915.

17MONDAY BLACK IRISH BAND: Americana music from Oroville’s Black Irish Band in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day. M, 3/17, 8pm. Gold Country Casino, 4020 Olive Highway in Oroville, (800) 803-1911, www.goldcountrycasino.com.

JAZZ HAPPY HOUR: Live jazz happy hour with the Carey Robinson Trio. M, 3/17, 5-7pm. Café Flo, 365 E. Sixth St., (530) 514-8888, www.liveatflo.com.

tion of St. Patrick’s Day. M, 3/17, 7pm. $5. Lost on Main, 319 Main St., (530) 891-1853.

N.Y.), plus Smack City (hardcore bropop from Magalia) and locals Outside Looking In. W, 3/19, 8pm. 100th Monkey Café & Books, 642 W. Fifth St.

18TUESDAY

METAL NIGHT IN THE WHISKEY ROOM: With DJ Loomis. W, 8pm. LaSalles, 229 Broadway, (530) 893-1891, www.lasallesbar.com.

OPEN MIC: Open-mic night with Aaron

and friends. Tu, 3/18, 7pm. Café Flo, 365 E. Sixth St., (530) 514-8888, www.liveat flo.com.

ST PATTY’S AND THE VETS’ GARDEN BENEFIT: Come celebrate St.Patrick’s day weekend and the Veterans’ Garden Project with Los Caballitos de la Canción. Sa, 3/15, 5pm. $5. Duffy’s Tavern, 337 Main St., (530) 343-7718.

Seasons. A concert highlighting string instruments creating a sound picture of the season. Featuring Terrie Baune on violin. Su, 3/16, 2pm. $12-$22.

Rowland-Taylor Recital Hall, Chico State.

PUB SCOUTS, PLUS GUESTS: Duffy’s Irish-

16SUNDAY JOHN SEID DUO: John Seid and Larry Peterson play an eclectic mix of The Beatles, blues and standards. Su, 3/16, 6-9pm. 5th Street Steakhouse, 345 W. Fifth St., (530) 891-6328, www.5thstreetsteakhouse.com.

music house band The Pub Scouts expand into their annual Celtic-rock group for the St. Patrick’s Day holiday.

Three nights. F, 3/14, 4-7pm; Su, 3/16, 8-11pm; M, 3/17, 7:30-10:30pm. Duffy’s Tavern, 337 Main St., (530) 343-7718.

SHIPWRECKED FOR ST. PATTY’S DAY: The Deadly Gallows (pirate music from Reno, Nev.) with friends Six Mile Station (Americana bluegrass band).

Patrick’s Day. M, 3/17, 7-9pm. Café Flo, 365 E. Sixth St., (530) 514-8888, www.liveatflo.com.

ON OFF: Celebrate St. Patrick’s day with Irish food and green beer, plus Ireland’s rock trio On Off. M, 3/17, 7pm. $5. Feather Falls Casino Brewing Co., 3 Alverda Dr. in Oroville, (530) 533-3885, www.featherfallscasino.com/ brewing-co.

PUB SCOUTS, PLUS GUESTS: Duffy’s Irishmusic house band The Pub Scouts expand into their annual Celtic-rock group for the St. Patrick’s Day holiday.

Three nights. F, 3/14, 4-7pm; Su, 3/16, 8-11pm; M, 3/17, 7:30-10:30pm. Duffy’s Tavern, 337 Main St., (530) 343-7718.

SWAMP ZEN AND DYLAN’S DHARMA: Local jam-funk and reggae-rock in celebra-

19WEDNESDAY FULL HOUSE BLUES JAM: Join the house

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

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

METAL NIGHT: Reproacher (hardcore/punk/metal from Cheyenne, Wyo.) La Misma (all-female punk from

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driving rock from a Big Room favorite.

W, 3/19, 7:30pm. Sold Out. Sierra Nevada Big Room, 1075 E. 20th St., (530) 345-2739, www.sierranevada.com/ bigroom.

band, The Growlers, and special guest Drew Salee. Bring an instrument and sign up to be a guest player. W, 3/19, 7:30pm. $5. Feather Falls Casino Brewing Co., 3 Alverda Dr. in Oroville, (530) 533-3885, www.featherfalls casino.com/brewing-co.

s a m e g r e at s e r v i c e

13

PAUL THORN: Southern soul and hard-

If Sepultura and Metallica were to really to meet in an enclosed space the size of Lost on Main, an inter-planar rift would undoubtedly open up to unleash a horde of bloodthirsty demon bats to suck the souls from every living being in this universe. So sorry Chico, you’ll just have to settle for The Masters of Chaos tour, featuring Bloody Roots (a tribute to Sepultura) and Disposable Heroes (a tribute to Metallica), coming to the aforementioned venue Saturday, March 15.

Locals Aberrance, Gigantes, and Astronaut open.

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

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cians, poets, comedians, storytellers and dancers. W, 7pm. Free. 100th Monkey Café & Books, 642 W. Fifth St.

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300: Rise of an empiRe (3D) ( R) 12:15PM 1:05PM 2:45PM 3:35PM 5:15PM 6:05PM 7:45PM 8:35PM 10:25PM

non-sTop (Digital) (PG-13) 12:05PM 2:40PM 5:15PM 7:50PM 10:25PM

300: Rise of an empiRe (Digital) (R) 11:15AM 1:50PM 4:25PM 7:00PM 9:30PM fRozen (2013) (Digital) (PG)11:05AM* 1:45PM* 4:35PM♣♠* 7:15PM♣♠* 9:50PM♣♠* leGo (Digital) (PG) 11:30AM 2:00PM 4:30PM 7:00PM 9:30PM monumenTs men (Digital) (PG-13) 11:25AM♦ 2:10PM 4:55PM 7:40PM 10:30PM mR. peaboDy anD sheRman (3D) (PG) 12:00PM 2:30PM 5:00PM 7:30PM 9:55PM mR. peaboDy anD sheRman (Digital) (PG) 10:45AM 1:25PM 3:50PM 6:15PM 8:45PM

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Mike Scalzi has been carrying the heavy metal torch for 25 years now—not just metal, but the epic, old-school metal inspired by the genre’s forefathers in Iron Maiden and Riot. His band Slough Feg (who dropped “The Lord Weird” from the beginning of their name as of 2005’s Atavism) forged ahead at a time when that particular style had been left for dead and kicked back underground. The San Francisco band’s latest LP, Digital Resistance, is loaded with galloping riffs, sing-along choruses and dueling lead harmonies, along with the band’s trademark Celtic folk influences. Simply put: It’s business as usual for Slough Feg. Opener “Analogue Avengers/Bertrand Russell’s Sex Den” kicks things off with proper pageantry, followed by the dual lead riff and double kick of “Digital Resistance,” which officially unsheaths the swords. By now, the songs have announced Scalzi’s rage against machines—not that he’s a Luddite & PREV. (although there is a song called “The Luddite”). They’re more of a rumination on the dumbing of brains and numbing of emotions that comes with technology. Even the production on Digital Resistance gives off a very analog air. It makes even songs like the mighty “Magic Hooligan” and arena-sized “Laser Enforcer” sound like they belong among the trees.

10

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Aside from public libraries—perhaps the most tried-and-true form of online e-book lending—no service has solidified itself as the go-to place for borrowing e-ink on the cheap. The Oyster app (for Apple iOS) wants to change that with its access to more than 100,000 titles for a $9.95 per month subscription fee. The thing is, in the publication world, 100,000 is a drop in the bucket. Oyster’s user interface is streamlined and intuitive, about what you’d expect from an e-reader. You can add books to your library such that it will electronically save your spot in whatever titles you’re reading, and you can make searchable notes in the margins. There are plenty of public domain classics— though even this list seems wanting at times—and some solid material, such as stuff by Kurt Vonnegut, Philip K. Dick, Rebecca Wells and Lemony Snicket. However, if you’re looking to prep for the next Divergent or The Hunger Games film series, or looking for a beach date with James Patterson or Tom Clancy, good luck. The app’s website doesn’t include a search option, but perhaps that’s for the best; after a few failed searches you might just give up and head to the local brick-and-mortar that sells dead trees with words on them.

—Matthew Craggs

APP

Big Chico Rock and Soul Revival Bahapki Self-produced The liner notes to local supergroup Bahapki’s debut album, Big Chico Rock and Soul Revival, tell us that “Bahapki” was the name of a 19th century Northern California village. The village’s name derived from a Maidu word meaning “unsifted” or “mixed”—referring to the combination of cultures inhabiting the village. That said, Bahapki—the band—is a coming together as well, a delightful mixture of a number of well-known local musical personalities, including two of the grooviest guitarists in town: Larry Peterson and Campbell Church. Bandleader Curtis Peldo (vocals, bass, piano) and the rest of his crew—Jonathan Arthur on sax, flute and harmonica; John Seid on organ and piano; percussionist Zach Cowan; vocalists Lyn Dean and Amyan Beaver; and more—deliver the goods on this soulful album of mostly Peldo originals. Peterson tears it up on “Awake,” a piece inspired by a line from Rabindranath Tagore’s poem, “Where the Mind is Without Fear.” Peldo’s Dr. John-like vocals shine on his original, “Humility” (“What do you hide from the people that you trust? And what do you hide from your gods?”); ditto for his vocal work on “Cold Clear Water,” another of his originals (Peterson rips it up on this one as well). All in all, a worthy assemblage of players and songs.

MUSIC

—Christine G.K. LaPado-Breglia

This … is … subpar!

A good villain and armies of abs can’t save sequel to 300

Aance and some decent visuals keep 300: Rise of an Empire from being truly awful. In the

good, nasty central villain perform-

end, it’s just marginally bad.

For this sequel to 2006’s 300, director Noam Murro takes over by for Zack Snyder (who co-wrote Bob and produced this time out).

Grimm Murro’s take on the exposedbelly, ancient-warrior thing lacks

(he’s got a little more around the belly button).

He’s basically tasked here with delivering an always determined face and shouting a lot.

The main nemesis, besides Xerxes, would be Artemisia, played wickedly by Eva Green, who makes for a memorable badass in a somewhat unmemorable film. Her character’s backstory does a nice job of showing us why she just wants to kill everybody, and that’s a vibe that always exists behind Green’s eyes. She also has a vio-

Reviewers: Craig Blamer, Bob Grimm and Juan-Carlos Selznick.

Opening this week The Single Moms Club

The latest from writer/director Tyler Perry is a dramedy about a group of women from different walks of life who bond over an incident at their children’s school. Cinemark 14. Rated PG-13.

Need for Speed

Another film adaptation of a popular video game, this one starring Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad) as a street racer who, after being in prison for a crime he did not commit, enters a cross-country race with revenge on his mind and a bounty on his head.

Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated PG-13.

The Wind Rises

Famed Japanese animator, manga artist and director Hayao Miyazaki puts off retirement for one more film, an Oscar-nominated animated historical feature based on the life of Jiro Horikoshi, designer of Japanese fighter jets used in World War II. Cinemark 14. Rated PG-13.

Re-opening this week

5

12 Years a Slave

2 300: Rise of an Empire

Starring Sullivan Stapleton, Eva Green, Rodrigo Santoro and Lena Headey.

Directed by Noam Murro.

Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated R.

1

Poor

2

Fair

3

Good

4

Very Good

5

Excellent

“I’m sick of this sword party!”

Director Steve McQueen’s film recounts the agonizing ordeal of a prosperous and well-educated African-American, a freed man named Solomon Northup, who was shanghaied back into slavery for more than a decade in pre-Civil War U.S. As such, 12 Years a Slave is a sometimes grueling history lesson that pays graphic attention to the physical cruelties as well as the legal and moral injustices of the slavery system. A certain weakness for punishing realism might have been fatal, were it not for the brilliancies of characterization that bring the whole thing back to life just as a grim despondency threatens to take over. Ultimately, the prime example of that brilliance comes via Solomon Northup himself (Chiwetel Ejiofor).

The movie, which portrays Solomon as refusing to be defined by his own victimhood, finds its most powerful and incisive dramatics in the tragic ironies of the man’s struggle not just to survive but to preserve a sense of dignity and self in the midst of soul-crushing cruelties. Pageant Theatre.

Rated R —J.C.S.

4

Nebraska

any real dramatic tension. His film is a bunch of boat fights mixed with people in togas emoting slowly on soundstages.

It’s a little bit of a prequel to 300, in that we see the origins of Xerxes (Rodrigo Santoro), the golden god Persian warrior who gave Gerard Butler (who appears in reused footage from 300) such a hard time in the last film. As far as storytelling goes, the Xerxes prologue is easily the most compelling part of the movie. Too bad it accounts for only a few minutes. Later in the film, we realize the events of 300 are going on at the same time as this movie, creating that Back to the Future Part II effect.

The main plot involves Greek general Themistokles, played by Sullivan Stapleton. Stapleton is basically Gerard Butler with a slightly less impressive BMI

lent and awkward sex scene with Stapleton that I happened to see in IMAX 3-D. I think that was my first IMAX 3-D sex scene. I felt so dirty.

There are many battles set on the sea, with boats crashing into each other and warriors we follow underwater as they sink to their deaths below. These moments are impressive the first couple of times, but they all start to blend together after a while. Much of the movie’s action feels redundant.

The gore in this movie is quite comical, with CGI blood spurting everywhere, and the action scenes range from serviceable to overkill. I did like the POV shot of Xerxes swinging his ax at Butler’s head and a soldier jumping off a wall with the camera tracking him down as he pounces on a victim. But again, the cool moments wind up getting lost in a sea of repetition and diminishing returns.

Rise of an Empire is slightly better than, say, your average direct-to-video sequel or prequel, but without Butler starring or Snyder directing, it’s ultimately inferior to the first movie. And that first movie wasn’t all that great to begin with. Ω

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.

Recipient of numerous Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Screenplay, Actor (Dern) and Director. Paradise Cinema 7 —J.C.S.

Now playing

2

300: Rise of an Empire

See review this issue. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7.

Rated R —B.G.

2

3 Days to Kill

Co-producer Luc Besson turns the direction over to the TV-oriented producer/director known as McG (Terminator Salvation, We Are Marshall), who keeps the action-movie assembly line moving along efficiently and blithely even as the screenplay (by Besson and Adi Hasak) stumbles and lurches through the usual improbabilities. The basic story premise has aging CIA assassin Ethan

Renner (Costner) finding himself fatally ill and longing to reconnect with the teenage daughter Zoey (Hailee Steinfeld), whom he’s neglected, and maybe with his ex-wife (Connie Nielsen), too. An absurdly attractive CIA operative named Vivi (Amber Heard) offers him a possible life-saving drug, but only if he will track down and kill a couple of supervillains.

The preposterousness of it all seems more or less deliberate. This, after all, is a movie that jams gonzo Asian-style shootouts up against the sitcom antics of its father-daughter scenes while assuming a nonchalance that neither winks nor blinks.

This is a mildly energetic time killer (117 minutes, to be exact), and little else. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas. Rated PG-13 —J.C.S.

Frozen

The new Disney computer-animated feature is an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’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. Rated PG.

The LEGO Movie

A computer-animated adaptation of the iconic kids’ toy pits a team of LEGOs led by an ordinary construction-worker minifigure (voiced by Chris Pratt) against an evil tyrant (Will Farrell) who wants to glue everything in the universe together.

Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated PG.

3

The Monuments Men

The good news: The Monuments Men is based on a fascinating episode in the history of World War II; it’s agreeably entertaining; and it has a big, attractive cast. The bad news: The film’s version of history feels too much like movie-friendly fiction, and the cast members mostly play versions of themselves, with only the bare minimum of links to the historical figures on whom they are based.

Based on the actual exploits of U.S. Army specialists charged with recovering stolen treasures of European art in the late stages of World War II, the film follows a handful of characters through a mildly suspenseful adventure that is part secret mission, part cultural commando raid, and part rambunctious caper. There are nods to serious, painful history here, but the script (by George Clooney, who also stars and directs, and Grant Heslov) often seems little more than a spinoff of the Ocean’s Eleven cycle, with Clooney’s version of the Rat Pack (Bill Murray, John Goodman, Matt Damon, etc.) working variations on caper-movie riffs made suitable to the particular circumstances of this tale.

Cinemark 14. Rated PG-13 —J.C.S.

Mr. Peabody & Sherman

Ty Burrell (Modern Family) provides the voice of the “smartest being in the world” and talking dog, Mr. Peabody, who stars alongside his adopted son Sherman in this update of the old cartoons that appeared during the early-1960s The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show animated TV series. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7.

Rated PG.

Non-Stop

Liam Neeson is in action-flick mode, starring as a U.S. air marshal trying to flush out a terrorist on a transatlantic flight who is promising to kill a passenger every 20 minutes unless $150 million in ransom is coughed up. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7. Rated PG-13.

Philomena

Stephen Frears (The Queen, High Fidelity) directs this based-on-real-events story about a British journalist (Steve Coogan) who helps a woman (Judi Dench) find out what happened to the son she was forced to give up for adoption 50 years earlier.

Four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Screenplay and Best Actress. Pageant Theatre. 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). Paradise Cinema 7. Rated PG-13.

Son of God

A biopic on the life of Jesus featuring scenes (as well as previously unreleased footage) from the History channel miniseries The Bible edited together to create a stand-alone film. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas and Paradise Cinema 7.

Rated PG-13.

March 13, 2014

CN&R 33

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SPRING RISING? Who the hell knows what the weather will bring this Chico spring? I’ve seen everything here this time of year—creekflooding downpours, April hailstorms. But I also wouldn’t be surprised if we had no rain—just three extra months of summer before summer. I just hope that we get more than a couple springy weeks like the yummy breezy 80-degree one we’re in now, because there is a huge, fresh pile of fun scheduled over the next few months.

THE WEEKEND FORECAST The Naked Lounge is

hosting a very springy art party, Friday, March 14, 7-9 p.m., to kick off Garret Goodwin’s print show, It’s Not a Diary, It’s a Journal.

Fresh-faced troubadour Fera provides the acoustic jams. And the Blue Room Theatre is going nuts with two funky shows: The hilarious and badass Betty Burns returns to the theater for two nights (Friday and Saturday, March 14 and 15, 7:30 p.m.) with a freak-filled variety show: The Hoedown Variety Talent Show, Hootenanny Southern Garret Goodwin, Naked Lounge Review, and showing Friday and Saturday, 10:30 p.m. for the next two weekends: Twilight Zone Live.

THEATER DELUGE There are several more intriguing local productions

flooding the boards this spring. The multidiscipline Uncle Dad’s Art Collective is taking on All in the Timing, David Ives’ collection of idiosyncratic comedy-sketch one-acts (March 20-22, at 1078 Gallery); Jerry Miller directs Leading Ladies at Theatre on the Ridge in Paradise (March 27-April 19); the Blue Room stacks the deck with the return of the kick-ass rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch (March 27-April 12); Chico State’s spring musical is the Monty Pythoninspired comedy Spamalot (April 30-May 4); and up at TOTR, Rogue Theatre honcho Joe Hilsee takes the reins for Jon Robin Baitz’s Drama Desk-winning (and Pulitzer PrizeThe wig is out of the box. nominated) 2012 play, Other Desert Cities (May 29-June 22).

TWO CONCERTS My guess: Thirty fun shows

will happen in Chico between now and summer. Here are two: MaRMITS, Pageant Dads and Mint Shekels, March 27, at Café Coda.

From the MaRMITS website: “If you can imagine early Animal Collective jamming with the Muppet Babies, then you just about described the MaRMITS.” All right, I’m buyin’. Also, Schoolboy Q, of Black Hippy (with Kendrick Lamar), and the rapper whose album Oxymoron debuted at the top of the MaRMIT! Billboard album charts two weeks ago, is actually coming to the Senator Theatre on April 11!

FOOD TRUCKS, MUTANT VEHICLES AND ONE BIG BEER April marks the

return of Chico’s monthly food-truck rally, Fork in the Road (make friends at www.facebook.com/forkintheroadchico for updates), and May 9-10, the annual Art at the Matador (no more “Art Fiesta” in the name) returns with a new, funky feature: the Mutant Vehicle Rally on The Esplanade (May 10). Contact Pat Collentine at teslaneon@gmail.com to learn how to take part.

And last. It’s back. Pale Bock—the hefty lager that Chico loved, and has longed for since Sierra Nevada Brewing Co. ceased brewing it five years ago—will once again be on local shelves by the end of the month. The brewery will host a release party in the Big Room, March 24, 6 p.m., with live music by Decades. $5 cover.

34 CN&R March 13, 2014

Find Us Online At:

www.chico.newsreview.com

BUTTE COUNTY LIVING

Love’s ReaL estate Secret Weapon

Open House Guide | Home Sales Listings | Featured Home of the Week

R

yan and Sylvia Hoskins were not in a house-buying frame of mind. “It’s almost like this Realtor guy made us buy, right?” said Ryan.

Free Real Estate Listings Find Us Online At:

www.chico.newsreview.com

RECYCLE

The Realtor had knocked upon Ryan and Sylvia’s apartment door and offered them information about qualifying for a loan, and buying a home.

“I begged my lender-buddy to meet with Ryan and Sylvia to make sure they qualified for a loan. I called the listing agent of the ‘little-cutie’ and begged her to wait to present any offers to the seller. I wrote up our offer. Then I went to work on my secret weapon.”

“I told him we weren’t interested,” Sylvia said. “We were, like, broke.”

The Realtor’s secret weapon was his “buyer promo package” for the seller.

“The dude was persistent,” said Ryan. “He goes ‘If you could buy a house today that you could afford, would you?’”

The buyer promo package contained a photo of Ryan and Sylvia on the front porch of the house, a letter from them expressing their love for the house and their hopes to own it, a letter from the lender demonstrating their loan qualification, and a letter from the Realtor with more photos of Ryan and Sylvia.

Meanwhile, Sylvia was leafing through the papers the Realtor had handed her, and pointed to a photo of a house for sale.

“Where’s this little cutie?” she asked.

THIS PAPER.

So the Realtor shifted into “hyper-mode.”

Fifteen minutes later, Sylvia, Ryan and the Realtor were walking around inside the house Sylvia had pointed to in the picture.

“I turned to the Realtor and I’m like, ‘I want this cutie! Can we really get a loan?’” said Sylvia.

The Realtor said, “Sylvia had picked out the hardest house to buy. I knew it already had multiple offers. This would be a long shot.”

“By the time I presented my offer to the sellers,” said the Realtor, “they had three other offers, all cash, no loan. No way could my offer compete—but when they looked a t the buyer promo package, the competition was over. The sellers wanted Ryan and Sylvia to have their house.”

“Like I said, the dude was persistent,” said Ryan, “and we’re glad he was!”

Doug Love is Sales Manager at Century 21 Jeffries Lydon email escrowgo@aol.com or call 530.680.0817

YOU’RE WELCOME, NATURE.

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ADDRESS

TOWN

PRICE

BR/BA

Biggs Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico

$175,000 $615,000 $535,000 $331,500 $330,000 $329,000 $315,000 $310,000 $309,000 $308,000 $306,000 $287,500

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

SQ. FT. 1104 2840 3045 2848 2251 1472 1891 2392 850 1774 1972 1792

$35,000

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Sponsored by Century 21 Jeffries Lydon ADDRESS

TOWN

PRICE

BR/BA

12 Scenic Ln 3280 Rockin M Dr 708 Bradford Ct 2323 Ritchie Cir 1279 Glenshire Ln 972 Normal Ave 3 Judy Ln 7 Betsey Way 432 W 6th Ave 2573 El Paso Way 1657 Arch Way 2600 Mariposa Ave

Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico

$285,000 $285,000 $280,000 $272,000 $267,500 $260,000 $255,000 $239,500 $236,000 $228,000 $225,000 $215,000

4/ 2 3/ 2 3/ 2 3/ 2 3/ 2 3/ 2 3/ 1.5 3/ 2 2/ 1 3/ 2 3/ 2 3/ 2 March 13, 2014

SQ. FT. 1752 1728 1806 1634 1233 1277 1510 1337 1256 1227 1187 1435

CN&R 35

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Jeffries Lydon

The following houses were sold in Butte County by real estate agents or private parties during the week of February 24, 2014 – February 28, 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 1815 Mangrove Ave 130 W 22nd St 4408 Caballo Way 1286 Calla Ln 1125 Sheridan Ave 33 544 Paseo Companeros St 12975 Yana Trl 15492 Nopel Ave 6398 Calvin Dr 14631 Holmwood Dr 866 W Sandra Ln 18 Kokanee Dr

36 CN&R March 13, 2014

TOWN

PRICE

BR/BA

Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Concow Forest Ranch Magalia Magalia Oroville Oroville

$210,000 $189,000 $170,000 $169,000 $135,000 $105,000 $130,000 $163,500 $165,000 $139,000 $185,000 $183,000

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

SQ. FT. 1236 1308 1646 1144 1009 3198 1200 974 1819 1715 1268 1873

ADDRESS 5297 Diane Ct 4428 Sierra Del Sol 217 Craft Ln 714 Camellia Dr 1013 Maple Park Dr 488 Wagstaff Rd 1809 Drendel Cir 3991 Neal Rd 725 Edwards Ln 5366 Sawmill Rd 6098 Marlow Ln 802 Windsor Dr

TOWN

PRICE

BR/BA

Oroville Paradise Paradise Paradise Paradise Paradise Paradise Paradise Paradise Paradise Paradise Paradise

$140,000 $360,000 $335,000 $299,000 $195,000 $175,500 $175,000 $160,000 $160,000 $135,000 $135,000 $111,500

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

SQ. FT. 1184 3132 2592 2000 1391 1296 993 1636 1111 1040 982 1156

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

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

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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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Record your own album on CD at a quality home studio.

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Call 888-608-3016

NURTURE YOUR SPIRIT, HELP HEAL OUR WORLD Imagine a religion that embraces many different beliefs — including yours. Unitarian Universalist Fellowship in Chico, 1289 Filbert Ave, 530-343-1693 www.chicouu.org PREGNANT? THINKING OF ADOPTION? Talk with caring agency specializing in matching Birthmothers with Families Nationwide. LIVING EXPENSES PAID. Call 24/7 Abby’s One True Gift Adoptions. 866-413-6293. Void in Illinois/New Mexico/Indiana (AAN CAN)

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HUMONGOUS Estate Sale 75 years collecting former NYC resident & gourmet cook VTG Mid Century furn., clothing, furs, acces., All types kitchenware, household, appliances, etc.

Barware, wine tools/racks, collectibles, all metals, melitta, Tupperware, Cuisinart, coffeeware, vtg games/toys, Hall, Irish linen, speakers, electronics, old rare unique books, lots of European items.

Washer, dryer, fridge, office and art supplies, lots of framed art and beautiful unframed art, nice frames, old clocks & radios, every kitchen gadgets still in box, vacuum steam cleaner, VTG tins, light fixtures, every kind of linen, china, royal doulton & copenhagen.

Featuring a Downton Abbey room filled with inspired items from furniture to jewelry and clothing. Lots of bookcas-­ es, some with glass doors.

Clothing sold by the bag. Much more, Too much to list, new stuff every day. It’s major deal weekend! Friday: 50% off.

Saturday & Sunday: 75% or more. March 14-16 8-2 767 Westmont Ct, Chico 95926 Security on premises KILL ROACHES! Buy Harris Ranch Tablets. Eliminate Roaches-Guaranteed. No Mess, Odorless, Long Lasting, Available at Ace Hardware, The Home Depot, homedepot.com (AAN CAN)

1983 Full-sized Chevy Blazer.All original. Most factory options. Very well kept condition. $6000 530-895-8171

1970 MGB Classic Convertible Restored, pristine condition. All records. $8,995.00. 530-345-9373 Days or Evenings.

POND LANDSCAPE GARDEN at 536 W 12th Ave Chico, CA 95926.

JOEL C RAINEY 536 W 12th Ave Chico, CA 95926.

This business is conducted by an Individual.

Signed: JOEL C. RAINEY Dated: February 13, 2014 FBN Number: 2014-0000263 Published: February 20,27, March 6,13, 2014

CASH FOR CARS: Any Car/Truck.

Running or Not! Top Dollar Paid. We Come To You! Call For Instant Offer: 1-888-420-3808 www.cash4car.com (AAN CAN)

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following person is doing business as ECOCAB at 2236 Christopher Ln Chico, CA 95926.

BRYAN GABBARD 2236 Christopher Ln Chico, CA 95926.

This business is conducted by an Individual.

Signed: BRYAN GABBARD Dated: January 17, 2014 FBN Number: 2014-0000119 Published: February 20,27, March 6,13, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following person is doing business as ROOTS AND LEAVES APOTHECARY at 15984 Wagon Road Forest Ranch, CA 95942.

RONA MIKOLAJCZAK 15984 Wagon Road Forest Ranch, CA 95942.

This business is conducted by an Individual.

Signed: RONA MIKOLAJCZAK Dated: February 12, 2014 FBN Number: 2014-0000255 Published: February 20,27, March 6,13, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following persons are doing business as CHICO TRUCK AND RV at 5 Three Sevens Lane Chico, CA 95973.

CHICO TRUCK AND RV INC 5 Three Sevens Lane Chico, CA 95973.

This business is conducted by a Corporation.

Signed: NANCI ALLEN, SECRETARY Dated: January 24, 2014 FBN Number: 2014-0000157 Published: February 20,27, March 6,13, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following person is doing business as REVOLUTION

classifieds this Legal Notice continues

CONTINUED ON 38

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open

house Century 21 Jeffries Lydon Sat. 11-1

1833 Bree Ct (X St: Lott Rd) 5 Bd / 4 Ba, 3,162 Sq. Ft. $535,000 John Spain 519-5726

Sun. 1-4

155 Spanish Garden (X St: Skyway) 4 Bd / 2.5 Ba, 2,642 Sq.Ft. $529,950 Frank Speedy Condon 864-7726

Sat. 11-1, 2-4 & Sun. 11-1 368 Bay Tree Dr. (X St: Tuscan) 4 Bd / 3 Ba, 2,805Sq Ft. $522,000 Johnny Klinger 864-3398 Jim Aguilar 519-4714

Sun. 11-1, 2-4

9700 Marichert Ct (X St: Cummings) 3 Bd / 2 Ba, 1,852Sq. Ft. $364,900 Effie Khaki 514-3334

Sat. 11-1, 2-4

137 Delaney Drive (X St: Yosemite) 3 Bd / 2 Ba, 1,524Sq. Ft. $344,000 Heather DeLuca 228-1480 Morgan Berry 774-7745

Sat. 11-1, 2-4

18 Titleist (Delaney) 3 Bd / 2 Ba, 1653 Sq.Ft. $329,900 Effie Khaki 514-3334

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

Sun. 2-4

1281 Glenshire ( X St: Mariposa Ave) 3 Bd / 2 Ba, 1555 Sq.Ft. $269,900 Kimberley Tonge 518-5508

Sat. 11-1, 2-4 & Sun. 11-1, 2-4 158 Remington Dr. (X St: Bruce) 3 Bd / 2 Ba, 1,455 Sq. Ft. $268,000 Kimberley Tonge 518-5508 Frank Condon 864-7726 Becky Williams 636-0936

1457 Saratoga Drive (X St: Patriot) 3Bd / 2 Ba, 1,679 Sq.Ft. $329,000 Ron Kelly 521-3629 Paul Champlin 828-2902

Sun. 11-1

Sat. 11-1, 2-4

273 Autumn Gold (X St: Henshaw) 4 Ba, 2.5 Ba, 2,081 Sq. Ft. $324,000 Carolyn Fejes 966-4457

Hutchinson Green at Doe Mill

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

Sat. 10-2

1602 Laburnum (X St: e. 6th Ave) 3 Bd / 2 Ba, 1,476 Sq Ft. $275,000 Steve Kasprzyk 518-4850 Anita Miller 321-1174

11 Alameda Park Cr (X St: Lakewest) 2 Bd / 2 Ba, 1,452Sq.Ft. $210,000 Lindsey Ginno 570-5261

2602 East 20th Street (X St: Bruce Rd) 2 Bd / 1 Ba, 775 Sq. Ft. $1,035-$1,350/Mo Tovey Giezentanner 916-801-0344

March 13, 2014

CN&R 37

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT the following person is doing business as NON STOP MOTION STUDIO at 8 Creekwood Ct Chico, CA 95926.

MARK KEITH PULLYBLANK 8 Creekwood Ct Chico, CA 95926.

This business is conducted by an Individual.

Signed: MARK PULLYBLANK Dated: January 31, 2014 FBN Number; 2014-0000192 Published: February 20,27, March 6,13, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following persons are doing business as KIRKWOOD ASSOCIATES at 2057 Hooker Oak Ave. Chico, CA 95926.

GALE ALVISTUR 2057 Hooker Oak Ave Chico, CA 95926.

VICTOR ALVISTUR 2057 Hooker Oak Ave Chico, 95926.

NANNETTE CARTER 2372 England Street Chico, CA 95928.

This business is conducted by a General Partnership.

Signed: VICTOR ALVISTUR Dated: February 4, 2014 FBN Number: 2014-0000208 Published: February 20,27, March 6,13, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following persons are doing business as SUSHI KING at 2190 Esplanade Chico, CA 95926.

WONDERFUL NATIONWIDE INC 1401 Melody Road Olivehurst, CA 95961.

This business is conducted by a Corporation.

Signed: RIE MITSUNARI, MANAGER Dated: February 10, 2014 FBN Number: 2014-0000236 Published: February 20,27, March 6,13, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following person is doing business as AMERICAN RV at 249 Meyers Chico, CA 95928.

DARRYL PARKE MERRIN 6251 Posey Lane Paradise, CA 95969.

This business is conducted by an Individual.

Signed: DARRYL MERRIN Dated: February 21, 2014 FBN Number: 2014-0000294 Published: February 27, March 6,13,20, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following person is doing business as BLISS NAIL AND SPA at 2033 Forest Ave Suite 100 Chico, CA 95928.

MANG LEPHAM 472 Entler Ave Chico, CA 95928.

This business is conducted by an Individual.

Signed: MANG LEPHAM Dated: January 24, 2014 FBN Number: 2014-0000156 Published: February 27, March 6,13,20, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME - STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name: INSPIRE ME CREATIONS at 561 E. Lindo Ave. Suite 1 Chico, CA 95926 KYMBERLY COCO 561 E. Lindo Ave #7 Chico, CA 95926.

TAMARA PATTERSON 8564 Silver Bridge Rd Palo Cedro, CA 96073.

This business was conducted by a General Partnership.

Signed: KYMBERLY COCO Dated: February 20, 2014 FBN Number: 2013-0000762 Published: February 27, March 6,13,20, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following persons are doing business as INSPIRE ME CREATIONS at 561 E Lindo Ave. Suite 7 Chico, CA 95926 SOLUTION-ORIENTED THERAPY 561 E Lindo Ave. Suite 7 Chico, CA 95926.

This business is conducted by a Limited Liability Company.

Signed: KYMBERLY COCO, MANAGER Dated: February 20, 2014 FBN Number: 2014-0000289 Published: February 27, March 6,13,20, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following person is doing business as OPEN PASTURE EVENTS, SOUL HEALING HORSES at 913 Long Bar Road Oroville, CA 95966.

SHANNON PAIGE 913 Long Bar Road Oroville, CA 95966.

This business is conducted by an Individual.

Signed: SHANNON PAIGE Dated: February 11, 2014 FBN Number: 2014-0000254 Published: February 27, March 6,13,20, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following persons are doing business as ADOPTION CHOICES OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA at 1469 Humboldt Rd Ste 200 Chico, CA 95928.

CHICO FEMINIST WOMENS HEALTH CENTER 1442 Ethan Way Suite 200 Sacramento, CA 95825.

This business is conducted by a Corporation.

Signed: Marikathryn Hendrix, Director Dated: January 24, 2014 FBN Number: 2014-0000160 Published: February 27, March 6,13,20, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following persons are doing business as OMPT, ONE MEDIA PLAYER PER TEACHER, ONE MOBILE PROJECTOR PER TRAINER, POLDER INC at 1350 East 9th Street Chico, CA 95928.

POLDER INC P.O. Box 3320 Chico, CA 95927.

This business is conducted by a Corporation.

Signed: PATRICE YORK, SECRETARY Dated: February 18, 2014 FBN Number: 2014-0000277 Published: March 6,13,20,27, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following person is doing business as DEVISE VENTURES at 63 Pauletah Pl Chico, CA 95973.

JOSEPH BILL 63 Pauletah Pl Chico, CA 95973.

This business is conducted by an Individual.

Signed: JOE BILL Dated: February 14, 2014 FBN Number: 2014-0000267 Published: March 6,13,20,27, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following persons are doing business as FASTCABINETDOORS.COM at 11128 Midway, Suite A Chico, CA 95928 OAK RIDGE CABINETS INCORPORATED 11128 Midway Chico, Suite A Chico, CA 95928.

This business is conducted by a Corporation.

Signed: SCOTT BECHHOLD, PRESIDENT Dated: February 20, 2014 FBN Number: 2014-0000293 Published: March 6,13,20,27, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following person is doing business as TRAILBLAZER PET SUPPLY at 752 Mangrove Avenue Chico, CA 95926.

ERIK GLEDHILL 4 Wysong Court Chico, CA 95928.

This business is conducted by an Inidvidual.

Signed: ERIK GLEDHILL Dated: February 27, 2014 FBN Number: 2014-0000331 Published: March 6,13,20,27, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following persons are doing business as CHICO LIFESTYLE REAL ESTATE at 430 Marmore Road Chico, CA 95928.

KP REAL ESTATE CONSULTING, INC 430 Marmore Road Chico, CA 95928.

This business is conducted by a Corporation.

Signed: KRISTIN PANKHURST, PRESIDENT Dated: February 28, 2014 FBN Number: 2014-0000332 Published: March 6,13,20,27, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following person is doing business as 530 PROCESS SERVERS at 3432 Esplanade #208 Chico, CA 95973.

MICHAEL REID 3432 Esplanade #208 Chico, CA 95973.

This business is conducted by an Individual.

Signed: MICHAEL REID Dated: February 10, 2014 FBN Number: 2014-0000237 Published: March 6,13,20,27, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following persons are doing business as SERVANT LEADERSHIP NETWORK at 3015 Cohasset Rd Chico, CA 95973.

CITY LIGHT OF CHICO PO Box 9199 Chico, CA 95927.

This business is conducted by a Corporation.

Signed: BRAD HOLMBERG, TREASURER Dated: January 29, 2014 FBN Number: 2014-0000178 Published: March 6,13,20,27, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following person is doing business as ELECTROLYSIS BY NORA at 15 C Williamsburg Lane Chico, CA 95926.

NORA PAIVA 1876 Lodge Pine Lane Chico, CA 95926.

This business is conducted by an Individual.

Signed: NORA PAIVA Dated: February 10, 2014 FBN Number: 2014-0000245 Published: March 6,13,20,27, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following person is doing business as BAT FABRICATION at 3326 Esplanade Unit C Chico, CA 95973.

JEFFREY EUGENE HOUGHTON 522 Digger Pine Lane Paradise, CA 95969.

This business is conducted by an Individual.

Signed: JEFFREY EUGENE HOUGHTON Dated: March 6, 2014 FBN Number: 2014-0000365 Published: March 13,20,27, April 3, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following person is doing business as SEE THE SHOW at 1140 Normal Ave Chico, CA

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38 CN&R March 13, 2014

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95928.

DANIEL GROVER 1140 Normal Ave Chico, CA 95928.

This business is conducted by an Individual.

Signed: DANIEL GROVER Dated: February 20, 2014 FBN Number: 2014-0000286 Published: March 13,20,27, April 3, 2014

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following person is doing business as CHICO CHAI at 1919 Park Ave Chico, CA 95928.

SARAH ELIZABETH ADAMS 918 Salem Street Chico, CA 95928.

This business is conducted by an Individual.

Signed: SARAH E ADAMS Dated: February 7, 2014 FBN Number: 2014-0000234 Published: March 13,20,27, April 3, 2014

NOTICES ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS: Petitioner DEEPIKA TANDON filed a petition with this court for a decree changing names as follows: Present name: JEVESH TANDON Proposed name: SHUBHANSH VOHRA TANDON 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 objec-­ tion 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: April 9, 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: February 11, 2014 Case Number: 161369 Published: February 27, March 6,13,20, 2014

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 THOMAS 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 objec-­ tion 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: April 9, 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

this Legal Notice continues

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Dated: February 26, 2014 Case Number: 161100 Published: March 6,13,20,27, 2014 ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS: Petitioner JODIE NEAL filed a petition with this court for a decree changing names as follows: Present name: JODIE MARIE NEAL THOMAS Proposed name: JODIE MARIE ROSE 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 objec-­ tion 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: April 29, 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: March 5, 2014 Case Number: 161498 Published: March 13,20,27, April 3, 2014

NEED ATTENTION? LET’S NOT GO TO EXTREMES.

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS: Petitioner NICHOLAS EDWARD GEETER filed a petition with this court for a decree changing names as follows: Present name: NICHOLAS EDWARD GEETER Proposed name: NICHOLAS EDWARD WEST 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 objec-­ tion 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: April 9, 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: March 6, 2014 Case Number: 161396 Published: March 13,20,27, April 3, 2014

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ARIES (March 21-April 19):

“There was another life that I might have had, but I am having this one.” So says a character in Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel The Unconsoled. At this juncture in your life story, Aries, it might be healing for you to make a similar declaration.

Now is an excellent moment to say a final goodbye to plot twists that you wished would have happened but never did. To do so will free up stuck energy that will then become available for future projects. You may even awaken to exciting possibilities you haven’t imagined yet.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): In May 2011, two Nepali men reached the top of Mount Everest after a six-week climb. Lakpa Tsheri Sherpa and Sano Babu Sunuwar had prepared an unprecedented way to get back down off the mountain. Strapping themselves to a single parachute, they leaped off and paraglided for 45 minutes, landing near a Sherpa village thousands of feet below the summit. I suggest you look around for a metaphorical version of a shortcut like that, Taurus. Don’t do the next part of the journey the same way you did the previous phase.

Take a more direct route. Enjoy an alternate adventure. Give yourself a fresh challenge.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): Seeking wis-

dom and chasing after pleasure are polar opposites, right? You must devote yourself to either one or the other, correct? You can be an enlightened servant of the greater good or else an exuberant hedonist in quest of joy, but not both. True? No. No. No. False.

Wrong. Here’s the bigger truth: Now and then, grace periods come along when you can become smarter and kinder by exploring the mysteries of feeling really good. Can you guess when the next of these grace periods will arrive for you, Gemini? Here’s the answer: It’s here now!

CANCER (June 21-July 22): Humans

walked on the moon before anyone ever had the simple idea to put wheels on suitcases.

Unbelievable, right? Until 1972, three years after astronauts first walked on the lunar surface, travelers in airports and train stations had to carry and drag wheelless containers full of their belongings. I suspect that a comparable out-of-sequence thing may be going on in your own life, Cancerian. In some ways you are totally up-to-date, and in other ways you are lagging behind. Now would be a good time to identify any discrepancies and start correcting them.

Metaphorically speaking, I’d love you to have rolling luggage by the next time you take a journey.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Have you ever

heard of Sasquatch, also known as Bigfoot?

You know, one of those big, hairy, humanoid beasts that walks upright and lives in dense forests? Scientists assure us that there is no such thing. But then they used to say the same thing about the platypus. It was a myth, they declared; a figment of explorers’ vivid imaginations. A duck-billed, egg-laying mammal simply could not exist. When the respected British zoologist George Shaw claimed there was indeed such a creature, he was mocked by his contemporaries. Eventually, though, the truth emerged, and Shaw was vindicated. I suspect that you Leos will soon experience an event akin to the discovery and confirmation that the platypus is real.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Kyoka is a

Japanese word that means “a flower reflected in a mirror”. I suggest you use it as a metaphor to help you understand what’s happening in your life right now. Here are some clues to jump-start your ruminations.

Are you more focused on the image of what you love than on what you love? If so, is there anything wrong with that, or is it perfectly fine? Are you more interested in ephemeral beauty that you can admire from afar than in tangible beauty you can actually touch? If so, is there anything wrong with that, or is it perfectly fine? Should you turn away from a dreamy surrogate and turn toward the real thing? If so, why?

Healing art

by Rob Brezsny LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): A British

researcher poured 300 million facts into a computer program designed to determine the most boring day in history. The winner was April 11, 1954. It was selected because almost nothing important happened except an election in Belgium. I’m wondering if you Libras might reach that level of blah sometime soon. The astrological omens suggest it’s a possibility. And, frankly, I hope that’s exactly what happens. You need a break from high adventure and agitated activity.

You would benefit from indulging in some downtime that allowed you to luxuriate in silence and stasis. The time has come to recharge your psychic batteries.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): You won’t be the recipient of good luck in the coming days. Nor will you experience bad luck or dumb luck or weird luck. No, Scorpio. The serendipitous slew of synchronicities that will slip and slide into your sphere requires a new word, which I have coined for this occasion. That word is “shluck.” Shluck is a cracked yet plucky sort of backward luck that provides you with an abundance of curious slack. Shluck slings your way a series of happy accidents and curious coincidences that give you experiences you didn’t even realize you needed. To take maximum advantage of shluck’s benefits, you have to dispense with your agendas and drop your expectations.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): In

the old fairy tale “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves,” the poor woodcutter Ali Baba is collecting firewood in the forest when he spies a gang of thieves bragging about their exploits. Observing them from a hiding place, he hears them chant a phrase, “Open sesame.” This magically unseals the opening to a cave that happens to be full of their stolen treasure. Later, when the thieves have departed, Ali Baba goes to the cave and says “Open sesame” himself. The hocuspocus works. He slips into the cave and steals a bag of gold from the robbers’ plunder. This story has resemblances to an adventure you could enjoy sometime soon, Sagittarius. I suspect you may discover your own version of “open sesame.” It will give you access to a less literal and more legitimate bounty.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Your ability to heal rifts and bridge gaps is unusually high. You could connect seemingly irreconcilable elements and forge apparently impossible links. Former allies who have become estranged might be moved to bond again through your compassionate intervention. I’m not promising amazingly miraculous feats of unification, but I’m not ruling them out, either. You have a sixth sense about how to create interesting mixtures by applying just the right amount of pressure and offering just the right kind of tenderness.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): My

friend Harry said he wanted to teach me to play golf. “Are you kidding?” I asked him incredulously. “The dullest game on the planet?” He tried to convince me that it would provide lots of interesting metaphors I could use in writing horoscopes. “Name one,” I challenged him. He told me that “Volkswagen” is a slang term that describes what happens when a golfer makes an awkward shot that nevertheless turns out to be quite good. “Hmm,” I replied. “That is exactly the theme I have decided on for the Aquarius horoscope.”

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): Do you

remember being in your mother’s womb?

Probably not. But here’s what I know about that time: In the first few weeks after you were conceived, your body grew at a very rapid rate. Once you were born, if you had continued to expand and develop with that much vigor, you would literally have grown to be as big as a mountain by now. So let’s be thankful you slowed down. But I do want to sound an alert and let you know that you are currently in a growth spurt with some metaphorical resemblances to that original eruption. It’s basically a good thing. Just be aware that you may experience growing pains.

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

Ever have times where you feel burdened with emotions that you just can’t deal with? We all do.

Buried anger, frustration and guilt can eat at our cores and make living particularly hard.

Chico’s Jodee Smith is a certified expressivearts therapist whose classes aim to help people release their feelings in healthy ways through the arts. Her students use drawing or painting as means for shedding their emotional chains.

Visit www.innerartstherapy.com to find out more about Smith and her classes, and contact her at jodeeinnerarts@gmail.com or 410-2567.

What is the goal with your classes?

15 MINUTES

BREZSNY’S

For the week of March 13, 2014

I work on self-actualization to help people have more self love and get in touch with their inner child. I want them to honor themselves more and be more positive. I help unclog their emotional pipes to fulfill their full potential. But if they have really deep issues, they may need a clinical counselor.

Can you describe a typical class?

We sit in chairs in a circle and introduce ourselves using funny movement games to loosen up. Then I have them close their eyes and lead them in guided imagery to the colors or shapes that represent their mood, be it playful, angry, etc. I have them create these emotions visually using pastels, water paints, clay and even magazine collages. They then share their experiences and we all give our input.

What attracted you to this work?

I’ve always been interested in personal and spiritual growth because it’s a part of who we

are. We all have egos and personalities, but we’re also a part of the divine. When I was completing my master’s degree, I studied the expressive-arts angle, which put everything together. We don’t deal too well with emotions in America, and we can’t grow until we let them out.

Did you have any mentors?

A big influence on me was the 1940s American psychologist Carl Rogers, who coined the person-centered approach. I trained with his daughter Natalie. Another is Lucia Capacchione, who wrote the book Recovery of Your Inner Child. I’ve taken her workshops, and she’s inspired me to understand that the inner child never dies but needs to be nurtured to mature.

Where do you teach?

I sometimes teach through the CARD [Chico Area Recreation District] center, but mostly at Marleau Peterson’s Healing Arts Center in Chico, where the classes are more in-depth.

I’m taking sign-ups for my next class, Recovery of the Inner Child, tentatively scheduled for April 26.

FROM THE EDGE

by Anthony Peyton Porter anthonypeytonporter@comcast.net

Gardening The following is a reprint of the March 9, 2006, From the Edge.

I’m a low-level gardener. In fact, I’m not sure I should even call myself a gardener at all. I plant things and water things, and now and then I dig something up. As much as anything, I interfere.

I’m not rigid, like some gardeners. If a volunteer really wants to grow in my yard, I’ll let it. It’s got to pick the right place, because nobody’s likely to walk around it, but I don’t care that I didn’t plant it there.

Some gardeners are offended by volunteer plants— everything has to be planned and purchased or personally propagated. Not in my yard.

When we lived in Minnesota, I seldom cut the grass at all, and when I did, I cut around the ox-eye daisies and goat’s beard and fleabane. Our lawn was scrubby grass punctuated by soaring flowering plants, and the blue swaths of creeping Charlie were stunning in the spring.

Early on, I decided to return most of our yard to wilderness. Never mind the Nature Conservancy and the Sierra Club and the rest. I started right there on Sheridan Avenue, and we even had rabbits in our brush pile.

When I planted Lamium and Campanula by the back fence here in Chico last fall, I was just giving

them a shot at the patch near the once-and-future shed. From what I’ve read, they should both like it there, and I gave them their chance. So far, they both look fine, but if the Campanula flourishes and the Lamium doesn’t, so be it. Likewise vice versa. I neglect them equally.

That’s the main thing. Plants pretty much have to be able to hack it on their own in my garden. I water things fairly regularly in the summer, but I don’t do much fertilizing past a bag of manure now and then and—someday before I die—my own compost.

Now that the sod we bought when we moved in has found the spots it can tolerate and given up on the rest, the backyard is starting to look like a landscape—three or so kinds of grasses, in addition to the purple fountain grass that seems to have settled in nicely. Diversity is us.

I have high hopes for the California poppies I flung about a while back, and the rogue rose bushes that came with the house are indomitable. I fully expect them to recover from my pruning.

And last year I made my ultimate environmental adjustment—I accepted the squirrels. I don’t feed them, but I don’t squirt them with the hose, either.

Tensions in my yard have eased considerably, and that’s a good thing. Peace is its own reward.

March 13, 2014

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