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lOB Wednesday, July 27, 2011 Bulletin, Progressive, RecOrd, Reporter
EDITORIAL
A N D
OPINION
EDITORIAL
The California Highway Patrol has a serious
image problem in Plumas County.
We hear the complaints from people on the street,
and we read them in our letters to the editor.
Our residents say they are afraid of our CHP.
They say that young, aggressive patrolmen aFe
looking for any reason to pull them over.
During a meeting at the Feather Publishing of-
rices in Quincy on July 15, our local CHP com-
mander, Bruce Carpenter, met for two hours with
community leaders. Carpenter listened to citizens
tell him they felt like they were under siege by his
officers.
Some of the statistics presented during the
meeting by Assemblyman Dan Logue were star-
tling. The numbers proved that the problem isn't
merely a perception. It's a reality.
In short, drivers in Plumas Countyare five times
more likely to be pulled over and cited by the CHP
than people living in Nevada County. Although
Nevada County's population of 100,000 is rive times
larger than that of Plumas County, the number of
citations and DUI arrests are almost equal.
And Nevada County, which includes a stretch of
the busy Interstate 80 corridor, has 23 CHP officers.
Plumas County has 32 officers, if you include the of-
ricers patrolling between Chester and Susanville.
In 2009, the CHP began 24-hour coverage in
Plumas County. An additional rive officers -- all
of them fresh out of the academy were added at
that time. That meant there were rive more young
officers patrolling the lonely roads of this rural
area while most of us are sleeping.
Do we need CHP officers on the job 24 hours a
day? That is a topic for debate. But the larger is-
sue is the way they are doing that job.
Logue said our CHP's bad reputation has
spread throughout the state. He said he is
"swarmed" with complaints. He said our CHP
needs to change its ways or he is going to do
everything in his power to make changes happen.
"The last time I checked, there isn't a crime
wave here," Logue said. "This has to stop. Things
have to change."
Logue said he wants to have another meeting in
60 days to see if there has been any progress.
Can things change? We hope so. Our tourism-
based economy relies on visitors. Some of those
~isitors have said they will never come back be-
cause 6frun-ins with our CHP.
"':~f0 Carpenter s credit, he appea~6d to take the "
July 15 meeting very seriously. He and the CHP's
Northern Division assistant chief, Todd Chadd,
listened intently to the complaints. It would have
been natural for them to take a defensive posture.
But they didn't do that.
Instead, they pledged to address the problem.
They explained there is an adjustment period for
young officers who were rigidly trained to deal
with big-city problems and who were instead as-
signed to our country roads -- many of them
against their will.
MY TURN
M. KATE WEST
Chester Editor
chesternews@plumasnews.com
California is once again in the news
and, believe it or not, my first hint of the
issue was a Los Angeles Times story by
Joanna Frank that was printed on the In-
ternet at longislandpress.com.
Simply amazing that I had to hear it
from the East Coast first, but then that
was likely because I make it a point to
avoid the nightly talk shows, ah, news
broadcasts.
At any rate, this article was about the
latest rumor out of Southern California
and it talked about how Jeff Stone, a
Republican member of the Riverside
County Board of Supervisors, is potential-
ly sponsoring a movement for 13 southeast
counties of California to become the 51st
state of the United States.
From our northern perspective I called
the involved counties southeast, but
Frank referenced them as inland, I sup-
pose in their geographic position to the
Pacific Ocean.
The counties on Stone's list ai'e River-
side, Fresno, Imperial, Inyo, Kern, Kings,
Madera, Mariposa, Mono, Orange, San
Bernardino, San Diego and Tulare.
While not necessarily rural, like Plumas
and Lassen counties, they are considered
to be conservative, something which we
have in common.
One of the primary reasons reported for
the movement to divide California is that
the state is too large to govern and too
large to allow opinions to be heard.
Stone supposedly wants to name the 51st
state "South California" although he
didn't include many of Southern Califor-
nia's counties on his redrawn map. Rumor
Where in the World?
Garrison Keillor joins Kathy and Larry Price, Bill Martin and Susan Christensen as the
popular NPR weekend radio show, "A Prairie Home Companion," goes to sea. The
Bulletin was there, off Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada, aboard the MS
Maasdam. Next time you travel, share where you went by taking your local newspa-
per along and including it in a photo. Then e-mail the photo to
smorrow@plumasnews.com. Include your name, contact information and brief
details about your photo. We may publish it as space permits.
again has it that he specifically left out
Los Angeles County and liberal Holly-
wood. Based on real estate alone, it is like-
ly that he left out Ventura and Santa Bar-
bara counties for the same reason.
He also drew his borders to exclude
Sacramento, but who could possibly
blame him for that?
r
The entertainment value of the liberal I
feedback to this suggestion has literally
l
been worth its weight in gold. I've enjoyed
the posts where they have suggested Stone I
and his list of conservative counties
should just become Western Arizona!
Another interesting comment was about
the possible millions of dollars it would
cost just to get folks to sign petitions so
the issue could be put on a ballot for
statewide vote. i
Actually, it wouldn't cost a cent to have
me sign that sort of petition. As a matter
of fact, an issue like this could have me
packing pages around and standing in
front of the post office asking for signa-
tures.
However, before I go the distance I
would need to have a bit ~)f discussion
about having the boundaries change a bit.
I sure wouldn't want to be left out of a new
state where the government listened to
what people had to say and then made
smart decisions!
While I give Supervisor Stone credit for
understanding the liberal challenges he
faces with some Southern California cities
and counties, I think he needs to do a bit
more homework.
If he believes he has challenges coming
out of Hollywood, go north and think
about Nancy Pelosi's home district. Then .1
take that thought one step further and Ii
look at both the liberal issues flying out of
San Francisco and the staggering count of
registered voters.
il
While he's at it, I think Stone should |
worry less about Sacramento and let his
finger trail north and south along the
coastal counties. Can't say attitudes there
have changed all that much since the '60s.
While his drawn 13 counties may have a
headcount large enough to gain the status
of being in consideration as the Fifth most
populous state in the union, he has left out
a tremendous amount of conservative ,,
votes on his map.
Rather than settling for "South Califor-
nia" I'd like to see the borders for the in-
land, or eastern counties, expand in a
northerly direction.
Even though I'm not familiar with the
politics of the Sierra Nevada counties of
Tuolumne, Alpine, Calaveras, Amador,
E1 Dorado, Placer and Nevada, the far
northeast counties of Plumas, Lassen,
Modoc and Sierra counties would surely
have conservative votes Stone would ap-
preciate.
°
See State, page 12B
Carpenter has been our CHP commander for
50 YEARS AGO ....... 1961 night, The Favero Sisters and Stew Stew-
less than a year. We believe he and his officers I MEMBER WHEN First Western Bank in Greenville will art on Friday night, the Rodeo on Saturday
are dedicated to protecting the citizens of Plumas ................................
County. But there is a big difference between officially open its new bank building this and stock car races on Sunday night. All
"protection" and "oppression." , KERI TABORSKI Friday with a ribbon cutting ceremony. The shows are $5.00 admission.
: Is 60 days enough time to improve the CHP s re- Historian new building is located next to the old bank
lationship with the people of this county? Most building on Crescent Street, Greenville, 10 YEARS AGO ....... 2010
likely it isn't. But the fact that our CHP comman-75 YEARS AGO ............ 1936 Bill Hunter, a native of Greenville and a
der admitted there is indeed a problem, and is Two afternoon performances and two 25 YEARS AGO ........ 1986 Butte County Sheriff'} Deputy was killed
willing to address it, is an encouraging sign. evening performances of the motion pic- Dianne Van Hook, Dean of Feather River in the line of duty July 26 in a shoot out in
ture "Ah, Wilderness!" starring Lionel College resigned on Friday and is taking a the remote town of Inskip, an unincorpo- h7
Barrymore will signal the grand opening position at Lake Tahoe Community College. rated area in Butte County. ti
of Quincy's new motion picture house Advanced ticket sales are on sale for up- After 21 years of service, Jesse Wellen-
named the Town Hall Saturday. The 30-foot coming Plumas County Fair events to be brock of Chester, one of the founding direc-
Fea neon sign was installed earlier in the held in the grandstands. The itinerary in- torsof Plumas Bank, has retired from the
week. cludes: Battle of the Bands on Thursday board of directors of the bank.
spaper
$ O
Breaking News .... t
go to plumasnews.com
I
Michael C. Taborski ............. PUblisher
Keri B. Taborski ...Legal Advertising Dept.
Delaine Fragnoli ........ Managing Editor
Alicia Knadler ........ Indian Valley Editor
M. Kate West ............. Chester Editor
Shannon Morrow .......... Sports Editor
Ingrid Burke ................ Copy Editor
Staff writers:
Michael Condon Dan McDonald
Ruth Ellis Pat Shillito
Will Farris Brian Taylor
Barbara France Kayleen Taylor
Mona Hill Trish Welsh Taylor
Susan Cort Johnson Sam Williams
Diana Jorgenson
Feather River Westwood
Bulletin PinePress
(530) 283-0800 (530) 256-2277
Lassen County Chester Progressive
Times (530) 258-3115
(530) 257-53211
Indian Valley
Portola Reporter Record
(530) 832-4646 (530) 284-7800
MY TURN
ALICIA KNADLER
Indian Valley Editor
aknadler@Numasnews.com
Why did I never hear about God being
edited out of the Pledge of Allegiance until
almost a month after it happened?
When I did hear about it, I was ready to
boycott NBC television, but first I looked to
rind what other companies and channels
were affiliated, and it boggled my mind.
It was my morn who first taught me
about the power of boycotting while
searching for vegetables in the market, but
I wonder if the practice really makes a dif-
ference anymore.
Do you remember the scare from all the
contaminated products imported from Chi-
na?
There were public moves back then to
boycott those imports and buy American.
One young mother even wrote a book
about her efforts to boycott things made
in China. "Under God" was the only part left out
The title of her book is "A year without the first time; the second recitation also
made in China: One family's true life ad- left out "one nation, indivisible."
venture in the global economy." The American Family Association up-
I remember her being interviewed on loaded a copy of the feature and the apolo-
television, and her relief at the year being gy to YouTube, where comments have been
over was tangible -- it was that much of a disabled, though the tallies for likes and
struggle for her to find the products she dislikes were 551-56 respectively, by Mon-
and her family needed, day morning, July lB.
It's still harder than ever to find products It was an on-air apology "of sorts.., that
not made in China, even with all the bad wasn't nearly enough," said Jack Cafferty
press, of the Cafferty File on CNN.
My mind wanders back to the current is- His CNN fellow Wolf Blitzer agreed; one
sue with NBC. doesn't edit either the national anthem or
Maybe I never knew about the deletion of the pledge, he said.
God and indivisibility, because I'm neither Comments about this issue run the
a golfer nor a channel surfer, gamut, from the atheist minority who rant
My husband likes to watch the major about being violated to the religious folks
NBC network for his news, so maybe that's who claim the same.
another reason. "ff you don't like the price, don't buy it,"
I figure they wouldn't want to make a big is what my late mother always said. "I
deal out of something that was so upsetting refuse to pay that much."
to their viewers. OK, but if I refuse to watch NBC, that
They left the words "under God" out Of means I'll have to boycott its owners,
the pledge not once but twice, which include Comcast and General Elec-
The special feature including a recital of tric.
the pledge by young children was created Subsidiaries and other affiliations in-
to "capture the patriotism of our national clude Universal Entertainment, Universal
championship," NBC commentator Dan Studios, the SyFy and Chiller channels,
Hicks said in an apology three hours later, Current TV, Hulu, A&E Television, Bravo,
according to a FoxNews.com report. Telemundo, The Weather Channel, the
He also said it wasn't done to upset any- . .
body..
See Boycott, page 12B