Downstroke

The green machine: Chico State University released a sustainability assessment last week that measures the school’s performance in categories such as energy use, materials and waste and transportation.

“This really is just a snapshot of the university in 2005,” said Professor Mark Stemen at a press conference held on April 22.

The university brought in Good Company, an assessment firm out of Oregon, to help with the year-long project. What separated the project from other such assessments was the fact that students from Stemen’s Environmental Issues classes conducted the research.

More questions than answers: An investigation into funds possibly missing from Chico Junior High School is continuing as the Chico Police Department awaits an outside audit solicited by the Chico Unified School District.

Lt. Tim Voris said the district saw discrepancies in accounting, and police hope to determine whether there was a simple bookkeeping error or if a crime was committed. If it’s the latter, he said, the investigation could lead to interviews and search warrants. “With embezzlements the investigations take so long.”

Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey said the CUSD’s attorney had contacted him about the matter, and it was he who suggested the district contact Chico PD.

Ramsey said that, to his understanding, at least $10,000 seems to be missing, but there wasn’t enough information to warrant filing charges against anyone.

District officials wouldn’t comment on the investigation.

Voris said, “I think they have a basic idea about what’s going on.”

No law for Kristie: In a move that state Sen. Sam Aanestad, R-Grass Valley, said “broke my heart,” the Senate Committee on Public Safety has failed to pass SB 718, also known as Kristie’s Law.

Aanestad had been carrying the bill in honor of Kristina Priano, who died in January, 2002, at age 15, six days after her family’s vehicle was struck by that of a teenage driver being chased by police. The female driver, also 15, had taken her mother’s car without permission, and police estimated they chased her through the Vecino neighborhood at speeds reaching 35 miles per hour at most.

The April 20 vote could be reconsidered next week—but before the same committee that just shot it down.

“My bill would have actually saved lives,” stated a press release issued by Aanestad, who has vowed to reintroduce the legislation next year. He sought to create a “pursuit policy” limiting how and when police can chase drivers suspected of a crime. “Other innocent victims will continue to die until we reduce the number of pursuits.”

The bill had already been watered down to the point that it nearly mimicked existing law: Police could chase a suspect by car, but only if they had reasonable suspicion that the other driver had committed a felony.

Priano’s mother, Candy, stated in the same press release, “No one should have to suffer the fate that I have gone through or my family has gone through. I just wish committee members could understand that.”