Everybody’s business

Watts up
After an undesired hiatus, Anthony Watts is back on the air.

The weatherman-cum-school board member was asked to return to KHSL-KNVN channels 12 and 24 for weekend night broadcasts starting on June 12.

Watts, who also owns his own high-tech weather-related business, called his new schedule a “good compromise” between his work and family lives. “I’m doing this for me, for fun,” he said. “I’ve been in TV for 25 years [15 in Chico]. It’s an indelible part of who I am.”

Watts was edged off the air in February 2002 during management changes, but, he said, “all those people are gone now.”

The funny thing, Watts said, is, “I still get recognized constantly” by people who don’t realize his weather reports have been only on the radio, not TV, recently.

It’s chai time
Is your chai too sweet? Not spicy enough? Hard to pronounce? Well, Chico resident Sarah Adams has come up with a solution to the first two problems, creating her own brew that she’s wholesaling to various outlets.

Her version of the Indian tea, marketed as Chico Chai, came about after she learned how to make chai at a workshop and concocted a blend of fresh ginger, fair-trade spices, black tea and vanilla that’s “spicier and less sweet” than commercial chais.

“There wasn’t anything like it on the market,” Adams said.

With 80 percent of its ingredients organic, Chico Chai can already be found at Coco Caffe, Café Mondo, Chico Natural Foods and Redwood Forest.

Lyon online
Lyon Books, the locally owned shop at 121 W. Fifth St. in downtown Chico, has launched a Web site that includes the opportunity for customers to place special orders.

The best part, for the consumer, is the convenience of being able to order books without having to track them down through several sources—along with the fact that, if you pick your order up at the store, you’re not charged shipping.

“We’ve wanted to do that as long as we’ve had the bookstore open,” said co-owner Aaron Lyon. He said the service also helps make the small, local bookstore more competitive in an increasingly corporate world.

More wow
This year’s Chico Pow Wow, back after a year’s absence due to lack of funds, promises to be bigger and better than ever.

The event will be held June 19 and 20 at 20th Street Community Park. It’s free, with no drugs or alcohol allowed (there’s a health-education component to the event), and will feature gourd dancing at 11 a.m., a grand entry at noon, native arts and crafts, food and a dance and drum contest.

Native Americans come from around the nation to participate in the local pow wow.