Letters for June 28, 2012

Dressed for the season

Re “New trail ahead” (Cover story, by Jason Cassidy, June 21):

A funny item and a serious one:

When I saw the cover of last week’s issue, it was folded in half, and I could tell it was Jason Cassidy from the tan shorts and black socks. He is the only guy I’ve ever seen playing basketball in those clothes. I have a theory that he puts them on in April and takes them off in October.

The article about the Palermo woman’s mauling [“Out of control,” Newslines, by Katy Noah, June 14] led me to consider a punishment to fit the crime. Dogs are not born vicious, but some people seem to be. If somebody has a vicious dog that attacks a person or another dog, put them down. End of problem.

Jim Dwyer
Chico

Glad he’s going

Re “He’s had ‘a really good run’” (Newslines, by Katy Noah, June 21):

Since when has CN&R been the propaganda venue for the city of Oroville? I thought that was the Oroville Mercury Register’s job.

The city of Oroville has been audited by the California Department of Finance under G. Herald Duffey’s watch. Oroville home and business owners are thrilled to get rid of someone who has destroyed their historic, natural environment as well as the local economy.

Here are the people who will be sorry to see him go: The Oroville City Council, who make lots of money off of Duffey’s low-income projects in administration fees; and the low-income people who live or will be living in them.

At one of the City Council meetings that residents attended to protest the destruction of historic Curran Hospital to replace it with a 50-unit, three-story “affordable housing” project, Duffey answered that it would be a three-story building, but only as tall as a two-story building. Good grief!

Good riddance, G. Harold Duffey!

Karen Steffa
Oroville

Repeal the prohibition

Re “Measure A hangover” (From This Corner, by Robert Speer, June 21):

So the county supervisors have a headache from trying to circumvent or circumscribe the medicinal-cannabis law? Maybe they should get themselves a doctor’s recommendation and smoke some cannabis for it. That should relieve their headache.

The other way to relieve it would be to finally admit that the basic premise of cannabis prohibition is based on lies, and that the solution to the problems caused by prohibition is to repeal the prohibition law!

Why are authority figures (and politicians in particular) so addicted to reefer madness? In a free society, the government has no business dictating what the citizens may eat or drink or smoke.

When one listens to politicians and police still defending the legal fiction that pretends cannabis is a menace to civilization, one hears the echo of the Inquisition. Immune to logic, allergic to reason, blind to factual evidence, contemptuous of the will of the people, they don’t deserve anyone’s sympathy.

Oliver Steinberg
St. Paul, Minn.

Idaho’s answer to homelessness

Re “Natty dread” (Newslines, by Christine G.K. LaPado, June 21):

When I lived in Boise they would round up the homeless folks in the fall, put them on a Greyhound and send them to California. I wonder if there are other states that don’t deal with the problem but simply pass it on.

Judy Kinter
Chico

It is worth worrying about

Re “Feeding on fear” (Healthlines, by Meredith J. Graham, June 21):

Are you kidding me? The flesh-eating bacterium is “not worth worrying about”?

Yes, necrotizing fasciitis is a rare bacterium to get, but, hello, telling people not to be afraid of it? I lost my usually very healthy husband to this horrific bacterium in the most surreal of circumstances!

Three years ago he was scratched by our cat (and he cleaned it out and used anti-bacterial ointment); the next day he had a high fever, and the following day he had what we thought was the “flu,” but that evening his arm where it had been scratched looked like a third-degree burn from his wrist to his elbow.

We took him to the walk-in clinic first, where they gave him a shot for the nausea and then they sent us to the ER, where he was quickly admitted to the ICU with toxic and septic shock, multi-organ failure, and was in a coma within hours. He spent nearly two months in the ICU before he died, leaving me a young widow with three little boys just 4, 5 and 7 (and an 18-year-old daughter by a previous marriage).

Come to find out, it wasn’t the cat’s fault; it was the particular bacterium that was on his skin that day he was scratched (even after taking a shower that morning). We all carry strep and staph bacteria on our skin, and that day he just happened to have the extremely bad form of strep there.

I understand telling people not to be deathly terrified of it, but I have to disagree that it’s “not worth worrying about.” This horrific and surreal bacterium that after 48 hours had my husband in the ICU and dead less than two months later? Yes, necrotizing fasciitis is rare, but people need to be extremely aware of it and know what symptoms to look for (redness and warmth around the wound, blisters and oozing, fever, flu-like symptoms, feeling and looking very sick, and pain that seems extreme for a small injury) and take care of it immediately. Go to the ER before it’s too late.

Not worth worrying about? Ask my three boys who are living their childhood without their daddy. Awareness is key!

Michelle Bergeron
Redding

What Evans would do

Re “Council needs to foster jobs” (Letters, by Bob Evans, June 21) and “Unconstructive criticism” (From This Corner, by Robert Speer, June 21):

In his letter to the editor, Chico City Councilman Bob Evans makes his case that the city is failing to reduce unemployment. In his editorial response, Robert Speer observes that Evans doesn’t say “what he’d do differently.”

Sadly, we all know what Evans—and Councilman Mark Sorensen—would like to “do differently.”

In February of 2011, the council appointed Evans. Within weeks, Evans—along with Sorensen—voted against the Chico General Plan; the plan, which allows for almost one thousand new housing units per year, was not seen as sufficiently pro-growth.

Next, Tea Partiers pushed Measure A, the purpose of which was to move the date of the city elections to June, theoretically disenfranchising environmentally sympathetic university students. Why? So development interests could pack the City Council with pro-development extremists.

Regardless of unemployment rates, it would be more reasonable to elect candidates intent on turning Bidwell Park into a giant gravel quarry, hoping to generate a few more jobs, than it would to surrender Chico to the development industry. In November, please vote out Bob Evans. Please elect candidates who will resist urban sprawl and are committed to an environmentally sustainable future.

Patrick Newman
Chico

There’s more to fracking

Re “Fracking around” (Greenways, by Christine G.K. LaPado, June 21):

As an outdoors lover, a father, a Chico resident, an avid reader of the CN&R and an employee in the local natural-gas industry, I was disappointed with your article.

What makes Dave Garcia an expert? There are many geologists, engineers, etc., in the North State who have a very different outlook than Mr. Garcia’s on fracking, including the Department of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources. Were they contacted? Did anyone try to contact Venoco or any of the other natural-gas companies active in this area?

There are many gas wells in Butte County. Was any fracking done on these wells? Where is this fracking done? When? How do they choose a well to frack? Why is Gasland being used as a reference? As more facts come out, much of Josh Fox’s movie has been found to be inaccurate, misleading and in some cases staged.

I challenge anyone to do their own research on this subject. Drive down Highway 162 or through the Sutter Buttes and you’ll see hundreds of gas wells. You didn’t notice? That’s because the footprint is small, the energy produced is large, and the operations very clean compared to any other energy sector (including so-called “clean” sources).

I challenge anyone to talk to a geologist or petroleum engineer and have them explain fracking. Contact some local “experts” and drilling companies. Contact DOGGR. Take a tour of a drilling operation in California.

Aside from what the article states, can you find one documented case of water contamination caused by the actual fracking process? Name it.

There are solutions out there to help deal with our ever increasing need for energy; fracking is one. Research this for yourself, and I think another picture will develop.

Jon Simmons
Chico

So, what’s normal?

Re “Cedric has two moms” (Cover feature, by Ken Smith, June 14):

“Same sex parenting is becoming the new normal,” reads the subtitle. At first I thought this must be a spoof. On second thought, I questioned use of the term “normal.” On third thought, I remembered how liberal this paper is and how deviated the world is, so I did a little research.

It appears that between 4 percent and 5 percent of the people in the United States acknowledge being “gay.” “Gay” in that study meant a three-year period in their lives with exclusive homosexual activity. How many more of these “gays” are in the closet is a matter for conjecture, perhaps another 4 percent or 5 percent. That is a lot of three-year “gays.”

How many “gays” are there if you count every individual who had one homosexual experience? How many more with sexual kissing and touching? How many if you count those who fantasize about it but do not do it? How many if you count the feminine males with a cabinet full of hair-care products and/or a closet full of designer clothes and the masculine females who play softball and basketball or act masculine at work to get ahead.

Same-sex parenting has actually become the new majority.

Joe Robinson
Chico

Clever cussing

Re “Oh, (expletive deleted) ’em all!” (Guest comment, by Jaime O’Neill, June 21):

All I can add to this, Mr. O’Neill, is: (expletive deleted) YEAH! You hit the nail on the head! Language that shocked my grandparents may be the only language fitting to the political and fiscal situations we Americans find ourselves today. Somehow saying we are in a dire situation doesn’t exactly convey how truly (expletive deleted) we really are.

Toni Carrell
Gridley

I (expletive deleted) love this. So clever! When Bush Junior was president I was (expletive deleted) shocked and horrified by him so many times I was rendered (expletive deleted) speechless.

If I could only have thought to add the expletives, maybe I could have expressed just how embarrassed I was as a citizen of this country with such a terrible president! President Obama is so refreshingly intelligent!

Thanks, Jaime, for this excellent article—and you made me laugh too! I will vote for Obama again! (expletive deleted) “A”!

Tanya Henrich
Greenville

Correction

The California HealthCare Foundation has informed the CN&R that its reported figures for childhood cancer incidence and mortality—as reported in our June 21 Pulse item, “Cancer rates mixed, but mortality drops”—are incorrect. Childhood cancer incidence has increased by 15.6 percent, not 12.3 percent, from 1989 to 2008.

Childhood cancer mortality has decreased by 21.6 percent, not 49.7 percent, over the period from 1989 to 2008. Also the correct number of childhood deaths due to cancer per 100,000 population in 2008 is 2.9 (not the 44.7 that we had previously reported).

CHCF has apologized for the errors and has taken measures to ensure a similar situation does not happen again.—ed.