Family and friends are remembering a well-known northstate coach and educator.

In the gymnasium that bears his name at Shasta Lake School, James "Jim" Teel's life was celebrated Wednesday night.

At times in his life, Teel was a teacher, coach, referee and Vice-Principal of Shasta Lake School.
At that time it was known as Central Valley Intermediate.

Teel also worked at Shasta Dam as a tour guide in the summer.

Jim passed away last week.
A Navy veteran, Teel will be buried at the Veterans Cemetery in Igo.

There is a new ban on marijuana in Red Bluff. It is a very complex and complicated issue. We will start with the new regulations approved by the Red Bluff City Council Tuesday night.

The council actually approved two ordinances on medicinal marijuana. The first, called ordinance 1000, prohibits growing medical marijuana inside city limits. That includes all home grows. That ordinance will not go into effect until 45 days after Tuesday’s approval.

Red Bluff's Police Chief tells us it is because the ordinance will not be official until the council makes a final vote on it, which will be November 17th. After that, there is a 30-day waiting period before officials can start enforcing it.

The second ordinance, called ordinance 1003, prohibits any marijuana collectives, dispensaries, and cooperatives from operating within city limits. That was an emergency ordinance and went into effect immediately following Tuesday night's vote.

If officials do find a dispensary, collective or co-op open in Red Bluff, they can cite the owners and landlords for breaking the law.

Why did the City Council approve the ban? That was the question many people were asking Tuesday night after council members approved the new ordinances.

City Council members we spoke with say that Tuesday night's vote was not personal; they were just doing what the people told them to.

Councilman and Mayor Pro Tem Jeffery Moyer says he respects the California voters who passed Prop 215 13 years ago. He said Tuesday night's ordinance was not about the right to use medicinal marijuana, but was more about whether Red Bluff wanted to be associated with it.

Councilman Moyer says city officials in Red Bluff have been opposed to medical marijuana collectives for a while now, and the new ordinance simply lays out in black and white that medicinal marijuana collectives, dispensaries, co-ops and grows are not permitted in the City.

A Red Bluff City Councilman was put under citizen’s arrest after he allegedly poked a collective owner in the chest during a break in Tuesday night's meeting. It reportedly happened during a heated exchange between Councilman James Byrne, and the founder of Tehama Herbal Collective in Corning: Ken Prather.

Prather says the incident happened during a break in the meeting in a crowded hallway. He says he could not believe the City Councilman's behavior. Prather says Byrne was dozing off while he was addressing the council. Prather then told the councilman to wake up.

According to Prather, he says he tried to apologize to Byrne during the break. But he says the city councilman got in his face and started poking his finger into Prather's chest and yelling expletives.

At the end of the meeting, Byrne was issued a citation for misdemeanor battery. We tried to contact the councilman several times to get his side of the story, but his wife told us they had no comment. The case will be forwarded to the District Attorney's office for review.

It took them into the wee hours of Wednesday morning and several decades, but lawmakers have finally agreed on a bill to help fix the State water problem. Governor Schwarzenegger plans to sign it, calling it an historic achievement.

The proverbial leaky pipe that is the State's current water system may be getting a much needed and expensive repair.

The $11 billion bond was passed in the Senate Wednesday morning. It includes five separate bills and aims to balance the growing demand for water, while preserving the environment.

The bill includes $3 billion to build two dams in northern California, and $2 billion in ecosystem restoration in the Delta. It also includes more groundwater monitoring and the creation of a seven-member Delta oversight council to develop a long range management plan, including a canal.

Some are praising the bill, but others say it does not do enough to protect the Northstate's water rights. Assemblyman Dan Logue said, “A lot of that money goes towards peripheral canal approval. That's a major problem, because once the peripheral canal is built, the south can get as much water from the north as they'll ever want to get, and that's the thing we need to protect.”

There is also a conservation component that will require urban areas to reduce water use by 20% by 2020.

The bill is not a done deal. The bond would still have to be approved by voters a year from now.

Redding Mayor Rick Bosetti has missed the last three City Council meetings, and there have been some pretty controversial issues, like Redding's proposed marijuana ordinance. He would be the deciding vote on a deadlocked council.

Mayor Bosetti was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer and underwent surgery this week. The Mayor is recovering, and should be back at the next council meeting on November 17th.

A Butte County man who caused a four-hour stand off in May will spend 12 years in prison for his crimes. 22-year old Angelo Atencio Jr. was sentenced Wednesday.

He was found guilty by a jury in August for stealing guns from his girlfriend's parents. Deputies tracked Atencio down in Thermolito, where he barricaded himself in a house for four hours, until he came out peacefully.

His sentence was doubled since this was his second strike, according to California's three-strike law.

With all precincts reporting for the City Council race in the City of Shasta Lake, it looks like there will be some new faces.

Out of the four candidates running, Ron Dixon and Dolores Lucero came out just slightly on top.
They apparently beat out incumbents Bonnie Hurlhey and current Mayor Gracious Palmer.

Just over 2,100 voters participated according to the Shasta County Clerk.

Kent Dagg, The CEO of the Shasta Builders’ Exchange spoke to Redding’s City Council Tuesday night, saying he has the answers to the city’s cash crunch. He’s calling his plan “Redding’s Radical 10 in 10,” which means 10 extreme changes to the city’s economic plan for 2010. He told the council he’s created a committee, which is made up of local business leaders, to develop a specific list of ideas to reform Redding’s economic plan. The council did not make any decisions on Dagg’s presentation Tuesday night. Dagg said he plans to present the group’s ideas at a council meeting about a month from Tuesday’s meeting. This is a private group, it is not formed by the city, so it’s up to the council whether they’ll vote on Dagg’s recommendations.

Off road vehicle riders say the Shasta-Trinity National Forest is trying to keep them off the roads. Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) riders say the Forest Service is going down the wrong path when it comes to off-road use in the 2.1 million acre forest.

Before a Forest Service presentation in front of Shasta County Supervisors, OHV riders said the Forest Service draft report puts up a roadblock to access some of their favorite roads and closes some of those roads altogether.

The Forest Service classifies roads by management level: M-l one is closed.
M-l two is suitable for high clearance, such as four-wheel drive vehicles. M-l three is a single lane gravel road, usuable by two-wheel drive vehicles. M-l four is a two-lane gravel road.

Forest Supervisor Sharon Heywood says there are a couple of concerns: off-road riders tearing up environmentally sensitive land, and using level three roads, mixing OHV's and full-sized vehicles or logging trucks.

They say keeping OHV riders off level three roads keeps them from getting to their favorite trails. Heywood says she is still taking public comment on the draft statement, and she will make a final decision in late January or early February.

More information has come out about the death of a young man from eastern Shasta County. 23-year old Travis Butler was found Sunday afternoon at a home in Round Mountain.

According to the Shasta County Sheriff’s Department incident report, Butler may have been drinking the night before he died.

An autopsy has been performed, but the coroner could not determine a cause of death. Results from the toxicology report are still pending.

Butte College is going even more solar. The school will have access to almost $17 million in Federal stimulus bonds to complete the next phase of its solar project.

If approved by the Board of Directors, the bonds would be tax credits that would help pay for the project.

When complete, the solar array would provide 95% of the college's electricity.

A long-awaited bike route in Chico is nearing completion. In fact, you can already ride on the path through Annie's Glen.

However, part of the path will be closed later in November, while the walls and ceiling of a tunnel are covered with tiles. The path, which connects downtown Chico to lower Bidwell Park, was built at a cost of just over $750,000.

A Redding school has chosen to bring its students indoors as a precautionary move while police look for a wanted man. Monarch Learning Center brought the children in after talking to the Redding Police Department about a wanted subject.

School officials say classes will run as normal, but will keep the students indoors as long as police are still searching for the wanted man.

It was not a mandatory lockdown. It was more of a precautionary move for the students' safety. Police were not able to provide a description of the man they were searching for.

Modoc County officials are being accused of breaking the law. No one has been accused of stealing anything or using public money for personal gain, but KRCR News Channel 7 has learned officials may have taken a short term loan from the school district to pay some county bills, and that is against the law.

It all comes down to what might be considered improper accounting. In addition to taking care of its own money, the Modoc County treasury acts as a bank of sorts for the county's school district.

Much like your bank cannot spend your money on its bills, the county cannot spend school district money on the county's bills. It is against the law. School officials say that is exactly what happened.

On paper, Modoc County has more than $11 million at its fingertips, but there is a catch. Nearly all of its money, 94% of it, is funding for schools and special districts.

As we mentioned, by law, that money cannot be used for anything else. If you do the math, that leaves just over $700,000 to fund hundreds of county departments and pay its employees.

We learned county officials found themselves with a cash flow problem and apparently began using funds designated for the schools to cover other costs. All in all, school officials say the county borrowed some $300,000.

All the money is now back where it belongs. But while school district officials and others are saying it definitely happened, others have decided to take a less direct approach to the questions we have posed about money management.

Modoc County Superintendent Gary Jones is not happy. He says $300,000 of school money was used like an interest-free short term loan by the county. Jones says that school officials did not even find out about it until a Board of Supervisors meeting in June.

Patricia Cantrall, the Chairman of the Board, did not know how the error occurred, but says that there is nothing that can be done now. All of the money is back in its rightful place.

We could not get a hold of the county Auditor, so we went to see the Treasurer instead. Cheryl Knock declined to comment and directed us to the County's Chief Administrative Officer Mark Charlton.

He told us the county's treasury was used a lot more like a communal piggy bank than separate, protected accounts. He says that not everyone was watching the funds that they were dipping into. He also said he was not sure if they dipped into the school’s funds, but they did get close.

To make sure schools are never impacted by the county's budget problems, officials have moved all school funds to a separate account. The school district has been assured from the Board of Supervisors, the Treasurer, and the CAO that school funds will not be tapped into.

Under this plan, all school money should be separate from county money by June of 2010.

We asked, and no one in Modoc County has been disciplined over this alleged misuse of restricted funding.

As the City of Red Bluff considers a permanent ban on marijuana collectives and dispensaries, along with the possibility of home grows, they are not alone in the State of California.

Cities and counties across the state are approaching the subject in different ways. For an article that outlines the possible future of marijuana in California click here.

In Los Angeles County, a judge recently sided with collective operators after the county attempted to shut down hundreds of the stores. To view an article on that situation, click here.

The following is a list of bills that are currently being considered:

• Assembly Bill 390: Introduced in February by Assemblyman Tom Ammiano, D-San Francisco, it would legalize marijuana cultivation, sales, possession and use by people 21 and older, regulating it somewhat like alcohol. A license to grow for sale would cost $5,000 to start and then $2,500 to renew each year, and a $50-per-ounce tax would be placed on retail sales. Ammiano said he hopes this would bring upward of $1.4 billion per year for drug abuse prevention efforts. No taxation would occur unless the federal marijuana ban is lifted; otherwise, the bill's only effect would be legalization of personal cultivation and use. Ammiano held the bill in committee this year, and is now rewriting it to put it forth again in January.
• The Regulate, Control and Tax Cannabis Act of 2010: Proposed by Oakland marijuana activists Richard Lee and Jeff Jones, it would legalize personal possession of up to an ounce of cannabis and up to 25 square feet of cultivation per home. It also would give local governments the option of whether to permit, regulate and tax commercial sales, a system akin to show alcohol is or isn't sold in "wet" and "dry" counties in some states. This seems to be the measure to watch; the proponents say their petition drive is surging, and its endorsements include that of Oakland mayoral candidate and former state Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata. For details, go to www.taxcannabis2010.org.
• The Tax, Regulate and Control Cannabis Act of 2010: Advanced by proponents Joe Rogoway, Omar Figueroa and James Clark, all of San Francisco, it would legalize personal cultivation and use without limits, but would require -- not just allow -- state and local governments to regulate and tax commercial marijuana cultivation and sales. Tax revenues would have to be spent on education, health care, environmental programs, public works and state parks. For details, go to www.californiacannabisinitiative.org.
• The Common Sense Act of 2010: Advanced by proponent John Donohue, of Long Beach, it would require the Legislature to adopt laws regulating and taxing marijuana within one year, but would let local governments choose whether to also tax marijuana's cultivation, sale, and use. For details, go to www.grasstax.org.

Shasta County has scheduled several free H1N1 swine flu vaccine clinics for the next two Saturdays, according to a press release from Shasta County Health and Human Services sent Tuesday morning.

Vaccines in shot and nasal spray form will be available from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. for children six months to eighteen years old on Saturday November 7 at Enterprise High School, West Valley High School and Burney High School.

They'll be available for preschool students only at Monte Vista School, also on Saturday November 7 from 10 to 4.

Finally, on Saturday November 14 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., vaccines will be available for children six months to eighteen years old at Shasta High School, Central Valley High School and Anderson High School.

Children nine years old and younger will need a second dose of the vaccine three to four weeks after receiving the first dose.

An apparent family feud has an Oroville woman hospitalized with a stab wound to her arm.
It happened at a home on Laverne Lane in Happy Valley just before eight on Monday night.

Shasta County Sheriff's Deputies say the victim is 41 year old Rebecca Howdy.
They say she had been visiting her family since Halloween.

An argument with 46 year old Ralph Johnson, who lives nearby, led to him allegedly stab Howdy.
It's not known how bad her wound is.

Deputies say the Howdy and Johnson families have been having an on-going dispute for years.
They don't think Rebecca Howdy and Ralph Johnson actually knew each other.
Johnson is in jail charged with assault with a deadly weapon.

Tensions are high in the City of Red Bluff. A City Council meeting could bring an overall ban on medical marijuana. This is not a moratorium on collectives.

The City of Red Bluff is trying to pass a zoning ordinance that will ban collectives and cooperatives, as well as outlaw growing any medical marijuana.

This does not sit well with the Blue Toad Collective off of Main Street in Red Bluff. They opened up shop just last month and have around 30 patients.

They say California's Compassionate Use Act, or Prop 215, gives them the right to be in Tehama County, and overrules any regulations City officials could implement.

The Red Bluff Chief of Police says some collectives are using Prop 215 to break the law by calling themselves a nonprofit, while turning a profit.

If it passes Tuesday night, collectives and cooperatives could be shut down, and growing medical marijuana will no longer be allowed inside city limits.

The Santa Rosa man who fell up to 2,000 feet while climbing Mount Shasta is recovering at home. Julian Lopez and a friend started climbing Mount Shasta just before sunset on Saturday.

At about 10 at night, deputies say Lopez slipped and fell down the mountain. His helmet shattered and he said that he could not move his legs.

His cell phone lost power after making a few calls, so the men camped out for the night. He was air lifted Sunday to Mercy Medical Center, where he was treated and released.

Law enforcement in Chico anticipated a busy Halloween this weekend, and they were not disappointed.

Between Thursday and Sunday, over 140 people were arrested, including 59 on Halloween night. More than 40 people were also arrested for public intoxication.

Police say things got violent in the north campus area, with a drive by shooting on Rancheria drive. That victim is expected to recover.

There was also a non-life threatening stabbing on West Second Street that is believed to be gang-related.

Children in Butte County will soon have the chance to be vaccinated against swine flu at school.

During the month of November, the Public Health Department will hold 14 vaccination clinics in each of Butte County's school districts, including charter and private schools.

Over 5,500 doses of the nasal spray vaccine will be available. There will be some doses of the shot available for those students who cannot receive the nasal spray. For more information about the H1N1 vaccine clinics, contact your school district.

Unions representing registered nurses working at Mercy Medical Center and 32 other facilities in California and Nevada have reached a contract agreement with employer Catholic Healthcare West, according to a union press release.

The Catholic Nurses Association and National Nurses Organizing Commitee represent some 13,000 registered nurses. They threatened a strike last month over working conditions related to the spread of the H1N1 Swine Flu pandemic, but called it off to continue negotiations.

According to the unions, the contract resolves the problem by creating an emergency pandemic task force that mobilizes when a disease is declared a pandemic by the Centers for Disease Control.

It will also require the hospitals to follow all relevant local, state and federal laws, rules and regulations; provide nurses with protective equipment like resperatory masks; and train nurses about any infectious disease pandemic to which they could be exposed.

We have not yet reached Catholic Healthcare West for comment.

Veteran's Day is right around the corner. The Shasta Lake Lions are getting ready, armed with cleaners and elbow grease. Volunteers spruced up the Veterans Memorial on Shasta Dam Boulevard just in time for a parade on Saturday, November 7.
The event kicks off with a pancake breakfast from 6 to 10 a.m. at the City of Shasta Lake fire hall. Dozens of people will carry a 30- by 60-foot American flag about 1.5 miles down Shasta Dam Boulevard. Then, a massive military cargo plan called a C 17 will fly over the city at about 10:10 a.m.
"Everybody here pulls together," said Elmer Ellsworth, president of the Shasta Lake Lions. "It's the largest in the state north of Fresno, second largest in California."
The Lions Club is looking for nearly four dozen people to carry the big flag during the parade.
If you're interested, you can show up for a trial run tomorrow at Central Valley High's football field at 5pm on Monday.

Open burn season runs from Sunday, to the end of the month. So before you break out the lighter, remember to pick up a permit first. You can buy one online, or over the phone by calling the Redding Fire Department. You can also buy them the good old-fashioned way, by stopping at the permit center in city hall. The permits cost $8. If you don't jump on the opportunity this month, you can't burn in the City of Redding until April.

A Santa Rosa man is recovering at Mercy Medical Center after he fell as far as two thousand feet, while climbing Mount Shasta. That's nearly a half a mile. He was air lifted off the mountain this morning. Julian Lopez and a buddy set up camp at Lake Helen, and started climbing Mount Shasta, just before sunset last night. At about 10pm, deputies say Lopez slipped and fell down the mountain. His helmet shattered and he couldn't move his legs. His cell phone lost power after making a few calls, so the men camped out for the night. He's being treated for serious injuries.