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CHICO’S FREE NEWS & ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY VOLUME 43, ISSUE 12 THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2019 WWW.NEWSREVIEW.COM

LLS, O R Y T RUMP B D E AND T L I R E P XERS M I S I A Y O C H A , R ORISTS C O M DE CY THE W O H PIRA S N CO

BY DANIEL WALTERS PAGE

8 DISTRICTS A GO

10 GENERATOR LIFE

20 DRAGON SLAYER

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FOR DENTURES WITH EXTRACTIONS ONLY

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N o v em b er 14, 20 1 9

CN&R

INSIDE

Vol. 43, Issue 12 • November 14, 2019 OPINION

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Editorial . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Guest Comment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Second & Flume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 Letters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 This Modern World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Streetalk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

NEWSLINES

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Downstroke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Sifter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

HEALTHLINES

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Weekly Dose. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

GREENWAYS

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Eco Event . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

EVERYBODY’S BUSINESS

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15 Minutes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 The Goods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

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Our Mission: To publish great newspapers that are successful and enduring. To create a quality work environment that encourages employees to grow professionally while respecting personal welfare.

To have a positive impact on our communities and make them better places to live.

Editor Melissa Daugherty Managing Editor Meredith J. Cooper Arts Editor Jason Cassidy Staff Writers Andre Byik, Ashiah Scharaga Calendar Editor Neesa Sonoquie Contributors Robin Bacior, Alastair Bland, Michelle Camy, Vic Cantu, Josh Cozine, Nate Daly, Charles Finlay, Bob Grimm, Juan-Carlos Selznick, Ken Smith, Robert Speer, Wendy Stewart, Evan Tuchinsky, Carey Wilson Managing Art Director Tina Flynn Creative Services Manager Elisabeth Bayard-Arthur Ad Designers Naisi Thomas, Cathy Arnold Publications Designers Katelynn Mitrano, Nikki Exerjian Director of Sales and Advertising Jamie DeGarmo Advertising Services Coordinator Ruth Alderson Senior Advertising Consultant Brian Corbit Advertising Consultants Adam Lew, Jordon Vernau Office Assistant Jennifer Osa Distribution Director Greg Erwin Distribution Manager Matt Daugherty Distribution Staff Ken Gates, Vickie Haselton, Jennifer Jenkins, Bob Meads, Larry Smith, Courtney Tilton, Placido Torres, Bill Unger, Richard Utter, Jim Williams, David Wyles

COVER STORY

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ARTS & CULTURE

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Arts feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 This Week . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Fine Arts listings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Scene . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 Nightlife . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 Reel World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Chow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Arts DEVO . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Brezsny’s Astrology . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

REAL ESTATE

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CLASSIFIEDS

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ON THE COVER: ILLUSTRATION BY JON MERRELL

President/CEO Jeff vonKaenel Director of Nuts & Bolts Deborah Redmond Director of People & Culture David Stogner Director of Dollars & Sense Debbie Mantoan Nuts & Bolts Ninja Norma Huerta Payroll/AP Wizard Miranda Hansen Developer John Bisignano System Support Specialist Kalin Jenkins N&R Publications Editor Debbie Arrington N&R Publications Associate Editor Derek McDow N&R Publications Writers Allen Pierleoni, Thea Rood, Anne Stokes N&R Publications Editorial Assistant Nisa Smith Marketing & Publications Lead Consultant Elizabeth Morabito Marketing & Publications Consultants Julia Ballantyne, Greta Beekhuis, Chris Cohen, Joseph Engle, Laura Golino, Sherri Heller, Rod Malloy, Celeste Worden Art of Information Director Serene Lusano 353 E. Second St., Chico, CA 95928 Phone (530) 894-2300 Fax (530) 892-1111 Website newsreview.com Got a News Tip? (530) 894-2300, ext 2224 or chiconewstips@newsreview.com Calendar Events cnrcalendar@newsreview.com Calendar Questions (530) 894-2300, ext. 2243 Want to Advertise? Fax (530) 892-1111 or cnradinfo@newsreview.com Classifieds (530) 894-2300, press 2 or classifieds@newsreview.com Job Opportunities jobs@newsreview.com Want to Subscribe to CN&R? chisubs@newsreview.com Editorial Policies: Opinions expressed in CN&R are those of the authors and not of Chico Community Publishing, Inc. Contact the editor for permission to reprint articles, cartoons, or other portions of the paper.

CN&R is not responsible for unsolicited manuscripts or review materials.

Email letters to cnrletters@newsreview.com. All letters received become the property of the publisher. We reserve the right to print letters in condensed form and to edit them for libel.

Advertising Policies: All advertising is subject to the newspaper’s Standards of Acceptance. The advertiser and not the newspaper assumes the responsibility for the truthful content of their advertising message.

CN&R is printed at PressWorks Ink on recycled newsprint. Circulation of CN&R is verified by the Circulation Verification Council. CN&R is a member of Chico Chamber of Commerce, Oroville Chamber of Commerce, Downtown Chico Business Association, CNPA, AAN and AWN.

NOVEMBER 14, 2019

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OPINION

Send guest comments, 340 words maximum, to gc@newsreview.com or to 353 e. Second St., Chico, CA 95928. Please include photo & short bio.

EDITORIAL

Committed to recovery Last week, print and TV reporters from around the

nation parachuted into Butte County for the oneyear anniversary of the Camp Fire. It was a bit of media circus. Readers can catch a glimpse of the scene in CN&R reporter Andre Byik’s photo of the groundbreaking at the Hope Plaza in Paradise (see page 10).

Both Byik and reporter Ashiah Scharaga got up close and personal with some of those out-of-towners.

As Byik tells it, there were so many journalists front and center—just out of frame of that aforementioned photo—that Paradisians and other locals in attendance had a difficult time getting a clear view of the ceremony.

Scharaga witnessed a similar scene during the nearby Ridge Key Phoenix unveiling ceremony.

On the one hand, we were happy to see those folks in town. Their coverage brings attention to an area still struggling from the aftereffects of the disaster. On the other, in most cases, we know the anniversary is the conclusion to their reporting on the Camp Fire.

For the CN&R and other local media, there’s virtually no end in sight.

This week, for example, Byik reports on how foothills residents are struggling with repeated power outages (see page 10). PG&E’s so-called public safety power shutoff events—essentially an effort to avert

another Camp Fire-like scenario by turning off power in vulnerable areas on red-flag days—is the utility’s go-to plan for the next decade as it works to shore up infrastructure.

Days-long shut-offs are untenable in the long-term, especially for those who rely on electricity to run medical equipment and wells, so folks are increasingly turning to generators for a backup supply. The rub: The permitting from the county is prohibitively expensive.

This is but one of the important stories we’ll be working on in the weeks, months and likely years ahead. We want our readers to know that we’re committed to being part of the recovery.

Speaking of which, one of the stories that has stuck with us is the Magalia Community Church’s ongoing aid to Camp Fire survivors (see our Nov. 7 special issue). The house of worship is a de facto relief center, providing everything from food to shelter for those burned out or economically vulnerable as a result of the disaster. The operation relies on donations. Through the holidays, we’re making the CN&R a drop-off center for unopened, nonperishable food—canned and dry goods.

Donations will be taken during business hours weekdays at our office at Second and Flume streets.

Thanks, in advance, for contributions that will help our neighbors. Ω

GUEST COMMENT

Yes, in my backyard Pexperience.

Being an avid cyclist, I knew of an apartment icking the place you will live is an exciting

complex bordered by Little Chico Creek and the bicycle path that runs from Highway 99 to Bruce Road. The apartment I chose also has a clear view—through undeveloped fields—of the foothills.

As I sit at my desk in my den working on the computer or organizing my stamp collection, I can look out to a sea of green blending to a blue sky with the mountains serving as background.

Some months back, when I by received notification of a hearing by Bruce McLean the Chico Planning Commission to The author is a rezone that empty 4.9-acre field from Chico resident. secondary open space to high-density residential, my blood pressure rose.

As I read the proposed changes, I knew I had to attend the commission’s meeting to voice my opinion.

And voice my opinion I did. I explained to the

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commissioners everything I’ve enjoyed about my idyllic, almost rural surroundings, and how I had picked this apartment intentionally but that—following my conscience—I had to request that they go ahead and authorize the rezone.

You see, the proposed high-density residential project is a three-story, 101-unit complex for low/extremely low-income people. We all know that we have a serious affordable housing shortage in our community.

My personal considerations had to be trumped by the absolute need for affordable, low-income housing.

So, I said, “Yes, in my backyard”—making me a YIMBY. I told members of the Chico City Council the same thing when they authorized the Planning Commission’s recommendations.

I also said that to the commission when its members were considering the heartless appeal of the Chico Housing Action Team’s Simplicity Village.

Sadly, the city now faces a lawsuit over that aforementioned plan to house homeless senior citizens. The world needs more YIMBYs when it comes to affordable housing development.

Please listen to your conscience, fellow Chicoans. Ω

SECOND & FLUME

by Melissa Daugherty m e l i s s a d @ n e w s r e v i e w. c o m

An easy out Opportune timing. That’s what recent litigation threats against the city of Chico gave to a local conservative group attempting to recall two elected leaders.

In case you missed it, the folks looking to boot Mayor Randall Stone and Councilman Karl Ory, aka the Recall Councilmen Stone & Ory group, announced this week that they were ending that effort.

Their catalyst: an expected switch to district-based elections. At least that’s what they said in a press release. See Ashiah Scharaga’s report on the major election switch-up on page 8.

But back to the Stone and Ory detractors.

I can’t imagine anyone is surprised by their news. Putting the recall on the ballot would have required the group to gather nearly 7,600 signatures—15 percent of Chico’s registered voters—in 160 days. That’s a tall order, especially for those new to taking an active role in local politics. It always was a long shot.

No word from the group on exactly how many John Hancocks were collected prior to throwing in the towel. We asked. The response: crickets.

My guess is that, absent signatures and with the Nov. 26 deadline looming, the group realized that the talk of districting provided an easy out and a way to save face. Look, they made the announcement before the council voted on districts.

Additional creative writing in that aforementioned press release is the part that mentions how one of the other considerations for dropping the recall is “the additional expense a special election would already have on city expenditures.”

I’m not buying that narrative either.

The financial burden a special election would place on the city was clear from the get-go. To wit, some of the first words out of Ory’s mouth when he was served recall paperwork was telling the petitioner how costly it would be to put it on the ballot—enough funds to pay for a police officer, he said.

That context ought to resonate with a group whose main gripe about the liberals ostensibly is that they don’t treat public safety as a priority. This fiscal year’s budget indicates otherwise. The Chico Police Department got a bump of more than $1 million since the lefties took control. And indeed, 48 percent of the entire general fund is allocated to that department alone. Add the Fire Department and we’re talking about nearly 72 percent of the city’s operating expenses going to emergency operations.

Despite the outcome of the recall effort, there are some lessons for both sides of the ideological divide.

First, for the newbies: Now you know why the terms rough and tumble are used in politics. Instead of wasting time and energy attempting to dethrone duly elected representatives, try focusing on finding and supporting candidates you believe have our city’s best interests at heart.

Second, for the lefties: Irrespective of whether your critics are partisans, it says something when political neophytes band together to boot you. Consider yourselves lucky this effort wasn’t organized by people with experience. And, you know, show some humility.

Third, for the people who put money behind the recall: Clearly you have expendable cash. Congratulations! How about spending it on any one of the many actual worthy causes in this town?

LETTERS

Send email to cnrletters@newsreview.com

About that firestorm Re “Camp Fire revisited” (Cover story, Nov. 7): On Nov. 1, 2018, Dave Garcia and I had a meeting with Supervisor Doug Teeter in his office. This was not the first time I discussed with Doug the possibility of a winddriven firestorm killing thousands in Paradise. If the winds had been even higher seven days later, thousands could have perished.

I made a few suggestions of things that should be done to help save lives in a firestorm. Doug was not interested and acted like he could not wait for us to leave.

Doug failed to take action against the inevitable firestorm that would consume Paradise.

He does not deserve to be a Butte County supervisor. Doug has been fighting another supervisor for questioning a poorly written contract that could someday result in Paradise losing its water rights.

Doug has also used union members to campaign for this poorly written contract when he does not support

unions or the reality of climate change.

Please vote for Henry Schleiger for District 5 supervisor. Schleiger is a wildfire professional, Butte County native and lives in Magalia.

John Scott Butte Valley

‘Nothing but NIMBY’ When Simplicity Village first came forward, Rob Berry objected, saying that forcing the elderly to use centrally located bathrooms was cruel, as if that was somehow worse than having no access to bathrooms, whilst sleeping outside every night. When that didn’t gain traction, he began casting about for zoning issues.

The owner of Payless Building Supply, Frank Solinsky, in the past has supported community initiatives but now he and Berry are bringing suit to stop this project.

The manager of Payless attended a recent City Council meeting.

When it was her turn to speak, she talked about how Payless is open

early and late, how the noise will bother people living nearby, etc.

Nothing but NIMBY. It’s time to get serious and vote with our dollars. No one should be able to make a profit in our community while actively contributing to the suffering of others. Boycott Payless.

Angela McLaughlin Chico

Editor’s note: For more on this subject, see Downstroke, page 8.

Hear, hear, CN&R Re “Stuntman Doug LaMalfa insults his constituents” (Editorial, Oct. 31): Thank you to the person who wrote the editorial about the despicable behavior of Rep. Doug LaMalfa in Washington. Thanks to Lynn Elliott for taking the time to write in as well.

LaMalfa shamed not only everyone in District 1 with his juvenile and treasonous behavior, but he also made a spectacle of himself in front LETTERS c o n t i n u e d

o n pa g e 6

Department of Toxic Substance Control

November 2019

Public Notice The mission of DTSC is to protect California’s people and environment from harmful effects of toxic substances by restoring contaminated resources, enforcing hazardous waste laws, reducing hazardous waste generation, and encouraging the manufacture of chemically safer products.

NOTICE OF PERMIT RENEWAL FOR ASBURY ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES II On August 30, 2019, the Department of Toxic Substance Control (DTSC) received a hazardous waste permit renewal application from Asbury Environmental Services II, doing business as World Oil Environmental Services (Facility) at 1618 W. 5th Street in Chico, California 95928, EPA ID. No. CAD980694103. DTSC is reviewing the application to ensure Facility’s operations continue to meet the technical and regulatory requirements to protect human health and the environment.

This Facility stores and transfers hazardous waste, used oil, oily waste, antifreeze and oily water received from off-site generators. The Facility has a Tank Storage, a Loading/Unloading Area and a Drum Storage Area with a capacity of 48,055 gallons. They are proposing to add additional capacity of 8,000 gallons.

The current permit, which expires on March 2, 2020, will remain effective until there is a final decision on the renewal application. DTSC may request additional information from the Facility before its final decision. If the application is determined to be technically complete, DTSC will then prepare a draft permit decision document for public review and comment. If DTSC renews the Permit, the Facility could continue to store/transfer hazardous waste for the next ten years.

You may review or copy the Permit Renewal application and other supporting documents at the following locations:

Chico Public Library, 1108 Sherman Avenue, Chico, California 95926; (530) 891-2761 DTSC File Room, 8800 Cal Center Drive, Sacramento, California 95826; (916) 255-3758 You may also view this notice and project related documents at the following DTSC website: https://www.envirostor.dtsc.ca.gov/public/ hwmp_profile_report.asp?global_id= CAD980694103 If you have any questions regarding this Notice, please contact: Mr.Elly Daoud Project Manager 916-255-3573 Elly.Daoud@dtsc.ca.gov Kerry Rasmussen Public Participation Specialist 916-255-3650, 866-495-5651 Kerry.Rasmussen@dtsc.ca.gov For media questions: Gamaliel Ortiz, Public Information Officer (916) 327-4383 Gamaliel.Ortiz@dtsc.ca.gov

HEARING IMPAIRED INDIVIDUALS may use the California Relay Service at 1-800-855-7100 or 711 (TTY). november 14, 2019

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LETTERS c o n t i n u e d f r o m pa g e 5 of the whole country and the rest of the world, which is watching us so closely now. We are not proud of him. He and all the other thugs should be charged with a crime for intimidating a witness (which amounts to a threat) and breaking into a secure location where they partied (really?!) for five hours.

Is this the way responsible elected officials should proudly act now? I can’t help but wonder what LaMalfa hopes to get from Trump for this behavior. A promotion to a cushy cabinet position? Let’s vote him out in 2020!

Mary Chaffee Corning

Remembering Sandra Sandra O’Neill died on Oct. 30, at 9:25 a.m., peacefully in her Chico, Ca., home.

She was the faithful life companion and wife to husband David O’Neill for 60 years.

Sandra was a server and protector of humankind in need. A teacher in special needs education, an advocate for justice for the homeless and the unfairly disenfranchised people of Palestine, active in the effort to increase true justice in the interaction of the police and all citizens, contributed at numerous activist and public meetings, and was active in peace and justice efforts for many long years.

She raised three sons who have become kind men in their continuing life interplay.

At her bedside as she departed were her loving family members.

She will be sorely missed and never forgotten.

—Friends and supporters of Sandra

Lymphedema support Re “Under pressure” (Healthlines,

by Carmen Heredia Rodriguez, Oct. 31): As a lymphedema patient and advocate for health care and rare diseases, I thought that CN&R should know about the vibrant patient community and many resources available right here in Chico.

Enloe Medical Center has a full Lymphedema Clinic, including certified physical and occupational therapists. Anne Anderson, Enloe’s lead lymphedema therapist, holds certification by the Lymphology Association of North America and has been involved with the California State Team, 6

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Lymphedema Treatment Act. Through community education, Enloe offers twice weekly Healthy Steps classes on Monday evenings and Wednesday afternoons. Healthy Steps is based on the Lebed Method to movement, exercise, and therapy for patients with cancer, lymphedema and other issues.

As constituents of California District 1 in the U.S. Congress, we may be grateful for the co-sponsorship of the Lymphedema Treatment Act by both Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris and Congressman Doug LaMalfa. Lymphedema is a disease, not a partisan issue. With more than 400 bipartisan, bicameral co-sponsors, this legislation is now the No. 1 co-sponsored health care bill before Congress.

Patricia Egan Chico

On missing Santa We are dismayed that, once again, the Downtown Chico Business Association is making the traditional downtown Chico tree lighting problematic.

Last year, it was hours earlier than customary. We arrived about 6 p.m. to find it was all over. Many other parents with small children were arriving around the same time, even more disappointed than we were to find no promised Santa or Christmas tree lighting for their kids. This year, it’s two hours later than customary, much too late for young children to stay up.

At this rate, they are in the process of ruining a longtime popular event that has brought shoppers downtown for the start of the holiday shopping season rather than just the pre-Thanksgiving preview.

I hope the DCBA will reconsider this ill-advised plan before it is too late to save a much loved community tradition.

Margo and Arthur Lemner Chico

Corruption exposed “Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive.”

Most of us, by the time we reach Donald Trump’s age, have learned that life gets too complicated when we practice deception. With good parenting, we learn early that it’s not OK to shoplift a small item or to otherwise engage in dishonesty.

Apparently that lesson was never

learned by our current president.

From the beginning of his term in office, when caught in a lie, he has obfuscated or “doubled down” on his prevarication and gotten away with it. Fast-forward to the present, when former Ambassador William Taylor reveals Trump’s machinations regarding U.S. aid to the Ukraine hinging on a Biden investigation. Trump’s corruption is again exposed. Basic dishonesty ended Nixon’s presidency, and likely will end Trump’s.

Robert Woods Forest Ranch

Oh, Democrats The Democratic party never misses an opportunity to miss an opportunity. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi recently warned the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates of “being on the wrong track,” citing Medicare for All and tax-the-wealthy policies that will fail to attract voters in states like Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. Those states that gave the current occupant of the Oval Office a majority of Electoral College votes.

What a nightmarish array of Democratic candidates that have tossed their hats in the 2020 Democratic primary race. In what should be a landslide eradication of the keystone-cop clown show—aka the Trump administration—the Democrats have managed to snatch defeat out of the jaws of victory.

Learning nothing from 2016, they yet again have an independent on the Democratic ticket: fours years older and unhealthy. Mix in another dozen candidates with their indifference and powerlessness, and it’s a recipe for yet another four years of the chaotic Trump.

I can’t help but be reminded of the 2016 Republican Party primaries with a similar incompetent group of candidates as this year’s Democratic lineup. Hopefully America will survive, and won’t become a complete party of Trump dictatorship. It’s already halfway there.

Ray Estes Redding

Write a letter tell us what you think in a letter to the editor. Send submissions of 200 or fewer words to cnrletters@newsreview.com. Holiday deadline for nov. 27 issue is noon on monday, nov. 25.

STREETALK

What advice would you give your younger self?

HAVE LYME? Think you might have Lyme?

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Asked at Saturday farmers’ market

www.thelymecenter.org Betty Catalanello hat maker

I would tell all young people to think twice about what you’re doing. When you’re young, you tend to think you’re right about everything. Listen to elders. Enjoy yourself, like yourself and spread good will. Love one another—that’s the biggest thing.

Your plumbing

Fixed Right, Right Now!

Jeremy Hilly f iref ighter

Take better care of your liver. If you drink less alcohol, you can avoid a bad hangover and a hurt liver.

Jori Krulder teacher

I would love to tell my younger self to be more confident and to play more. Don’t be afraid to explore and take risks.

Andres Lugo unemployed

Don’t grow up too fast. Time is short, so you’ve got to cherish it.

It’s a beautiful thing when you’re young, so you’ve got to live it.

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NEWSLINES DOWNSTROKE RECALL EFFORT FIZZLES

Two weeks ahead of a signature-gathering deadline, the citizens behind the effort to recall Councilman Karl Ory and Mayor Randall Stone announced that they were abandoning the endeavor.

In a statement the CN&R obtained from recall organizer Nichole Nava, the group says it was motivated by the city changing to district-based elections (see Newslines, this page). This could mean Stone and Ory would run against one another, the statement says, which “would have a potentially significant impact on a special recall election process.”

The group, which had raised over $10,000, said it instead will focus on backing 2020 election candidates who support public safety, improved roadways, “common sense housing and consolidated wrap-around services for the homeless.”

In response, Ory posted a statement on his Facebook page: “It’s been a needless distraction. … Back to city business.”

CHICO SUED OVER SIMPLICITY VILLAGE Frank Solinsky of Payless Building Supply has

filed a lawsuit against the city for its approval of Chico Housing Action Team’s plan to erect tiny homes on Notre Dame Boulevard.

Solinsky alleges that the city violated land-use laws when it approved Simplicity Village in September. Solinsky demands that, at minimum, the project undergo a use permit process and California Environmental Quality Act review. He also is asking for attorneys’ fees.

The city has maintained that Simplicity Village is allowed as a temporary emergency facility under city code, which hinges on the shelter crisis declaration the council made last October. The lawsuit argues that the designation is inappropriate because the project is not a public facility or on public land. The city has argued that is not required.

MORE SUPPORT FOR BHS

The Butte Humane Society is inching closer to opening its new facility off Garner Lane in north Chico.

On Tuesday (Nov. 12), the nonprofit announced it had taken in $250,000 from Fifth Sun Apparel—one of the largest local donations the animal welfare group has receieved. BHS Executive Director Katrina Woodcox (pictured) called it “very generous and much appreciated.”

So far, BHS has raised nearly $8 million toward its goal of $11 million. Currently, the nonprofit is scattered across three outdated, overcrowded facilities. It is obtaining permits and anticipates breaking ground next year. The new facility will increase its animal housing capacity by 66 percent.

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About-face

Council begrudgingly switches to district-based elections to avoid lawsuits, but still on the hook for up to $30,000

A district-based elections under the threat of expensive lawsuits on Tuesday (Nov. 12), s the City Council voted to create

the refrain from the dais was that the timing was horrible for a city still struggling to adapt story and to the reverberations of photo by the Camp Fire.

Ashiah Scharaga The allegation at hand made by two law as h i a h s @ firms: The city is violatn ew srev i ew. c o m ing the California Voting Rights Act (CVRA) because its at-large elections have created racially polarized voting and diluted minority votes. (See “Diversity on the dais,” Newslines, Oct. 31.)

Citizen Chaz Kelley was quick to remind the council, however, how it got into this predicament. The CVRA, which prohibits the use of at-large elections if they impair the ability of minority populations to elect candidates or influence election outcomes, was adopted in 2001. Four years ago, advocacy group Districts for Chico asked the council to, at the very least, hold a community forum on the subject. The city voted not to discuss it, and when the topic came up

again in 2018, it made the same call.

“We should not have to deal with the fact that the City Council has failed its job … on being able to stay up to date on state law, regardless of timing,” Kelley chided, “… and several members of council just [kicked] the ball until we were sued.”

Kelley was joined by about a dozen other speakers in favor of districts. Many suggested the city not pigeon-hole itself to just seven councilmembers. Ranking candidates by preference—aka ranked-choice voting— was another popular suggestion.

Some members of the panel appeared motivated to move forward now solely to avoid shelling out money fighting a lawsuit.

The vote fell 5-1 to pass a resolution of intent to transition to district-based elections, with Mayor Randall Stone against and Councilwoman Kasey Reynolds absent.

Last month, the city received letters from two attorneys, Matt Rexroad (a former Yolo County supervisor) and Malibu-based Kevin Shenkman, threatening legal action.

Assistant City Attorney Andrew Jared reminded the council that no city has successfully defended such lawsuits: The city of Palmdale, for example, paid $4.5 mil-

lion to Shenkman’s firm before ultimately switching to districts (the CVRA requires losing jurisdictions to pay attorneys’ fees).

City Manager Mark Orme confirmed the city’s first district-based elections would take place in November 2020.

Councilmembers Sean Morgan, Karl Ory, Ann Schwab and Randall Stone’s terms will be up, and all but Morgan have filed documentation that they intend to run.

One of the sticking points during the meeting was that the city will have to redistrict after the 2020 census is completed.

Schwab said it “belies logic” that the city cannot successfully plead its case that “this doesn’t make sense for Chico right now.”

She and Ory also expressed concerns over how the city would account for its new residents from the Ridge, who can choose to vote there or in Chico.

For now, it appears the districts will rely on 2010 census data, which say the city’s population is approximately 86,000, rather than its current population of about 112,000. “How do we overcome that inequity?” Ory asked.

City staff acknowledged that there weren’t clear-cut answers to questions like

Districts for Chico founders Ken Fleming (left) and Robert Speer fought for a change from at-large to district-based elections years ago, but the City Council didn’t listen. After the council voted to move forward on Tuesday, Speer (a former CN&R editor) said it’s “an opportunity to create a more democratic City Council,” and that’s why the pair launched the effort in the first place.

Community pulse Recent health assessment shows Butte County dragging behind state, nation Butte County residents aren’t faring so well

Ory’s. Case in point: The city will be in violation of its charter by moving forward with districts. The only way to amend the charter is to put it to a vote of the people, which ostensibly would happen at the same time as the first districtbased election.

“It really puts the city in an awkward situation, absolutely,” Orme told the CN&R later. “Nobody quite understands exactly how that’s going to work [yet].”

State law stipulates a very specific pro-

cess for cities transitioning to districts after receiving a CVRA violation letter.

There must be at least five public hearings within the next 90 days to gather public input before and after proposed maps are drawn, culminating in the final adoption of an ordinance. Even then, the city must pay some attorneys’ fees— under a “safe harbor” provision, the maximum amount is $30,000.

The first hearing is slated for next Tuesday (Nov. 19) during a regular council meeting. It will be led by consultant Michael Wagaman, of Sacramento-based Wagaman Strategies. His work with districting predates the CVRA, he told the CN&R via phone, and has been part of his career for more than 20 years.

Recently, he’s worked with several cities that received CVRA violation letters or were concerned about the prospect. The city will pay him approximately $30,000.

During the district-drawing process, Wagaman uses criteria including geography and topography, like creeks and freeways, contiguity and compactness.

Districts also must be of relatively equal size. Another criteria, a “community of interest,” can be defined broadly by things such as certain neighborhoods, schools, shopping centers or cultures.

“That’s where the public can have a really important role, because there’s not a fixed data set of communities of interest, and sometimes communities of interest can be overlapping,” Wagaman said.

Chico isn’t the only city in this predicament: Oroville Councilwoman Janet Goodson, who attended the meeting, said her city received a letter from Rexroad in late October, and has discussed the issue in closed session. From her perspective, districts are a “win-win,” and a council “needs to reflect the diversity of the community, period.” Ω

when it comes to their well-being. At least, that’s the picture painted by the Department of Public Health’s latest Community Health Assessment (CHA) released last week.

“For all of the priority health needs identified in the CHA, the rates for people living in Butte County are higher than the state,” explained department spokeswoman Lisa Almaguer. “So, our mental health and substance use disorders are higher. Our adverse childhood experiences are higher. We’re ranking higher, but not in a good way.”

The CHA includes analysis of data culled from Adventist Health Feather River, Enloe Medical Center and Orchard See for yourself: Hospital (Oroville To read the Community Health Hospital did not Assessment in its entirety, go to tinyurl.com/2019ButteCHA. participate). It was begun in the summer of 2018, shortly before the Camp Fire. That could mean things are even worse than they look, Almaguer said.

“Before the Camp Fire, data were showing these things were already a concern, and of course now they’re all impacted,” she said.

“Because the fire happened during data collection, the full impacts of the fire are not represented. It’ll take some time before we’re able to collect data from the fire—at least a year.”

A few things she says are known about the impacts of the disaster: Hundreds of health care offices were lost, including 24 percent of skilled nursing facility beds and 18 percent of acute care hospital beds (see “Patient overflow,” Healthlines, Nov. 7). This region already was experiencing a shortage of providers, however. Between 2012 and 2016, the ratio of Butte County residents to primary care physicians increased 10.9 percent (from 1,497:1 to 1,660:1). In California, that ratio was 1,270:1 in 2016, a 1.9 percent decrease over 2012.

Plus, it’s common for things like substance abuse and mental health problems to worsen after a traumatic event. In focus groups held after the fire, Almaguer said, 69 percent of participants ranked mental health as a very high priority for the region. And 27 percent said they’d been diagnosed with some sort of depressive disorder—much higher than the state average of 17 percent.

The purpose of the CHA, Almaguer explained, is to identify things that need improvement. It assesses four key priority areas—access to care, substance abuse and mental health, chronic diseases and adverse childhood experiences. Public health officials, in partnership with local health care providers, will now take that data and develop a Community Health Improvement Plan (CHIP).

This is only the second time the county has produced a formalized community health

SIFT ER Hate by the numbers The FBI just released its Hate Crime Statistics report, which includes data submitted by more than 16,000 agencies across the country. The 7,120 hate crimes reported in 2018 are about the same as 2017. That year, President Donald Trump’s first in office, the number of reported hate crimes rose dramatically, from 6,063 the previous year to 7,175—a 15.5 percent jump. Chico is not listed as one of the reporting agencies. Oroville, however, reported one race/ethnicity/ancestry related hate crime in 2018. Here are some notable findings from 2018 across the country.

• 7,036 crimes were single-bias incidences • Of those, 57.5 percent were motivated by race/ethnicity/ancestry • 20.2 percent were based on religious bias

assessment, with the aim to create goals, implement them and then reassess.

“In the first CHA, in 2015, the opioid epidemic was identified. And overprescribing was identified,” she said. “From that, action items were developed in the improvement plan and the results of that are things like giving naloxone to first responders.”

While the drug-induced and opioidinduced death rates have dropped in Butte County since the last assessment, they’re still much higher than the state or national averages. In fact, from 2014 to 2016, Butte County ranked 54th out of 58 counties for drugrelated deaths (the full effect of the 2015 improvement plan won’t be seen until more recent data becomes available). And it has the

“Before the Camp Fire, data were showing these things were already a concern, and of course now they’re all impacted.”

—Lisa Almaguer

highest rate of both non-heroin opioid-related hospitalizations and heroin-related hospitalizations in California, with 40.3 per 100,000 population (vs. 7.8 statewide) for the former, and 10 per 100,000 (vs. 1.8) for the latter.

The CHA indicates that Butte County teens are starting drugs and alcohol early, too.

The percentage of local teens who reported ever trying alcohol or illicit drugs—including misuse of prescription meds—“was greater for all grade levels for nearly every category than in California overall,” the report reads.

That’s not all: When it comes to chronic illnesses like cancer, Alzheimer’s disease and chronic liver disease, Butte County also is behind the curve. “Almost across the board, our rates of chronic conditions are higher than the state,” Almaguer confirmed.

Over the next couple months, the county will be delving into the reasons for Butte’s poor performance. Almaguer said she expects the improvement plan to be produced around January.

“We don’t really see the why here, but when the improvement plan comes along, they’ll be digging into that so they can look at solutions,” she said.

—MEREDITH J. COOPER me r e d i th c @ newsr ev iew.c o m

• 17 percent were motivated by sexual orientation

NEWSLINES C O N T I N U E D NOVEMBER 14, 2019

O N PA G E 1 0

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Power costs As county sees uptick in generator permits, some residents lament associated fees Without power, David Dewey has

trouble sleeping.

The 66-year-old uses a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device to help him breathe through the night. The machine plugs into a wall, but during PG&E’s last intentional power outages in October, the semi-retired piano tuner was forced to leave his home to get some rest elsewhere.

“I needed my CPAP,” he told the CN&R. “After two nights without it, I was not getting the sleep I need.”

PG&E’s more frequent “public safety power shutoff” events— when it cuts power during highfire-risk conditions—has led Dewey to look into purchasing and installing a standby generator to juice his 1,100-square-foot home off Forbestown Road above Lake Oroville. In addition to operating his CPAP device, Dewey needs electricity to pump his well, heat his home and run his refrigerator.

But the associated costs will be a burden, Dewey said, estimating that a generator, installation costs and what he described as an exorbitant county permit fee could ultimately exceed $10,000. That’s before maintenance costs are factored in.

“It’s an expense I did not plan for in my budget,” he said, noting that he will have to borrow against his home’s value to afford the project. “Of course, I’m realizing, ‘OK, time to rethink the budget.’”

Even so, Dewey questions the county’s permit fee associated with installing a permanent generator—a fee that can exceed $600. That’s more than double what the town of Paradise charges, which is about $240. Dewey said the county fee appears too high for its inspection work, and he wonders whether people are forgoing the cost, hooking up generators without oversight and possibly adding to the fire danger in the foothills.

“The county wants people to get permits, but then they price them to the point where people don’t want to pay it—so they avoid the permits,” he said. “So, you’re kind of 10

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in a Catch-22 situation.”

County officials say they have seen a significant increase in generator permits issued over the last year, coinciding with PG&E’s more frequent power shut-offs since the Camp Fire. Eighty-five permits for permanent generators have been issued in the past 12 months. Twelve were issued the year before.

Curtis Johnson, the county’s building division manager, said the roughly $600 permit fee covers a few things, including reviewing plans for consistency with codes, issuing corrections and conducting inspections—usually two for each project. It also takes into account the larger geographic area under the county’s jurisdiction to conduct inspections. (Permits for temporary generators that utilize a transfer switch run about $300. Portable generators that aren’t hooked into a home’s wiring do not require a permit.) The county, Johnson said, had been issuing many safetyrelated corrections earlier in the year. Now, contractors have become more experienced with the county’s requirements and can more easily get a plan approved.

Johnson said he was not aware of people forgoing permits and installing generators, but added that it likely is happening.

“We’re trying to educate people,” he said. “Trying to let them know that we’re not just trying to collect the fee. We’re actually trying to make sure that they’re safe, and that’s our main purpose.”

Tim Snellings, director of the county’s Department of Development Services, says his department is interested in exploring ways to lower the fee. He said officials have thought about consolidating its two inspections—for fuel and electricity—into one by discussing the issue and coordinating with the local contractor community. He also said other avenues could be explored as well, such as grant funding.

“We are open to people’s ideas on how to make this program effi-

cient,” Snellings said, “as well as protecting public safety.”

The uptick in generator use in the

county comes as PG&E has said intentional power shut-offs will occur over the next decade as the utility improves its infrastructure.

The Paradise Town Council on Tuesday (Nov. 12) voted unanimously to support Assemblyman James Gallagher’s office as it works on legislation to speed up that process.

Gallagher’s proposed legislation, which one of his representatives said was not yet drafted, would “temporarily pause the state’s renewable power mandates until infrastructure and vegetation management conditions are improved,” according to a joint press release issued by Gallagher and Sen. Jim Nielsen, who also is involved with

creating the bill. PG&E, according to the release, spends about $2.4 billion annually to “uphold a legislative mandate to buy renewable power.”

“PSPSes suck,” Councilwoman Melissa Schuster said. “I hate to see what has happened to our economy statewide because of these shut-offs. It’s just incredible.”

Schuster said she was open to working with Gallagher’s office, but she added the legislation as presented appears to give PG&E an out by placing blame on a mandate for researching renewable energy.

“PG&E doesn’t deserve a bye, nor [to] be provided an excuse for being irresponsible,” she said.

“And this is not an either/or situation. PG&E did not neglect their infrastructure because they were

mandated to research renewable energy. They made a choice. They made a choice to pay dividends and executive bonuses rather than spending money on hardening their infrastructure.”

Mayor Jody Jones said while she doesn’t view Gallagher’s proposal as a pass for PG&E, she agreed that the utility did not take proper care of its infrastructure.

“Our power’s getting shut off all the time, and they’re saying it’s going to take 10 years and I believe that,” Jones said. “There is so much maintenance to do that it can’t be done tomorrow.”

The mayor added that she views the proposal as additional money for PG&E to improve its infrastructure, so perhaps the utility could expedite its work.

—ANDRE BYIK a nd r e b @ newsr ev iew.c o m

ANNIVERSARY GROUNDBREAKING The Paradise Town Council broke ground last Friday (Nov. 8) on Hope Plaza, a permanent Camp Fire memorial located on town-owned property at Skyway and Foster Road. Backers of the memorial—designs of which include an obelisk and water wall fountain—estimate the project will cost about $1.5 million. All the money, according to the Hope Plaza Memorial steering committee, will be raised privately.

PHOTO ANDRE BYIK

November 14, 2019

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HEALTHLINES The FACT Act “was constitutional until it wasn’t,” according to Assemblyman David Chiu, its author.

Photo by ANNe WerNikoff/CAlmAtters

nization that “exists to protect life-affirming pregnancy centers that empower abortionvulnerable women and families to choose life for their unborn children.”

“Forcing speech is not the solution,” NIFLA, which operates more than 100 crisis pregnancy centers in California, said in its letter against the bill.

The debate was not a new one in the country’s

backfire How an abortion rights law ended up bankrolling pro-life forces by

Dan Morain

Icomplete law aimed at ensuring pregnant women get a picture of their options, including the n 2015, California Democrats passed a state

right to an abortion. Little did they know that, four years later, their effort would yield a $2 million windfall for conservative legal campaigns to restrict abortion and LGBTQ rights.

In an irony for the annals of California’s resistance, court documents show that reproductive rights advocates have paid a steep price for the failure of the Freedom, Accountability, Comprehensive Care, and Transparency (or FACT) Act, which sought to compel anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers to disclose their license status and let women know that public family programs provide abortions.

Backed by abortion rights activists and overturned last year by the U.S. Supreme Court on free speech grounds, the law has generated an unintended bounty of attorney’s fees that now help underwrite conservative litigation and lawyers. Among them: the defense of anti-abortion activist David Daleiden, who clandestinely videotaped Planned Parenthood

12

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physicians, and the legal aid group led by one of President Donald Trump’s best-known lawyers, Jay Sekulow.

Assemblyman David Chiu, the law’s author and a lawyer, noted that the FACT Act was upheld by most lower courts, including the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, only to be reversed when the five justices appointed

by Republican presidents prevailed over the four justices who are Democratic presidential appointees.

“This was constitutional until it wasn’t,” Chiu said.

Kevin Snider, of the conservative Pacific Justice Institute of Sacramento, countered that he and others who testified against Chiu’s bill told legislators that it would be challenged as a First Amendment violation.

“They failed to heed a warning,” Snider said, “and decided to bow down to abortion rights constituents at taxpayer expense.”

In any case, the consequences of the FACT Act are a far cry from the blue-state retort California Democrats intended in 2015 to Republican-controlled states that were limiting abortions by, for example, mandating waiting periods and counseling for women who wanted the procedure.

Chiu, a San Francisco Democrat, and his co-

author, Democratic Assemblywoman Autumn

Burke of Los Angeles, had—at the urging of NARAL Pro-Choice America, a national abortion rights league—taken aim at so-called “crisis pregnancy” centers. Typically staffed by religious-based abortion opponents, the centers advertise to women searching for information on unwanted pregnancies and abortion, but then seek to steer them into carrying their pregnancies to term by, for example, insisting they view ultrasound images of their fetuses. Chico is home to one such center, the Women’s Resource Clinic.

Chiu wanted to compel unlicensed crisis pregnancy centers to post signs making clear they provided no medical care. Centers with medical licenses, meanwhile, were to be required to post signs that read: “California has public programs that provide immediate free or low-cost access to comprehensive family planning services (including all FDA-approved methods of contraception), prenatal care, and abortion for eligible women.”

Lawmakers knew the bill raised First Amendment issues. Government cannot pass laws that infringe on speech. Nor can government compel speech, though there are exceptions, as the Assembly Judiciary Committee staff made clear in its analysis.

“It is well-settled law,” the committee staffers wrote in 2015, “that the government is ‘free to prevent the dissemination of commercial speech that is false, deceptive, or misleading’ without violating the First Amendment.”

Opponents included the National Institute of Family & Life Advocates, a Virginia orga-

forever war over abortion. But the bill became a bullseye when that war turned especially hot in the summer of 2015.

Daleiden, a young anti-abortion activist from Davis, had lied to gain entry to abortion conferences and surreptitiously videotaped conversations that he then edited and released, saying the tapes depicted Planned Parenthood selling fetal “body parts.” They didn’t. But Daleiden’s tapes became fodder for presidential debates, congressional inquiry and, ultimately, part of Republican lawmakers’ talking points in Sacramento as they tried to derail Chiu’s legislation.

“Now, we’re finding out that maybe a strong motivation for abortion is not to help someone in need … but it is maybe to harvest. Maybe there has been a huge conflict of interest and the nation is waking up to it,” Sen. John Moorlach, an Orange County Republican, said in his Senate floor speech opposing the legislation.

Sen. Richard Pan, a Sacramento Democrat and a pediatrician, responded by pointing out that the sale of fetal tissue is illegal: “If someone is doing that, they should be prosecuted.”

The bill passed on a party-line vote and was signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown.

Lawyers representing crisis pregnancy centers quickly sued. The state won in most lower courts and on appeal.

But in a 5-4 decision authored by Justice Clarence Thomas, the high court in June 2018 sided with the religious organizations, concluding in National Institute of Family and Life Advocates vs. Attorney General Xavier Becerra that the state could not compel them to post signs that violated their religious beliefs.

The decision reverberated beyond crisis pregnancy centers. Democrats who had been pushing to ban so-called gay conversion therapy abandoned the effort, seeing little chance that the legislation would withstand a legal challenge, given the precedent established in NIFLA v. Becerra.

The decision also had dollar signs attached to it.

Under longstanding federal law, the victors in suits to enforce basic rights such as free speech are entitled to attorneys’ fees. Court documents, most of which were obtained by the San Francisco-based First Amendment

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Coalition, a government accountability nonprofit, and shared with CalMatters, show that the 2018 decision resulted in a gusher for the advocates who challenged Chiu’s law.

Some $2.03 million was spread among five conservative organizations, including: Alliance Defending Freedom of Arizona, $958,535; the Scharpen Foundation of Riverside County, $172,613; Liberty Counsel of Florida, $399,999; American Center for Law & Justice of Washington, D.C., $247,748, which fashions itself as a conservative version of the American Civil Liberties Union (its chief counsel, Sekulow, is a chief lawyer for President Trump); and Pacific Justice Institute of Sacramento, $244,475, whose chief counsel, Snider, proudly notes that the Southern Poverty Law Center calls his organization an “antiLGBT hate group.”

Daleiden, now 30, also appears to be among the beneficiaries of the decision. He has spent much of the past two months in the San Francisco courtroom of U.S. District Judge William Orrick, surrounded by a legal team of no fewer than 16 lawyers and paralegals, all working free of charge, as lawyers representing Planned Parenthood press their suit alleging that he illegally videotaped physicians for the nonprofit, which supports reproductive rights.

Lawyers representing Daleiden

About this story:

This story was produced by Calmatters.org, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics. It was made possible with information obtained by The First Amendment Coalition, a San Franciscobased nonprofit focused on government transparency and accountability. The coalition, which was not involved in the NIFLA case or litigation, regularly uses the California Public records Act to keep the public informed on the actions of government agencies.

and his co-defendants come from three of the organizations that received payments as a result of the litigation over Chiu’s bill—the Alliance Defending Freedom, Liberty Counsel and the American Center for Law & Justice.

Daleiden and his co-defendant, Sandra Merritt, also face criminal charges brought by Becerra, and are represented by many of the same attorneys. Among their defense arguments is that they were citizen journalists working undercover to expose what they saw as crimes.

Payments of attorneys’ fees are a regular part of the court system.

The state often collects fees when it prevails.

Despite the millions paid to abortion opponents in the settlement struck earlier this year by deputies to Becerra, Chiu believes the FACT Act was “a fight worth having.”

“Access to reproductive health care is under attack,” Chiu said.

“These fake health centers threaten the health of women. We shouldn’t put a price on that.” Ω

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Hair of the dog Someone famous once said, “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy,” and who can argue with that? But, did you know that beer might be an effective painkiller too?

The results of a recent study published in the Journal of Pain suggest that beer, two pints to be exact, may have stronger analgesic power than acetaminophen. The good news is that elevating your blood alcohol content to around 0.08 percent also elevates your body’s pain threshold, which results in a fairly large reduction in pain intensity. The bad news is that the jury is still out on whether participants were just too buzzed to care after two pints—so don’t go for the brew to cure your headache quite yet.

November 14, 2019

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GREENWAYS U.S. Army engineers are leading research on tactical microgrids to deliver more efficient power to soldiers across combat zones.

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE U.S. ARMY

Keeping the lights on Five things to know about microgrids

by

Julie Cart

M in the dark for days recently as their big utility companies shut off power for fear of ore than 1 million Californians were left

sparking wildfires. Frustrated by those outages, some homeowners say they’d like to turn their backs on the companies in favor of smaller providers who might do a better job of keeping the lights on. The mayors of San Francisco and San Jose say they want to sever ties with PG&E, which serves much of Northern California, and create separate utilities for their cities.

Grasping for solutions, people toss around ideas like joining “microgrids” or setting up banks of generators to keep the electricity flowing during widespread power cutoffs. But would that really help?

What, exactly, is a microgrid?

A microgrid can be as simple as a single home operating on its own solar power, or a complex series of connections between a power source and distribution lines to end users. It can run a business, a neighborhood or even a city. It can be any size and may be fueled by renewable energy stored in batteries, or by generators that run on a conventional fuel such as diesel.

Chris Marnay, a senior scientific fellow at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, wrote the definition of microgrid that is used by the U.S. Department of Energy: “There are two characteristics: It is a locally controlled system, and it can function either connected to the grid or as an electrical island.”

How many microgrids are in California?

It’s difficult to say how many have sprouted across the state and are now dotting the

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NOVEMBER 14, 2019

landscape, producing and sharing their own energy. Such systems include small neighborhood operations and one that runs the desert town of Borrego Springs.

That town, and others like it, are known as end-of-the-line communities, lying just beyond the reach of power companies’ distribution lines. For those small locales, and for residents in many rural parts of California, a microgrid is the only choice if they want power.

Many state universities have trainingwheels versions that use small solar arrays to power a building or a section of the campus.

UC San Diego runs a much larger system that provides up to 90 percent of campus electricity.

If some California lawmakers have their way, there will be many more such systems.

A bill in the Legislature would require utility companies to identify the best areas of the state for employing microgrids and then build them.

A 2018 law sets a deadline of Dec. 1, 2020, for creation of a program for how they might operate, especially during times of emergency. The state Public Utilities Commission, which regulates California’s power companies, the California Energy Commission and the Independent System Operator—which runs most of the state’s electrical grid—are developing the plan.

How can microgrids be used during emergencies, such as fires?

Natural disasters have a way of prying open windows of opportunity. But “California is a bit behind the curve,” Marnay said. “The fires About this story:

It’s an abridged version of a story published by CALmatters.org, an independent public journalism venture covering California state politics and government.

are going to be our Superstorm Sandy. They are going to bring about change.”

Hurricane Sandy lashed the East Coast in 2012, leaving millions of customers in 21 states without power for days and weeks.

The superstorm’s aftermath brought about policy changes in several states in the Northeast. Connecticut became the first in the country to create a statewide system of microgrids to provide emergency power.

State officials hope that, eventually, electricity generated by microgrids can keep critical services operating in emergencies: hospitals, communications systems, community centers, etc. One city that has already adopted this approach is Fremont. It has outfitted three fire stations with their own power supplies.

The vast majority of us are connected to the grid and to the big utilities that have spent 100 years building it.

The rise of small, locally run utilities, known as community choice aggregators, provides an alternative to big, for-profit utilities. In most cases, these entities use power that comes from clean energy. Scores of small towns and counties have gone this route and now operate their own mini-utilities.

These suppliers reported 2.5 million customer accounts at the end of 2018.

But even they depend on the infrastructure owned by the big utilities: They’re power retailers that don’t own distribution equipment. They’re plugged into the big utilities’ wires and poles.

Example: When PG&E recently shut off power to some residents in Sonoma County for fear its equipment could start a fire, Sonoma Clean Power—a community choice utility—was unable to provide power. Its customers have been in the dark along with everyone else. No backstop there. Ω

ECO EVENT

What about other backup options, besides microgrids?

Many homeowners and small businesses use their own generators—powered by diesel fuel, natural gas or propane—during outages (see Newslines, page 10, for mor info). They work well but carry some limitations. Diesel motors can be loud, for example, and cannot be operated indoors because of dangerous fumes. In addition, the fuel for the generators must be stored nearby, and it’s highly flammable.

Many residential solar systems now include storage, offering homeowners a way to avoid generators if they wish. With the rapid improvement of batteries to store energy from rooftop panels, companies are selling such packages for residential use.

What if we all ditched the big utilities and went our own way?

A poke in the eye to big companies and their power cutoffs may provide momentary satisfaction and give customers a sense of control. But it’s not going to solve the blackout problem.

The plight of the great Philippine eagle Altacal Audubon Society of Chico will host a free movie night at the Chico Creek Nature Center this Monday (Nov. 18) at 6:30 p.m. Join world-renowned wildlife cinematographer Neil Rettig as he searches for the rarest eagle on the planet in the awardwinning documentary Bird of Prey. Witness the brave work of an inspiring group of people determined to save the world’s most critically endangered eagle species from extinction, with stunning cinematography that captures the beauty of a vanishing habitat. Refreshments and an intermission are included. For more information, call Wayland Augur at 519-4724 or write to wba@acm.org.

EVERYBODY’S BUSINESS PHOTO BY JOSH COZINE

15 MINUTES

THE GOODS by

Meredith J. Cooper

Camp Fire fallout continues

On the fly Dan Valdez refers to himself as an “obsessive fisherman.”

By his estimates, he’ll head out with his boat anywhere from 150 to 200 days a year, most years. In 2010, things slowed down as he had the first of several spinal surgeries, which left him partially disabled and without the use of his hands for a brief time. As a method of recovery and physical therapy, he began making his own flyfishing lures. Valdez found after he had recovered enough to start fishing again that other people loved them—and soon his fishing friends were asking if he could make them all types of lures for all kinds of fish. Eventually, Valdez started advertising his lures and realized he had the workings of a business. Last month, he officially opened Draggin’ Flies out of his home workshop, where he makes his lures for mail order.

Check out his Facebook page, Draggin’ Flies by Dan, to learn more or inquire about custom flies.

How did you learn to make your own lures?

The first two or three years I didn’t do anything but shad flies

for shad-fishing season, but then people started asking, “Do you build this?” or “Do you build that?” And in this day and age, with the internet, you can figure out how anything is built. I sort of took a lot of other people’s ideas and put my own twist on everything.

How is business so far?

I’m only in the first few weeks, but I’ve been selling a whole lot more flies than I had even imagined. Yesterday was the first day I didn’t spend on my bench making flies in three weeks, and I haven’t even really started yet.

I don’t even have a website. My goal was to sell 40 a week; right now, I’m selling closer to 150 or 200 a week. It’s kinda crazy to me. I thought I would still be getting the word out.

How long do the lures last?

It depends on the species of fish you’re catching. Something like a sockeye salmon is super aggressive and toothy, so they can beat up a fly after a couple days of good fishing. But some of these flies [for other fish] will last you a long time. They’re not supposed to last forever—they’re made of fabric and feathers. The point is if they attract fish. I had one guy come to me and say, “Hey, I bought this fly from you, and after one day it was ruined.”

I asked, “What happened?” and he said he had caught 19 fish with it in one day … so the fact that it got beat up is OK in my mind. Depending on [the fly], some go for $4.50, and so far I’ve sold some custom stuff upwards of $12 a fly.

—JOSH COZINE

meredithc@newsreview.com

Last November’s Camp Fire took a toll on the local labor market, and we’re continuing to see the fallout. Earlier this fall, Sustainable Seed Co. announced it’s making some changes due to the fact that owner John Fendley (aka “Farmer John”) and several key employees had lost their homes in the blaze.

The company understandably suffered as a consequence. But, do not fear— loyal customers will still be able to purchase Farmer John’s non-GMO, organic and heirloom seeds. In September, Sustainable Seed Co. merged with True Leaf Market Seed Co., previously a competitor, to maintain the line. The latter is moving to town to take over management.

“It may seem unusual for competitors to work together but there are not many independent seed companies left and we have to stick together,” True Leaf partner Robb Baumann says on the company blog. Find Sustainable Seed Co.’s retail shop at 355 E. 20th St. Word as of now is it’ll remain open.

NEW BOSS Earlier this month, Amanda Leveroni, chef and owner at Bacio Catering, Carryout and Biz Box, announced it’s time to retire. She’s handing over the reins to former supervisor Erika Montanez, who is returning after a 10-year hiatus. “It’s time for me to spend time with my family, watch my grandchildren grow and go exploring with my husband,” Leveroni says in a statement.

CLOSING TIME Two longtime downtown Chico businesses announced last week they’re calling it quits. Gabrielle Ferrar Diamonds & Exceptional Jewelry, a staple at Second and Main streets for the past three decades, is liquidating this weekend (sale runs today, Nov. 14, through Sunday). An announcement sent to customers cites the passing of daughter Lisa as their reasoning. Lisa Nolta and her mom, Madeleine, opened the shop in 1989.

Kona’s Sandwiches just a block up Main Street also is calling it quits. Well, it’s up for sale at the moment. After 26 years. Anyone want a sammich shop?

Changes also are afoot over at Roots Catering. Last week, owners David and Kelly Gomez announced they’ll be shuttering their restaurant and concentrating wholly on the catering side of their business. The last day is Friday (Nov. 15).

CHANGE OF PLANS I reported recently that Chico’s Kmart appeared to have dodged the bullet of a wave of closures, only to be proven wrong a week later.

Last Thursday (Nov. 7), Kmart’s parent company, Transform Holdco, announced it will be closing 96 more Sears and Kmart stores, including the one on Pillsbury Road in Chico. Expect liquidation sales to start Dec. 2.

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NOVEMBER 14, 2019

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BY DANIEL WALTERS

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Weapons of mass deception Trolls, conspiracy theorists, hoaxers and Trump in the disinformation era

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t may be getting harder and harder to figure out the truth, but at least this much is clear: It’s a good time to be a liar.

We’ve spent three years arguing if fake news swung the 2016 election—debating whether the hordes of Russian bots, hoax Facebook pages and inflammatory, dishonest tweets tipped the democratic balance to elect Donald Trump as president.

Yet in those same years, we’ve learned that the stakes in the fight against truth, in a muddy world of social media platforms, go beyond politics.

In Brazil, public health workers were attacked after far-right activists lied on YouTube that they were spreading the Zika virus. Gunmen radicalized by false white-supremacist conspiracies on internet forums like 4chan and 8chan shot up a synagogue in California, a Walmart in Texas and mosques in New Zealand.

Elections have consequences. So do algorithms.

So now, heading into the 2020 election, experts are warning that trolls, hoaxers and dishonest politicians are arming themselves with a whole new arsenal of weapons of mass deception.

New technology is making it easier to hoax audio and video, while advances in artificial intelligence are making it all the more difficult to weed out computer-automated “bot” accounts.

And there’s a deeper risk, beyond figuring out the inaccuracy of any one article.

The deluge of misinformation—full of Trump tweets, deepfakes, InfoWars videos, Russian bots, 4chan trolls, that Washington Post correction, those out-of-context memes and your great aunt’s latest questionable Facebook post—has become so overwhelming that some of us may simply give up trying to make sense of it all.

A lie doesn’t need to be believed. It just needs to create enough doubt that the truth becomes polluted. With enough pollution, it’s impossible to see what’s right in front of you.

“When you’re flooded with so much bullshit,” New York Times media columnist Charlie Warzel says, separating fact from fiction becomes so difficult that “the task of trying to do it becomes, you know, tiresome, so you just stop.”

It’s the sort of thing your college philosophy professor might call an “epistemic crisis.” We don’t know what to believe. Truth is hazy. Reality itself becomes irrelevant. It’s a phenomenon that has already happened in places like Russia and the Philippines—and experts say that in the past few years, the United States has suddenly found itself on the same path.

“And that, to me, is one of the scariest things to think about,” Warzel says.

The web of conspiracy History has a pattern.

An advancement in communications technology hands liars the means to lie louder and spread those lies further. Look at the 1830s, when the invention of the steam printing press and other paper-making technologies produced the rise of the “penny press.” Newspapers became cheaper, more independent, more widespread, more competitive, and eager publishers found the power of the 19th-century version of clickbait. The New York-based Sun put out a series of entirely fictional stories that purported that “man-bats” and other exotic creatures were scurrying around on the moon.

Soviet-born British TV producer Peter Pomerantsev, author of This Is Not Propaganda: Adventures in the War Against Reality, argues that when tech rips open the floodgates of communication, the bad guys always find a way to exploit it.

Dictators quickly harnessed the power of radio. Joseph McCarthy, as a U.S. senator in the 1950s, used television to spread his antiCommunist conspiracy theories.

Yet for decades, the internet was heralded as a new frontier that allowed “citizen journalists” to take on the stodgy media elite. In 1998, the Drudge Report, a rightwing news-aggregating website, broke the Monica Lewinsky scandal when Newsweek got cold feet. In 2004, when Dan Rather and 60 Minutes put out a 1973 memo purporting to show that President George W. Bush had received special treatment while in the Texas Air National Guard, Drudge elevated the conservative bloggers who persuasively argued the memo was a fake written in Microsoft Word.

An “Army of Davids”—as some bloggers dubbed themselves—swarmed to debunk flawed media accounts, trying to counter bias wherever they saw it. The gatekeepers were being overthrown, the drawbridge had been flung open.

But the villagers had their own standards for newsworthiness. Drudge also sent his readers to darker corners, where sketchy websites claimed Barack Obama wasn’t an American citizen and Bill Clinton had a secret love child.

Conspiracy theorists used to spread their gospel through books, newsletters, public access television shows, and by standing on street corners and handing out fliers. But the web gave every community a niche—no matter how fringe—and allowed them to spread their message in only a few keystrokes.

The internet, Warzel says, handed fringe figures like Alex Jones of InfoWars a powerful new megaphone.

A lie doesn’t need to be believed. It just needs to create enough doubt that the truth becomes polluted. With enough pollution, it’s impossible to see what’s right in front of you.

“He was one of the early pioneers of internet radio and video,” Warzel says. “It was a way to get around the notion that it was hard to sell advertising around some of his kooky ideas.”

An audience of millions repeatedly tuned into Jones’ red-faced rants about 9/11 being an inside job, Obama chemtrails turning frogs gay, and the Sandy Hook shootings being faked. Drudge repeatedly linked to him.

Social media sites only accelerated the spread of misinformation. It’s easier than ever for a single comment, particularly an untrue one, to go viral. In ancient times, the opinions of quacks were largely quarantined to a newspaper’s page of letters to the editor.

New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman and racist Twitter randos with names like “@WhiteGenocideTM” are all simmering in the same stew together. Both, after all, get retweeted by the president.

A Massachusetts Institute of Technology study published last year took a look at over a decade of Twitter posts and found that tweets about false news went viral six times faster than tweets about true news. After all, lies are often more sensational, tapping into human emotions of shock, fear and disgust.

It wasn’t just that humans were more likely to share these kinds of stories.

It was that Facebook, Twitter and YouTube developed algorithms to elevate certain types of content into your social media feed. It usually didn’t matter if they were true—social media sites didn’t want to become the truth police. It mattered that the stories drew people in.

“The way they keep people clicking and sharing and commenting is prioritizing things that get your heart pumping,” says Andrew Marantz, author of Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation. “It’s like stocking a huge

grocery store, but all of the visible aisles are Oreos and rat poison.”

YouTube actually started rewarding conspiracy theories above popular content.

YouTube used to have what the company internally called the “Gangnam Style” problem, where its autoplaying recommendation engine would eventually send every viewer to the 2012 South Korean pop hit. In response, YouTube changed its algorithm in 2015, turning down the recommendation dial for merely popular videos and cranking up the preference for videos that led people down rabbit holes. Conspiracy-theory videos flourished.

Simultaneously, the internet had handed brand-new weapons to pranksters, vandals and assholes—“trolls” who could use misinformation and harassment to make life hellish for chosen targets. Image boards like 4chan combined anonymity and a near-total absence of moderation to become a frothing hive of racists, trolls and trolls pretending to be racists.

The boards delighted in pulling hoaxes—creating fake Jewish Twitter accounts to sow discord in the Jewish com-

ed in white supremacists actually adopting the signal.

Marantz says he spent three years embedded in this world.

“There are people who just want to watch the world burn,” Marantz says. “And that’s a phrase I returned to again and again.”

The motivations vary. In Macedonia, Warzel says, there are clickfarms filled with teenagers pumping out hoax news stories for fake publications, buying Facebook likes, all as a way to make money.

“It’s essentially just like a lemonade stand for them,” he says. But there are also foreign governments trying to influence global trends, politicians trying to game power, and true believers who spread falsehoods because they think it’s the truth.

“To some degree, it doesn’t matter as long as there’s power to be gained and money to be made,” Warzel says.

Art of the lie Politicians are known to lie. It’s what they do. Presidents lie, whether about WMD or keeping your health care or not having sexual relations with this or that woman. But DECEPTION C O N T I N U E D

munity, publishing coupons claiming black people were getting free coffee at Starbucks, and attempting to trick journalists into identifying mass shooters as the wrong person.

Sometimes the hoaxes became reality.

A 4chan scheme to trick mainstream media outlets into reporting that the “OK” hand gesture was a white-supremacist sign result-

O N PA G E 1 8

During televised hearings in 1954, the U.S. Army’s special counsel, Joseph Welch (left), is interrogated

by Sen. Joseph McCarthy (standing), who argued that the Army was harboring Communists.

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DECEPTION

C O N T I N U E D F R O M PA G E 1 7

there used to be limits.

“There were unwritten rules or norms about spin,” said Tim Miller, Jeb Bush’s former campaign spokesman. “You exaggerated for your candidate. You used hyperbole. You tried to muddy the waters.”

But there were unspoken, unwritten lines, implicit walls that mainstream candidates didn’t try to breach. Then came Trump.

Misinformation comes in a hundred ways from a hundred different sources. And yet Trump is somehow all of them.

Trump is America’s top troll. Other primary contenders nitpicked Sen. Ted Cruz’s policy record—Trump called him “Lyin’ Ted,” insulted his wife’s appearance and suggested Cruz’s dad helped assassinate JFK. The president is America’s chief conspiracy theorist, building his political brand on the lie that Barack Obama wasn’t born in the United States. Everyone expected Trump to claim the election was rigged if he lost— but Trump one-upped the cynics. He claimed the election was rigged when he won, falsely charging that thousands of illegal votes had been cast in the election.

Trump is America’s preeminent liar. At the Toronto Star, fact-checker Daniel Dale tallied over 5,200 false statements from the president since his inauguration, dealing with everything from tariff policy to payoffs to a porn star.

“I was flabbergasted by the frequency and the triviality of many of them,” Dale told the Los Angeles Times. “Trump was simply making things up about everything, for no apparent reason, about the smallest things.”

And now, as House Democrats pursue an impeachment inquiry into whether Trump inappropriately pressured Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden, America gets to watch, once again, how powerful Trump’s misinformation machine is.

A September Monmouth University poll shows that only 40 percent of Republicans believe that Trump mentioned an investigation into Joe Biden during his call with Ukrainian president, ignoring both the rough transcript of the call and Trump’s own words. Indeed, in March, a Quinnipiac University poll found that two-thirds of Republicans believe Trump is honest.

Some of that’s simple partisan psychology. Whether you voted for Trump because of immigration, judges, abortion or tax rates, your mind needs to continually justify your vote. You wouldn’t vote for a liar. You voted for Trump, so Trump must not be a liar.

Besides, have you seen those wild claims the Democrats are making?

“At this stage it’s less about defending Trump,” writes columnist Peter Wehner in The New York Times, quoting a conservative psychologist friend. “They are defending their own defense of Trump.”

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It’s the same principle that drove feminists to attempt to justify President Bill Clinton’s sexual escapades.

Trump has a legion of staffers and supporters willing to lie for him. He ordered his press secretary to lie about his inauguration crowd size. He pressed the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to defend his inaccurate statements about Hurricane Dorian.

“I have no obligation to be honest to the media,” former Trump aide Corey Lewandowski told Congress in September, speaking under oath. “Because they’re just as dishonest as anybody else.”

Today, Trump has a loyal media apparatus willing to run interference for his falsehoods. The moment a negative story about him goes up, Fox News, the Federalist and a horde of Trump Twitter acolytes fire back with a mix of spin, falsehoods and irrelevancies.

The speed of that response, Miller says, makes it impossible for the truth to get a foothold.

“People are hearing the alternate story at the same time they are hearing the story,” Miller says.

So on the right, Trump’s Ukrainian scandal quickly became a story about the motivations of the anonymous whistleblower, the dishonesty of House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff, and the purported corruption of Biden and his son.

The Robert Mueller-led special counsel’s investigation into whether Trump’s team colluded with Russia to interfere in the 2016 election turned into a story about the malfeasance of the “deep state,” about Trumphating FBI agents concocting a scheme to undo the American’s actual election.

For those seeking clarity, the firehose of factually shaky information on Twitter from all sides didn’t help matters. It wasn’t just from Trump fans.

Each big mistake plays into Trump’s hands. And since most national media outlets rely on anonymous sources, it’s relatively easy for Trump aides to intentionally trick reporters into making a mistake.

Self-proclaimed members of the antiTrump #Resistance rack up hundreds of thousands of followers hawking anti-Trump conspiracies and assurances that Trump’s downfall was always imminent.

It’s made social media stars of guys like Ed and Brian Krassenstein—who put out a children’s book featuring a muscled, shirtless Mueller.

In the meantime, the media outlets charged with sorting out the messy truth were being hammered from all sides.

Republicans charged that journalists were clearly biased against Trump—just look at all the negative stories they wrote about him!—while Democrats slammed journalists for “false balance” for failing to call Trump’s falsehoods outright lies.

Millions of eyes watched every Trump story, ready to send a barrage of tweets attacking every misstep.

“You could get away with a lot more in the old days,” Miller says. “If you had an error on A17 on the LA Times, people weren’t going to see it.”

The vast majority of media reporting on the Russia scandal was proved to be accurate by the Mueller report. But some bombshells—like reports about a Trump computer server communicating with a Russian bank or WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange meeting repeatedly with former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort—turned out to be irrelevant or entirely bogus.

Each big mistake plays into Trump’s hands. And since most national media outlets rely on anonymous sources, it’s relatively easy for Trump aides to intentionally trick reporters into making a mistake.

“In some cases, they’re actually trying to put out disinformation this way,” Miller

InfoWars host Alex Jones was banned from Twitter and Facebook. One of the conspiracy theories he had spread was that the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax.

PHOTO BY SEAN P. ANDERSON (VIA FLICKR)

says. “The media reports it, the White House dunks on them for being incorrect.”

In this environment, where liars are everywhere and the truth is almost too strange to be believed, journalists are constantly second-guessing themselves.

“It leads to exhaustion. It leads to burning out,” Warzel says. “And then those mistakes are a breeding ground for more potential misinformation.”

In 2016, BuzzFeed reported that in the last three months before the election, 20 fake news stories from hoax sites—Clinton sold weapons to ISIS! The Pope endorsed Trump!—received more engagement on Facebook than the top 20 stories on actual news sites.

But Trump hijacked the phrase “fake news!” and twisted it into his own catchphrase, a way to disparage any story he didn’t like. It was a joke, but the sort of joke that everyone repeats until it burrows into the national psyche.

If all news is fake news, anything can be true. Everything is a lie and nothing is. In the fight over truth, the fog of war is thick.

It’s the perfect environment for an enemy to attack.

Deepfake impact In the video footage back in May, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi sounded drunk. Her words seemed artificially slow, like a drawling slur.

“What is wrong with Nancy Pelosi?”

Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani tweeted. “Her speech pattern is bizarre.”

In reality, the video itself had been doctored, slowed down to make Pelosi sound like she was slurring. Giuliani later deleted the tweet but refused to apologize.

“How could I have figured out that it was inaccurate?” he told The New York Times.

If an altered video that simple could get shared millions of times, experts worried, what could a more sophisticated hoax look like?

In 2017, a Reddit user named “deepfakes,” using Google’s open-source artificial intelligence software, developed a technique to take footage of one face and overlay it onto video footage of someone else. As is typical with new technologies, the internet immediately harnessed it for both pornography and Nicolas Cage memes. The faces of pop stars were imposed on the bodies of porn stars, while the face of the Face/Off actor was swapped onto footage of Gollum and Yoda.

At the same time, another piece of a deceptive puzzle is clicking into place.

Audio-editing products like Adobe Max give editors the option to go beyond cutting and splicing sentences, to editing individual sound fragments to make it appear like a speaker said things they never said. Mix and match the sounds, and with a large enough audio library of a politician, you could make them say anything.

Just imagine that a week before the 2020 election, a video is leaked. It appears to be Trump, engaged in criminal and/or sexually explicit acts. Trump denies it. Maybe the video is a deepfake hoax. Or maybe it’s real, and Trump is just using the existence of deepfakes to deny it. Now imagine experts are divided on which is which. When you can’t believe your lying eyes or your lying ears, you’re left to trust your lying gut.

Now, at least, government officials and technology companies are aware of the chaos that these hoaxes could cause. The House Intelligence Committee has already held hearings on the issue.

“The tech companies aren’t ready,” Schiff, the House Intelligence Committee chair, said on a Vox podcast in June. “The government isn’t ready. We don’t have the technologies yet to be able to detect more sophisticated fakes. And the public is not ready.”

In August, the Pentagon started talking to partners for their new Semantic Forensics program, intending to develop technologies “to help to identify, understand and deter adversary disinformation campaigns.”

The private sector’s pushing for similar measures.

Last month, Facebook, Microsoft and a slew of research institutions announced they were joining forces for the “Deepfake Detection Challenge,” a contest to better understand the little clues that give even sophisticated deepfakes away. Deepfakes

rarely blink in the right way. The heads might have a strange tic. The eye color might be off.

Facebook chipped in $10 million to the effort. But those trying to create hoaxes are innovating, too, trying to think of ways to out-think the detection system.

The fight isn’t just about technology. It’s about corporate policies. In the last two years, tech companies have tried to change their policies, ditching their laissez-faire libertarian approach to try their hand at benevolent censorship.

White supremacists and conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones got banned from Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. YouTube shifted viewers away from straight-up conspiracy theory videos in its recommendation stream—although liberals may be unhappy to learn they often landed at Fox News instead.

Twitter banned the #Resistance-tweeting Krassenstein brothers in June, citing rules that prohibit “operating multiple fake accounts and purchasing account interactions.”

Right now, both major political parties are calling for regulation, including raising the prospect of forcing Facebook to shrink in size. But Republicans and Democrats want different things. While liberals complain about lax regulation allowing “Nazis” to run

wild on the site, conservatives fret about overregulation, worried that conservatives could be censored for their political opinions.

But the lack of censorship is dangerous, too, argue some experts. Whitney Phillips, author of the forthcoming book You Are Here: A Field Guide for Navigating Network Pollution, points to YouTube and Facebook’s recent announcement that since political statements were newsworthy, the sites would rarely take down posts from politicians, even if the posts broke the rules.

“At every turn, at every conceivable opportunity, despite how loud the chorus might get, these technology companies made a choice to protect their bottom line over protecting the democratic process,” Phillips says.

Facebook’s motto for its developers was “move fast and break things.” Phillips thinks they were successful.

“Yeah, they’ve broken democracy,” Phillips says.

Too much information Phillips wants to make it clear that it’s not just Facebook or Twitter’s fault. It’s not just the fault of Alex Jones or Donald Trump or 4chan. It’s your fault, too.

How to avoid spreading misinformation • Wait before reposting. You won’t need to apologize for forwarding untrue information if you never share it to begin with.

• Don’t share something just because it comes from a friend. Double check the source to make sure the reporting is from a respectable publication and that they’re not just summarizing the reaction on social media. Better yet, wait until a second publication independently confirms the reports.

• Read the actual story first. Follow links to make sure the links actually back up the news stories. Biased news sources are infamous for making sensational claims in their headlines that the underlying material doesn’t support.

• Be cautious about sharing bogus stories just to point how stupid or wrong they are. That’s an easy way to inadvertently spread a falsehood.

• Mute #Resistance Twitter stars like Seth Abramson and Eric Garland and ignore far-right websites like Gateway Pundit, Breitbart and (increasingly) the Federalist. Just because they tell you what you want to hear doesn’t mean they’re giving you a straight story.

—DANIEL WALTERS

“A lot of the misinformation being spread is not the result of bad actors,” Phillips says.

“It’s everyday people doing everyday things.”

She thinks of it in terms of an ecological metaphor, where pollution is the accumulation of a billion little actions from individuals.

All of the tweeting, retweeting and Facebook posting adds up.

“We’re sort of at the whims of everyday folks, disinformation agents, algorithms, white supremacists, all jockeying to win the attention economy,” Phillips says. “The result is an air that is so clogged that we can barely breathe.”

In that environment, with so many different competing and contradictory claims, people “don’t even necessarily trust there is such a thing as truth.”

But Phillips doesn’t necessarily agree that more information is the answer. Journalists like to say that sunlight is the best disinfectant. But Phillips argues that sometimes the sunlight simply heats up the petri dish and spreads the disease—especially when people are liable to believe a hoax is true because a journalist says it isn’t.

“The truth can contribute to pollution as much as falsehood can,” Phillips says. “It is easy to feel like you are pushing back against a story when you are saying, ‘This story’s terrible.’ But the algorithm doesn’t care about your righteous indignation. The algorithm cares that you’re engaging with content.”

She urges journalists and everyday people to shift the lens, focusing less on the liars and more on how lies and ideologies have impacted communities.

Warzel, meanwhile, also urges social media users to slow down. Be wary about clicking that retweet button. If a story seems too perfect, doubt it. If a crazy news story doesn’t come from an established media outlet, wait until at least one outlet covers it—ideally two.

Marantz, the expert on online trolls, says the long-term solution to the disinformation crisis is a deep and philosophical one that he’d explain at length with phrases like “reaffirming our commitment to epistemic depth.”

But for now, the simpler way to react to disinformation is to rely a little bit more on the old gatekeepers.

“If you read The New York Times or the BBC or the alt-weekly in your town or the New Yorker, you’re going to be better informed than if you read Facebook,” Marantz says.

Not because they’re perfect—there’s a billion reasons to complain about mainstream journalists, he says—but because, for all their flaws, right now they’re the best we’ve got.

“It’s the best short-term solution,” he says, “as opposed to just living a world where no one knows anything.” Ω A version of this article first appeared in the Inlander, a weekly based in Spokane, Wash.

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Arts &Culture dventure

WRITE YOUR OWN A Self-discovery and dragon-slaying at Chico State

I

THIS WEEK

n the world of Dungeons & Dragons,

you can assume any role you want.

That’s the whole point. You get to live as a character not of this world, one with magical powers who goes on adventures with a party of fellow travelers.

It’s an attractive outlet—especially to a young person still figuring themselves out—to be able to explore your own imagination in an exciting alternate reality free of homework or social anxieties.

In She Kills Monsters, the fresh and playful theater department production that opens at Chico State’s Wismer Theatre tonight (Nov. 14), D&D is the central narrative device. And a young, by awkward high-schooler Jason named Tilly has writCassidy ten her own adventure, j aso nc@ one that takes the charnewsrev i ew.c om acters and the audience on a journey through Preview: both the game and the She Kills Monsters confused and beautiful shows ThursdaySaturday, 7:30 p.m. world of the teenage & Saturday-Sunday, mind.

2 p.m., through The play is billed Nov. 17. as a dramatic comedy, Tickets: $20 ($8/students) and before it makes you laugh it gets seriWismer Theatre ous. The setup: Agnes, Chico State a young schoolteacher, 898-6333 www.csuchico.edu/soa has her world rocked when her whole family—mom, dad and kid sister Tilly—are killed in a car accident.

Agnes (played by Zoe Stamos) finds the D&D campaign book that Tilly wrote and decides to learn how to play the game so she can explore the story and maybe learn something about the sister from whom she’d grown apart.

Her guide through the game is the nerdy, almost-cool, flannel-clad highschooler Chuck (Leif K. Bramer), an experienced dungeon master (DM) who brings the story of Tilly—or Tillius the 20

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NOVEMBER 14, 2019

Paladin—to life for real. Agnes cautiously joins the campaign’s characters in the flesh—and there’s a lot of flesh. Demon queen Lilith Morningstar (Marlene Bruce) and dark elf Kaliope Darkwalker (Kelsey Campbell) are Tillius’ badass and sexy sidekicks, who can slay Bugbears and Ogres while wearing only a few scraps of fabric.

As Agnes joins her sister’s party, we soon find out that the attractive female cohorts are a clue to Tilly’s real-life identity quest. In fact, the whole campaign is full of connections to her life, and as the game progresses, Agnes gets to know her sister as she fights beside her.

She Kills Monsters was created by Qui Nguyen, a New York-based playwright whose “work is known for its innovative use of pop culture, stage violence, puppetry and multimedia,” and all of those elements are on display in this production.

I watched a rehearsal of the play, and theater instructor/director Matthew Teague Miller and his crew have transformed the black-box theater into Tilly’s fantasy world. A hidden fog machine blows a near-constant cloud of atmosphere across the faux stone walls of a huge bi-level castle-like structure that serves as a backdrop for bone-shattering battles vs. impressivelooking monsters accompanied by blaring metal, electronic and ’90s hip-hop music.

Kudos to designers Jacob Brown (scenic), Michael Johnson (lighting) and students Oliver Loll (sound), Tristen Knox

They kill monsters (from left): Agnes (Zoe Stamos), Lililth (Marlene Bruce), Tillius (Sydney Baichta) and Kaliope (Kelsey Campbell).

(costumes) PHOTO BY MATTHEW and Kelsey TEAGUE MILLER Campbell (hair and makeup), as well as fight and dance choreographers Andrew Zollinger and Megan Glynn Zollinger.

The night I attended was the first dress rehearsal, and already the student actors seemed to have taken command of their roles. Bramer was perfect as the geeky DM (his DJ pantomime over the D&D game board during the music was hilarious). And all the players in Tillius’ campaign party—which would grow to include Eric Herrera as wisecracking Orcus, the recently retired Overlord of the Underworld—threw themselves into engaging characterizations and the battle scenes (there undoubtedly will be many bruises by the end of this run).

Even though it’s Tilly’s story being told, the central character is Agnes. And Stamos is wonderful in the complex lead role of a young woman navigating a rite of passage, as Agnes sheds her layer of normalcy, starts taking risks and eventually discovers her inner badass.

The power of the play lies in the dual purpose of the brilliant fantasy roleplaying construct. It’s a magical way to present Tilly’s journey of self discovery, and it provides Agnes the means to rediscover the sister she’d lost and rewrite her own story along the way. Ω

14

THU

Special Events CLIMATE CRISES TALKS: Where Are We Now, A County-Wide View, with speakers Ann Schwab, Chico City Council member; Julie Heath, Schools for Climate Action; and Susan Dobra, member of Camp Fire Long Term Recovery Group. Thu, 11/14, 7pm. Gateway Science Museum, 625 Esplanade.

PARKSIDE COMEDY SHOWCASE: Sacramento comic Emma Haney and local standups Hank Duke, Elle LaFaye, Eliza Odegard and Jacob McClain. Thu, 11/14, 8pm. Parkside Tap House, 115 Third St.

TRI-TIP DINNER FUNDRAISER: The 14th annual Parent Teacher Student Association dinner fundraiser; benefit for local schools. Thu, 11/14, 5pm. $12 - $15. Chico Junior High, 280 Memorial Way.

Music JOHN CRAIGIE & THE SHOOK TWINS: Sweet sounds from Americana singer/songwriter out of Portland, plus folk duo The Shook Twins. Thu, 11/14, 7:30pm. $22. Sierra Nevada Big Room, 1075 E. 20th St. sierranevada.com

THINGS I WANT MY KID TO KNOW: Fall concert with PV High School jazz band and concert band/wind ensemble. Thu, 11/14, 7pm. Pleasant Valley High School, 1475 East Ave.

ANIMATION CHICO FILM FESTIVAL Saturday, Nov. 16 Chico Theater Company

SEE SATURDAY, SPECIAL EVENTS

FINE ARTS ON NEXT PAGE JOHN CRAIGIE & THE SHOOK TWINS Tonight, Nov. 14 Sierra Nevada Big Room SEE THURSDAY, MUSIC

16

SAT

Special Events p.m.). Visit site for film info, screening times and other fest activities. No cover. Fri, 11/15, 3pm. CARD Community Center, 545 Vallombrosa Ave. chicoindie.com

COFFEE WITH COMRADES CURRENT AFFAIRS DISCUSSION: Enjoy a beverage and chat about the state of the city and the planet with old and new friends. Fri, 11/15, 5:30pm. Blackbird, 1431 Park Ave.

LAUGHING OUR ASHES OFF COMEDY SHOW: Free show featuring comedians from the Sacramento area donating their time and talent to bring some laughs to the Ridge.

Donations accepted. 18 and older. Fri, 11/15, 8pm. Paradise Performing Arts Center, 777 Nunneley Road, Paradise.

Theater BRIGHT STAR: Created by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell, this original musical tells a tale of love and redemption set against the backdrop of the American South in the 1920s and ’40s. Thu, 11/14, 7:30pm. $16-$22. Theatre on the Ridge, 3735 Neal Road, Paradise. totr.org

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN: Enchanting, brutal vampire myth and coming-of-age love story adapted from the best-selling novel and award-winning film. Thu, 11/14, 7:30pm. Blue Room Theatre, 139 W. First St. blueroomthe atre.com

SHE KILLS MONSTERS: A contemporary highenergy dramatic comedy following the adventures of Agnes who, after the death of her sister, embarks upon a Dungeons and Dragons campaign like no other. Thu, 11/14, 7:30pm. $8-$20. Wismer Theatre, Chico State, 898-6333. csuchico.edu/soa

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FRI

Special Events CHICO MALL FAMILY MOVIE NIGHT: Make the kids happy with Toy Story 4, near Dick’s Sporting Goods. Fri, 11/15, 7pm. Chico Mall, 1950 E. 20th St.

CHICO INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL: A grab-bag of films from Chico and beyond (including G-Ride, a documentary short on local pedicabbing icon Mike G-Ride, on Sat, 11/16, 5:30

VOLUNTEER FRIDAYS: Join in picking up litter and pulling weeds. For more info call Shane at 896-7831. Fri, 11/15, 9am. Bidwell Park.

Music JOE CRAVEN AND THE SOMETIMERS: String-centric folk band performs eclectic, genre-bending show. Fri, 11/15, 7:30pm. $15. Chico Women’s Club, 592 E. Third St. kzfr.org.

TYLER DEVOLL: Soulful melodies to start the weekend. Fri, 11/15, 4pm. La Salles, 229 Broadway St. lasalleschico.com

Theater BRIGHT STAR: See Thursday. Fri, 11/15, 7:30pm. $16-$22. Theatre on the Ridge, 3735 Neal Road, Paradise. totr.org

FROZEN JR.: Chico Regional Theater kids fall show. Fri, 11/15, 7pm. $10. CUSD Center for the Arts, 1475 East Ave. crtkids.com

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN: See Thursday. Fri, 11/15, 7:30pm. Blue Room Theatre, 139 W. First St. blueroomtheatre.com

SHE KILLS MONSTERS: See Thursday. Fri, 11/15, 7:30pm. $8-$20. Wismer Theatre, Chico State, 898-6333. csuchico.edu/soa

MOTOSHI KOSAKO Sunday, Nov. 17 Tender Loving Coffee SEE SUNDAY, MUSIC

50/50 ART SALE FUNDRAISER: Enjoy a Saturday of art viewing and purchase works by local artists to support the gallery. Sat 11/16, 9am. 1078 Gallery, 1710 Park Ave. 1078gallery. org

ANIMATION CHICO FILM FESTIVAL: Animation Chico presents a wide variety of animated films from both established and upcoming artists. Free! Sat 11/16, 10:30am. Chico Theater Company, 166 Eaton Road, Ste. F. facebook. com/animationchico

BUTTE ENVIRONMENTAL COUNCIL GALA: The 44th anniversary celebration with silent auction, locally sourced food, beer and wine. Sat 11/16, 5pm. $35-$40. Arc Pavilion, 2040 Park Ave. becnet.org

CHICO CHILDREN’S MUSEUM FALL FUNDRAISER: Adults-only cocktail and dinner fiesta to celebrate community and raise money for the museum. Sat 11/16, 6pm. $50. Chico Children’s Museum, 325 Main St. chico childrensmuseum.org

CHICO INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL: See Friday.

No cover. Sat, 11/16, noon. CARD Community Center, 545 Vallombrosa Ave. chicoindie.com

DAY HIKE NORTH RIM TRAIL: Beautiful 6-7 mile hike on the North Rim Trail. Rain cancels. Meet at the Horseshoe Lake parking lot at 8:30am.

Contact Alan at 891-8789 or ajmendoza777@ comcast.net for more info. Sat 11/16, 8:30am. Upper Bidwell Park.

EVOLUTION OF TOOLS: Bud and Steve Bolt talk tools. Sat 11/16, 10am. Bolt’s Antique Tool Museum, 1650 Broderick St., Oroville.

stops by on tour for new solo album. Expect a few old hits, too. Sat, 11/16, 8pm. $20-$25.

Tackle Box, 379 E. Park Ave. jmaxpro ductions.net

MAX MINARDI: Brunch with indie rock singer/ songwriter with a country-tinged voice. Sat, 11/16, 11am. La Salles, 229 Broadway St. lasalleschico.com

PARADISE R&B: Popular blues/rock band Big Mo & the Full Moon Band, and blues crew The Revells. Benefit concert for Norton Buffalo Hall and the Paradise Performing Arts Center. Sat, 11/16, 7pm. $40. Paradise Performing Arts Center, 777 Nunneley Road, Paradise. paradiseperformingarts.com

Theater BRIGHT STAR: See Thursday. Sat, 11/16, 7:30pm. $16-$22. Theatre on the Ridge, 3735 Neal Road, Paradise. totr.org

FROZEN JR.: See Friday. Sat, 11/16, 2pm. $10.

CUSD Center for the Arts, 1475 East Ave. crtkids.com

INTO THE WOODS: California Regional Theatre kids fall show presents the Brothers Grimm epic fairytale about wishes, family and the choices we make. Sat, 11/16, 7pm. $10. CUSD Center for the Arts, 1475 East Ave. crtkids. com

LET THE RIGHT ONE IN: See Thursday. Sat, 11/16, 7:30pm. Blue Room Theatre, 139 W. First St. blueroomtheatre.com

17

SUN

Special Events CHICO INDEPENDENT FILM FESTIVAL: See Friday.

No cover. Sun 11/17, noon. CARD Community Center, 545 Vallombrosa Ave. chicoindie.com

HARVEST FEAST POTLUCK: Enjoy a meal alongside the art at Stonewall Chico’s Great Heart exhibition. Main dishes for provided by Chico Natural Foods and The Bank Club. Feel free to bring a dish. RSVP at stonewallchico. com. Sun, 11/17, 2pm. Museum of Northern California Art, 900 Esplanade. monca.org

STUFFED W/ COMEDY AN IMPROV SHOW: Get stuffed with laughter at seasonal improv show.

BYOB. Sun, 11/17, 7pm. Chico Live Improv Comedy, 561 E. Lindo Ave.

Music MOTOSHI KOSAKO: Prominent jazz harpist from Japan performs for brunch. Sun, 11/17, 11am. Tender Loving Coffee, 365 E. Sixth St. SUNDAY SUPERJAM: Jam with Chico’s best musicians at this weekly event Rock, blues, country, funk—anything goes.

Signup early. Sun, 11/17, 2pm. LaSalles, 229 Broadway St.

Theater BRIGHT STAR: See Thursday. Sun, 11/17, 2pm. $16$22. Theatre on the Ridge, 3735 Neal Road, Paradise. totr.org

SHE KILLS MONSTERS: See Thursday. Sat, 11/16, 2pm and 7:30 pm. $8-$20. Wismer Theatre, Chico State, 898-6333. csuchico.edu/soa

THIS WEEK CONTINUED ON PAGE 22

HOLIDAY VINTAGE & ARTISAN FAIRE: Beta Chapter of Omega Nu Foundation hosts holiday market featuring beer and wine tasting, arts and crafts, appetizers and more. Proceeds benefit local high school scholarships. Sat 11/16, 3pm. Manzanita Place, 1705 Manzanita Ave.

LOWER PARK NIGHT HIKE: Experience a completely different park and nighttime animals during this leisurely stroll in the moonlight. Rain or shine. Sat 11/16, 7pm. Chico Creek Nature Center, 1968 E. Eighth St.

THE TIMES OF THE BARTLETT DRUG COMPANY IN CHICO: Career educator and published author Kathleen Gabriel previews of her soon-tobe-published book on the pharmacy life of Chico. Sat 11/16, 10am. $5. Chico History Museum, 141 Salem St.

WOMXN’S CONFERENCE: Free event celebrating the full scope of femininity hosted by the Gender and Sexuality Equity Coalition. Sat 11/16, 11am. Bell Memorial Union Auditorium, Chico State.

Music ART ALEXAKIS: Former frontman of Everclear

EARLY DEADLINES Due to holiday scheduling, submissions for the Nov. 27 print calendar are due

by Monday, Nov. 18, 5 p.m.; and those for the Dec. 5 print calendar are due by Monday, Nov. 25, 9 a.m.

EDITOR’S PICK

COME TOGETHER Thursday-Sunday (Nov. 14-17) at the Museum of Northern California Art, Stonewall Alliance Chico will present its annual fall art show, Great Heart, a celebration of the creativity of LGTBQ people in our area and beyond.

Festivities include a grand reception party on Friday (Nov. 15), featuring live art-making, poetry, music (by Scout, Cat Depot and more). And Sunday (Nov. 17) there will be a free LGTBQ+ Harvest Feast Potluck at the museum, with main dishes provided by The Bank Club and Chico Natural Foods (visit stonewallchico.com to RSVP; seating is limited). Enjoy some grub, see some art and honor the courage and creativity of this community.

NOVEMBER 14, 2019

CN&R

21

$5 Off Purchase of $25 or more

Exp. 11/30/19

Under new ownership, come try us out!

THIS WEEK coNtiNued from page 21

FINE ARTS

INTO THE WOODS: See Saturday. Sun, 11/17, 2pm. $10. CUSD Center for the Arts, 1475 East Ave. crtkids.com

SHE KILLS MONSTERS: See Thursday. Sun, 11/17, 2pm. $8-$20. Wismer Theatre, Chico State, 898-6333. csuchico.edu/soa

18

moN 2365 Esplanade, Chico / 530-895-9607

Special Events BIRD OF PREY: Altacal Audubon movie night featuring documentary following worldrenowned wildlife cinematographer Neil Rettig as he journeys to find the rarest eagle on the planet. Mon, 11/18, 6:30pm. Free. Chico Creek Nature Center, 1968 E. Eighth St.

19

tue

Special Events CANDLELIGHT VIGIL FOR HOMELESS YOUTH: Show your support for homeless youth and

learn what you can do to help. Tue, 11/19, 5:30pm. City Council Chambers, 421 Main St.

Music FOUR ITALIAN TENORS: Chico Performances presents four world-class tenors— Roberto Cresca, Alessandro D’Acrissa, Federico Serra and Federico Parisi—on tour in America for a tribute to the master Italian tenors—Caruso, Lanza, Pavarotti and Bocelli. Tue, 11/19, 7:30pm. $15-$45.

Laxson Auditorium, Chico State, 898-6333. chicoperformances.com

20

Wed

Special Events ADVANCED CARE PLANNING: Presentation on popular advanced care planning tool, Five Wishes. For more information call Butte Hospice at 895-0462 or visit buttehome health.com Wed, 11/20, 12pm. Free. Butte Home Health & Hospice, 10 Constitution Drive.

SKY, AN EVENING OF FLAMENCO: Seattle-based Flamenco dancer Savannah Fuentes performs with live accompaniment. Wed, 11/20, 7:30pm. $8-$35. Apollo School of Music, 936 Mangrove Ave.

Music MATISYAHU: Popular Jewish rapper with a reggae/rock sound performs. Joined by dancehall duo Bedouin Soundclash. Wed, 11/20, 7:30pm. $30. Senator Theatre, 517 Main St. jmaxproductions.net

fLora, fauNa aNd fieLds Shows through Jan. 1 Red Tavern see art

Art CHICO ART CENTER: Dia de los Muertos Art & Altar Exhibition, traditional and contemporary art pieces honoring the dead.

Through 11/22. 450 Orange St. chicoart center.com

HEALING ART GALLERY AT ENLOE CANCER CENTER: Art by Christine MacShane, paintings by local artist. The Enloe Cancer Center, Healing Art Gallery shows work by artists whose lives have been touched by cancer (survivors, caretakers and healthcare givers). Through 1/24. Free.

265 Cohasset Road.

JACKI HEADLEY UNIVERSITY ART GALLERY: To Freeze the Shifting Phantasmagoria, exhibit investigates diverse strategies emerging in contemporary painting, highlighting work by California artists. Through 12/14. Chico State, ARTS 121.

MUSEUM OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA ART: Great Heart, art show by, for, and about LGBTQ people and their experiences, struggles and accomplishments. Reception Friday, 11/15, 6-10pm. Also: Reflection and Hope, group exhibit reflecting the experiences of survivors and the community a year after the Camp Fire. And, Bench Press, benches by 13 artists. 900 Esplanade, monca.org

ORLAND ART CENTER: Two Powerful Points of View, exhibit featuring work by artists Valerie Payne and Chuck Prudhomme.

Through 11/23. 732 Fourth St., Orland.

PROVISIONS GALLERY: Courage, solo exhibition for more MUSIC, see NIGHTLIFE oN page 24

22

CN&R

November 14, 2019

by Vanessa Wolfe. Through 11/30. 122 W. Third St. (in back of Upper Park clothing store).

RED TAVERN: Flora, Fauna and Fields, eclectic exhibit featuring paintings in oils and watercolor by Eva Farley, Candy Matthews and Dolores Mitchell. Through 1/1. 1250 Esplanade.

THE TURNER: 3rd Story Prints with Prose, prints alongside Chico State students’ flash-fiction works inspired by the museum’s collection. Through 12/14. Free.

400 W. First St., theturner.org

Museums CHICO CHILDREN’S MUSEUM: Tons of cool stuff for kids to explore including a miniature city, complete with a junior vet clinic, dentist, cafe and farmers’ market, a giant fish tank, multisensory room, imagination playground and much more. Check the website for hours and admission information. Through 8/3. $7-$9. 325 Main St. chicochildrensmuseum.org.

GATEWAY SCIENCE MUSEUM: Before and Beyond the Moon, interactive multimedia exhibition celebrates the human and technological achievements needed to reach the moon and envisions a future Mars landing. Through 12/15. 625 Esplanade.

VALENE L. SMITH MUSEUM OF ANTHROPOLOGY: Unbroken Traditions Basketweavers of the Meadows-Baker Families in Northern California, exhibition represents the culmination of one year of research and collaboration between Mountain Maidu weavers, other tribal experts, museums studies students, faculty and curators. Through 5/15. Chico State.

SCENE

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Impressive adaptation of Swedish romantic horror story

Nov 7 thru

Jan 20

Ice

Paradise

Lola Parks (left) and Lilia Chavira.

Photo by Joe hilsee

Glend themselvesson.to theNevertheless, fall seahost and vampire tales certainly

I found it rather surprising that Carey the Blue Room Wilson Theatre would stage back-toback Gothic horReview: let the right one in ror stories to open shows thursday- its 2019/20 seasaturday, 7:30 p .m., son. But, I had a through Nov. 23 chance to see both tickets: $15 (thursdays, pay- The Haunting what-you-can) of Hill House (in October) and Blue Room Theatre now Let the Right 139 W. First st.

One In—with its 895-3749 blueroomtheatre.com minimalist staging and exploration of alienation and family discord— and I’ve come away with a greater appreciation of the depth and variety of applications of the “horror” genre.

This stage adaptation of Swedish author John Ajvide Lindqvist’s 2004 vampire novel (which was also made into two well-received films, one Swedish, one American) takes place in “Blackeburg, a suburb in Sweden in 1983.” To depict the setting, stage designer Amber Miller created a stark interlocking network of silvery frames that, depending on the scene, represent either the forest outside the town or the dwellings and buildings by

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of the town itself. In the opening scene we witness what appears to be a ritualistic murder and draining of blood from a victim strung up by his heels in the manner of an animal dispatched in a slaughterhouse.

From there, expository scenes proceed very quickly in a live theater equivalent of cinematic flashcut editing, with the actors serving as stagehands during the brief blackouts between tableaux.

The play’s central character, Oskar (played by Lilia Chavira), is bullied by his schoolmates pushing him around, tauntingly calling him “Piggy” and generally inspiring his fantasies of revenge.

Meanwhile, the townspeople are increasingly concerned about grisly murders in the woods and wonder if a mass murderer is afoot.

In the midst of this tension, Oskar meets Eli (Lola Parks), a girl seemingly about his own age, wandering barefoot in the cold. The two develop a kinship based on their alienation from their parents, elders and contemporaries. However, Eli’s alienation stems from the fact that she is not a lonely girl but an agesold vampire who is not resigned to her fate and who harbors genuine compassion for Oskar, whose ostracism from and bullying by his peers is a dim reflection of her separation from the world of the mortals she must feed on.

With an excellent cast of 12 delivering 40 scenes in its two acts, the relationship between the mismatched but complementary couple is illuminated and commented on by the society that neither of them is capable of rejoining. Oskar’s mother (Tricia McCutcheon) is a drink-swilling, red-robed drama queen and his estranged father (Justin Jodaitis) rejects his son’s approaches, further pushing Oskar outside of “normal” relationships.

Enhancing the play’s 1980s ambiance, director Martin Chavira has chosen a subtle musical background that employs repeated motifs from legendary English new wave band Joy Division’s song “She’s Lost Control” and Icelandic band The Sugarcubes’ “Birthday.”

Both songs invoke the beauty and estrangement of the friendship between Oskar and Eli conveyed through haunting melodies and lyrics such as “She has one friend/He lives next door/They’re listening to the weather.”

The structure of the play, coming as it does in many short sequences, is very energetic, yet this pacing and fragmentation of narrative conveys a great amount of dramatic, thoughtprovoking information that will leave viewers with conversational material long after the players have left the stage. Bite into it and savor the bloody surge. □

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CN&R

23

NIGHTLIFE

THUrSDAY 11/14—WeDNeSDAY 11/20

JOHNNY BOY KUNK: Foot-stompin’

Mastersounds and Lyrics Born’s band and more. Sacramento’s Ten Foot Tiger opens. Fri, 11/15, 9pm. $10. Lost On Main, 319 Main St.

Mississippi blues. Thu, 11/14, 7pm. Tender Loving Coffee, 365 E. Sixth St.

METAL! NIGHT: Extremely heavy night with Exmortus, Aitherios, Lingering Torment, Kratom and Sever All. All ages. Thu, 11/14, 6pm. $5-$7. The Metal Shop, 4950 Cohasset Road, Ste. 42.

KILLER WHALE: S.F. indie/soul band, plus Brothers of the Oven and local punks Beehive. Fri, 11/15, 8:30pm. $7.

The Maltese, 1600 Park Ave.

KYLE WILLIAMS: Mellow tunes with local singer songwriter. Fri, 11/15, 8pm. The Exchange, 1975

PARKSIDE COMEDY SHOWCASE: Sacramento comic Emma Haney and local standups Hank Duke, Elle LaFaye, Eliza Odegard and Jacob McClain. Thu, 11/14, 8pm. Parkside Tap House, 115 Third St.

Montgomery St., Oroville. theexchangeoroville.com

OFF THE RECORD: Your ’80s favorites from the King of Pop to GNR. Fri, 11/15, 9:30pm. $5. Feather Falls Casino, 3 Alverda Drive, Oroville.

PEARL CHARLES: L.A.-based singer/ songwriter with a soulful, retro sound performs. Local fave Pat Hull opens. Thu, 11/14, 8pm. $10. Argus Bar + Patio, 212 W. Second St.

ArT ALeXAKIS Saturday, Nov. 16 Tackle Box

15FrIDAY

See SATUrDAY

14THUrSDAY

JOHN CRAIGIE & THE SHOOK TWINS: Americana singer/songwriter out of Portland, plus folk duo The Shook Twins. Thu, 11/14, 7:30pm. $22. Sierra Nevada Big Room, 1075 E. 20th St. sierranevada.com

Acoustic/electric guitar and drum set available to use. Signup at 7:30pm. All ages welcome until 10pm. Fri, 11/15, 8pm. $1. Down Lo, 319 Main St.

PAJAMA JAM PARTY DRAG SHOW: Dance party featuring live performances and six DJs including Snuffy, Otter, Shiner, Bazz, Soliloquy and ProtoChe. Fri, 11/15, 8pm. $10-$20. El Rey Theater, 230 W. Second St. elreychico.com

ATREYU: So-Cal rap-metal band on a packed bill of heavies, including Whitechapel, He Is Legend, Tempting Fate and Santa Cruz share the bill. Fri, 11/15, 6:30pm. $25-$28.

Senator Theatre, 517 Main St. jmaxproductions.net

JEFFREY OBSER AND ROBERT KARCH: An evening of Brazilian music with local guitarists/vocalists and special guests. Thu, 11/14, 6:30pm. Farm Star Pizza, 2359 Esplanade.

OPEN MIC: Bring an instrument.

SHAWN JAMES: Chicago-based singer/ songwriter performs his signature mix of gut-bucket blues, folk, and soul. Sam Houston & Blk Odyss share the bill. Fri, 11/15, 9pm. $15.

Tackle Box, 379 E. Park Ave.

BOB KIRKLAND TRIO: Cool jazz for a cool night. Fri, 11/15, 6:30pm. Diamond Steakhouse, 220 W. Fourth St.

COLLECTIVITY: S.F. jazz/funk, psychedelic soul band originally from China, featuring members of New

SHIGEMI: Local jazz keyboardist per-

outfit. Fri, 11/15, 8:30pm. Feather Falls Casino & Lodge, 3 Alverda Drive, Oroville.

YURKOVIC: Local trio brings lo-fi electric delta swamp blues. Fri, 11/15, 8pm. Unwined Kitchen & Bar, 980 Mangrove Ave.

16SATUrDAY

ART ALEXAKIS: Former frontman for

Everclear stops by on tour with solo album. Expect a few hits from his old stuff too. Sat, 11/16, 8pm. $20$25. Tackle Box, 379 E. Park Ave. jmaxproductions.net

BALD ROCK BOYS: Classic rock

and country hits. Sat, 11/16, 6:30pm. Farm Star Pizza, 2359 Esplanade.

BELLA DONNA: Stevie Nicks tribute band performs solo and Fleetwood Mac music with authentic wardrobe and production. Sat, 11/16, 9:30pm. $5. Feather Falls Casino & Lodge, 3 Alverda Drive, Oroville. featherfallscasino.com

CHARLESTHEFIRST: Tahoe-based artist makes experimental electronic sounds with a hip-hop vibe.

Tiedye Ky, Vctre open. Sat, 11/16, 8:30pm. $18-$20. Senator Theatre, 517 Main St. jmaxproductions.net

Let’s Plant!

Maple Trees Renowned for their brilliant fall foliage. Vibrant hues of fiery red, electric orange and calming yellow deepen with warm sunny days and cool nights. Planting a Maple such as Autumn Blaze or October Glory will make you the envy of the neighborhood.

TickeTs $25 State Theater, Red Bluff Thurs, Nov. 14, 7- 9PM • www.brownpapertickets.com EL Rey Theater, Chico Sat, Nov. 23, 7- 9PM • www.elreychico.com 24

CN&R

November 14, 2019

Pearl Charles has been compared to Lana Del Rey, but her melody-driven pop tunes are a bit more upbeat—think joyful easy listening with an indie aesthetic. Her style is on point, her lilting voice is gilded with a country twang, and her lyrics delve into the mysteries of love and heartbreak. Catch Charles tonight (Nov. 14) at Argus Bar + Patio with Chico storyteller, Pat Hull.

SKIP CULTON PROJECT: Rock ’n’ soul

forms. Fri, 11/15, 5pm. Almendra

tickets available at the door!

FeeLIN’ THoSe reTro vIbeS

Winery & Distillery, 9275 Midway Road, Durham.

Mon- Fri 8aM-4pM SaTurday 8:30aM-5pM 2270 Fair STreeT | 343-7615

THE COMMODORES: Grammy Award-

KELLY TWINS DUELING PIANOS: Jon and

winning Motown legends perform the classics. Sat, 11/16, 8pm. $35$95. Gold Country Casino & Hotel, 4020 Olive Highway, Oroville.

Chris play your requests all night long. Sat, 11/16, 9pm. Feather Falls Casino & Lodge, 3 Alverda Drive, Oroville. featherfallscasino.com

DRAG SHOW: Drag, drinks and danc-

LARRY PETERSON & JIM SCHMIDT: An

eclectic mix of dinner tunes. Sat, 11/16, 6:30pm. Diamond Steakhouse, 220 W. Fourth St.

ing every third Saturday of the month. Sat, 11/16, 10pm. $8. The Maltese, 1600 Park Ave.

HOT DAMN SCANDAL: Cool swing/

LO & BEHOLD: Funky fun dance grooves

jug band from Washington performs. Toofless Sean Corkery and Chicken Hearts open. Sliding scale, all ages. Sat, 11/16, 8pm. $7-$10.

Blackbird, 1431 Park Ave.

to get you on the dance floor. Sat, 11/16, 8pm. Unwined Kitchen & Bar,

980 Mangrove Ave. unwinedchico.com

METALCORE SANDWICH PARTY: Bang yer head to Anever, Preacher, I Sank

Sign up today for Butte County’s First Ever BYOC Cannabis-Friendly Art Classes www.ButteCounty CannabisArtClub.com

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real

news Donate to ’s InDepenDent JournalIsm FunD:

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MATISYAHU

EARLY DEADLINES

THIS WEEK: FIND MORE ENTERTAINMENT AND SPECIAL EVENTS ON PAGE 24

SEE WEDNESDAY

Due to holiday scheduling, submissions for the Nov. 27 print calendar are due

by Monday, Nov. 18, 5 p.m.; and those for the Dec. 5 print calendar are due

by Monday, Nov. 25, 9 a.m.

20WEDNESDAY

Wednesday, Nov. 20 Senator Theatre

OVERDRIVE: Classic rock covers with local band. Sat, 11/16, 9pm. Studio Inn Lounge, 2582 Esplanade.

PARADISE R&B: Popular blues/ rock band Big Mo & the Full Moon Band, and blues crew The Revells.

Benefit concert for Norton Buffalo Hall and the Paradise Performing Arts Center. Sat, 11/16, 7pm. $40.

Paradise Performing Arts Center, 777 Nunneley Road, Paradise. paradiseperformingarts.com

PERFECT DARK: A night of electronic dance music featuring DJs Lavender Persuasion, Disfu, and Omar Ali. Sat, 11/16, 8pm. Naked Lounge, 118 W. Second St.

SHEP & THE FLEAS: Live music. Sat, 11/16, 8pm. The Exchange, 1975 Montgomery St., Oroville.

THE TUNNEL: Get heavy with darkAtlantis and Vulltaras. All ages. Sat, 11/16, 7:30pm. $7. Ike’s Place, 648 W. Fifth St.

NICK ISHAM: Late-night happy hour tunes with L.A.-based singer/songwriter known for his soulful voice and storytelling lyrics. Sat, 11/16, 10pm. La Salles, 229 Broadway St.

NIGHT OF GOTH/PUNK: Chico Area Punks present killer lineup of local and out-of-town bands featuring Moira Scar, Mercury’s Butterfly, Shadow Figures, and Desperate Hell. Sat, 11/16, 8pm. $7. 1078 Gallery, 1710 Park Ave.

metal band from SF and local doom from Amarok and the experimental rap/punk/metal of Pervert. Sat, 11/16, 9pm. $7. Duffy’s Tavern, 337 Main St.

17SUNDAY

DEMUN JONES: Country-rap night with popular artist from Georgia, plus duo Long Cut. Sun, 11/17, 6pm. $10.

Tackle Box, 379 E. Park Ave.

NECK OF THE WOODS: Black-metal band from BC performs, locals Aberrance, Aitherios and brand new crew

Mourn share the bill. Sun, 11/17, 7pm. $7. Ike’s Place, 648 W. Fifth St.

OPEN MIC COMEDY NIGHT: Working on a bit? See if it’s a hit or heckle-worthy, and enjoy cheap beer specials.

Signups start at 8pm. Sun, 11/17, 9pm. The Maltese, 1600 Park Ave. maltesebarchico.com

18MONDAY

ENTRESOL: Melodic/industrial act

from Eugene, plus Folian from Portland and Chico’s Jon Slater (Valve Control). Mon, 11/18, 7:30pm. 1078 Gallery, 1710 Park Ave., 1078gallery.org

19TUESDAY

TENDER LOVING TRIVIA: Test your

knowledge on a range of topics with Annie Fischer. Prize for first place, a portion of the proceeds go to a local nonprofit. Tue, 11/19, 6pm. Tender Loving Coffee, 365 E. Sixth St.

TUESDAY TRIVIA: Show what you

know and win prizes. Tue, 11/19, 6:30pm. Secret Trail Brewing Co., 132 Meyers St., Ste. 120.

THE BIDWELLS: Sweet voices and savory guitar stylings from local duo. Wed, 11/20, 6pm. Diamond Steakhouse, 220 W. Fourth St.

DANCE NIGHT: Four lady DJs with large vinyl collections select a fresh slice of wax every Wednesday for your boogie-ing pleasure. Wed, 11/20, 10pm. $1. Duffy’s Tavern, 337 Main St.

DIVIDED HEAVEN: Alt/indie band from L.A., plus singer/songwriter Travis Hayes and local musician Ryan Davidson. Wed, 11/20, 8pm. $10.

Argus Bar + Patio, 212 W. Second St.

DYRK & LAUREL: Local duo performs music from the ’40s through the ’70s jukebox style. Wed, 11/20, 6pm. Allies Pub, 426 Broadway, Ste. 130.

FOUR ITALIAN TENORS: Chico Performances presents four worldclass tenors—Roberto Cresca, Alessandro D’Acrissa, Federico Serra and Federico Parisi—on tour in America for a tribute to the master Italian tenors—Caruso, Lanza, Pavarotti and Bocelli. Tue, 11/19, 7:30pm. $15-$45. Laxson Auditorium, Chico State, 898-6333. chicoperformances.com

JOHN CALVIN ABNEY & M. LOCKWOOD PORTER: Singer/songwriter night

Senator Theatre, 517 Main St. jmaxproductions.net

with a couple of Oklahoma troubadours, plus local fave Kyle Williams. Wed, 11/20, 8pm. $7-$12.

Tender Loving Coffee, 365 E. Sixth St.

MATISYAHU: Popular Jewish rapper with a reggae/rock sound performs.

Joined by dancehall duo Bedouin Soundclash. Wed, 11/20, 7:30pm. $30.

OPEN MIC: Music and spoken

word. Wed, 11/20, 7pm. Free. Butte County Library, Chico Branch, 1108 Sherman Ave.

OPEN MIC: Come on down strut your stuff. Andan from the Channel 66 band hosts. Wed, 11/20, 7pm. Apollo School of Music, 936 Mangrove Ave.

SWING WITH A LITTLE SAUCE

Hot Damn Scandal (pictured) is a jug band that spins dirty ragtime tunes out of heartbreak and booze. This Saturday (Nov. 16), the group brings its signature “Northwest Devil Swing” to Blackbird for what is sure to be a foot-stompin’ good time. Joining the lineup will be balladeer bluesman Toofless Sean Corkery and the Chicken Hearts—a new local country band (with members of Sex Hogs II).

JAM SESSION: Informal night of improvised music. All musicians and genres are welcome. House band until 8pm, open jam after. Wed, 11/20, 7:30pm. Tender Loving Coffee, 365 E. Sixth St.

M-F 9am-5pm Sat 10am-5pm Sun 10am-4pm

Equipment

NOVEMBER 14, 2019

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REEL WORLD

FILM SHORTS Reviewers: Bob Grimm and Juan-Carlos Selznick.

Opening this week Charlie’s Angels

The 1970s TV series gets another film reboot, this one directed by Elizabeth Banks (who also plays Bosley—there’s more than one now!) and starring Kristen Stewart, Naomi Scott and Ella Balinska as the trio of detective angels. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas. Rated PG-13.

Ford v Ferrari

Biopic about famed car designer Caroll Shelby (played by Matt Damon), who partnered with Ford Motor Co. and driver Ken Miles (Christian Bale) to build an American car to challenge Ferrari at the Le Mans endurance race. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas. Rated PG-13.

The Good Liar

Ian McKellen stars as a lifelong conman whose plans to seduce a rich widow (Helen Mirren) and steal her fortune are complicated as he starts to fall in love with her.

Cinemark 14. Rated R.

Now playing The Addams Family

The creepy family made famous in the 1960s television series gets the CGI animation treatment. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas. Rated PG.

Compromised host

Doctor Sleep

An adaptation of Stephen King’s 2013 followup to The Shining, staring Ewan McGregor as a grown up Danny Torrance, still messed up from the events at the Overlook Hotel.

Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas. Rated R.

A brilliant dark comedy from South Korea

P

arasite, the latest prize-winning film from South Korean auteur Bong Joon-ho, is a savagely farcical comedy/drama with a whiplash streak of social commentary and a few stinging touches of horror film and theater of the absurd running through it. by Its central story concerns the Juan-Carlos mutual misadventures of two Selznick families, one poor and the other wealthy. The down-at-the-heels members of the Kim family live in a squalid basement apartment and are mostly unemployed. They’re Parasite indifferently educated, lacking in marketable skills, and not particuDirected by bong Joon-ho. Pageant larly attentive to ambition or any Theatre. rated r. other bourgeois values. But they do have a certain roguish flair for forgery and the role-playing of con artists, and that’s what soon brings them all into the lives of the very well-heeled Park family.

The Kims’ college-age son (Choi Woo-sik) wangles his way into a job as an English tutor for the Parks’ teenage daughter (Jung Ziso), and soon contrives an opportunity for his older sister (Park So-dam) to serve, under an assumed name, as an art tutor for the Parks’ “gifted” young son (Jung Hyeon-jun). Eventually, further roguish contrivances from the Kim siblings bring both their parents into employment with the Park family—with their father (Song Kang-ho) replacing the family’s chauffeur, and their mother (Chang Hye-jin) replacing the family’s imperious longtime nanny and housekeeper (Lee Jung-eun).

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November 14, 2019

Harriet

An air of rowdy comedy prevails through most of these episodes in which the Kims finagle employment from the mostly unwitting Parks. But the harsh contrasts between poverty and wealth bode ill right from the start, and the signs that all this probably won’t end well really start to kick in when we (and the Kims) discover that there’s yet another family and yet another basement dwelling in this story and in the palatial “modernistic” house that is its main setting. The sardonic social comedy and satire continue throughout, but with moments of brutal horror becoming more prominent.

For all that may sound heavy-handed (and some of it certainly is), Parasite is an uncommonly rich experience quite apart from its moments of violence.

As a running commentary on the ethics and economics of contemporary consumer culture, it has an impressive breadth and complexity. And even with the broad strokes and simplifications of comedy and satire, its characterizations of the Kims and the Parks are unexpectedly nuanced and even-handed.

I think it says something special about Parasite that, while it’s well-acted throughout, the best acting in the film comes in two roles that at first seem inconsequential: the flutteringly neurotic Mrs. Park (Jo Yeo-jeong) and the Park family’s astoundingly irrepressible housekeeper, who is also the film’s most surprisingly double-sided character. □

Biography of famous abolitionist/activist Harriet Tubman (played by Cynthia Erivo) who, after escaping slavery in 1849, returned to guide more than 300 others to freedom from America’s slave states via the Underground Railroad. Cinemark 14. Rated PG-13.

Jojo Rabbit

A daring dark satire about a young German boy in Nazi Germany who finds out his mother has provided refuge to a Jewish girl. Oh, and the kid’s imaginary friend is Adolf Hitler.

Starring Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell and Rebel Wilson. Cinemark 14. Rated PG-13.

2

Joker

The latest take on DC Comics’ Clown Prince of Crime will go down as one of 2019’s big missed opportunities. Director/coscreenwriter Todd Phillips apparently had the green light to do whatever he wanted with the character’s story, and he also landed the perfect lead (Joaquin Phoenix) for the title role. Phillips blew it. Phoenix, on the other hand, did not. He is otherworldly good as Arthur Fleck, a severely troubled clown and wannabe standup comic (and mama’s boy) with a condition that causes him to laugh uncontrollably at inappropriate moments. He physically and mentally disappears into the part—to the point where you may become concerned for the actor’s well-being. He accomplishes this in a film that has a major identity crisis. It’s trying to do something new (mostly via the use of extreme violence), while also riffing on something old (Frank Miller’s The Dark Knight Returns, as well as various other comic book and cinematic influences). What’s delivered is a muddy, predictable and ultimately unoriginal film. Cinemark 14. Rated R —B.G.

Last Christmas

1 2 3 4 5 Poor

Fair

Good

Very Good

Excellent

Game of Thrones actress Emilia Clarke stars in this dramedy about an unlucky young woman who takes a job as a holiday elf at a department store where she meets a young man. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas.

Rated PG-13.

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil

In this sequel to Maleficent (2014), Angelina Jolie reprises her role as the evil fairy, and Elle Fanning is back as her goddaughter, Princess Aurora (aka Sleeping Beauty), and the two are at odds with one another thanks to outside forces intent on sowing discord between humans and fairies. Cinemark, Feather River Cinemas. Rated PG.

Midway

A historical drama about the pivotal Battle of Midway between U.S. and Japanese forces during World War II. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas. Rated PG-13.

4

Pain & Glory

The film with the potentially off-putting title becomes a more attractive proposition once you know some of the key details: it’s the latest from esteemed Spanish auteur Pablo Almodóvar; it features an exceptionally fine performance from Antonio Banderas in the central role; its mixtures of gloom and glory are given a special poetic intensity by the characteristically spectacular color schemes devised by Almodóvar and company; its cast includes the stars Penélope Cruz and Cecelia Roth, and a wonderful child actor named Asier Flores. The film itself is a quasi-autobiographical tale in which Banderas plays Salvador Mallo, an aging Almodóvar-like filmmaker whose glory days have begun to fade amid medical problems and emotional crises, including a bout of drug addiction. The Banderas character tries to reconcile with an actor (played by a swaggering Asier Etxeandia) with whom he feuded in the past; has a brief and unexpected reunion with a former lover (the Argentine star Leonardo Sbaraglia) who is now a married man; embraces the estranged Zulema (Roth) as temporary but much-needed assistant and caregiver; visits his ailing mother (Julieta Serrano), and intermittently immerses himself in memories of his childhood. Pageant Theatre. Rated R —J.C.S.

5

Parasite

See review this issue. Cinemark 14.

Rated PG-13 —J.C.S.

Playing With Fire

John Cena, Keegan-Michael Key and John Leguizamo star as three firefighters who have their hands full rescuing/babysitting some kids and their dog. Hijinks! Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas. Rated PG.

Terminator: Dark Fate

The sixth film in the Terminator franchise is a sequel to the first two films (those directed

by James Cameron, who returns to produce this latest installment), and stars Linda Hamilton as Sarah Connor, who teams up with a cyborg human hybrid to protect a girl from the Terminator hunting her. Cinemark 14, Feather River Cinemas. Rated R.

3

Zombieland: Double Tap

For this sequel, director Ruben Fleischer returns with the whole zombiekilling crew—Emma Stone, Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson and Abigail Breslin—for a film that does little to reinvigorate the genre, but still delivers plenty of laughs and zombie gore. It’s 10 years later, and the rag-tag team has taken up residence in the abandoned White House. The basic story involves a zombie-killing road trip that leads to Graceland (sort of) and then a commune called Babylon, with a lot more zombie killing. Along the way, fun new characters are introduced, including Albuquerque (Luke Wilson) and Flagstaff (Thomas Middleditch), two zombie hunters who look and sound an awful lot like Harrelson and Eisenberg’s Tallahassee and Columbus. The best, though, is Madison, played by Zoey Deutch, a “valley girl” type who has survived all these years living inside the freezer of food-court yogurt shop in a decimated mall. Cinemark, Feather River Cinemas. Rated R —B.G.

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Prep and destroy A Thanksgiving plan for those who don’t

ChiCo’S LoCaL MeaL Kit MarKet! Pre-Portioned ingredients, ready to Cook Meals*

W Stewart’s various “countdown” planners online.

“Three weeks before Thanksgiving … pack away

ant to go insane for the holidays? Look up Martha

the Halloween decorations, it’s time for turkey and pumpkin pie!” Three weeks?! Whoa, slow your roll, Martha. by If you’re pressing linens and Jason Cassidy crafting a homemade centerpiece and j aso nc@ individual place cards, then yeah, you newsrev i ew.c om are probably already behind schedule.

But for the rest of us who usually wait until we get out of work the Wednesday before Thanksgiving and then cram all of our prep into that night, we don’t have the leisure of committing three weeks of our lives to one dinner.

But Martha isn’t wrong. Spreading the work out will make for less-stressed hosts who will be able to enjoy the party alongside friends and family—which is, like, the whole point of the holiday. But a oneweek timeline is sufficient for mental health. Below is the loose and reasonable schedule I follow when I’m engineering the party train (plus, a favorite preprepable recipe for stuffing in a pumpkin).

The Friday night before, pour a glass of wine and make a shopping list of ingredients, including pantry standbys (flour, oils, spices, etc.) that might need restocking, plus any disposable plates/cutlery/napkins if needed, and to-go containers for leftovers.

Over the weekend, do the heavy lifting. Saturday morning, clean out the fridge and cupboards and make room for turkey, ingredients, drinks, etc. Shop during the day, restock, then pour another glass of wine. Sunday: Put on your Cleaning House Playlist, turn up volume, choose low-alcohol beverages for optimal day-drinking, and dance/clean until desired level of presentability.

During the week, devote a couple of hours each evening to food prep. First night: Fully or partially prepare a side or two. (Snap the green beans? Cook most of the stuffing ingredients?) Second night: Fully or partially prepare a side or two. (Bake a casserole?

Make the cranberry sauce? Season turkey?) Third night: Make pie or other dessert.

Thanksgiving day: If you’re planning on serving at 6 p.m. or later, you have your morning free to lazily read in bed, go on a fun run or hang with early arriving friends/relatives.

At noon: Pull the turkey out to prep/bring to

room temp. Turkey goes into the oven a 2 p.m., and if you’re smart, you’ve invited your guests to arrive now. Many hands make light work. Save yours for cooking and assembling your meal, put a beer or glass of wine in the hands of others and assign them to cut up vegetables, set the table and, most important, wash dishes as you go. A huge after-meal pile is inevitable, but a little work early in the day makes for a mostly plate-and-utensil-only load standing between you and a slice of pumpkin pie.

Bacon, pork and beer stuffing (adapted from beer Advocate magazine) Ingredients: 1 loaf Tin roof bakery Chico sourdough bread (cut into 1-inch cubes) 1 cup unsalted butter 3 leeks (washed, halved and sliced—about 5 cups) 2 yellow onions, large (peeled and chopped) 4 shallots (minced) 4 stalks celery (chopped) 6 garlic cloves (crushed) 3 tablespoons (or so) kosher salt 1 pound bacon, cut thick (2-inch pieces) 2 pound pork, ground 1/2 cup fresh sage (chopped) 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds or pepitas, shelled 18 oz. beer (bock, doppelbock or brown ale) 2 cups chicken stock (or vegetable stock) 1 medium pumpkin (10-12 lbs.)

Early in the week: Cut the bread, dry in oven, and store in its bag. Saute veggies, salt, set aside. Cook bacon, remove meat with slotted spoon and add to veggies. Cook pork in bacon drippings, salt, stir into mixture and store in fridge in a sealable container.

Thanksgiving day: About three hours before mealtime, hollow out pumpkin; remove seeds. If more than 1 1/2 inches thick, bake by itself at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Combine pork mixture and dried bread in large bowl. Add stock and beer and fully incorporate.

Add stuffing to the pumpkin. Lightly stuff—don’t over-pack. Place pumpkin in roasting pan and bake at 350 degrees for 90 minutes or until internal temp is 160-175 and the pumpkin is fork-tender. Keep warm in oven. Serve from pumpkin at the table. □

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CN&R

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N o v em b er 1 4, 20 1 9

ARTS DEVO

by Jason Cassidy • jasonc@newsreview.com

‘Without a ride, he’d be goNe’

Mike “G-Ride” Griffith knows how to make an entrance. In 2016, the Chico news & Review hosted the Keep Chico Weird Talent show at the El Rey Theater, and as a local icon (seriously, he has a plaque to prove it!) the much-loved pedicab driver with the mild-mannered dog (“Little G”) and the ridiculously loud stereo system was asked G-Ride to be one of the celebrity judges. As he was announced at the beginning of the show, Griffith rode the pedicab into the theater, music blaring, fist pumping and with his fellow judges in tow.

Totally epic!

Griffith’s since gone on to be voted Best Local Personality four years in a row in the CN&R’s Best of Chico readers’ poll, and this week he gets to add another item to his stack of local cred: a documentary on his life. G-Ride, a 23-minute short-form feature on the man, will premiere at the CaRd Community Center on Saturday (Nov. 16) at 5:30 p.m. as part of the three-day Chico independent Film Festival (visit chicoindie.com and navigate the site for a list of films and schedule).

The film by documentary filmmaker Keith Wakefield (a former Chico resident) follows Griffith in his element as he gets Chico pumped with bonerattling dance music while ferrying customers around town. The film also tells the story of his difficult background—foster care, homelessness, drug addiction—and how he got on a pedicab and pedaled his way into a sober life of working for himself and donating his free time to helping others. Both Griffith and Wakefield will be on hand for a Q&A. More info at gridefilm.com

Camp Fire musiC Several months

ago, a bunch of songs written about the Camp Fire started showing up online, and the CN&R created a YouTube playlist (tinyurl.com/AfterCampFire) in an attempt to collect them in one place. In the months since, we’ve added a handful more recordings as they’ve hit the internet. There are now 13 on the main list, plus links to a few Michael Charvel more (not on YouTube), and others are undoubtedly on the way. Please, drop us a note if you have something that should be added.

A couple of the recent additions include a pretty piano-driven plea to “stay strong” by Chris Thompson and his daughter Makayla, and the striking “Paradise is on Fire,” a Latin-flavored country song by Michael Charvel.

The son of well-known custom guitar builder Wayne Charvel (who has made guitars for everyone from Eddie Van Halen to the dudes in ZZ Top), Michael and his father lost their homes and their guitar shop in the fire. The song starts with cellphone footage of Michael in the midst of the inferno telling his mom he loves her before cutting to the band performing in front of a backdrop of charred pines. “Paradise Is on Fire” has been released to raise money for Magalia Community Church. Visit michaelcharvel.com to purchase a CD, MP3 or ringtone.

musiC to smoke Cloves iN a graveyard to Arts DEVO’s under-

the-radar pick of the week is Oakland dark, weirdo, deathrock trio Moira scar at the 1078 Gallery this Saturday (Nov. 16). It’s a Chico area Punks jam that also includes a trio of local, dark gothy/punky crews—Mercury’s Butterfly, shadow Figures, desperate Hell—on the bill. Get yer eyeliner and get there!

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NOVEMBER 14, 2019

REAL ESTATE

How Much is Your Home Worth Today?

Ask the professionals at Century 21 Select 530.345.6618 www.C21SelectGroup.com Jennifer Parks celebrates 20 years in real estate!

200 Crater Lake Drive Amber Grove $459,000 232 Plumas g Orland units P e n-d2in $275,000

Years of experience and recognition as a “Century 21 Quality Service Agent” make Jennifer Parks the perfect choice for your Butte County real estate needs.

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Jennifer Parks | 530.864.0336 BRE# 01269667

6207 Clark Road e n d in g PParadise 470 Nottingham Drive e n d in g PParadise 1537 4thdAvenue e n in g PParadise CalDRE #02056059

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The time to buy is now.

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located in the highly desirable Pebblewood Pines complex! 3 be bed/2.5 bath, in gfireplace, family ro Pend 1,889 sq ft, formal living/dining area with room with wet bar, cozy nook area! Priced well and a huge plus is the OWNED SOLAR! $299,900

Homes Sold Last Week

Alice Zeissler l 530.518.1872 CalBRE #01312354

Sponsored by Century 21 Select Real Estate, Inc.

The following houses were sold in Butte County by real estate agents or private parties during the week of October 28 - November 1, 2019 The housing prices are based on the stated documentary transfer tax of the parcel and may not necessarily reflect the actual sale price of the home.

ADDRESS

TOWN

PRICE

BR/BA

149 Donald Dr 4239 Tuliyani Dr 4995 Starflower Ln 5 Lanai Ct 3496 Padre Ln 20 Kestrel Ct 15 Carriage Ln 3171 Silverbell Rd 2431 El Paso Way 2953 San Verbena Way 711 Waterford Dr 3390 Hackamore Ln 8 El Cerrito Dr 3 Greg Ct 1354 Lucy Way 55 Knightsbridge Ln 42 Lacewing Ct 2936 Pennyroyal Dr 2954 Pennyroyal Dr 22 Terrace Dr 3981 Front St 5018 Guntren Rd

Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico Chico

$687,500 $682,000 $607,500 $581,000 $559,000 $427,000 $415,000 $399,000 $380,000 $374,000 $370,000 $363,000 $350,000 $325,000 $325,000 $310,000 $283,000 $279,500 $279,000 $257,500 $227,500 $210,000

3/3 3/3 3/3 4/3 3/3 3/2 3/2 3/2 3/2 3/2 3/2 3/3 3/2 4/2 3/2 4/3 2/2 4/2 4/2 3/1 3/2 3/3

SQ. FT.

2856 2445 2088 2426 2175 2004 1629 1317 1444 1429 1334 2505 1356 1853 1353 1611 966 1342 1342 1315 1287 1555

ADDRESS

862 El Dorado St 23 Herlax Cir 139 W Lassen Ave #17 1649 Salem St 14191 Racine Cir 14088 Temple Cir 14745 Carnegie Rd 31 Spring Valley Ct 5394 High Rocks Ct 191 Lower Forbestown Rd 165 Melrose Dr 43 Rockridge Ct 1543 Biggs Ave 1113 Feather Ave 2706 Fay Way 5 Westwood Way 2 Rosemel Ct 3 Sutters Mill Rd 665 Thermalito Ave 1661 Washington Ave 5787 Acorn Ridge Dr 4472 Casa Sierra Vis

TOWN

PRICE

BR/BA

Chico Chico Chico Chico Magalia Magalia Magalia Oroville Oroville Oroville Oroville Oroville Oroville Oroville Oroville Oroville Oroville Oroville Oroville Oroville Paradise Paradise

$165,000 $160,000 $144,000 $110,000 $225,000 $223,000 $193,000 $382,000 $369,000 $360,000 $352,000 $322,500 $277,000 $275,000 $239,000 $219,000 $205,000 $165,000 $155,000 $120,000 $729,000 $504,000

3/1 3/2 2/1 3/1 2/2 2/3 3/2 3/3 3/2 3/2 3/2 3/2 3/2 2/1 3/2 3/3 3/2 4/2 3/2 3/2 3/3 4/3

November 14, 2019

SQ. FT.

898 1728 766 1064 1424 1646 1341 2249 1592 1673 2068 1686 1436 1056 1562 1564 2043 1252 1092 1604 2707 3158

CN&R

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CLASSIFIEDS

REAL ESTATE E

Call for a quote.

(530) 894-2300 ext. 2

Signed: CHRISTINA PETERSON Dated: October 4, 2019 FBN Number: 2019-0001133 Published: October 24,31, November 7,14, 2019

Phone hours: M-F 9am-5pm.

Deadlines for print: Line ad deadline: Monday 4pm Display ad deadline: Friday 2pm

For more information about advertising in our Real estate section,

All advertising is subject to the newspaper’s Standards of Acceptance. Further, the News & Review specifically reserves the right to edit, decline or properly classify any ad. Errors will be rectified by re-publication upon notification. The N&R is not responsible for error after the first publication. The N&R assumes no financial liability for errors or omission of copy. In any event, liability shall not exceed the cost of the space occupied by such an error or omission. The advertiser and not the newspaper assumes full responsibility for the truthful content of their advertising message. *Nominal fee for

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FICTITIOUS BUSINESS FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following person is doing business as LOCALS CAFE at 6221 Clark Rd Paradise, CA 95926.

RHONDA BERNDT DE PINEDA 944 Sheridan Ave Chico, CA 95926.

This business is conducted by an Individual.

Signed: RHONDA L BERNDT DE PINEDA Dated: September 19, 2019 FBN Number: 2019-0001072 Published: October 24,31, November 7,14, 2019

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following person is doing business as UNLEASHED PET HOTEL at 5260 Miocene Circle Oroville, CA 95965.

RHONDA BERNDT DE PINEDA 944 Sheridan Chico, CA 95926.

This business is conducted by an Individual.

Signed: RHONDA L BERNDT DE PINEDA Dated: September 19, 2019 FBN Number: 2019-0001071 Published: October 24,31, November 7,14, 2019

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following persons are doing business as THE JOYMAKER at 2135 Nord Ave Spc 24 Chico, CA 95926.

JOYMAKING PRODUCTIONS LLC 2135 Nord Ave Spc 24 Chico, CA 95926.

This business is conducted by a Limited Liability Company.

Signed: TARA GROVER SMITH, PRESIDENT Dated: October 9, 2019 FBN Number: 2019-0001164 Published: October 24,31, November 7,14, 2019

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following person is doing business as SOLID VIBES at 2590 Mariposa Ave Chico, CA 95973.

CHRISTINA ANN PETERSON 2590 Mariposa Ave Chico, CA 95973.

This business is conducted by an Individual. this Legal Notice continues

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FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following persons are doing business as MARLOW MOBILE BAR at 697 East 7th St Suite B Chico, CA 95928.

JANAE CARRIGAN 697 East 7th St Suite B Chico, CA 95928.

TUCKER SCHMIDT 697 East 7th St Suite B Chico, CA 95928.

This business is conducted by a General Partnership.

Signed: JANAE CARRIGAN Dated: October 11, 2019 FBN Number: 2019-0001170 Published: October 24,31, November 7,14, 2019

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following person is doing business as TDT CONCEPT DESIGN at 1080 East Lassen Avenue #65 Chico, CA 95973.

TYLER TAPPIN 1080 East Lassen Avenue #65 Chico, CA 95973.

This business is conducted by an Individual.

Signed: TYLER TAPPIN Dated: October 15, 2019 FBN Number: 2019-0001179 Published: October 24,31, November 7,14, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following persons are doing business as HAGEN-SINCLAIR RESEARCH RECRUITING INC CHICO at 519 Reed Park Dr Chico, CA 95926.

HAGEN-SINCLAIR RESEARCH RECRUITING INC CHICO 519 Reed Park Dr Chico, CA 95926.

This business is conducted by a Corporation.

Signed: CYNTHIA CROSS, PRESIDENT Dated: September 13, 2019 FBN Number: 2019-0001052 Published: October 24,31, November 7,14, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following person is doing business as AZTECAS VIDEO AND GROC at 324 Walnut Street, Suite A Chico, CA 95928.

FRANCISCO J REYES 18 Westminister Ct Chico, CA 95928.

This business is conducted by an Individual.

Signed: FRANCISCO RAYES Dated: October 7, 2019 FBN Number: 2019-0001141 Published: October 31, November 7,14,21, 2019 FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following persons are doing business as RUSSELL’S SUNRISE CAFE at 185 Cohasset Rd Chico, CA 95926.

PEACH TREE RESTAURANT INC 185 Cohasset Rd Chico, CA 95926.

This business is conducted by a Corporation.

Signed: NAEEM REHMAN, VICE PRESIDENT Dated: October 22, 2019 FBN Number: 2019-0001204 Published: October 31, November 7,14,21, 2019

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following persons are doing business as PILLSBURY SQUARE APARTMENTS at 2781 Pillsbury Road Chico, CA 95973.

LAPANT FARMS LLC 9032 Goodspeed St Durham, CA 959388.

This business is conducted by a Limited Liability Company.

Signed: ROGER JACK LAPANT Dated: September 30, 2019 FBN Number: 2019-0001109 Published: October 31, November 7,14,21, 2019

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following persons are doing business as PYROCORP at 2515 Zanella Way #5 Chico, CA 95928.

HAYDEN FIRE PROTECTION, INC. 2515 Zanella Way #5 Chico, CA 95928.

This business is conducted by a Corporation.

Signed: JEREMY HAYDEN, VICE PRESIDENT Dated: October 1, 2019 FBN Number: 2019-0001113 Published: October 31, November 7,14,21, 2019

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following person is doing business as FAERIE HUMAN RELATIONS DEPARTMENT, IN OUR NATURE at 1844 Broadway Street Chico, CA 95928.

JENNY RAE RICHMAN 1844 Broadway Street Chico, CA 95928.

This business is conducted by an Individual.

Signed: JENNY RAE RICHMAN Dated: October 1, 2019 FBN Number: 2019-0001112 Published: October 31, November 7,14,21, 2019

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following persons are 1oing business as LABELZ at 974 Mangrove Ave Chico, CA 95926.

J. WITH ENTERPRISE 7749 Co Rd 61 Princeton, CA 95926.

This business is conducted by an Limited Liability Company Signed: JAMIE WITHROW, MANAGING MEMBER Dated: October 18, 2019 FBN Number: 2019-0001199 Published: October 31, November 7,14,21, 2019

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following persons are doing business as DARLING ROSE VINEYARD at 8995 Troxel Rd Chico, CA 95928.

AMANDA WYLIE DARLING 8995 Troxel Rd Chico, CA 95928.

GARY ANTHONY DARLING 8995 Troxel Rd Chico, CA 95928.

This business is conducted by a Married Couple.

Signed: AMANDA W. DARLING Dated: October 24, 2019 FBN Number: 2019-0001217 Published: October 31, November 7,14,21, 2019

abandoned the use of the fictitious business name LABELZ at 974 Mangrove Ave Chico, CA 95926.

CYNTHIA E BROCHHEUSER 1941 Sycamore Lane Durham, CA 95938.

This business was conducted by an Individual.

Signed: CINDY BROCHHEUSER Dated: October 18, 2019 FBN Number: 2017-0000460 Published: October 31, November 7,14,21, 2019

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME - STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name THE ACCOUNTING OFFICE at 1074 East Ave Ste K Chico, CA 95926.

LAZARSKI ENTERPRISES, INC. 2166 Huntington Drive Chico, CA 95928.

This business was conducted by a Corporation.

Signed: KATHY LAZARSKI, PRESIDENT Dated: October 23, 2019 FBN Number: 2018-0000876 Published: October 31, November 7,14,21, 2019

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following persons are doing business as ACCOUNTING OFFICE at 1074 East Ave Ste K Chico, CA 95926.

DEBBIE ALLEN EA INC 1074 East Ave Ste K. This business is conducted by a Corporation.

Signed: MARK ALLEN, SECRETARY Dated: October 23, 2019 FBN Number: 2019-0001213 Published: October 31, November 7,14,21, 2019

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following person is doing business as ON YOUR MARK MOBILE NOTARY at 3550 Fotos Way Chico, CA 95973.

ANGELA C. COOK 3550 Fotos Way Chico, CA 95973.

This business is conducted by an Individual.

Signed: ANGELA C COOK Dated: October 23, 2019 FBN Number: 2019-0001207 Published: October 31, November 7,14,21, 2019

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following person is doing business as PRANA ENDURA at 40 Constitution Dr Ste E Chico, CA 95973.

CAITLIN LINSCHEID 4 Spinnaker Way Chico, CA 95926.

This business is conducted by an Individual.

Signed: CAITLIN LINSCHEID Dated: October 30, 2019 FBN Number: 2019-0001233 Published: November 7,14,21,27, 2019

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME - STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT The following person has

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME - STATMENT OF ABANDONMENT The following persons have abandoned the use of the fictitious business name WADE ARENA at 1391 Clark Road Oroville, CA 95965.

ELTA L TOWNE

this Legal Notice continues

this Legal Notice continues

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1391 Clark Road Oroville, CA 95965.

CARYL WESTON 1391 Clark Road Oroville, CA 95965.

This business was conducted by a General Partnership.

Signed: ELTA L TOWNE Dated: October 28, 2019 FBN Number: 2019-0001174 Published: November 7,14,21,27, 2019

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following persons are doing business as WADE ARENA at 1391 Clark Rd Oroville, CA 95965.

ROBERT J LEDOUX 1963 Air Strip Rd Redding, CA 96003.

ELTA L TOWNE 1391 Clark Rd Oroville, CA 95965.

This business is conducted by a General Partnership.

Signed: ELTA L TOWNE Dated: October 28, 2019 FBN Number: 2019-0001228 Published: November 7,14,21,27, 2019

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following persons are doing business as CHICO PODIATRY GROUP at 2103 Forest Avenue Chico, CA 95928.

DANIEL D CAVINESS 3491 Sacramento Ave Chico, CA 95928.

MICHAEL L WILSON 9965 Lott Rd Durham, CA 95938.

This business is conducted by a General Partnership.

Signed: DANIEL D CAVINESS, DPM Dated: October 15, 2019 FBN Number: 2019-0001182 Published: November 7,14,21,27, 2019

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following person is doing business as K-C NAILS AND SPA at 175 Cohasset Rd #3 Chico, CA 95926.

THUY THANH HO 1170 E 9th Street Chico, CA 95928.

This business is conducted by an Individual.

Signed: THANH T. HO Dated: November 6, 2019 FBN Number: 2019-0001258 Published: November 14,21,27, December 5, 2019

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following persons are doing business as ONCE UPON A CHILD at 801 East Ave Chico, CA 95926.

EMILY MELLON 537 Madrone Ave Chico, CA 95926.

JESSICA PECK 14 Comstock Rd Chico, CA 95928.

PAUL PECK 14 Comstock Rd Chico, CA 95928.

ROBERT MELLON 537 Madrone Ave Chico, CA 95926.

This business is conducted by a Corporation.

Signed: JESSICA PECK, PRESIDENT Dated: September 27, 2019 FBN Number: 2019-0001099 Published: November 14,21,27, December 5, 2019

FREE WILL ASTROLOGY FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME - STATEMENT OF ABANDONMENT The following person has abandoned the use of the fictitious business name PRANA ENDURA at 40 Constitution Drive Suite E Chico, CA 95973.

JENNIFER L MILLER CMT 2114 Kennedy Avenue Chico, CA 95973.

This business was conducted by an Individual.

Signed: JENNIFER L MILLER Dated: October 30, 2019 FBN Number: 2018-0001428 Published: November 14,21,27, December 5, 2019

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATMENT The following persons are doing business as JENNY’S HELPERS at 1 Smith Brothers Court Chico, CA 95926.

MARK ROGER HARSHMAN 1 Smith Brothers Court Chico, CA 95926.

TINA MARIE HARSHMAN 1 Smith Brothers Court Chico, CA 95926.

This business is conducted by a Married Couple.

Signed: TINA HARSHMAN Dated: November 5, 2019 FBN Number: 2019-0001254 Published: November 14,21,27, December 5, 2019

FICTITIOUS BUSINESS NAME STATEMENT The following person is doing business as AWAY BUSINESS at 2990 Nord Ave Chico, CA 95973.

ROBERT MATTHEW OW 2990 Nord Ave Chico, CA 95973.

This business is conducted by an Individual.

Signed: ROBERT OW Dated: November 7, 2019 FBN Number: 2019-0001267 Published: November 14,21,27, December 5, 2019

NOTICES NOTICE OF LIEN SALE Pursuant to CA Business Code 21700, in lieu of rents due, the following units contain clothes, furniture, boxes, etc.

238SS JOSE ARTEAGA 6X10 (Couches, Furniture) 459CC MATHEW BOYD 6x15 (Bins, Boxes) 504CC DAVID DUNCAN 6x7 (Tool Box, Art, Boxes) 157CC SCOTT KNIGHT 6x7 (Boxes, Bins, Backpacks) 252SS TRISTIN NOBLE 5x10 (Bins, Boxes) 495CC TRISTIN NOBLE 5x7 (Books, Bins, Blankets) 257SS SALIASI VANIQI 5x7 (Boxes, Bedding, Bags) 153CC ANDREA SMITH 5x7 (Bins, Boxes) 250SS WHITNEY WHEATON 5x5 (Camp Gear, Bikes, Boxes) 360CC1 SHERRI WHEATON 12x12 (Bags, Boxes, Bins) Contents to be sold to the highest bidder on: Saturday November 23, 2019 Beginning at 1:00PM Sale to be held at: Bidwell Self Storage, 65 Heritage Lane, Chico, CA 95926.

(530) 893-2109 Published: November 7,14, 2019

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS: Petitioner MELANIE RENE this Legal Notice continues

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REMMERT-BLEVINS filed a petition with this court for a decree changing names as follows: Present name: MELANIE RENE REMMERT-BLEVINS Proposed name: MELANIE RENE MCCARTHY THE COURT ORDERS that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted.

Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing.

NOTICE OF HEARING Date: November 27, 2019 Time: 9:00 AM Dept: TBA Room: TBA The address of the court is: Butte County Superior Court 1775 Concord Ave Chico, CA 95928 Signed: TAMARA L. MOSBARGER Dated: October 8, 2019 Case Number: 19CV02964 Published: October 24,31, November 7,14, 2019

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS: Petitioner RICK DALLOUL filed a petition with this court for a decree changing names as follows: Present name: RICK DALLOUL Proposed name: REZKALLAH DALLOUL THE COURT ORDERS that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted.

Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing.

NOTICE OF HEARING Date: December 4, 2019 Time: 9:00 AM Dept: TBA Room: TBA The address of the court is: Butte County Superior Court 1775 Concord Ave Chico, CA 95928 Signed: TAMARA L. MOSBARGER Dated: October 10, 2019 Case Number: 19CV02999 Published: October 31, November 7,14,21, 2019

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS: Petitioner ADRIANA YANETH GONZALEZ and JOSE DE JESUS GONZALEZ filed a petition with this court for a decree changing names as follows: Present name: JESSEY JACOBO GONZALEZ Proposed name: JESSEY GONZALEZ this Legal Notice continues

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THE COURT ORDERS that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted.

Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing.

NOTICE OF HEARING Date: December 18, 2019 Time: 9:00 AM Dept: TBA Room: TBA The address of the court is: Butte County Superior Court 1775 Concord Ave Chico, CA 95928 Signed: TAMARA L. MOSBARGER Dated: October 17, 2019 Case Number: 19CV03037 Published: November 7,14,21,27, 2019

ORDER TO SHOW CAUSE FOR CHANGE OF NAME TO ALL INTERESTED PERSONS: Petitioner LARRY THIEM STEVENS filed a petition with this court for a decree changing names as follows: Present name: LARRY THIEM STEVENS Proposed name: LARRY THIEM CLARK THE COURT ORDERS that all persons interested in this matter appear before this court at the hearing indicated below to show cause, if any, why the petition for change of name should not be granted.

Any person objecting to the name changes described above must file a written objection that includes the reasons for the objection at least two court days before the matter is scheduled to be heard and must appear at the hearing to show cause why the petition should not be granted. If no written objection is timely filed, the court may grant the petition without a hearing.

NOTICE OF HEARING Date: January 8, 2020 Time: 9:00 AM Dept: TBA Room: TBA The address of the court is: Butte County Superior Court 1775 Concord Ave Chico, CA 95928 Signed: ROBERT A. GLUSMAN Dated: November 1, 2019 Case Number: 19CV03258 Published: November 14,21,27, December 5, 2019

SUMMONS SUMMONS NOTICE TO DEFENDANT: KENNETH R MEYER, AN INDIVIDUAL; AND DOES 1-100, INCLUSIVE YOU ARE BEING SUED BY PLAINTIFF: CROWN ASSET MANAGEMENT, LLC NOTICE! You have been sued.

The court may decide against you without your being heard unless you respond within 30 days. Read the information below.

You have 30 CALENDAR DAYS after this summons and legal papers are served on you to file this Legal Notice continues

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a written response at this court and have a copy served on the plaintiff. A letter or phone call will not protect you. Your written response must be in proper legal form if you want the court to hear your case. There may be a court form that you can use for your response. You can find these court forms and more information at the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp), your county law library, or the courthouse nearest you. If you cannot pay the filing fee, ask the court clerk for a fee waiver form. If you do not file your response on time, you may lose the case by default, and your wages, money, and property may be taken without further warning from the court.

There are other legal requirements. You may want to call an attorney right away. If you do not know an attorney, you may want to call an attorney referral service. If you cannot afford an attorney, you may be eligible for free legal services from a nonprofit legal services program. You can locate these nonprofit groups at the California Legal Services Web site (www.lawhelpcalifornia.org), the California Courts Online Self-Help Center (www.courtinfo.ca.gov/selfhelp), or by contacting your local court or county bar association.

NOTE: The court has a statutory lien for waived fees and costs on any settlement or arbitration award of $10,000 or more in a civil case. The court’s lien must be paid before the court will dismiss the case.

The name and address of the court is: Chico Courthouse 1775 Concord Avenue Chico CA 95928.

The name, address, and telephone number of plaintiff’s attorney, or plaintiff without an attorney, is: RASHID SHAKIROV/SBN 318108 Persolve Legal Group, LLP (818) 534-3100 9301 Corbin Avenue, Suite 1600 Northridge, CA 91324.

Dated: April 19, 2018 Signed: KIMBERLY FLENER Case Number: 18CV01224 Published: October 24,31, November 7,14, 2019

PETITION NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE RENATE RANFT To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of: RENATE RANFT A Petition for Probate has been filed by: CHRISTIANE H. RANFT in the Superior Court of California, County of Butte.

The Petition for Probate requests that: CHRISTIANE H. RANFT be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent.

The petition requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested this Legal Notice continues

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persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A hearing on the petition will be held in this court as follows: Date: November 26, 2019 Time: 9:00 a.m.

Dept: C-IV Room: Address of the court: Superior Court of California County of Butte 1775 Concord Ave. Chico, CA 95926.

IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney.

IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code.

Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult an attorney knowledgeable in California law.

YOU MAY EXAMINE the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250.

A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk.

Attorney for petitioner: RAOUL J. LECLERC P.O. Drawer 111 Oroville, CA 95965 (530) 533-5661 Dated: October 31, 2019 Case Number: 19PR00501 Published: November 7,14,21, 2019

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE TED MODESTO GIANNINI, aka TED M. GIANNINI, aka TED GIANNINI To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of: TED MODESTO GIANNINI, aka TED M. GIANNINI, aka TED GIANNINI A Petition for Probate has been filed by: GINA GIANNINI in the Superior Court of California, County of Butte.

The Petition for Probate requests that: GINA GIANNINI be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent.

The petition requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority this Legal Notice continues

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For the week oF November 14, 2019 ARIES (March 21-April 19): If there are

any potential Aries heroes or leaders or saviors out there, the coming weeks will be a favorable time for you to fully bloom and assert your practical magnificence. The lessons you have learned while improvising workable solutions for yourself are ripe to be applied to the riddles that are puzzling your tribe or group or gang. I want to let you know, however, that to achieve maximum effectiveness, you should be willing to do good deeds for people who may not be able to pay you back.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): You’re

entering a phase of your astrological cycle when it’s crucial that your receptivity be as robust as possible. To guide you in this delightful but perhaps challenging work, here are good questions for you to pose.

1. Do you know what help and support you need most, and are you brave and forthright enough to ask for it? 2. Is there any part of you, perhaps unconscious, that believes you don’t deserve gifts and blessings? 3. Do you diligently cultivate your capacity to be refreshed and restored?

4. Are you eagerly responsive when life surprises you with learning experiences and inspirations?

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): “Many

people will not be honest because they fear loss of intimacy and togetherness,” writes self-help author Henry Cloud.

But the truth, he adds, is that “honesty brings people closer together,” because it “strengthens their identities.” Therein lies the tender paradox: “The more you realize your separate identities, the closer you can become.” Living according to this principle may not be as easy or convenient as being deceptive and covert, but it’s ultimately more gratifying. Cloud concludes, “Telling loved ones what is really on your mind and telling others what you really think is the foundation of love.”

CANCER (June 21-July 22): “Maturity is having the ability to escape categorization,” said poet Kenneth Rexroth.

That’s the opposite of the conventional wisdom. For many people, the process of growing up and becoming a seasoned adult means trying to fit in, to find one’s category, to be serious and steady and stable. Rexroth, on the other hand, suggested that when you fully ripen into your potentials, you transcend standard definitions; you don’t adhere to others’ expectations; you are uniquely yourself, outside and beyond all pigeonholes and classifications. The coming weeks will be an excellent time for you to practice and cultivate this sacred art.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): Is there an event

from your past that would be empowering for you to remember in detail? Is there a neglected but still viable dream you could resurrect, thereby energizing your enthusiasm for the future? Are there old allies you’ve lost touch with but who, if you called on them, could provide you with just the boost you need? Is there a familiar pleasure you’ve grown numb to but could reinvigorate by visualizing the original reasons you loved it? The coming weeks will be a favorable time to meditate on these questions.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): Catholic saint

St. Francis (1181–1226) loved animals and the natural world. According to one folk tale, he was once traveling on foot with several companions when they came upon a place where the trees were filled with birds. Francis said, “Wait for me while I go preach to my sisters the birds.” He proceeded to do just that. The birds were an attentive audience for the duration of his sermon, apparently captivated by his tender tones. Seven centuries later, author Rebecca West offered a critique of the bird-whisperer. “Did St. Francis preach to the birds?” she asked. “Whatever for? If he really liked birds he would have done better to preach to the cats.” In the coming weeks, I encourage you to do the metaphorical equivalent of preaching to both the birds and the cats.

by rob brezsNy LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): Every now and

then I authorize you to shed your polite, tactful personas and express the angst you sometimes feel but usually hide. That’s now!

To egg you on, read this mischievous rant by Libran blogger Clary Gay (claryfightwood. tumblr.com): “We Libras are constantly thinking about how to make everyone else comfortable and happy. There’s not a minute going by when we’re not worrying about radiating a soothing and comforting aura so everyone can have a good time. If a Libra is cranky, it’s because they snapped! Because of some non-Libra who doesn’t appreciate them! If a Libra is mean to people, it’s their own damn fault!”

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): Poet Rob-

ert Bly tells us that the door to the soul is unlocked. You don’t have to struggle through any special machinations to open it or go through it. Furthermore, the realm of the soul is always ready for you.

Always! It harbors the precise treasure you need in order to be replenished and empowered. I bring this to your attention because I think that during the next two weeks, you should abide as much as possible in the soul’s realm—the cornucopia of holy truths and ever-fresh riches.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):

In my estimation, what you’ve experienced lately has been akin to a fermentation process. It’s as if you’re undergoing a transformation with resemblances to the way that grapes turn into wine or milk becomes yogurt or dough rises before being baked into bread. You may have had to endure some discomfort, which is the case for anything in the midst of substantial change. But I think you’ll ultimately be quite pleased with the results, which I expect will be ready no later than ten days after your birthday—and quite possibly sooner.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Many books have been written about Joan of Arc, a 15th-century teenage peasant girl whose improbable ascent to military leadership, under the guidance of her divine visions, was crucial in France’s victory over the English. Among the many miraculous elements of her story was the fact that less than a year before she led troops into battle on horseback, she didn’t know how to ride a horse. She learned by riding around her father’s farm astride his cows.

I foresee an equivalent marvel in your future. By this time next year, you will have developed an aptitude that might seem unimaginable now. (P.S. There’s evidence Joan was a Capricorn.)

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): The

Divine Comedy is one of history’s greatest literary works. Its author, Dante Alighieri, was 43 when he began writing the “Inferno,” the first part of his threepart masterpiece. Until that time, he had published just one book and a few poems, and had also abandoned work on two unfinished books. Early on in the “Inferno,” the not-yet-renowned author presents a fictional scene in which he meets with the spirits of antiquity’s most famous authors: Virgil, Homer, Horace, Ovid and Lucan.

Those illustrious five tell Dante he is such an important writer that he ranks sixth, after them, in his excellence. I’m going to encourage you to dare indulging in behavior like Dante’s: to visualize and extol—and yes, even brag about—the virtues and skills that will ultimately be your signature contribution to this world.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): The Latin

word for sea is “mare.” “Flustra” is the calm sea. “Undisonus” means “resounding with waves.” “Caeruleus” is the sea’s deep shade of blue, “aestus” is the tide and “aequoreus” means “connected with the sea.”

My hope is that as you meditate on these lyrical terms, you’ll be moved to remember the first lakes, rivers and oceans you ever swam in. You’ll recall your time floating in your mother’s womb and your most joyous immersions in warm baths and hot springs.

Why? It’s a favorable time to seek the healing and rejuvenating powers of primal waters—both metaphorically and literally.

www.RealAstrology.com for Rob Brezsny’s EXPANDED WEEKLY AUDIO HOROSCOPES and DAILY TEXT MESSAGE HOROSCOPES. The audio horoscopes are also available by phone at 1-877-873-4888.

November 14, 2019

CN&R

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All first place winners of CN&R’s Best of receive a plaque for fRee

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will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A hearing on the petition will be held in this court as follows: Date: December 3, 2019 Time: 9:00 a.m.

Dept: Probate Room: TBA Address of the court: Superior Court of California County of Butte 1775 Concord Ave. Chico, CA 95926.

IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney.

IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code.

Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult an attorney knowledgeable in California law.

YOU MAY EXAMINE the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250.

A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk.

Attorney for petitioner: CLAYTON B. ANDERSON 20 Independence Circle Chico, CA 95973 (530) 342-6144 Dated: October 17, 2019 Case Number: 19PR00467 Published: November 7,14,21, 2019

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE KENI M. TITMUS To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of: KENI M. TITMUS A Petition for Probate has been filed by: BUTTE COUNTY PUBLIC ADMINISTRATOR in the Superior Court of California, County of Butte.

The Petition for Probate requests that: BUTTE COUNTY PUBLIC ADMINISTRATOR be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent.

The petition requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court this Legal Notice continues

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approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A hearing on the petition will be held in this court as follows: Date: December 10, 2019 Time: 9:00 a.m.

Dept: TBA Room: TBA Address of the court: Superior Court of California County of Butte 1775 Concord Ave. Chico, CA 95926.

IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney.

IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code.

Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult an attorney knowledgeable in California law.

YOU MAY EXAMINE the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250.

A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk.

Petitioner: BUTTE COUNTY PUBLIC ADMINISTRATOR PO Box 1649 Oroville, CA 95965 (530) 538-3721 Dated: October 30, 2019 Case Number: 19PR00498 Published: November 14,21,27, 2019

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE KAY F. HILL aka KAY FRANCES HILL To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of: KAY F. HILL aka KAY FRANCES HILL A Petition for Probate has been filed by: DEAN J. HILL, JR. in the Superior Court of California, County of Butte.

The Petition for Probate requests that: DEAN J. HILL, JR. be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent.

The petition requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain this Legal Notice continues

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very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A hearing on the petition will be held in this court as follows: Date: December 3, 2019 Time: 9:00 a.m.

Dept: C-10 Room: Address of the court: Superior Court of California County of Butte 1775 Concord Ave. Chico, CA 95926.

IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney.

IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code.

Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult an attorney knowledgeable in California law.

YOU MAY EXAMINE the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250.

A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk.

Attorney for petitioner: RAOUL J. LECLERC PO Drawer 111 Oroville, CA 95965 (530) 533-5661 Dated: November 6, 2019 Case Number: 19PR00509 Published: November 14,21,27, 2019

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE MARGARET L. KAISER, also known as MARGARET LUCY KAISER, MARGARET KAISER To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of: MARGARET L. KAISER, MARGARET LUCY KAISER, MARGARET KAISER A Petition for Probate has been filed by: MATTHEW M. ESTRADA, CARISA R. ESTRADA in the Superior Court of California, County of Butte.

The Petition for Probate requests that: MATTHEW M. ESTRADA, CARISA R. ESTRADA be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent.

The petition requests the decedent’s will and codicils, if any, be admitted to probate.

The will and any codicils are available for examination in the file kept by the court.

The petition requests authority this Legal Notice continues

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to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A hearing on the petition will be held in this court as follows: Date: December 3, 2019 Time: 9:00 a.m.

Dept: Probate Room: Address of the court: Superior Court of California County of Butte 1775 Concord Ave. Chico, CA 95926.

IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney.

IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code.

Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult an attorney knowledgeable in California law.

YOU MAY EXAMINE the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250.

A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk.

Attorney for petitioner: NICOLE R. PLOTTEL 466 Vallombrosa Ave. Chico, CA 95926 (530) 893-2882 Dated: November 5, 2019 Case Number: 19PR00506 Published: November 14,21,27, 2019

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE RONALD J. ZACH, also known as RONALD JOSEPH ZACH To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of: RONALD J. ZACH, also known as RONALD JOSEPH ZACH A Petition for Probate has been filed by: MARILYN K. ZACH in the Superior Court of California, County of Butte.

The Petition for Probate requests that: MARILYN K. ZACH be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent.

The petition requests the decedent’s will and codicils, if any, be admitted to probate.

The will and any codicils are this Legal Notice continues

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available for examination in the file kept by the court.

The petition requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A hearing on the petition will be held in this court as follows: Date: December 3, 2019 Time: 9:00 a.m.

Dept: Probate Room: Address of the court: Superior Court of California County of Butte 1775 Concord Ave. Chico, CA 95926.

IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney.

IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code.

Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult an attorney knowledgeable in California law.

YOU MAY EXAMINE the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250.

A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk.

Attorney for petitioner: NICOLE R. PLOTTEL 466 Vallombrosa Ave. Chico, CA 95926 (530) 893-2882 Dated: November 5, 2019 Case Number: 19PR00507 Published: November 14,21,27, 2019

NOTICE OF PETITION TO ADMINISTER ESTATE HEIDI D. LEONE, also known as HEIDI DRAKE LEONE, HEIDI LEONE To all heirs, beneficiaries, creditors contingent creditors, and persons who may otherwise be interested in the will or estate, or both, of: HEIDI D. LEONE, also known as HEIDI DRAKE LEONE, HEIDI LEONE A Petition for Probate has been filed by: SAVARA H. ABOUZEID in the Superior Court of California, County of Butte.

The Petition for Probate requests that: SAVARA H. ABOUZEID be appointed as personal representative to administer the estate of the decedent.

The petition requests the this Legal Notice continues

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decedent’s will and codicils, if any, be admitted to probate.

The will and any codicils are available for examination in the file kept by the court.

The petition requests authority to administer the estate under the Independent Administration of Estates Act. (This authority will allow the personal representative to take many actions without obtaining court approval. Before taking certain very important actions, however, the personal representative will be required to give notice to interested persons unless they have waived notice or consented to the proposed action.) The independent administration authority will be granted unless an interested person files an objection to the petition and shows good cause why the court should not grant the authority.

A hearing on the petition will be held in this court as follows: Date: December 3, 2019 Time: 9:00 a.m.

Dept: Probate Room: Address of the court: Superior Court of California County of Butte 1775 Concord Ave. Chico, CA 95926.

IF YOU OBJECT to the granting of the petition, you should appear at the hearing and state your objections or file written objections with the court before the hearing. Your appearance may be in person or by your attorney.

IF YOU ARE A CREDITOR or contingent creditor of the decedent, you must file your claim with the court and mail a copy to the personal representative appointed by the court within the later of either (1) four months from the date of first issuance of letters to a general personal representative, as defined in section 58(b) of the California Probate Code, or (2) 60 days from the date of mailing or personal delivery to you of a notice under section 9052 of the California Probate Code.

Other California statutes and legal authority may affect your rights as a creditor. You may want to consult an attorney knowledgeable in California law.

YOU MAY EXAMINE the file kept by the court. If you are a person interested in the estate, you may file with the court a Request for Special Notice (form DE-154) of the filing of an inventory and appraisal of estate assets or of any petition or account as provided in Probate Code section 1250.

A Request for Special Notice form is available from the court clerk.

Attorney for petitioner: NICOLE R. PLOTTEL 466 Vallombrosa Ave. Chico, CA 95926 (530) 893-2882 Dated: October 31, 2019 Case Number: 19PR00499 Published: November 14,21,27, 2019

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