The Orion Vol. 75, Issue 5 by The Orion

theorion.com | Wednesday, September 23, 2015 | Vol. 75, Issue 5 | First copy free, additional copies 50¢

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BOUNCING A BAD RAP

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Miles Huffman

Emily Teague/The Orion

Colton Campitelli, bouncer at Duffy’s Tavern, checks IDs on Monday. Sabrina Salvatore

Staff Writer While a night at the Chico bar scene may be intended as a night to unwind,

Main and Down Lo, has personally dealt with this negativity. “One guy head-butted me out of nowhere really hard,” Lee said. “I was the only bouncer on the scene and the bar-

bouncers gear up for a work shift that tender had to pull him off of me. I was may involve dangerous circumstances. dazed but managed to take his friend Keith Chapman, security manager at down, and at that point pretty much evthe Crazy Horse Saloon, is confronted eryone in the bar was calling the cops.” with a multitude of negative reactions on Situations that bouncers are confronta nightly basis from people trying to get ed with can escalate fast and become into the saloon. dangerous quickly. Alteric Clark, former “I constantly battle with people that get bouncer at La Salles, witnessed a man get their liquid courage and decide the rules shot firsthand during one of his shifts. don’t apply to them and have no respect “He got shot six times but still surfor the business they’re visiting,” Chapvived,” Clark said. “He was a friend of the man said. bar and always there. The guy that did the He also said that on a fairly regular bashooting got caught outside and I got an sis they get threats from people wanting award from the city and was on the news to kill them, as well as getting physically for helping catch him.” violent toward them. Another night he was working, Chico has a long-standing a group of 25 gang memreputation for being a party bers picked a fight with town. Many students frethe four bouncers on quent the bars as a way duty. It lasted about to loosen up and enjoy 10 minutes until themselves. the cops showed Sean Bradford, up to help break Alteric Clark, bouncer at Joe’s Bar, up the fight, Clark Former bouncer at LaSalles said going out to a bar said. is about grabbing a few Christopher Kobeers with friends and enkoll, also a former joying one another’s company. bouncer at LaSalles, However, bouncers often get a bad wasn’t prepared for the vioreputation associated with their title. lence associated with the job. Chapman said a lot of the negative as“Working at a bar was my first job sociation comes from some people trying when I moved to Chico,” Kokoll said. to tell him how to do his job, even though “They told me there had been a shooting one of his main priorities is treating evand stabbings there and I’m from Maine, eryone equally and fairly. I’ve never dealt with something like that Not only do bouncers have their duties before.” as security guards to uphold, they have to Kokoll said the bouncers at LaSalles deal with the backlash from overly intoxuse different codes to communicate to icated people who think security guards one another about potentially dangerous are “the bad guys” stopping them from situations: having a good time. • Code green means someone needs to Justin Lee, former bouncer at Lost on be given a warning.

He got shot six times but still survived.

• Code orange means there’s a fight about to start. • Code red means there’s a fight happening. One bouncer watches the door while the rest break it up. Bouncers encounter different situations from unpleasant and mildly annoying to violent. Bradford said some people who enter the bar lack respect for the business. “I walked in the male restroom; both stalls were full and I caught this guy peeing in the sink,” Bradford said. “I wish people would respect bars as if they were their own homes. We’ve not only dealt with that, but people trying to sneak in the back door.” Bouncers attempt to avoid violent occurrences as much as possible, but sometimes need reinforcement from outside sources. The Chico Police Department said the busiest time of the year for bar-related calls are when students return to town prior to the start of a new semester. Labor Day weekend, Halloween weekend and Saint Patrick’s Day are other specific times of the year when there are many calls. Generally during the summer things calm down, but from past experience, bouncers prepare for returning students. “A majority of what we as bouncers face is breaking up fights, avoiding people trying to pick fights with us and dealing with overly drunk people throwing up on themselves,” Lee said. Sabrina Salvatore can be reached at newseditor@theorion.com or

@ssalvatore09 on Twitter.

Students find Xfinity Wi-Fi slow, ‘worthless’ Elizabeth Castillo

Staff Writer As the semester begins, some students are finding extra complications when attempting their homework— a Wi-Fi internet disconnection caused by Comcast’s Xfinity Internet. “The [Xfinity] internet is very slow,” said Vianey Hernandez, junior public relations major. “It goes in and out. I would constantly lose the connection and couldn’t get credit for my assignments on Blackboard.” Hernandez expressed her dissatisfaction with Comcast’s Internet to the company and found help from an overseas customer service representative. She felt that the representative was helpful, but still found her predicament frustrating. VIANEY “Their help was satHERNANDEZ isfactory but the actual Junior public relaproduct is worthless,” tions major she said.

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A sinking Earth: Subsidence in the Central Valley Austin Herbaugh

Staff Writer While the drought has affected many lives, it’s also changing the surface of the Earth itself. Throughout large swaths of the valley, the ground is literally sinking beneath our feet. According to a recent NASA satellite survey, parts of the Central Valley are sinking as much as two inches per month. Land in the valley is sinking because well water is still being pumped for agriculture in the drought and there PAUL hasn’t been enough rain to replenish GOSSELIN the groundwater. Director of the Dept. The water table has continued to get of Water and Resource Conservation lower, and the ground is sinking to fill

the void where the water used to be. This sinking is called subsidence. “Subsidence is a symptom of depleting your basin,” said Paul Gosselin, Butte County Director of the Department of Water and Resource Conservation. “Creating that air space between your geologic formation would then cause it to collapse.” While groundwater levels in Butte County haven’t gotten low enough to cause subsidence, wells have still been hitting record-low levels, Gosselin said. “One of the things that we’ve started to see over the last decade is a lot more of our wells that we monitor throughout the county have started to reach historic lows,” he said. He added that there are around 125 wells across the county, most of which have been monitored for more than 50 years. There are also plans to adjust the water budget to bring well levels up. North of Sacramento, there are two areas that are sinking,

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both along Interstate 5. An area west of Yolo has sunk more than a foot since 2007 and a new area subsiding near Arbuckle sunk five inches in the last half of 2014. While Arbuckle is only 60 miles from Chico, there are no sinking areas any closer. “We have not had subsidence in Butte County,” Gosselin said. “Generally, our basin remains full except in drought years, but then when we get back into a regular year, the basin recovers.” He added that there are three stations around the county monitoring groundwater levels and looking for subsidence. None have measured any sinking over the last 20 years. Gosselin is also confident that no areas in Butte County will start sinking anytime soon, as long as they keep track of groundwater use, he said. While it’s not happening in Butte County yet, subsidence is a problem in other parts of the state.