Foothill High School in Redding area going to Nationals

How About Foothill High School..Wow!

Posted March 20, 2009 at 09:08 AM

ronlargent

Our own Foothill High School in Palo Cedro is off to the Nationals...this was in the local paper, the Record Searchlight today...read on, please...

Science bowl competitors work on team chemistry

By Rob Rogers (Contact)
Friday, March 20, 2009

PALO CEDRO - The Foothill High School students traveling to Washington, D.C., for the National Science Bowl have one goal.

"Do better than Chico did last year," said senior Nick Rossow.

The same Foothill team competing this year lost in regional competition to the Chico High School team last year. The Foothill students watched Chico's progress at the nationals last year, where they finished second to last, the Foothill team said.

They all hope to do better than that when they compete at the nation's capital next month.

Foothill beat 10 schools and 24 teams to win the Regional Science Bowl in Redding on March 7 and will travel next to Washington, D.C., on April 30 to compete in the U.S. Department of Energy National Science Bowl.

They'll compete against 66 other teams; the top 16 finishers will win $1,000 each, to be given to their high schools' science departments.

Foothill's win at regionals was hard fought.

"We answered ... roughly 125 questions," said Zane Silver, a senior.

The competition is set up like a game show. Two teams sit across from each other at a table and are given questions by a moderator. Questions cover everything from physics to chemistry to trigonometry. Team members quickly work out the solution, and the first to ring the buzzer with the correct answer wins the round.

Looking back, the members of the team admitted they may have gone into the competition a little overconfident.

"We went in totally unprepared last year and came out third," Rossow said. "We went into this year pretty cocky."

"Maybe a little too cocky," said teammate Nick Cerami, a senior.

They lost one of their first rounds during the morning competition but still had a good enough record to advance to the afternoon playoffs. There, they narrowly beat the Chico High School team in the semifinals - a match that went into triple overtime.

Then they moved on to face Shasta High for the championship.

"That team had already lost one round in playoffs and had to beat us twice to win the title," said Matt Fowler, the team's coach and a science teacher at Foothill.

As the finals began, Shasta High won the first round, making it anyone's game.

"The final round was a nail-biter, with our team winning the title by just one question," Fowler said.

The five team members, Rossow, Cerami, Silver, Brett Hodge and Coulter Knapp - the team's lone junior - plan to continue studying science after high school, each hoping to make a career of it. Most of them hope to become engineers.

"I think everyone here plans on pursuing science of some kind," Silver said.

Rob Rogers can be reached at 225-8217 or at rrogers@redding.com.

Traffic Cameras--Good or Bad?

Redding Traffic Cameras

Posted March 20, 2009 at 00:27 AM

ronlargent

Grand jury:says....

Redding should add more red lightcameras...

.a good reason to live in Redding, CA

By Ryan Sabalow
Originally published 11:59 a.m., March 19, 2009
Updated 11:59 a.m., March 19, 2009

Redding's traffic cameras

• Cypress Avenue and Churn Creek Road

• Cypress Avenue and Bechelli Lane

• Lake Boulevard and Market Street

• Pine and Tehama streets

• Shasta and Market street

In spite of national reports casting doubt about the effectiveness of red-light cameras, the Shasta County Grand Jury recommends that the city of Redding add them to intersections “at every opportunity.”

In its latest report released today, the grand jury touted the use of the cameras as a “phenomenal law enforcement tool” that reduced collisions by 48 percent in the first half of 2008 at the intersections at which they were installed.

Wrecks citywide were down by 21 percent over the same period, the jurors wrote.

“Redding Police Department traffic experts postulate that a primary cause of the dramatic improvements of traffic safety is the presence of red light cameras,” the jurors wrote.

In spite of concerns to the contrary, there’s also been no evidence the cameras increased rear-end collisions at camera-equipped intersections, the jurors wrote.

But the jurors also noted that the cameras didn’t seem to reduce collisions citywide during 2007, the camera’s first year of operation.

The jury also found that costs to taxpayers are negligible, but the cameras so far have generated no revenue for the city.

Taxpayers pay less than $30,000 each year to pay for part-time officers who review the cameras’ videos and photos, shot when a motorist triggers the camera’s in-ground motion sensors.

The $325 fine generated each time a motorist is caught running a light pays for the rest of the program.

In 2007 and 2008, all of the $116,000 the city collected in fines went to Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Redflex Traffic Systems, the company that operates and installs the cameras, the jury found.

Under the city’s contract with Redflex, the company will pay Redflex up to $200,516 in fees before the city can collect any cash.

In recent months, the cameras have drawn national attention as studies have cast doubt on the cameras’ effectiveness while the companies that operate them rake in cash.

Although national studies show fewer T-bone crashes at lights with cameras and fewer drivers running red lights, the number of rear-end crashes increased.

Meanwhile, companies like Redflex expect increased revenue for years to come, while cities around the nation install them them to bolster their revenue streams.

Redflex alone saw after-tax profits of $10.6 million in fiscal year 2008, up from $7.3 million the year before.

Aaron Quinn, spokesman for the Wisconsin-based National Motorists Association, said that there are cheaper safety alternatives to red-light cameras, including lengthening yellow-light times.

“We say, the red-light camera wouldn’t have stopped anyone from getting hit,” Quinn told The Associated Press. “Once (a city) sees one city getting it miles away, and that first city makes a bunch of money, they want to do it, too. It’s like a virus.”

Reporter Ryan Sabalow can be reached at 225-8344 or rsabalow@redding.com...the Redding Record Searchlight

Trader Joe's in Redding -- Finally

Trader Joe's to Redding-Finally!

Posted March 10, 2009 at 01:15 AM

ronlargent

I had the occassion to drive by the new Trader Joe's on Hilltop early Monday....and there they were...lined up for job apps. So finally it looks as if the famous TJ's will be in Redding. If you haven't shopped at TJ's, and you like unusual foods and a great variety, you will love the place. These stores are just fun to go into...if only for an energy bar. In Redding, we are going to be very fortunate to have both TJ's and Orchard Nutrition, which is also a great store, and is locally owned. Here is what David Benda of the Record Searchlight said about the "job opportunities"

Updated: Early morning throng converges on Trader Joe's for applications

By David Benda (Contact)
Originally published 03:51 p.m., March 9, 2009
Updated 03:51 p.m., March 9, 2009

Photo by Andreas Fuhrmann / Record Searchlight

Jon Newland, 17, of Redding, fills out an application at Trader Joe's in Redding on Monday morning. People started arriving at 5 a.m., roughly four hours before the store was to hand out applications.

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Hoping to land a job at the new Trader Joe’s in Redding, job-seekers started arriving at 5 a.m. today — four hours before the specialty grocer was scheduled to start handing out applications.

By 8 a.m., dozens were lined up in front of the Browning Street store, which will open May 1, and the parking lot in the Kohl’s center was starting to fill up.

“I want to have a job that is more of a future,” said 22-year-old Redding resident Jared King, as he sat in his car in the chilly pre-dawn air.

King, who works for a care home in the area, was filling out an application as he spoke. He said he got the application during a recent visit to the Trader Joe’s in Chico.

Company spokeswoman Alison Mochizuki said approximately 1,200 applications had been handed out as of 3 p.m. today. People can pick up applications through Friday. Trader Joe's expects to have everybody hired by the end of this month, Mochizuki said.

Gaylynn Robinson, 51, has been out of work since March of last year, when she quit her accounting job in Oregon to move to Shasta County. Robinson said she and her husband returned to Shasta County to be closer to family.

Despite her qualifications, Robinson said it’s been difficult landing work, adding that she’s either over-qualified or under-qualified. Robinson’s unemployment will run out in May.

“Maybe I can get an accounting job or even a cashier,” said Robinson, who lives in Anderson.

Although getting a job at Trader Joe’s isn’t a first-come, first-served prospect, most in line today said they got up early to show the company they have the initiative.

“Maybe they will hire the guy who was here at 5 a.m., as opposed to the guy who got here at noon,” Daniel Peyton, 22, said.

Peyton works part-time at Round Table Pizza in Redding.

“That’s why I’m here. I’m getting less than 10 hours a week,” the Redding resident said of his pizza job. “My goal is to have a job with more hours than I’m getting.”

Word that the niche grocer would be taking applications has been circulating for weeks. Many job-seekers came to the Redding store last Monday, only be told Trader Joe’s wouldn’t start taking applications until today.

Finally TJ's is here!

Thanks for reading...... www.ronlargent.com ronlargent@kw.com