Tag: General News

CHICO — A man suffered stab wounds to his back and leg in an attack along Pillsbury Road on Saturday, a press release from the Chico Police Department said.

Dispatchers received a call around 10:50 a.m. Saturday alerting them of a fight in the parking lot of an apartment complex in the 2300 block of Pillsbury Road. A second caller reported a man had been stabbed and was lying on the sidewalk, bleeding.

Officers arrived and found the victim; paramedics arrived to provide emergency aid before transporting the man to Enloe Medical Center. He is in stable condition, and doctors expect him to survive.

Chico police’s Violence Suppression Unit closed Pillsbury Road to investigate. Detectives requested that anyone with information on the incident should call the VSU at 530-897-4900 and refer to case 23-006742.

Car drives into business

A motorist drove a car into a building in the 2300 block of The Esplanade in Chico on Friday, suffering major injuries in the process.

Chico police officers arrived along with medical and Chico Fire Department crews and began lifesaving measures on the driver right away. Paramedics transported the driver — who was the sole occupant of the car — to Enloe Medical Center for treatment.

Chico PD’s Major Accident Investigation Team conducted an investigation at the scene. No road closures or detours were necessary as a result of the crash.

Police requested that members of the public who have more information on the crash should contact the department’s Traffic Division at 530-895-4911.

Police arrest shooting suspect

Chico police officers and detectives arrested 20-year-old Jaden Christopher Hollowell on Thursday on suspicion of shooting a man in the 1200 block of Notre Dame Boulevard in Chico on Sept. 1.

The victim suffered life-threatening injuries to the head as a result of the shooting. Police collected evidence at the scene linking Hollowell to the attack.

Police served multiple search warrants and an arrest warrant in Chico and Oroville, taking Hollowell into custody. Hollowell was booked into the Butte County Jail in Oroville for attempted murder, pending a request for additional charges with the Butte County District Attorney’s Office.

Prescribed burn Monday

Cal Fire-Butte County plans to conduct prescribed burning operations on the Loafer Creek LLC Vegetation Management Project beginning Monday. The location of the project is south of Limpach Road, south of Cohasset.

Crews are closely monitoring the weather, and if conditions allow, they will complete multiple burn units over several days. Smoke will be visible from many parts of Butte County while burning is taking place.

This vegetation management project is part of broader strategic efforts to protect the local community and nearby natural resources.

<p>PARADISE — For a town severely battered by the Camp Fire nearly five years ago, preserving a link to its agricultural heritage provides a good foundation for recovery.</p><p>Johnny Appleseed Days, which started as the Paradise Harvest Festival in 1888 evolved into the Paradise Fair in 1912, is the oldest harvest festival in California. Once a prominent apple-growing region, the Paradise ridge now has just Noble Orchards and its 18 acres of apple trees as its last major producer.</p><p>Heinke’s Farm and Nursery has two acres of production. Other than those, commercial operations have vanished from the area. Johnny Appleseed Days, however, keeps the link to the past while offering the community live entertainment, food vendors and artisans as well as local organizations’ information booths.</p><p>The two-day festival at Terry Ashe Park began Saturday and returns for a 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. run today. There’s no charge to attend.</p><p></p><p>Jim and Laurie Noble operate Noble Orchards at 7050 Pentz Rd. and, as co-sponsors for the event, displayed their tempting Gala and Granny Smith apples on a large table inside the park’s pavilion. Jim’s grandfather started the operation in 1921, after the Paradise Irrigation District (founded in 1916-18) provided water that made large-scale farming feasible. The family farm grew to 45 acres; three generations have run the business.</p><p>However, technological improvements — such as “controlled-atmosphere” storage that removed oxygen from the harvested apples, thus preserving them, in the 1960s — spelled doom for many of the Paradise ridge farms that were seasonal operations.</p><p>Plus, water delivery systems in Washington state and Oregon gave life to significant amounts of production land in those states.</p><p>”There wasn’t enough land up here,” Jim Noble said.</p><p>Laurie Noble added that, at the industry’s peak, “there were 40 to 80 orchards on the ridge.” Noble Orchards, she explained, “shipped apples to South America — though that didn’t last long.”</p><p></p><p>The orchard is now focused on selling locally, such as at the Chico Farmers Market since the early 1980s, and as a “u-pick” operation where customers harvest their own apples and pay based on weight.</p><p>The 2018 fire “made a huge difference in daily sales,” Laurie Noble said. “It’s a challenge, to say the least,” with fewer locals living in the area to purchase the tasty fruit. The fire also destroyed the cold storage facility and packing house on the property.</p><p>Jim Noble said his operation now is a “direct marketing” business and is not easy to run.</p><p>”There’s not a lot of help available,” he said, “and I’m not getting any younger.”</p><h4>Variety on display</h4><p>Nonetheless, the business was brisk for the Nobles on Saturday as a steady stream of customers and curious onlookers stopped to make purchases, or at least to sample the fruit.</p><p>Employees Crystal Harmon and Declan Dutro were having a good-natured disagreement about which was better — Gibson Gold (Harmon’s choice) or Golden Delicious (Dutro’s preference). They asked a third party to taste both types and then settle the “dispute”; a vote for Gibson Gold gave that variety a narrow edge.</p><p>Not far away, Heinke’s maintained a booth, showcasing a variety of products, including fresh apple juice and Eastern Concord table grapes. Commercial harvesting is complete for this year’s grape crop, according to co-owner Terran Heinke, but “u-pick” customers can visit the farm at 5365 Clark Rd. on Friday and Saturday over the next two weekends to harvest grapes that remain on the vines.</p><p>Heinke said the grapes need to get off the vines soon, as they’re at 22% sugar and have attracted the attention of deer and birds.</p><p>Heinke’s opened in 1925, making it only slightly younger than Noble, but Heinke’s has just a 17-acre property including two acres dedicated to apples — “with a little more variety,” Heinke said.</p><p></p><p>Lori Phelps-Zink of Magalia and Jennifer Petersen, both board members on the Paradise Community Guild, said their group seeks to expand the festival next year with more “show what you grow” displays and perhaps a “giant pumpkin” competition. A display table invited people to show off their home-grown flowers and pumpkins; attendees could vote for the ones they liked best.</p><p>One thing the younger attendees liked Saturday was the pumpkin race, in which entrants placed small pumpkins on their heads and “race-walked” about 100 feet along a designated track. The first to cross the line without having the pumpkin slide off was declared the winner.</p><p>Ires Savage, an eighth-grader from Paradise, won the day’s final race with a solid strategy of keeping his body stiff as he walked rapidly but carefully to absorb each step’s shock. This year’s Johnny Appleseed Days was his first.</p><p>What did he do during his visit? “Basically everything,” he said, listing several competitions he entered and activities he enjoyed.</p><p>Outside the park, Zeke Lipe was busy creating inflated balloon sculptures, and whatever money he collected, he pledged to send to the August victims of the Lahaina fire in Hawaii.</p><p>Lipe also operates “Rainbow’s End” at 7655 Skyway and seeks musicians to play there. “Having people playing music will help bring back the life to Paradise,” he said.</p><p>And finally, what celebration honoring apples would be complete with the most American of desserts — apple pie? Well, the festival offered that as well, in the Save Mart Apple Pie Pavilion at the Terry Ashe Recreation Center.</p><p>California Conservation Corps firefighters Alexander Gardner and Ethan Briere served eager visitors plates of apple pie with two scoops of vanilla ice cream on each. Both are based at the CCC’s Magalia Center; they’ve worked five fires this summer as members of hand crews, specializing in using Pulaskis — devices that combine an ax on one side the head with an adze at the other. It’s effective for building fire lines, allowing the user to cut wood and dig soil with a single tool.</p>

SANTA CLARA — The Cowboys and 49ers rivalry is among the best and most storied in sports, featuring two of the NFL’s best teams in 2023. It’s always a big game when these two teams meet.

It’s even bigger when the teams on the league’s grandest stage, Sunday Night Football.

And for the Niners, who have looked unbeatable amid a 4-0 start, this game is a vital test.

San Francisco has run roughshod over the competition to start the season, but that competition hasn’t been of the highest caliber. It’s unlikely that any of the four opponents the Niners beat to start the season will make the playoffs.

The Cowboys look like a playoff team, though. Their high-flying defense has propelled them to a 3-1 record and the best point differential in the NFC heading into Week 5.

For Dallas, this is a game against the NFL’s team to beat.

For the Niners, it’s a rare opportunity to play a team that, amid reasonable expectations, can beat them.

Yes, the Cowboys remain a worthy foil for this Niners’ team — a true measuring stick squad for San Francisco amid what could be a special season, ending in a sixth Super Bowl win.

And that’s just how it should be. Cowboys and 49ers are the NFL at its best.

These two teams defined the NFL in the 1970s and 1990s. And after they played each other in the last two playoffs (both Niners’ wins) there are some — including ESPN — speculating that the rivalry is back, full bore.

I still doubt this showdown is as important as those games of decades past — the league was smaller, with less parity then. But this is still a marquee matchup that carries serious gravitas.

Even the coaches — who could varnish expectations for the Super Bowl — had to admit this week that this game is different.

“I think any time you have a Sunday night game, it’s always bigger,” Niners coach Kyle Shanahan said. “There’s always a little more excitement in the building knowing everyone’s watching you. [We have] a lot of respect for the Cowboys and how good of a team they are. So, we know the challenge that we have in front of us and I think we’re aware of the rivalry and the history, which is always cool.”

“It’s an important game,” Cowboys coach Mike McCarthy said this week.”You understand the history and there is obviously a lot of tradition with this game. That’s all part of it. You live to play in these kinds of games. You dream to play in these types of games. You don’t want to make it bigger than it is, but the reality is it’s not just another game.”

No, it isn’t.

Amid that spectacle and anticipation, all eyes will be on Niners’ quarterback Brock Purdy.

The Cowboys’ star players are known entities. We’ve seen them week-in, week-out for years — the Cowboys are on national TV more than any other team.

And this Dallas defense, the true star of the Star — led by do-it-all linebacker/pass rusher Micah Parsons — isn’t sneaking up on anybody.

The same can be said of the 49ers’ star players on both sides of the ball. We know how great Christian McCaffrey, Deebo Samuel, Fred Warner, and Nick Bosa (to name a few) are, and it’s fair to expect them to play their best.

But Purdy, the second-year quarterback who is yet to lose a regular-season game at the helm of the Niners’ offense, is still perceived as an unknown entity — outside the 49ers’ facility, at least.

And when you factor in last season’s game against the Cowboys — inarguably the worst of his short professional career (though he was the better quarterback on the field that day) — there’s plenty for the former last pick in the NFL draft to prove.

SANTA CLARA — Dak Prescott has never needed a win more than he does Sunday night against the 49ers.

The Dallas Cowboys quarterback has lost to the 49ers in the playoffs each of the last two seasons with bizarre finishes, running out the clock on a scramble to the 49ers’ 24-yard line two seasons ago and with a center snap by Ezekiel Elliott and an 8-yard pass to KeVonate Turpin to the 16.

Beyond the unhappy endings, Prescott hasn’t played well, throwing three interceptions in the two games. The 49ers won 23-17 at AT&T Stadium in a wild-card game with Jimmy Garoppolo playing with a bad thumb and shoulder, and 19-12 last season behind rookie Brock Purdy in the divisional round.

Having not made it past the divisional round since their last Super Bowl victory following the 1995 season, the Cowboys put their faith in Prescott on a four-year contract worth a maximum of $160 million before the 2021 season to get them to where owner Jerry Jones believes they belong.

And when it mattered the most, Prescott hasn’t exactly been Roger Staubach or Troy Aikman.

In the last two playoff games against the 49ers, the Prescott-led offense has produced the same number of interceptions as touchdowns — three of each in 21 possessions.

“You turn on the tape, I wasn’t at my best in either of those games,” Prescott told reporters Thursday. “I wasn’t close to it.”

This is a huge game for Prescott and the Cowboys in terms of perception, not only nationally but locally in Texas. Dallas has the NFL’s top-ranked defense and has looked fearsome at times through four games.

Dallas beat the New York Giants 40-0 on opening night and dominated the New York Jets 30-10 in Week 2. Last week, the Cowboys hung a 38-3 loss on New England, the biggest loss ever under Bill Belichick.

But a 28-16 loss to the Arizona Cardinals in Week 3 in which the Cowboys gave up 222 yards rushing raised some concern that perhaps it’s another Dallas team with lots of ability that can’t cash in on all that talent.

A bully that will back down in a fight. Soft, in a football sense.

For the Cowboys to truly join the 49ers and Eagles in terms of NFC supremacy, winning on Sunday night is a must.

It’s not part of the 49ers’ makeup to be disparaging of their opponent in the press. That didn’t stop a Hall of Fame 49ers quarterback from saying out loud what much of the country thinks about Dallas over the last two decades.

“The Cowboys are a really, really talented group of people,” Steve Young said in his weekly appearance on KNBR. “But the cohesiveness, the grit, and the ability to follow up a great game with another great game, I don’t see it. Every time in the last 20 years I thought, ‘Oh, they did it. They’re coming,’ then they fall flat.

“I’m not much for believing yet in what they have or what they’re doing.”

Or as former 49ers center Randy Cross put it on 95.7 The Game: “They were America’s Team. Not much anymore.”

Dallas changed up its offense in the offseason, with coach Mike McCarthy taking over play-calling and Brian Schottenheimer replacing Kellen Moore as offensive coordinator.

The 49ers can expect Prescott to get the ball out quickly, something closer to what they saw with Matthew Stafford and the Rams in Week 2.

“There’s a lot of good that’s going to come from this and the changes in the past year playing against these guys and from my play,” Prescott said.

Coming off a season in which Prescott, 30, had a career-high 15 interceptions, he is currently completing a career-best 71.3 percent (97 for 136) with 908 yards, four touchdowns, and just one interception through four games.

“That’s kind of what we’re hanging our hat on to start off this season, taking care of the ball, the defense getting the ball,” Prescott said. “When you play a team like this, that has a powerful offense and a fundamental defense, you can’t give them any extra plays.”

Steve Wilks, the 49ers’ defensive coordinator, has noticed the difference.

“Dak is doing a great job putting the ball where it needs to be and where it’s going,” Wilks said. “It comes out quick and we have to make sure that we do a great job from a standpoint of playing zone, setting up, breaking on the quarterback, and when we’re in man, we’ve got to work our technique. We have to be sticky in coverage.”