Is he better off after leaving Yuba-Sutter?
This is a Yuba-Sutter success story. It’s a success story because the hero of this story left Yuba-Sutter. That’s when he became a success.
The story was laid out in the Santa Cruz Sentinel.
It was a story about, of all things, a high school wrestler, Raul Ortiz.
The story, after a lengthy introduction, talks about Ortiz’s upbringing. It’s not a pretty picture.
“Ortiz didn’t have to go far to find trouble growing up in Live Oak, a suburb of Yuba City. Both of his biological parents were in and out of jail for drug and gang-related convictions. His father, Raul Ortiz Sr., served a prison sentence, too, for drug trafficking,” the Sentinel reported.
This may be the first time Live Oak has been referred to as a suburb of anything. Oh well.
Ortiz grew up in a gang envi- HaroldKruger isaveteran reporterand copyeditorfor theAppealDemocrat. Call749-4774.
ronment, the paper said, and his residency changed frequency when he had to live with relatives.
“When Ortiz’s mom took him to visit his grandfather in Scotts Valley prior to his freshman year of high school, Ortiz decided he didn’t want to return to Yuba County with his mom,” the Sentinel said.
Was he living in Yuba City or Yuba County. If you’re in Santa Cruz, it probably doesn’t make much difference.
“When Ortiz’s grandfather fell ill, Ortiz didn’t have a suitable caretaker and was at risk of returning to an environment in Yuba City that wasn’t beneficial to his future,” the story continued.
The Sentinel quoted Ortiz’s foster mom: “We used to tell Raul when he first came here, he was having so much trouble fitting in, this is little, white Scotts Valley and I used to say, ‘Raul, it’s as if you just got dropped off on Mars and you’re learning how to speak Martian, learning how to eat Martian, you’re having to dress Martian. I mean, it’s just, give yourself a break. This is tough.’ It was a huge culture shock.”
Folks, if you’re going to trespass at a reservoir, watch your step. You could get hurt.
As the South Sutter Water District recently reported to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, things can get and my daughter, but people driving by were looking at him like he was bothering me.”
“That’s the kind of community I want to live in where people stop and help each other.”
“It reminded me that I need to go and help out and volunteer with some organizations in the community.” dicey at Camp Far West Reservoir.
Back in January, four young men climbed through the fence on the south side of the spillway, walked past three no-tresspassing signs and strolled down the spillway channel to watch the water.
One of the men, a 24-year-old, tripped and fell 20 feet on to the rocks, breaking his right wrist and maybe his left one, too.
He also hit his head, resulting in head trauma. Wheatland Fire Department administered aid.
“The area where this occurred is posted with multiple no-trespassing signs and has a barbed wire fence,” Brad Arnold, South Sutter’s general manager, wrote. “The length of the dam is also posted with no parking at any time signs. To prevent this from happening in the future, I asked local law enforcement to intervene and ticket violators.”
Most of you may not remember, but a year ago – May 18, 2016 – the Sutter County Superior Court took its public access computer offline.
Why? Well, the plan was to provide an even better public access system, including an online presence for the court system.
So that was a year ago. How are things going? Not well.
Those public access computers in that new courthouse – it’s quite a building, isn’t it? – are still dark. There is no online presence that would allow members of the public to search online for court cases.
No, there’s not much of nothing.
You can check cases online in Colusa, Sacramento, Yuba and Butte counties. Sutter County is kind of the Bermuda Triangle of court access. That’s quite an honor.