Highlights, lowlights from the week’s news

HIT >> Sometimes, people standing up for the right thing really can make a difference. We had a great example of that in Paradise this week.

Ridge residents were horrified to learn a few weeks back that the state was planning to send Michael Cheek, 71, a convicted violent sexual predator from Santa Cruz County, to live in a home in Paradise.

But, following an effective show of “not here!” from area residents that included a town hall featuring Sheriff Kory Honea and District Attorney Mike Ramsey, Liberty Healthcare — which had planned to place Cheek in a nice-looking new home at 1550 Gate Lane in north Paradise — dropped that plan and will instead be looking elsewhere.

It’s reassuring to see that common sense and the will of the people can still prevail, especially when it comes to officials in other counties deciding to dump the worst of their offenders into our backyards.

MISS >> We can’t help but wonder what Valley’s Edge developer Bill Brouhard could have done differently. The more we think it over, the more we decide “not much.”

For almost 15 years, Brouhard followed every law and every regulation, completed every necessary step, addressed just about every concern, gave more than 700 tours of his 1,500-acre property and in short set a standard for property development and land use that should be the dream of every resident of Chico (both current and future).

And for that, he’s faced with a possible referendum and a lawsuit from people who decided “We don’t like this development and are going to do everything we can to stop it.”

We’ve reviewed some of these objections in the past, but give the opponents credit — in addition to regurgitating the same-old often-disproven ones, they also keep coming up with something new.

One such claim, published on this page in a recent letter to the editor, may take the modern-day cake. One writer said Valley’s Edge is a bad idea because we have a shortage of doctors and medical personnel, and having more people here will just make the problem worse.

But, wait a minute: Care to guess one of the biggest reasons Chico is having such a hard time recruiting doctors and other medical personnel?

You guessed it: A lack of suitable housing.

If only someone were trying to build some nice, new homes …

HIT >> Here’s a fun idea for today. Go outside. Look at the foothills. Marvel at the newly fallen snow. Reflect upon the fact that we already have one of the best snowpacks in recent memory, and still have a few weeks to go.

While you’re at it, you can smile at the fact that both Lake Oroville and Lake Shasta are around just 70 feet from the top, and we could be seeing open spillways again in a few weeks.

Then remember that because our state hasn’t built any new water storage reservoirs in the past 50 years, a lot of this snow will just end up going out to the ocean again anyway.

Oh well. It’s pretty to look at in the meantime.

MISS >> We could fill this space every week with “Wacky ideas proposed by California legislators,” but a handful this week managed to stand out even among the usual collection.

Here’s one: Some California lawmakers want to ban all tobacco sales, filing legislation to make it illegal to sell cigarettes and other products to anyone born after Jan. 1, 2007. This would mean that in just 40 years, you’d have to show your ID at a store to prove that you’re at least 56. (In the meantime, of course, our health-conscious state would continue to force needle distribution programs into cities that don’t want them.)

Even that idea takes a backseat to a proposal for the state to set up pension funds for — wait for it — mixed martial arts fighters.

You read correctly. According to bill sponsor Matt Haney (D-San Francisco), these poor MMA fighters — the same people who often top fight cards that bring in millions of dollars — deserve to have a retirement account on the taxpayers’ dime.

Haney noted the sport is “dangerous” and “people put their bodies on the line for our entertainment. And as fans, we appreciate it, but we should make sure they’re taken care of when they retire.”

You know, the same way the state “takes care of” other people who put their bodies through the ringer and don’t have cushy retirement accounts. Like, for example, most farmers — you know, the people responsible for feeding the planet, a good number of whom are still self-employed.

Oh well. They’re not entertainers, so they’ll have to fend for themselves.