Off Beat: Colusa makes Congress
It's rare when the word "Colusa" is mentioned on the floor of the House of Representatives, so when one of those occasions happens, it shouldn't be ignored.
On Jan. 31, Rep. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove, who may be your next congressman, if he wins in November, took to the floor to discuss the future of manufacturing in America. The present of manufacturing in America isn't so great.
So Garamendi and other House members chatted about manufacturing. It probably made for fascinating C-SPAN television.
Garamendi then chatted about his recent visit to the great Mid-Valley.
"Just this last weekend I was in one of the small communities of California, the town of Colusa, very small, 6,000 people," Garamendi said.
"There was a General Motors-Chevy-GMC truck dealer that came up to me — it was a crab feed — and we were chatting, and he came up and he said, 'I just want you to know that I'm still in business.'"
Garamendi continued, "I thought about that, well, that's a strange way to start a conversation — 'I'm still in business.' And I said it was President Obama that made a very courageous decision to bail out General Motors and in doing so, not only does General Motors survive, but maybe tens of thousands of the supply chain manufacturers survived. And way off in California, a little town, up in the Sacramento Valley, an auto dealer said, 'I'm still in business.'"
So there you go Colusa. You're in the Congressional Record.
26 years ago
You may have missed it, but an important man in California legal history died last month.
Peter Paterno died on Jan. 22. Remember him? He was the Paterno in Paterno et al. vs. State of California et al., the 1986 Yuba County flood case.
After about two decades of wrangling, the state wound up paying more than $400 million to settle the case, having lost in the 3rd District Court of Appeal. The state Supreme Court declined to hear the case.
In 2001, Paterno recalled that fateful night of Feb. 20, 1986, which just happens to be 26 years ago tomorrow:
"Well, all of a sudden the music stopped and the broadcaster came on the radio. He said, 'We just had a break. The levee broke in Linda.' I lost everything. The first thing that came to my mind was my family. I called my son."
