2008 year in review: Tough, tumultuous times

The year 2008 is done and gone. And, frankly, many Mid-Valley residents are likely saying "good riddance." Like the rest of the country, the local area felt the brunt of the poor economy in the form of closing businesses, high unemployment rates and a record number of home foreclosures.

City and county governments — amid the possibility of cutbacks resulting from the state budget crisis and the loss of sales tax revenues — are still wrestling with the likelihood of diminished budgets and the possibility of reduced services.

And violent crime played center-stage in 2008 - from a drug-related triple-murder in Linda to a series of drive-by shootings in Yuba City — that brought greater attention to the area's gang problem.

Year 2008 started and ended with tragedy.

It began with a major storm in early January that took the life of Yuba County public works employee Milton Smith. And it ended with the tragic deaths in December of three Yuba County women of carbon monoxide poisoning while in a parked car near Lake Tahoe. Sara McCullah, 21, Lacy Sutton, 22, and Olivia Kloncz, 17, were found near the Squaw Valley resort where they worked.

In between, there were the usual heated political fights. Proposition 8 — the state measure asking California voters whether marriage should only be between a man and woman — was a hot-button issue in the Yuba-Sutter area, igniting the passions of residents on both sides of the issue. On Nov. 4, local voters overwhelmingly sided with the rest of the state in supporting the measure.

Many of the 2008 problems likely won't go away in 2009.

Financial experts aren't expecting the economy to turn around any time soon. Local government agencies are only just starting to get serious about their budgets. And there are certainly no quick-fixes in sight for Mid-Valley gang issues.

But, as always, a new year brings a fresh start and new hope for better times.

As 2009 starts and new hopes take hold, it's time to take a look at the Appeal-Democrat's Top 10 stories, not necessarily in order, for 2008 before we all move on.

FORECLOSURES

A huge tide of home foreclosures rippled through the nation in 2008, and few communities were battered as badly as the Mid-Valley.

Defaults left hundreds of houses from Yuba City to Linda to Wheatland — built and bought in anticipation of profiting from a decade of soaring real estate prices — empty as owners seduced by adjustable-rate mortgages were caught between suddenly higher payments and plunging values for their homes.

Even an increase in home sales later in 2008 carried a macabre ring — that of banks unloading numerous foreclosed homes and forcing private sellers to slash prices to keep up. Median home prices slipped below $185,000 in Yuba-Sutter by October — a third lower than Yuba County's peak prices and barely half of Sutter County's levels when the housing market peaked in 2005.

The failing housing market's domino effect extended to cities and counties, which had leaned on tax revenue from home sales.

About 9,500 Yuba-Sutter homeowners received lower tax bills after their home values slipped below the often-inflated prices they had paid. But such relief for residents equaled financial hurt for government services in places like Wheatland, the Yuba County foothills and Plumas Lake — the very communities the housing bubble had largely built, then stalled.

The plunging economy also factored into the closing of many Yuba-Sutter businesses, including the closure of the longstanding Mervyns department store in Marysville, a major sales tax generator for the city.

Other businesses that closed in Yuba City in 2008 included McMahon's furniture, Shoe Pavilion in the Yuba Sutter Mall and several restaurants.

DRIVE-BY SHOOTINGS

Gang-related drive-by shootings dominated crime news in Yuba-Sutter, particularly three fatal summertime shootings in shopping areas along Bridge Street in Yuba City.

On Labor Day, 15-year-old Francisco Prior was shot and killed while riding in a car near Bridge Street and West Onstott Frontage Road, one of Yuba City's busiest intersections.

The shot that hit Prior in the head allegedly came from a car occupied by another 15-year-old, David Guadalupe Rojo; his brother, Armando Guadalupe Rojo; and a third suspect, Jorge Luis Lopez. All three are charged with first-degree murder and are facing possible life sentences.

On a Sunday evening in early August, 18-year-old Angel Madrigal was shot and killed while riding in a car at Bridge Street and Gray Avenue. Madrigal had graduated two months prior from Thomas E. Mathews School in Marysville and would have turned 19 two days after he was shot.

In mid-July, a 19-year-old San Francisco man, Joey V. Pinola, was shot and killed in a parking lot near the Little Caesar's Pizza restaurant in the 1400 block of Bridge Street, a block or less from the Prior killing. Police said the shooting appeared gang-related.

No arrests have been made in the Madrigal and Pinola deaths. Yuba City has had no fatal drive-by shootings during the four months following the Prior killing.

In Yuba County, a 29-year-old cook at Duke's Diner in Olivehurst, Raymond Garcia Castro, was killed in a May car-to-car shooting near the intersection of Fernwood and Oakwood drives in East Linda.

Just a few hours later, Yuba County Sheriff's Department officers arrested three members of the Hmong Nation Society gang: Thang Yang, 16; Pheng Kue, 14; and Meng Thao, 16. All are being tried as adults and are facing first-degree murder charges.

KNOCKOUT STORM

The new year had barely begun when it rang in a windstorm that raged across the North State on Jan. 4, destroying power lines and leaving millions of Californians in the dark.

Tragedy followed the storm in Yuba County. A county public works employee, Milton Smith, died when a tree branch fell on him as he cleared downed trees from a Linda street.

Howling nighttime winds reached a steady 46 mph and regularly spiked into 60 mph gusts, making merely standing outside difficult. As the gusts toppled power poles and trees, more than 1 million Pacific Gas & Electric customers lost electricity, including 49,000 in Yuba, Sutter and Colusa counties.

Downed lines, broken trees and the flooding triggered by 4 inches of rain snarled highways in the Mid-Valley and as far away as the Bay Area and Sierra Nevada.

The storm took its toll on local farmers, too, destroying more than $19 million in Yuba-Sutter's almond crop, a local mainstay.

SLAYING STIRS COMMUNITY

The stabbing death of Marysville resident Alex Smith, 17, sent shock waves through Mid-Valley communities — particularly area youth, among whom Smith was widely known and popular.

Attendees at the Jan. 19 Yuba City party where Smith was killed included about 100 local teenagers and young adults, and several Crips and Norteño street gang members, according to police, at the time.

Gregory Kevin Wilson, 19, of Williams, has since been charged with Smith's murder.

According to testimony at a preliminary hearing in May, Smith was stabbed when he attacked Wilson for hitting a woman at the party so hard, he broke her jaw.

Smith's death, and the circumstances surrounding it, served as a harsh wakeup call to many area residents who previously were unaware that street gang members and associates socialize freely and regularly with other youth.

Dozens of Smith's young friends, as well as parents of teenagers areawide, have since voiced concerns about a dearth of safe places for teenagers to socialize.

"None of us is safe as long as this is allowed to go unchecked," said Smith's father, Rick Smith, who has vowed to help generate funding and support for more community youth projects.

A trial-setting conference for Wilson is scheduled for March 27.

YUBA HIGHLANDS

A Yuba County development that would have added 5,100 homes between Spenceville Wildlife Refuge and Beale Air Force Base was defeated by voters in February, two week after the developer asked residents to reject the project.

The controversial plan, proposed by developer Gary Gallelli Sr., was widely criticized as poor planning by Yuba foothill residents. In spite of the public protests, though, the Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 in favor of the project twice in 2007.

Opponents, though, gathered enough signatures in the fall of 2007 to get it on the February presidential primary ballot.

Supervisors Dan Logue, John Nicoletti and Don Schrader voted in favor of the project. Supervisors Mary Jane Griego and Hal Stocker voted against it.

Schrader said he voted for the project because it was a property rights issue.

"That developer bought property hoping to build," Schrader said at the time. "The zoning and land use are there. And we need to stop building out of the flood plain."

Gallelli asked voters to deny the project to give him an opportunity to change it and make it more desirable for the community.

Opponents, however, were not impressed with Gallelli's last-minute attempts, with nearly 78 percent of those voting opposed to the project.

Gallelli first introduced the project in 2002. A new plan has yet to be submitted to the county.

DEATH OF A SOLDIER

His last conversation with his mother was about his love for the U.S. military and the big family the 20-year-old soldier planned.

Five days later the body of Brenden Teetsell, who grew up in Yuba City, was found Feb. 7 in Mannheim, Germany - a death followed by the discovery that the hometown soldier who took his life had also taken some liberties with who he was and what he'd done.

Teetsell wasn't awarded a Purple Heart as his mother believed, wasn't injured in Iraq as a friend said Teetsell had claimed and wasn't an Army captain as Teetsell had told members of a Butte County church.

The U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command had interviewed Teetsell about his claims the same day his body was found hanging by a bedsheet in a stairwell at the U.S. military base in Germany.

Teetsell had thanked church members who prayed "for me or my troops," noted the cane he used because of an injury and led the congregation in "something we do in Iraq — we call it the Iraqi prayer circle."

But if Teetsell had tried to make himself something larger than his own real life, his work in the community and military service made for a biography that stood on its own, a friend suggested.

Brownsville resident Robert Hechtman, an actor who directed several plays that Teetsell appeared in, said of him after his death, "Everybody loved this kid."

"It makes me sick that he's gone," Hechtman said in February. "I don't care if he was a captain or he wasn't. I don't care if he served in Iraq or not."

"I'm proud that he served his country," he said of Teetsell. "I want to remember him as a kid who wanted to be liked."

DEPUTY'S SON KILLED

Tragedy struck a north Yuba City neighborhood in early April when the son of a Sutter County Sheriff's Department sergeant accidentally shot himself in the head with his father's service handgun.

Tyler Whiteaker, the son of Sgt. David Whiteaker, was 31⁄2 years old.

The sergeant had just finished reassembling the gun at his home and turned to take something from his wife when the boy, apparently attracted by a flashlight attachment on the gun, picked up the weapon and pulled the trigger, according to a report on the incident by Sutter County District Attorney Carl Adams.

Adams determined there was no negligence on Whiteaker's part.

"This is a tragic accident and there is no evidence to support any criminal charges against anyone," Adams said.

"Indeed, not only is there no evidence of the gross negligence required by the law, but there is no evidence that either parent acted carelessly in any way," the district attorney said.

An estimated 200 people, including many uniformed officers from different Yuba-Sutter agencies and a truckload of Butte County SWAT officers, attended Tyler Whiteaker's funeral service at the Yuba City Church of the Nazarene.

Whiteaker took paid leave while the incident was being investigated, then returned to work.

Whiteaker did not leave the gun unattended, Adams said.

"The death of Tyler Whiteaker has been felt through the entire community and good wishes and prayers surround the parents and the entire family," he said.

Whiteaker is the nephew of former Sutter County Sheriff Roy Whiteaker and a cousin of county Supervisor Jim Whiteaker.

MEASURE R

By far the most publicized local ballot measure of this election year was June's Measure R, which proposed starting the process to change the form of Sutter County government.

The measure, which made it onto the ballot through a signature collection effort headed by former supervisor Ron Southard, would have created a 15-person committee to draft a proposed charter government for the county, which if subsequently approved by voters would replace the county's current general law system.

Measure R supporters argued a charter system would give residents more control over the direction of county government, particularly in response to salary and pension decisions made by the Board of Supervisors since 2004.

Formal opposition to the ballot measure formed late in the election. Measure R opponents argued there was no need to change county government and charges of fiscal mismanagement were being overblown.

Opponents also alleged the charter concept was tied to the Sutter County Taxpayers Association, pointing out similarities between claims of mismanagement by charter supporters and the association.

Ultimately, voters decided not to pursue the charter concept, sending Measure R to defeat at the polls by nearly a 2-to-1 margin.

HILLCREST WATER

Tighter federal standards on arsenic in drinking water led to a lengthy showdown between Yuba City and many residents of the former Hillcrest Water District.

After Hillcrest wells arsenic levels exceeded federal standards for water safety, the city proposed switching Hillcrest customers off wells and over to the surface water system used by the rest of Yuba City — a move ultimately approved by the City Council in July.

But not all residents favored the idea, which would come at a cost of more than $3,500 per home. Those not sold on the city's plan said the cost for a switch should be shared by the entire city and not just Hillcrest customers.

Accusations also flew that the city was using the arsenic issue to increase the Hillcrest area's infrastructure capacity for future population growth, while the city contended current residents were only paying for their portion of a larger system.

A protest hearing in August under Proposition 218 saw a majority of Hillcrest residents reject the switch, although the protest failed in Region 1. The City Council decided to try a second time, this time splitting off Region 1 for a separate count from Region 2/3. The second Proposition 218 protest failed to gain a majority of signatures, clearing the way for a switch.

COLUSA BUS CRASH

A casino-bound bus that overturned in rural Colusa County killed 10 people on board, including the bus company's owner, on a Sunday evening in October.

The bus carried 45 passengers, many of Laotian descent, from Sacramento and was headed to Colusa Casino Resort when the driver, Quintin J. Watts reportedly fell asleep at the wheel.

The crash occurred around 6:15 p.m. Oct. 5. on Lone Star Road, less than one mile south of Highway 20.

The straight, two-lane country road is often used as a cutoff for travelers headed to Colusa from Interstate 5.

Watts was initially placed under arrest for suspicion of driving under the influence, but charges were later dropped when a toxicology report cleared him of being intoxicated. He was arrested, though, for a parole violation in San Joaquin County. He is serving a 12-month sentence.

Seven people died at the scene and 36 were injured. Two others died at area hospitals. A 10th victim died from injuries Dec. 13.

The California Highway Patrol continues to investigate the crash. But the initial investigation revealed the bus, which still had remnants of a Greyhound logo on its side, was not registered.

The bus owner, Daniel Cobb, who died in the crash, was a registered charter operator with the California Public Utilities Commission under a different bus since 1974.