Don's Tuesday Column

THE WAY I SEE IT by Don Polson         Red Bluff Daily News 11/18/2025

        Wolves, fires and permits, oh my

The “plight,” or rather the controversial presence, of wolves in these northern regions showed up in a recent Daily News article. No, it’s not boorish, construction site men whistling at women; we have little construction beyond the new county jail. Male workers are too busy to be paying attention to pedestrians, who are more likely to be homeless folks than attractive females anyway.

Kidding aside, it’s a serious issue that can wreak havoc on ranchers’ bottom lines when said wolves conduct predatory activities; it can amount to tens of thousands of dollars of losses to four-legged stock. If memory serves, such inevitable results were predicted years ago when wolves began roaming south of the Oregon border. My vote on the issue is solidly with the ranchers, whose counterparts in other western states have been known to “shoot, shovel, and shut up,” as the only response that protects their livelihood. Just sayin’… it’s been done elsewhere.

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Sad news reached us of a distant relative, a 20-something young man, committing suicide. It was about 20 years ago that we traveled through Illinois, Indiana and Michigan catching up with relatives and places that provided childhood homes, schools and friends. They were mostly innocent times of life—pre-school out in rural Illinois among orchards and a lake; kindergarten through 2^nd grade in the very small town of Heyworth, IL, high school in Chicago and another small town, Hobart, IN; and relatives on Mom’s side in the Detroit area.

We visited “Tino,” the little boy whose mom was taken under wing by my sister and her husband, who had two fine boys of their own. The obituary for Valentino described a young man whose interests ranged from athletics to the outdoors, with what seemed to be normal social circles. Having been out of touch with that side of my family, due to physical and familial distance, it nonetheless came as a blow to our hearts to hear of that saddest-of-life’s outcomes, the taking of his own life.

We may, at some point, know what led to his demise but, for now, it can only be considered from the standpoint of what has afflicted many young people: disassociation, hopelessness, confusion, personal isolation and alienation, often exacerbated by the ubiquitous, deleterious impact of social media. God rest Valentino’s soul. May we all look for signs of distress with prevention and support in mind.

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The Palisades and Eaton fires have mostly disappeared from news coverage. Nonetheless, it interests this writer for having spent many years among Southern California’s beauty and seasonal hazards; developments are noticed.

“I first got to thinking about this while watching a passionate, and completely false, speech by Gavin Newsom about how Trump and the Republicans abandoned California after the Palisades fire. You know, that fire caused by climate change, we were all told. Well, now that Climate Change has been identified and arrested, Newsom is very passionate about how the federal government hasn't sent a dime of help to California. It was very Gavin Newsom, all fake passion, hair gel, and capped teeth.” (Hotair.com, “All Lies, All the Time…” David Strom, October 10)

Thanks to the “Readers added context” feature in X, we know: “The Governor's statement is misleading given the FEMA grants and other federal assistance to individuals, households, infrastructure, debris removal, economic and business recovery, and tax relief. The Governor's own website states federal aid surpassed 2 billion.”

Why can’t people we consider our leaders just be honest and balanced? The issue of building permits has shed light on the quandary facing those trying to rebuild their lives. I read that Los Angeles city and county have issued between a quarter and a third of the applied-for permits. Malibu, on the other hand, for the thousands of burned homes, has issued only a dozen or so permits.

Let’s recap what we now know: Leading up to the fires, empty reservoirs and fire hydrants, and no pre-positioning of equipment; no clearing of tinder-dry foliage in canyons; a New Years fire above Pacific Palisades that was started by an enviro-loon with his bible; after extinguishing it, line firefighters wanted to keep an eye out for smoldering roots but overtime-obsessed higher-ups withdrew them—a week later those smoldering roots flared up into the conflagration of the Palisades fire.

Additionally, after all that, Newsom railed against residents for supposedly failing to evacuate in time and continues to blame “climate change,” and the above whining over the federal response.

Look up: “From Reality Star to Firestorm Crusader: Spencer Pratt Takes on Newsom Over Palisades Fire Scandal” (twitchy.com, “justmindy,” 10/31). “Justmindy” writes about Mr. Pratt’s endless efforts to hold officials accountable, including posting “Days before Palisades inferno, firefighters were ordered to leave smoldering burn site,” with a link to latimes.com reporter Alene Tchekmedyian.