Utilities throughout Paradise and some surrounding areas will be rebuilt and moved underground; a huge surprise that prompted a standing ovation at a crucial town council meeting Wednesday night.

Residents rose to their feet as new information; essentially direction from a federal judge overseeing the bankruptcy of California’s largest utility, was relayed by Aaron Johnson, a Pacific Gas & Electric Company electrical division vice president.

In a variation on the Dispatches from the Home Garden series, this week we enjoy a Dispatches from the Home Gardener and Plantsperson.

Self-described Happy Wanderer, plantsman Bob Hyland of Hyland Garden design currently of Portland Oregon has lived and worked at some of the most prestigious horticultural institutions in the U.S.

Along with his partner, Andrew, he founded and ran a successful specialty nursery in upstate New York, and he has served on horticultural boards around the country throughout his more than 40 year career in this work.

The question of whether or not to build a casino off of South Bonnyview Road and Interstate 5 in Redding was debated at the Redding City Council meeting Tuesday night.

At issue is how the proposed casino, hotel and event center would affect the community. The casino would be built by the Redding Rancheria and would also contain retail space. It would be located in an area of Churn Creek Bottom known as the “strawberry fields”.

Author Lorna McLeod thought she was bad with money until she got a financial coach and learned to overcome financial challenges. She is now a financial coach herself and has written a book to help people stop stressing about money.

The title of a book is “Make Peace With Money: Redefine Your Relationship with Money, Master Your Personal Finances, and Discover True Wealth.”

From Amazon:

Lorna McLeod, PCC, is a coach and author who has personally faced and overcome numerous financial and money challenges.

Susan Beeler, Steve Clement and Leslie Bowen do a lot of driving. They’re defensible space inspectors and they’re visiting every address in Butte County. It’s a slow and methodical process.  

Earlier this week, I rode along with the trio as they were working Berry Creek, a secluded woody, expanse of foothills east of Oroville. The area is known for Bald Rock, where locals value their privacy and underground agriculture — the marijuana trade.  

Little Red Hen is a 501(c)(3)non-profit organization serving children and adults with developmental disabilities. Our Five Chico Retail locations provide employment that is not subminimal wage. Our retail and horticulture departments employ 150 developmentally disabled adults, supported through the sales of items.

In our ongoing series of looks back at Project Apollo 50 years later, we examine the Apollo 10 mission. Dave talks to two of his childhood heroes -- Lieutenant General Thomas Stafford, the commander of Apollo 10 and last surviving crew member (crewmates Gene Cernan and John Young passed away in 2017 and 2018 respectively) and one of the legendary Apollo Flight Directors: Gerry Griffin.

Apollo 10 notably made it to within 47,000 feet of the lunar surface in May of 1969 as the crew tested out all of the guidance, navigation, communications, rendezvous and docking procedures for the Command/Service and Lunar Modules in lunar orbit.

The best public gardens are in fact community gardens at some level, this week on Cultivating Place we’re speaking with gardeners from New York City’s Borough of Brooklyn where for 25 years the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens has hosted the Greenest Block in Brooklyn competition.

Promoting streetscape gardening, tree stewardship, and community development in New York’s borough of Brooklyn through block and merchant associations and other groups – this is gardening as community activism of the highest order. Join us to hear more about this Greening Up.

Can He Say That? is an edgy essay collection on subjects from murder to meditation, politics to punctuation. Anthony Peyton Porter’s column “From the Edge” appeared on the back page of the Chico News & Review.

Anthony Peyton Porter has ventured in other media including, Write On Radio!, Minnesota Public Radio, and Twin Cities Public Television. After his time in Minnesota, he came to Chico, California and joined KZFR.