Wal-Mart rules

Next week the Chico Planning Commission will once again consider Wal-Mart’s plans to double the size of its Forest Avenue store, transforming it into a “Supercenter.” The commission went through this dance last year in which Wal-Mart leads and the commission, dancing on behalf of the city, just kind of follows along. But last year attorney Brent Jolley interrupted the dance when he tried to cut in and protect the city from the powerful retailer, the largest employer in America, the eighth-largest trade partner with China (where most of its really cheap merchandise originates), and the second-highest contributor to the 2004 presidential campaign ($1 million). Jolley filed a lawsuit at the time saying Wal-Mart’s actions—asking the commission to a approve a lot-split, part of the expansion process—constituted a violation of the California Environmental Quality Act because the expansion to a 200,000 square foot store would cause harm to the city’s business community.

But the dance begins next week anew, with Wal-Mart scrapping the old proposal and effectively tossing the lawsuit as well. They are starting over. At the same time we hear that PacLand, the engineering firm that represents Wal-Mart, is about to go into escrow for the purchase of the Sunset Hills Golf Course on The Esplanade meaning another 200,000-plus square-foot Wal-Mart is most likely in Chico’s future. The property, which currently sits in county jurisdiction, will be annexed into the city, rendering useless the ordinance the county supervisors just passed to try to control big box monsters like Wal-Mart. That’s not all. The city of Willows is closer to tripling the size of its 80,000 square-foot Wal-Mart. Red Bluff has one coming down the pike as well, only instead of expanding the present store, Wal-Mart is abandoning that one and building a whole new behemoth there. Can Paradise be far behind in all this fun?Got this e-mail from Anna Talbott last week concerning her brother Garth, whose letters from the Iraqi front we published last October: “I just wanted all family, friends and other concerned people to know that Garth is back in the states, safe and sound. Unfortunately I’ve only heard a phone message but he says he’ll be in Chico on the 15th of Feb. or so. Needless to say I am very excited about this fact and cannot wait to hang out with him. I want to thank everyone for their kind words of support, concern and donations to make life a little easier for him while he was away in Iraq. Hopefully, he will be getting out of the Army, now. I think his big mouth will be to his advantage in this fact. He did get a slight reprimand for the article and letters that he sent directly to the newspaper, but nothing too bad as far as I know. Thanks again, I really appreciated all of your support and I know Garth did too.” Welcome home, Garth.

And here I must apologize to some of my younger readers, those devoted Justin Timberlake fans. Last week I mistakenly called him Jason Timberlake while noting he had taken part in that celebrated hip-shaking Super Bowl halftime show. I saw my mistake on Friday, the day after the paper came out, and thought, “Oh now I’ve done it. Those youthful fans will never let me get away with this!” I was right. Starting with my 10-year-old son, who said he was a bit embarrassed for his old man. And News & Review intern Shannon Savage brought it to my attention, but she was diplomatic, saying anyone who doesn’t have cable TV (and by logical extension MTV) couldn’t possibly keep a grip on modern culture. Then someone tells me that the president of the Butte County chapter of the Justin Timberlake Fan Club is also pretty upset that I mangled his musical idol’s first name. As publisher of Chico’s answer to Tiger Beat Magazine, that No. 1 fan has his heart and soul a little more deeply involved with pop music and boy-band stars than the average guy or gal. Sorry Billy.