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I woke up Sunday planning to listen to one long radio program that was scheduled to last three hours. It related to Shasta County’s future. But as I prepared my coffee and listened to my regular station, I heard an unexpected short story that made my heart sag a little.
The surprise story that featured Shasta County was broadcast on North State Public Radi0.
The second program, the one I’d known about, was broadcast on Redding-based KCNR where a group of high-profile right wing citizens promised to unveil their blueprint to “take back” the county via a recall.
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REDDING, California Mark Baird is a third-generation Californian who hopes to one day be a first-generation Jeffersonian.
Baird, like many in California s sprawling, mostly rural north, is disillusioned with his state s Sacramento-based government, which he believes no longer represents northern interests.
That s why Baird and many others in the 23 counties above Sacramento have officially declared the reclamation of their state, even if it means breaking away and starting anew in the proposed 51st state of Jefferson, named for the third U.S. president. People are basically hopeless here, said Baird, who lives in Siskiyou County. We’ve gone from being economically viable and net contributors to the general fund to being what the rest of California jokingly refer to as the welfare counties. But, we weren’t the welfare counties. We were made the welfare counties by the state of California.