news category and subcategory

That's my fault, replace the code by this one :

PHP Code:

$query = $this->db->from("news")
                ->join("cat", "news.cat_id = cat.cat_id")
                ->where("cat.cat_id", "1")
                ->or_where("parent_id", "1")
                ->get();      
  return $query->result(); 


You can also do it like this to avoid using a var that wouldn't be used later :

PHP Code:

return $this->db->from("news")
                ->join("cat", "news.cat_id = cat.cat_id")
                ->where("cat.cat_id", "1")
                ->or_where("parent_id", "1")
                ->get()
                ->result();